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{{Useful Notes}}{{cleanup|Needs "de-recentifying" -- entirely too many entries reference "recent" events that happened ten or more years ago.}}
[[File:New-conspiracy-theories.jpg|thumb|300px|link=Wrong Hands|These are just as believable as the ones listed below.]]
{{quote|"''It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.''"
|'''[[Terry Pratchett]]''', ''[[Jingo]]''}}
Conspiracy theories are, essentially, [[Wild Mass Guessing]] and [[Headscratchers]] applied to [[Real Life]]. Like all memes, conspiracy theories mutate and interbreed almost too fast for humans to track. Any of the theories and sub-theories mentioned below can be, and in all likelihood has been, combined with any or all of the others by at least one person.
It is important to distinguish a Conspiracy ''Theory'' from a regular theory about a conspiracy. A conspiracy is merely a plan by more than one person to commit a crime, and a theory about it could be made. However, it is different from a Conspiracy Theory, as a Conspiracy Theory explicitly means a fringe theory which purports that events, either in the news or in history, are not as we understand it but really the works of secret cabals of cunning conspirators who usually dominate the world. In the end, "the truth" is usually a lot more boring.
People who tend to have these can be found under "[[Conspiracy Theorist]]." The [[Mel Gibson]] film ''[[Conspiracy Theory (film)|Conspiracy Theory]]'' has its own article.
{{examples}}
== 9/11 ==
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** Similar conspiracy theories are present in Russia, in the form of the Kapustin-Yar airbase. Theories range of alien craft or [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|Nazi secret projects relating to aliens]] were stored there, to an out-and-out air war between the Soviet Air Force and alien aircraft.
* Some speculate that much of our current technology (particularly electronics) came from [[ET Gave Us Wi-Fi|reverse-engineering captured alien spacecraft and technology]].
* The [[Ancient Astronauts]] theory claims that Earth's ancient civilizations and religions were created or inspired by [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] visiting Earth thousands of years ago. Therefore, most of human civilization consists of [[God Guise|worship of these ancient visitors]]. This theory was first popularized in 1968 by Erich Von Däniken's book ''Chariots of the Gods'', and has since been ripped off by [[Battlestar Galactica
== Disasters ==
* 9/11 has so many conspiracy theories surrounding it that it has its own entry at the top of this page.
* The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil -- 168 dead -- until 9/11 six years later) has a multitude of conspiracy theories surrounding it, many of which have the "official" perpetrators ([[Right-Wing Militia Fanatic|Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols]]) simply be the "fall guys" for [[False-Flag Operation|the U.S. government]]/Islamic terrorists/[insert favorite conspiracy group here], who instigated the bombing for their own nefarious reasons. Never mind that McVeigh and Nichols were angry at the government for their mishandling of the infamous Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents that had occurred several years previously
** Some people still think Saddam Hussein masterminded the McVeigh plot.
** One of the more interesting versions of the conspiracy is that al-Qaeda was involved. There was a "John Doe 2" reported at the time of the bombing, who bore no resemblance to known conspirator Terry Nichols, and whom the FBI later claimed had never existed -- even though artist sketches of him had been leaked. John Doe II looked distinctly similar to José Padilla, an American-born al-Qaeda operative who was captured and received a train wreck of a trial and a media circus.
** An arguably more likely conspiracy is that the [[wikipedia:Aryan Republican Army|Aryan Republican Army]], a Jesse James-esque [[Right-Wing Militia Fanatic|white supremacist gang]] working at the time, was involved. McVeigh was a known associate of convicted bank robber and ARA member Michael William Brescia, and the ARA had connections to various far-right Christian groups and neo-Nazi skinheads -- groups which would have spurned the help of al-Qaeda. In addition, ARA member Richard Lee Guthrie, Jr. resembles pictures of "John Doe II".
* Some folks claim that [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] knew about [[World War II|the impending Pearl Harbor attack]] in advance and allowed it to happen, recognizing that a high body count would be needed to shock the American people into joining the fight. [[Fridge Logic|Of course, it's easier to win a fight if a large portion of your Navy isn't underwater.]]
