Generally
speaking, conspiracy theories form where there is a vacuum of verifiable facts
associated with a controversial, usually tragic event. The concept has evolved
over the years and is a part of our popular culture. There are legions of
conspiracy theorists and “truthers” who have devoted their lives to certain
theories, and there are legions of skeptics who have devoted their lives to
debunking those theories. All the while, conspiracy theories of every stripe
and variety festoon the footnotes of history. Even the origin of the phrase
itself is subject to conspiracy theory, as some researchers have argued that the CIA
invented and promulgated the term in order to marginalize fringe thinkers and
neutralize investigations.
The internet has obviously had a profound effect on conspiracy
theories, simultaneously helping and hurting the cause. While a world of
information is at people’s fingertips, so too are alternate worlds of
manufactured propaganda. While the Internet may appear to be a democratized,
unfiltered path toward facts and truth, it is easily manipulated. Powerful
corporations pay a lot of money to have their dirty laundry buried in the
search results underneath contrived puff pieces.
With
nearly the entire mainstream media apparatus at their disposal, the government
is a maestro at this practice. As we learned from so-called Operation
Mockingbird — a conspiracy theory fact discussed in my first post on the
subject, “Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out to Be True,”
— hundreds, if not thousands of news organizations have been conscripted into
working with the CIA to support pro-government narratives. That was in the
1960s. One can only imagine how vast the network is now. Not to mention the
fact that a single proprietary algorithm owned by Google dictates the
vast majority of the population’s exposure to a subject.
In Part 1, I noted that the list had been
meticulously whittled down to focus only on conspiracies that have been
irrefutably proven to be fact. There are hundreds of conspiracy theories I
think are likely to be true that are not on this list because there simply
isn’t enough hard evidence yet to confirm it 100%. I also aimed for a good
mixture of old conspiracies and new conspiracies. With groups like Wikileaks
and Anonymous out there, the last decade has witnessed a dam burst of new data
and documents. Thanks to intrepid journalists, whistleblowers, hacktivists, and
leakers, the human race continues to tear down the wall of lies erected by the
corporatocracy.
Without further ado, let’s get to it….ten more conspiracy
theories we can start calling conspiracy facts.
