10 Funny Cases of Nominative Determinism
10 Origin Stories Behind Iconic Old-School Horror Movie Villains
10 Facts about Government Programs Born from Crisis
Ten Amazing Inventions by Catholic Priests
10 Controversial Advertising Campaigns That Backfired
10 Book Characters Who Were Miscast in the Adaptation but Still Great
10 Recently-Added Astrological Placements
10 Exciting Snapshots of a Future Much Closer Than You Think
Ten Long-Dead People Who Are Still Messing Up Today’s World
Ten Horror Games That Were Banned for Being Too Dark
10 Funny Cases of Nominative Determinism
10 Origin Stories Behind Iconic Old-School Horror Movie Villains
Who's Behind Listverse?
Jamie Frater
Head Editor
Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author.
More About Us10 Facts about Government Programs Born from Crisis
Ten Amazing Inventions by Catholic Priests
10 Controversial Advertising Campaigns That Backfired
10 Book Characters Who Were Miscast in the Adaptation but Still Great
10 Recently-Added Astrological Placements
10 Exciting Snapshots of a Future Much Closer Than You Think
Ten Long-Dead People Who Are Still Messing Up Today’s World
8 Conspiracy Theories That Refuse To Die
From poisonous chemtrails to Area 51 as a government cover-up of nuclear weapons manufacturing, spycraft, or actual aliens, the vast majority of conspiracy theories don’t rely on anything as unimportant as facts and research. Instead, they simply jumble together everything that might vaguely point or relate to a particular situation.
Denver International Airport is looked at askance because of its terrible murals and Blucifer, which obviously makes it the playground of the Illuminati. Some are adamant that US school shootings are just a distraction from sinister scenarios playing out in the White House.
And, of course, everyone who is rich and famous must have made some kind of pact with the devil. Not to mention that the current COVID-19 pandemic is paving the way for the evil New World Order just as Pope Francis planned. Oh, and don’t forget that COVID-19 itself is just an excuse to implement 5G, which will eventually kill us all.
10 Dark Conspiracy Theories That Actually Turned Out To Be True
8 It Was All Political
On March 15, 2019, 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant entered the Al Noor Mosque in Riccarton and started shooting. Twelve minutes later, he entered the Linwood Islamic Centre and the shooting continued. The aftermath saw 51 people dead and a further 49 injured. Tarrant decided to livestream the first shooting on Facebook. In no time, the video became a source of conspiracy theorist fodder.
There were claims that the attack was a false flag operation and that the murder victims were merely crisis actors. (This is similar to the theory about the Sandy Hook tragedy.) It was also argued that the false flag operation was allowed in order for gun policies to be changed in New Zealand.[1]
Radio host Rush Limbaugh speculated that the shooter was a leftist and used the attack to blemish the reputation of the political right. It was even claimed that the “white genocide conspiracy” could have been behind Tarrant’s attack.
Brenton Tarrant has since pleaded guilty to all charges against him. As of this writing, he is awaiting sentencing for his crimes.
7 In The Name Of Love
When Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared without a trace in March 2014, no one thought that the plane would still be missing six years later. Most expected that the wreckage and the black boxes would be found so that an explanation for the incident could be discovered.
Instead, as of mid-2020, only a few pieces of debris have been identified as belonging to the ill-fated plane. Families of the victims are calling on authorities to reopen the investigation and restart the search. Also, in 2020, the conspiracy theories around the tragedy have multiplied, with some becoming even more ridiculous.
According to one of the more elaborate theories, the pilot devised a scheme to leave his wife because he couldn’t simply divorce her due to his Muslim faith. Therefore, he bought fake ID documents for himself and his mistress and planned to jump out of the plane with a parachute after depressurizing the aircraft to kill all the passengers. He then landed in a boat where his mistress waited while the plane crashed into the sea.[2]
Other diehard theories include the plane being stashed away in a Cambodian jungle or being a statistic of the “Asian” Bermuda triangle. Yet another theory says that “someone” in North Korea really wanted a huge plane. So MH370 was hijacked and diverted there.
6 Fake Melania
A host of conspiracy theories exist about Donald Trump and his presidency. In turn, Donald Trump seems to buy into a lot of theories about various things. The one he soundly rejects, however, is the long-standing theory of “Fake Melania.”
The Fake Melania theory is based on the claim that a body double stands in for the first lady and accompanies the president to various places. It is also argued that the body double hides behind large sunglasses and wears clothing similar to Melania Trump’s. Supposedly, the conspiracy was uncovered because the woman is shorter than Melania.
Donald Trump slammed the theory. He called it deranged and said that the Fake News photoshopped pictures of Melania.[3]
5 Island Of Horrors
The Plum Island Animal Disease Center was established in 1954 as a facility for research into animal pathogens. It was hoped that new ways to stave off diseases such as African swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease would be developed.
The island also houses the only foot-and-mouth disease vaccine bank in the US. But naturally, research could not be conducted there without various conspiracies swirling about these activities.