**Roosevelt knew about ''an'' attack within days, because of radio intercepts and in fact the war warning was going about. However the US forces were just a little to slow off the mark as might be expected considering that a mass naval war in the Pacific while a theory for generations was only a theory and everyone not in the know was having a comfortable peacetime. And in any case everyone at high level knew(correctly) that the Japanese had to hit the
** General Billy Mitchell was court
** An alternative theory, which is even accepted by some supporters of FDR, is that while the attack itself was unexpected, Japan's hostility was not entirely unprovoked. In 1940, the US government prohibited iron and scrap steel exports to Japan, and in 1940 it also restricted oil exports, froze Japan's funds in the US, and initiated the Lend-Lease program in support of the Allies against the Axis powers, all the while demanding Japan's withdrawal from China and Indochina. Some folks argue that this was all designed to put an end to American neutrality without causing a public backlash by [[Xanatos Gambit|getting one of the Axis powers to declare war on the US]]. It hinges on the express aim of the U.S. aim of aiding Britain, which FDR did want to do. War with Japan with that aim is idiotic, and even Hitler knew it. (Also, the object was to provoke Germany to declare war, not Japan.) Of course, these actions were done in part as a response to Japan's monstrous conduct in China, so they were justified in that respect.
** Not to mention if the idea was to provoke ''Germany'' into war well America was already doing some pretty brisk [[Take That|nose-tweaking]] of Germany in the Atlantic theater(for pretty good reasons obviously if a little devious) and all that really would be required is a little escalation. Not only is that brinkmanship a part of history it is a part of fairly routine history and recorded by unquestionably patriotic authors without a care. There is no reason to provoke Germany by provoking Japan when you can provoke Germany by provoking Germany.
** And of course the first thing the American public would demand on getting a sucker punch from Japan would of course be what they did demand which was to dump as many resources as possible into the Pacific to get even which meant that much less for Germany(which America disliked but did not have a revenge motive as such against). It was all Roosevelt could do to keep that from happening in any event and he surely would not have risked it on purpose.
** In any case Roosevelt could not make Hitler declare war on the US. No Conspiracy Theorist has claimed he could do a Vulcan mind-meld from half a world away.
* Just days after the recent earthquake in Haiti, people were already claiming that the entire thing was actually man-made, using HAARP (see "Atmosphere and Weather" below), underground bombs, or some other type of "earthquake machine." The motive? Some say it's to acquire Haiti's oil, others say that the US planned it in order to acquire a base in the Caribbean to oppose Cuba and Venezuela, and still others say it's to distract from the supposed imposition of martial law in the US.
* Theories abound regarding the crash of TWA Flight 800 - "officially" caused by a fuel vapour explosion in the Boeing 747's CWT (Centre Wing Tank), but the cause of the explosion is undetermined. The most common theory says that it was shot down with a missile, either by a terrorist or by accident as part of a Navy training exercise. This theory is not supported by the NTSB because 98% of the wreckage was recovered, and a large part of the fuselage reconstructed, and not a trace of any missile impact was found. Other theories say that it was the result of a terrorist bomb on board, or electromagnetic interference from a nearby fighter plane. Some claim that the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton administration]] ordered a cover-up so Clinton wouldn't look soft on terrorism during his re-election campaign. The most prominent proponent of the conspiracy line was Pierre Salinger - formerly President Kennedy's press secretary - who didn't have much convincing evidence, but garnered attention because of his [[Appeal to Authority|former job]]. Much of the suspicion around the crash was formed because the FBI aggressively pursued a criminal investigation, much to the chagrin of the NTSB working alongside them, and did discover some explosive residue on the wreckage, but then had to backtrack and admit that it was a miniscule trace that had come from a package used to train drug sniffer dogs. The missile theory was partly started by reports from several witnesses who saw an object climbing into the sky and then heard a loud explosion. Investigators concluded that they had seen the nose-less wreck of the 747 climbing and stalling in the sky and, because light travels faster than sound, then heard the initial fuel tank explosion.
* The [[wikipedia:Tunguska event|Tunguska event]].
