Top 10 American Conspiracy Theories That Are Completely Bonkers

Around the globe, the US of A is well known for the Statue of Liberty, New York City, Disney World and Las Vegas. This is obviously a drop in the bucket considering just how many famous landmarks reside in the States. America is also well known for its well deliberated conspiracy theories. No sooner does something happen, or the theories burn up the internet on a variety of open forums. On this list are 10 more conspiracy theories that include a wide spectrum from alien invasions to government coverups.

SEE ALSO: 10 Bizarre Celebrity Conspiracy Theories

10 Area 51

The Conspiracy: Area 51 is not a hiding place for aliens after all

In June this year, a California student uploaded a post to Facebook encouraging people to “storm Area 51 to see them aliens.” The storming event was meant to take place on Sunday 22 September, but as is usually the case with incidents such as these, only a few dozen people pitched up. However, as if conspiracy wasn’t rife enough about Area 51, a tweet by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS), warned: “The last thing #Millennials will see if they attempt the #area51raid today” The tweet was accompanied by a photo of men and women in military attire standing in front of a B-2 stealth bomber. The DVIDS has since apologized but this won’t stop the already-convinced-of-dodgy-activity-at-Area-51 masses from dreaming up more theories.

The biggest theories have always involved reverse engineering of extra-terrestrial space craft and alien testing / autopsies being done at Area 51. However, another theory is blowing all of that out the water, stating that this is only what the American government wants the world to believe. This theory has it that the alien rumors were part of a deliberate hoax started and spread by the US Air Force and Intelligence forces to keep the public focused on ET and their attention diverted from actual spy aircraft and spy planes being built at Area 51.^[1]

9 Las Vegas False Flag

The Conspiracy: The Las Vegas shooting was a false flag event / terror attack

It took only a couple of hours after the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012 for conspiracy theories to flood the internet: Victims were accused of being crisis actors and the entire incident was written off as a false flag event. It was even alleged that the incident was set up by the US government in order to introduce stricter gun laws.

The same thing happened right after the Las Vegas shooting incident in 2017 when 64-year old Stephen Paddock opened fire on concertgoers, killing 58 of them and injuring 422 more. Paddock shot himself shortly afterwards, leaving his motive forever open to speculation.

Several false reports made it onto the internet claiming that Paddock was a registered Democrat, that there was a second shooter in the same hotel where Paddock had been staying and even a serious doozy of a theory stating that Paddock was an ISIS soldier. None of these allegations have proven to be true and Google as well as Facebook have been severely criticized for failing to censor these stories.^[2]

8 Hawaii Missile

The Conspiracy: The Hawaii missile false alarm was no accident

At 8:07 local time on 13 January 2018, a ballistic missile alert was issued in Hawaii. The message sounded over TV, radio and smartphones throughout the island sending citizens into a state of panic. 38 minutes later, the message was recalled with officials blaming miscommunication during a drill at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. The incident led to the resignation of the state’s emergency management administrator and a public apology from Hawaii Governor, David Ige.

While the majority were merely relieved that the message was sent in error, some didn’t accept the explanation given and came up with theories of their own. The most popular one of these being that someone pushed the alert notification through on purpose. At the time of the alert, the US was putting immense pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Therefore, to conspiracy theorists, it meant that North Korea decided to strike back with a cyberattack that sent Hawaii into panic. Why, you may ask? Well, to send fear into the hearts of the enemy and make them back off, of course. It was also theorized that North Korea wanted to test the system and see how fast the US would react to an emergency system, to give them an idea of how and when to attack.^[3]

7 Government DNA Theft

The Conspiracy: 23andMe campaign is run by the government

23andMe is a privately-owned California biotech and genomics company. They provide consumer genetic testing services to determine one’s predisposition to disease as well as answer ancestry-related queries. You can have yourself tested by simply providing a saliva sample which the company will then have analyzed and tested in their lab.

Naturally the skeptics out there immediately saw a flaw in this process and came up with a theory to try and stop people from sending in their samples. Considering that Google’s parent-company, Alphabet, owns 23andMe, they are convinced that this is a sly way for the US government to get its hands on the DNA samples of citizens. The government, according to the theory, is using these DNA samples as just another means of keeping tabs on everyone all the time.^[4]

6 Blood Sacrifice

The Conspiracy: April is blood sacrifice month

As seen time and time again, the US government (and other governments around the world) are usually the first to be blamed in the event of tragedy. In America, shootings and tragedy seem to haunt the continent. Just think of the Boston Marathon bombing, all the school shootings including Columbine and Virginia Tech as well as the Oklahoma City bombing.

Conspiracy theorists have come up with an incredible connection between the above-mentioned tragedies and the American government. Seeing as how all of them occurred in the month of April, along with many more, it is now thought that they were part of a government-sponsored blood sacrifice to Baal. What’s more, the theory also has it that all historic American tragedies happened for the same reason: To appease the Beast by offering it a ritual blood sacrifice.^[5]

5 O.J. Didn’t Do It

The Conspiracy: O.J. is innocent after all

Not just America, but the world, watched as O.J. Simpson tried to escape the police as a passenger in a white Ford Bronco SUV in 1994. In 1995, the world again collectively held their breath and then gasped as O.J. was acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. While some believed he was indeed innocent, the majority consensus seemed to be that the justice system had failed and that a guilty man had been allowed to go free.