According to one theory, no research is actually done on the island. Instead, animal-human hybrids are in the process of being developed there. Researchers have been accused of being Nazi scientists out to create alien technology and genetically modified monsters.
Some theorists went another way. They believe that biological warfare weapons are being manufactured on the island and that Lyme disease is one of the bioweapons that somehow escaped the laboratory.[4]
The Plum Island facility has been scheduled for shutdown in 2023 and will be replaced by the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility which is currently under construction in Kansas. No doubt, more conspiracy theories will soon follow.
10 Conspiracy Theories About The European Union
4 Economic Crisis?
Enter Barack Obama
If there is one thing that conspiracy theorists seem to love above all else, it is coming up with screwball claims involving national leaders. All loose ties that seem vaguely connectable will be linked, and an outlandish theory that paints one or more parties in a bad light will surface.
The economic crisis of 2008 provided just enough “ties” for the Democrats to be accused of orchestrating it. Rush Limbaugh fueled the theory on his radio show in 2008 by claiming that Senator Chuck Schumer caused the IndyMac collapse to create a feeling of financial instability.
The Democrats then somehow used this panic to ensure wins in Congress and the White House. The claimed purpose of winning and getting Barack Obama elected was to ensure that US industries would be nationalized.
Karl Rove and Bill O’Reilly extended the theory by saying that they believed journalists caused the economic crisis because they wanted to see Barack Obama elected as president.[5]
3 Start Of The Apocalypse
Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik detonated a van bomb in Oslo on July 22, 2011, killing eight people. Then he set off for the island of Utoya. There, he shot and killed 69 people who were camping as part of a Workers’ Youth League outing.
Breivik was initially diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. But a second team of forensic psychiatrists refuted this and instead diagnosed him with antisocial and narcissistic personality disorder.
Breivik distributed his manifesto online shortly before the attacks. In it, he described his opposition to feminism and Islam. He also called for the deportation of all Muslims from Europe. Breivik additionally claimed that the main motive behind the devastating attacks was to make his manifesto known.[6]
Despite Breivik’s claim, several alternative ideas were dreamed up. Theories were thrown around that Freemasons were responsible for the attack or that Hillary Clinton set up the attacks by means of a sponsored Israeli government operation. Some felt that the entire episode was made up as Breivik could not have set off a bomb and still had time to escape to the island where he killed 69 people.
However, the strangest theory says that Breivik was Conquest, the first of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and carried out the attack to pave the way for the other three horsemen—War, Famine, and Death.
2 Second Sun
NASA has been accused of many things, including keeping information about aliens from the public and lying about giant asteroids flying close to Earth. According to one outlandish theory, NASA doesn’t exist to explore space but simply to come up with elaborate hoaxes such as the Moon landings and fake pictures of planets that don’t exist.
In 2016, field astronomer Paul Cox accused NASA of covering up the existence of a second Sun. During a live show, Cox pointed to what is generally known to be Mercury in the night sky and claimed: “That large round thing to the right of the Sun is our second Sun.”
While some immediately thought that Cox was being sarcastic or making a joke, many theorists jumped at the slim chance to “prove” that NASA was guilty of just about every accusation ever made about it.
To make matters worse, Cox also referred to the Planet X theory, which claims that a “broken” planet will eventually emerge from behind the Sun (whether this is the first or second Sun is unclear), crash into Earth, and destroy humankind. Naturally, this sent the conspiracy sphere into overdrive again.[7]
1 Orchestrated Shark Attacks
On December 1, 2010, four people were seriously injured when they were attacked by sharks in the Red Sea off Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. On December 5, 2010, a woman was killed in the same area after a shark attacked her as she waded in shallow water near the shoreline.
Some believed that the “unprecedented” attacks were due to inadvertent shark feeding or animal carcass dumping. In the aftermath of these incidents, dozens of sharks were captured and killed.
As if the whole episode wasn’t horrific enough, a conspiracy theory emerged. Supposedly, a GPS tracking device had been found on one of the sharks and traced back to Israeli agents.
Israel was then accused of orchestrating the shark attacks to kill the tourism industry in Egypt. Previously, Israel had been suspected of tagging birds with GPS trackers to spy on other countries.[8]
Israel’s government has since denied involvement in any shark or bird tampering for spying purposes.
+ Just When You Think You’ve Heard It All
Tragedy inevitably opens the door to a flood of conspiracy theories. The sinking of the RMS Titanic spawned some of the craziest rumors still in circulation today, including that the ship was sunk by a U-boat. Another persistent theory says that the Titanic was swapped with her sister ship, the Olympic, which was deliberately sunk for insurance money.
Then came the conspiracy to top all Titanic conspiracies: It has been whispered that either the Rothschild family or J.P. Morgan planned the accident to get rid of those who opposed the creation of the Federal Reserve.
“Those” refers to Benjamin Guggenheim, Isidor Straus, and John Jacob Astor IV. These three “opposers” all died in the sinking, and the Federal Reserve was up and running by December 1913. Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan was clever enough to cancel his trip on the Titanic at the last minute by feigning illness.[9]
Top 10 American Conspiracy Theories That Are Completely Bonkers