* Some have claimed that the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was planned as part of a plot to discredit offshore drilling. Some people are saying that [[Animal Wrongs Group|radical environmentalists]] or the [[Barack Obama|Obama administration]] did it to advance an environmentalist agenda<ref>even though Obama had just approved expansion of offshore drilling before the spill -- something that earned him a lot of criticism afterwards</ref>, while others claim that it was caused by OPEC to keep America dependent on foreign oil. This one is interesting in that some of the proponents are people who don't believe the "Bush was behind 9/11" theories, while some opponents are the ones who still think Bush himself destroyed the levees during Katrina.
** A contributing factor to the rise of the "radical environmentalists did it" conspiracy theory is the fact that some of the more extreme environmentalist groups have committed acts of terrorism and destruction against industries they feel have harmed the environment. These acts have had a tendency to [[Gone Horribly Wrong|unintentionally lead to far more environmental destruction]] [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|than the target ever caused]]. The main reason why this theory lacks credibility is that ''[[Genre Savvy|oil companies are well aware of this]]'' and would be on the lookout for radical environmentalists trying to blow up an oil rig.
*** It is entirely possible for the above theory to be true ''and'' for BP to still be guilty of gross negligence -- only in this instance the negligence would be in corporate security procedures, not in oil rig operation.
* The sinking of the ''Titanic'' has produced a number of conspiracy theories, including a prominent one that circulated a few years back that the ship that was called the ''Titanic'' was actually its sister-ship, the ''Olympic''; as the story goes, the shipping line which owned them both swapped the names as [https://web.archive.org/web/20130916003546/http://www.titanic-titanic.com/titanic_conspiracy_theory.shtml part of an insurance scam gone badly wrong]. Expeditions to the resting place of the ''Titanic'' have brought back conclusive evidence that the ship at the bottom of the Atlantic could not possibly be the ''Olympic'', but the theory persists.
* The sinking of the ''Lusitania'' in 1915 by a German torpedo, an event which contributed to the United States eventually entering [[World War I]], has seen suggestions that the ship, contrary to claims made at the time, was smuggling contraband military weapons and explosives to Britain and thus, Germany argued, was a valid military target. Although the ship was carrying large quantities of small-weapons ammunition, no proof of anything more destructive has yet been discovered.
* Much like with 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, some have suspected the United States of [[False-Flag Operation|deliberately sabotaging or allowing the sabotage of]] the ''[[wikipedia:USS Maine (ACR-1)|USS Maine]]'' to provide an excuse to go to war with Spain and seize Cuba.
* Nearly ''every'' war the United States has ever been involved in (with the notable exception of the Revolutionary, Civil, and Korean flavors) has been accused of being a [[False-Flag Operation]]. These theories go as far back as the Mexican War, where it was claimed that the government ordered the settlers to go to the disputed territory knowing the Mexicans would attack them so the war would look like self-defense.{{context|reason=How is this a false-flag operation? The settlers used the US flag of the time.}} In the case of the [[Vietnam War]], the claim was that the US deliberately engineered the [[wikipedia:Gulf of Tonkin incident|Gulf of Tonkin incident]]. There are even fringe theorists who claim the U.S., not the Germans, [[World War I|sank the Lusitania]].
** Ironically, false flags tend to be chancy things even when performed by totalitarian governments much less liberal states teeming with predatory reporters looking for an erring politician to eat. Recorded ones performed by Nazi Germany and even then far more intrigue-competent Soviet Union look like they were dreamed up by a mischievous schoolboy.
* In the aftermath of the [[wikipedia:Belsan school siege|Belsan school seige]], former FSB agent and defector Alexander Litvinenko claimed it was a false-flag operation by the Russian government, claiming that many of the terrorists were known to Russian authorities and a few were even released from custody shortly before the attack. Others have claimed that the weapons the hostage takers used were planted in the school beforehand. It's worth noting that Alexander became the center of his own conspiracy theory after his mysterious poisoning death involving radioactive polonium-210.