After the trial, Simpson continued to get in trouble with the law. He was arrested in 2001 for battery and burglary and was yet again acquitted of all charges. His house was searched after a tip off that Simpson was involved in drug trafficking, but nothing came of this. In 2007 Simpson was arrested again, this time for robbery, assault, kidnapping etc. He was eventually sentenced to 33 years in prison with the possibility of parole after 9 years. He was released on 1 October 2017.

While many felt that there was a measure of justice served, others came up with a theory that O.J. was completely innocent of killing Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Instead the blame was shifted to O. J’s son, Jason, who suffers from bipolar disorder. Most of this theory seems to be based on a diary entry written by Jason: “It’s the year of the knife for me. I cut away my problems with a knife. Anybody touches my friends – I will kill them. I’m also tired of being Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

However, other theories refuse to let go of the premise that O.J. is guilty and state that he hired a serial killer and/or suffers from CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) which leads to memory loss, impaired judgment, impulse control issues etc. This, some believe, could have led to him killing two people and then ‘forgetting’ about it.^[6]

4 Michael Jackson Murder

The Conspiracy: Sony killed Michael Jackson

There is no denying that Michael Jackson was odd. But he was also regarded as the King of Pop and named as one of the most influential cultural figures of the 20th century. His achievements include 15 Grammy Awards, 26 American Music Awards and 13 No 1 US singles. In 2009, Jackson died of a sedative overdose at the hand of Conrad Murray who was his personal doctor.

A couple of weeks before his death, Jackson wrote 13 letters in which he claimed that someone was trying to murder him and that he was scared for his life. One of his close friends, Michael Jacobshagen, revealed this during an interview on an Australian TV program. Jacobshagen said he chose to speak about these letters to show his support of Jackson’s daughter who believes her father was murdered.

A theory making the rounds states that because of Michael Jackson’s publicized feud with Sony’s president, Tommy Mottola, the company decided to kill the singer off. Sony allegedly refused to give Jackson masters of his song’s licenses for many years and sued him for the failure of his album Invincible, because Jackson refused to participate in a US promotional tour. This is said to have given Sony a reason to get rid of Jackson.

However, all this has been outweighed by the 2019 documentary titled Leaving Neverland, which caused several radio stations to refuse to play any Michael Jackson song.^[7]

3 Stanley Meyer

The Conspiracy: Stanley Meyer was murdered

Stanley Meyer was born on 24 August 1940. From a young age he and his twin brother were interested building things and soon Stanley boasted ownership of several patents. By 1989, most of his very innovative patents were accepted and used within 8 months. He worked with NASA on the Gemini Space program and most of his work was paid for out of his own pocket.

Back in 1975, when oil prices were skyrocketing and due to a lack of oil supply in the US new car sales dropped dramatically, Meyer dreamed up the concept of a hydrogen fuel cell car. The car’s major selling point was that it would run on water instead of gas. The car would also not have emitted any harmful emissions into the environment. Within a couple of months, Meyer had built a prototype powered by a fuel cell engine. The car worked perfectly. People were in awe as Meyer exclaimed about being able to turn tap water into hydrogen to power his invention.

Unfortunately, the hype did not last. Lawsuits were brought against Meyer’s inventions, with lawyers alleging that the car was a fraudulent scam. The water fuel cell at the midst of the car’s innovation was examined and found to be using conventional electrolysis. At the end, Meyer had to pay back all investors who had turned against him.

In March 1998, Stanley Meyer, his brother and two Belgian investors were having a meal at a restaurant. Meyer sipped on cranberry juice, suddenly grabbed his neck before getting up and running out the door of the restaurant. He fell on his knees outside and vomited. When his brother hurried after him to see what was going on, Meyer simply said “They poisoned me” before he died.

Investigations showed that Stanley Meyer died of a cerebral aneurysm. However, some are not buying it. There is an ongoing conspiracy theory that Meyer was murdered in his own country to stop unwanted attention from governments around the world. Meyer’s brother believes that the Belgian investors that they had met with that fateful day may have had something to do with his death.^[8]

2 U.S.S. Maine Sinking

The Conspiracy: The US intentionally sunk the U.S.S Maine

On 15 February 1898, US battleship Maine was at anchor in Havana harbor. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until a massive explosion tore up the ship and sank her, costing the lives of 260 men on board. This led to the Spanish-American War of 1898, as most Americans and Congress believed Spain to be behind the attack.

There was no conclusive evidence at the time to find those responsible or even what exactly caused the explosion, even though it was ruled that the ship had probably been sunk by a mine. Investigations in 1976 seemed to point to a fire igniting ammunition stocks that could have caused the explosion.

The biggest conspiracy theory now surrounding the blast states that a US agent caused the explosion on purpose in order to anger the American public and instigate the war. Cuban politician, Eliades Acosta, claimed that economic interests in the US were behind the sinking of the Maine and responsible for the assassination of 3 American presidents.^[9]

1 Military Tornado

The Conspiracy: Joplin tornado was caused by the military

On 22 May 2011, a catastrophic EF5 tornado touched down in Joplin, Missouri. The monster tornado was nearly 1 mile wide and rapidly intensified in strength. It was the 7th deadliest tornado in the US, killing 158 people and injuring 1150 others. It was also the costliest as insurance pay-outs totaled $2.8 billion.

Just a week later, conspiracy theorists were stirring up internet forums, claiming that the tornado was not a natural occurrence, but instead had been the result of HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) shooting radio waves into the upper atmosphere. They believed that HAARP had a device capable of creating monster storms for their own dodgy agenda. Moreover, some theorists also firmly believe that HAARP was responsible for the Haiti earthquake as well as the massive Japan earthquake.^[10]