* The crash of [[Poland|Polish]] presidential plane in Smolensk on April 10th, 2010 has spawned many different conspiracy theories, promoted mostly by right-wing kooks. According to them, the plane was taken off course by a spoofed radio beacon signal, shot down by the Russians who used helium ([[Artistic License Chemistry|which is heavier than air]], according to the conspiracy theorists) to generate massive amounts of fog, then proceeded to dispatch [[Anachronism Stew|KGB agents]] to shoot the survivors, all on behalf of [Vladimir Putin]], who controls the current "puppet" prime minister of Poland. Of course this is claimed to be an outrageous conspiracy theory by kooks who claim that the plane that crashed in Smolensk was empty, and the passengers have been kidnapped in Poland and then taken to Russia, where they either remain imprisoned in a Gulag or living in luxury sponsored by the Russian government. And let's not even start about those claiming that a Tu-154, as a modified bomber, [[Did Not Do the Research|would smash through trees unharmed]].
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* Those who believe in the Rapture (see Religion and Apocalypta below) tend to believe that following the Rapture, the various world governments (even the ones that are ostensibly Christian) will invent some story to explain why every Christian on the planet suddenly disappeared in order to keep people from recognizing it as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and converting to Christianity. Many believe that these governments are aware that the Rapture will happen and are already preparing their cover stories. To that end, all mention of aliens, from Roswell to E.T. to legitimate scientific discussion of life on other planets, is an attempt to prepare the world to accept the idea that the Rapture was actually a mass alien abduction. That's the most popular one, but virtually any conspiracy theory that could explain a mass disappearance has also been used to fulfill this role.
* WikiLeaks is getting this as well; people are starting to claim that they are a plant for the CIA or the MOSSAD making the world willing to attack Iran. As with a lot of theories, this is because information in the cables contradict their own theories/ideals. Except, as Paul Craig Roberts and others have noted, some of the "data" in those cables is just really dialogue between officials, and they are just expressing opinions or otherwise not exactly dealing with facts. Unfortunately for Wikileaks's credibility, some of that stuff in the cables is absolute garbage that was proven as such long before Wikileaks even came into the picture. It also doesn't help that Information Czar Cass Sunstein was calling for a government propaganda front posed as intelligence leakers or independent experts around that time.
* Some conspiracy theories of late get started after speculation over a real event becomes a case of [[Poe's Law]] gone haywire. Consider the events - and theories - that arose due to Anthony Weiner’s “sexting” scandal.
** The scandal would lead to WikiLeaks releasing John Podesta’s emails, leading to speculation in early November 2016 that some words in said emails were code words for pedophilia and human trafficking. Proponents also claimed that the ring was a meeting ground for Satanic ritual abuse. This later spread to far-right conservative websites which posted unverified - and blatantly false - reports of Hillary’s Clinton’s property being raided and searched.
** Eventually, users of [[Twitter]] and [[4chan]] searched the leaked emails of John Podesta for food-related "code words" that supposedly revealed the existence of a sex trafficking operation. For example, The New York Times reported that the phrase "cheese pizza" was thought by a poster to 4chan to be a code word for child pornography since they had the same initials. As this spread to “mainstream internet”, an unnamed Reddit user produced the notorious Pizzagate "evidence" document, specifically pointing the finger at Comet Pizza in Washington DC. (This post was later removed.)
** To make a long story short, the “scandal” quickly became ludicrous, with sites like Infowars associating pizza with pedophilia, rape, and gory murder. Comet Pizza was harrassed and bullied by the theory’s believers. In the owner’s words, "From this insane, fabricated conspiracy theory, we've come under constant assault. I've done nothing for days but try to clean this up and protect my staff and friends from being terrorized.” Finally, this came to a head after a North Carolina man named Edgar Maddison Welch, decided to respond to Alex Jones' impassioned pleas for someone to take matters into their own hands and "personally investigate", storming the restaurant with a shotgun. Miraculously, nobody was hurt and Welch was arrested without incident, but it seems the theorists didn’t learn…
** The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon Q-Anon] "scandal" seems to have branched from Pizzagate, although many of its detractors believe it started as a hoax to show conspiracy theorists how gullible they were. It worked too well. The theory started with a poster on [[4chan]] (trouble there already) claiming he was a high-ranking official in the Trump administration, with inside information about the “deep state”. Q-Anon made the unproven (and rather ridiculous) claim that special prosecutor Robert Mueller was secretly allied with President Donald Trump, and that the true purpose of his investigation was to prevent a coup d'état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros. When it seemed people believed him, he kept at it. Claims made by the poster became increasingly absurd. To give one example:
{{quote|'''Q-Anon:''' HRC extradition already in motion effective yesterday with several countries in case of cross border run. Passport approved to be flagged effective 10/30 @ 12:01am. Expect massive riots organized in defiance and others fleeing the US to occur. US M's will conduct the operation while NG activated. Proof check: Locate a NG member and ask if activated for duty 10/30 across most major cities.}}
:* Other outrageous claims made by Q-Anon include that the original claims of pedophilia and trafficking are global and include most of Hollywood, that the orchestrators practice cannibalism and Satanic rituals, that North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un is a puppet installed by the CIA, and that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the granddaughter of Adolf Hitler. (That's right, they figured they'd work [[Those Wacky Nazis]] into it.) Proponents went so far as to claim the funeral of George H.W. Bush would be turned into a sting operation where numerous “conspirators” would be arrested. Sadly, Trump himself does nothing to dissuade the theory, going so far as to share posts via Twitter His allies in media like Roseanne Barr, Sean Hannity, and - again - Alex Jones have also defended it.
== Famous People ==
* [[Elvis Presley]]. This one is a classic, but since it's been so long since his death, and since this theory has appeared so many times, it's mainly invoked now as a parody of conspiracy theories.
* Anastasia Romanova and her relatives. [[wikipedia:Romanov impostors|Here]] is a list of people who claimed to be surviving members of the ill-fated Romanov family.
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* Jim Morrison of [[The Doors]]. He told his friends beforehand that he was planning to fake his death, move to Africa, and live amongst the primitives. There was also the part where the only two people to see his body were his girlfriend, Pamela Courson (who committed suicide a few years after Morrison's death), and a doctor who signed Morrison's death certificate so illegibly that his identity was never determined.
* Stand-up comedian and satirist [[Bill Hicks]] not only faked his death, but got plastic surgery and re-emerged under a new identity: conspiracy radio host [[Alex Jones]].
* JonBenet Ramsey was not killed. It was a hoax, and she now goes by the name [[Katy Perry]]. No, seriously, some people actually believe this, simply claiming Perry looks like an adult version of the murdered child beauty queen. Of course, holes in this theory include the fact that Perry was born six years before Ramsey's birth, along with any actual motive for such a ruse.
* Combining one with the "X is dead" one, some people believe [[John Travolta]] died in 1991, and was replaced by German singer [[Roy Black]], who died of heart failure the same year. Those who push this theory claim Black faked his death and replaced Travolta for... Well, they rarely explain why. They never explain how Travolta supposedly died either, the passing resemblance is all the proof they need.
* Kurt Cobain, frontman of [[Nirvana]]
* [[Hideto Matsumoto|hide]], lead guitarist of [[X Japan]]. Also alleged to be murder disguised as suicide or accident, despite everything from a coroner's report to his best friends' arguments to the contrary. Everyone from the [[Yakuza]] to [[Yoshiki Hayashi]] to [[Yoko Oh No|his unnamed girlfriend]] to all three have been blamed repeatedly.
** A ''slightly'' more potentially valid murder theory centers around hide's brother Hiroshi. Slightly more valid because Hiroshi had a motive (profiting monetarily from hide's death far more than he may have had hide lived) and opportunity (he and the girlfriend were the last people seen with hide before death)
* Also from [[X Japan]], ex-bassist [[Taiji Sawada]]. There are arguably valid theories that he was killed in an act of [[Police Brutality]], and/or that his death resulted from a conspiracy involving higher-ups in Saipan government.
* [[The Pope|Pope John Paul I]]. Supposedly killed by [[The Mafia]], the Freemasons, or by a conspiracy within the Church because he threatened to reveal the shady dealings of the Vatican's bank.
* [[Nelson Mandela]]; there are many who swear they can remember news reports that the famed South African human rights activist and president died in prison during the 1980s, and some even swear they can remember news of his funeral. In truth, he died in 2013. Numerous conspiracy theories to explain this range from the usual - that the one who became president of South Africa was an imposter - to the absurd - that Mandela was no mere mortal, and could alter people's perceptions and/or reality itself. This has become so widespread, it coined the term [
* Princess Diana's fatal car crash was supposedly engineered by the [[British Royal Family]], who did not want her marrying Dodi Fayed, an Egyptian Muslim. Not helped at all by the fact that Diana was actually quoted as saying she thought Prince Charles wanted her dead...
* [[John F. Kennedy]]'s assassin, [[Gunman with Three Names|Lee Harvey Oswald]], allegedly did not act alone in killing him, but had assistance from another gunman on a nearby grassy knoll. Just ''who'' the guy on the grassy knoll was working for [[Who Shot JFK?|has been the subject of enough writing to fill the Library of Alexandria]]. The following people and groups have been blamed (oh, it's a long list), often in combination with one another:
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* [[wikipedia:Karen Silkwood|Karen Silkwood]], a labor activist who claimed that workers at nuclear fuel production facilities were being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, and was herself contaminated at the Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site. Some claim that the car accident that killed her had been orchestrated by the Kerr-McGee Corporation, owners of the site and other nuclear facilities.
* [[John Lennon]]. Some argue that Mark David Chapman was "programmed" to kill Lennon by Them, who feared the possible consequences of him reactivating both his music career and, more importantly, his political activism after five years of seclusion. ''[[The Catcher in The Rye]]'' usually figures in these theories as some kind of "trigger".
** [http://www.lennonmurdertruth.com/ This man] believes that [[Stephen King]] (yes, ''that'' Stephen King) was Lennon's gunman, hired to do so by [[Richard Nixon]] and [[Ronald Reagan]], and that clues as to his involvement can be found in his books. Of course, there's no actual motive given or any reason why the government would hire an A-list author as an assassin, so the claim makes about as much sense as the plot of ''[[Maximum Overdrive]]''.
* [[Osama Bin Laden]] was allegedly killed years ago and kept on ice, and his swift sea burial after Seal Team Six got him was to prevent "independent" examination of the body. Given that facial recognition and DNA confirmed his identity, one wonders why the theorists' extraordinary level of proof wasn't called for with, say, Saddam, or any other bad guy.
* There is a quite popular theory of the accidental death (murder by his own government?) of [[King Ludwig II|Ludwig II of Bavaria]], who mysteriously drowned in Lake Starnberg, after being removed from power. The circumstances of his death were highly suspicious, and many have alleged that he was murdered by his political enemies.
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** Similar claims have been made about Prince Alfonso of Spain, who officially shot himself by accident. The theorists claim that he was actually shot by his older brother, Prince (again, now King) Juan Carlos. Unlike the theories about Ananda, however, this one is universally considered to have been accidental if true, likely because Juan Carlos would've had no motive (he was higher in the line of succession than Alfonso).
* Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, leader of a famous and successful protest campaign to stop the Shell oil company from polluting his tribe's ancestral land. Nobody really doubts the official story behind his death (he was executed for murder in a [[Kangaroo Court]]); the real question is precisely who was involved. Quite a few people believe that the Shell corporation essentially ordered the government to silence him so they could have the land back. The Shell company recently lost a wrongful death lawsuit and had to pay his family millions, so this one may just be more than speculation.
* [[Stevie Wonder]] is not blind; he's been able to see perfectly his whole life, and is faking it for... some reason. Even sports journalist Bomani Jones promotes this dumb theory, claiming the "proof" is that Wonder has attended basketball games, once caught a mic stand that tipped over, and - reportedly - tried to strangle [[Boy George]] in a playful manner. These folks seem to think that "blind" means "completely oblivious to one's surroundings", and Wonder has clearly had ''decades'' to adjust to them.
* Journalist Danny Casolaro, who claimed he had uncovered proof [[Ronald Reagan]] was in on the Iranian Hostage Crisis, a conspiracy he called "The Octopus". Naturally, many people, including his family, believe the [[CIA]] killed him.
* [[Sweden|Swedish]] Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was assassinated on February 28, 1986 while walking home from a cinema. Often called the Swedish version of the JFK assassination, especially because it's still unsolved -- more than 130 different people have confessed to the crime. Some of the accused include:
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** A conspiracy among right-wing elements within the police department.
* The "[[wikipedia:Paul is dead|Paul is dead]]" theory has it that [[
* The "Birther" movement claims that US President [[Barack Obama]] is not a natural-born American citizen, which would make him ineligible for the position
** For the record, under current laws, anyone born to an American citizen is also a natural-born American citizen, no matter where this occurred. The President was born before this law was implemented, but even under the statutes he was born under, he only needs to spend a few years in the United States to claim natural-born citizenship; his academic record alone validates that claim. Some claim that being a natural-born citizen isn't enough -- you must actually be born in the US to run for President. This is in spite of the fact that the Constitution does not make such a requirement, only requiring a) natural-born citizen status, b) having lived in the US for fourteen years, and c) being at least 35 years old. There ''isn't'' any strict "born on US soil" requirement, as several other men (including Senator John McCain, Barack Obama's opponent in the 2008 Presidential election) have been accepted as legal US Presidential candidates despite having been born outside the US.
** One variation claims that, since Obama's father (a native of British Kenya) held British citizenship at the time of his son's birth, then Obama holds dual US and British citizenship, which they feel would make him ineligible even if he was a natural-born citizen. Problem is, there is nothing in the Constitution saying that dual citizenship makes a candidate ineligible, and even if there was, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution<ref>"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside..."</ref> would override it. Other claims allege that Obama's mother had renounced her US citizenship and, by extension, her son's (she hadn't, and even if she did it wouldn't have affected Obama's status), that a trip by Obama to Pakistan in 1981 could only have been accomplished with a foreign passport due to an alleged ban on travel between the US and Pakistan (no such ban existed), and that Obama's enrollment in a school in Indonesia in his youth could only have been done if he wasn't a US citizen at the time (living outside the US as a minor, as ruled in ''[[wikipedia:Perkins v. Elg|Perkins v. Elg]]'', does not cause you to lose your citizenship).
** Amusing bit of trivia -- Obama's 2008 opponent, John McCain, was born in the Panama Canal Zone (or Panama itself, some believe), meaning that, by some variants on this theory, he too was ineligible to be President.
*** Likewise, one of the Republican front-runners for the 2016 Presidential election (Senator Ted Cruz) was born in [[Canada]], and held dual US-Canadian citizenship until he formally renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2014, but still qualifies as 'natural born' as his mother was an American citizen. While several court challenges have been filed in his case, all have been uniformly ruled against.
** One moderately well-known politician and statesman, Sir [[Winston Churchill]], could legitimately have claimed US citizenship via an American-born mother. Would there have been such an uproar about his being born overseas had he tried standing for public office in the USA? And the British people were not in the least concerned by his being 50% foreign
** Ironically, when the Birthers produced a birth certificate of their own claiming that Obama had been born in Kenya, it was found to be a forgery, due to several instances of [[Did Not Do the Research|shoddy research]]. For one, it listed his birthplace as "Mombasa, Republic of Kenya", even though a) in 1961, the year of Obama's birth, Mombasa was a part of Zanzibar, not Kenya, and b) Kenya was still a British colony at the time, not a republic. In addition, the format of the certificate bore no resemblance to that used in Kenya at the time... but it ''did'' look like a birth certificate that a hospital in South Australia would have issued around 1961.
* Similar to Obama, former US President [[Chester A. Arthur]] was alleged to have been born in Ireland or Quebec rather than Vermont as he claimed, which would've made him ineligible for the Presidency. Arthur Hinman, the man hired by the Democratic Party during the 1880 campaign to discredit Arthur, wrote a book about it, ''How a British Subject became President of the United States''.
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* The Rothschild family, a Jewish-German family with strong ties to business and government. Alleged to either be a front for the Illuminati (see below), or to be controlling the world's wealth and financial institutions, or to have staged several wars in history.
* Let's play a bit of Mad Libs. Here's the sentence for you to fill in. "Hitler was ____". Here are the words you can choose from. " an alien (illegal or from space)". "Gay", "Jewish", "an [[Aspergers Syndrome|Aspie]]", "Communist", "fighting aliens", "Sorcerer", "Mystic", "Psychic", "the owner of the Spear of Destiny", "Framed" and "/is living in South America". Now throw in "and he/the authorities covered it up" and congratulations, you have just described a good chunk of the conspiracy theories about [[Adolf Hitler]].
* Quite a few famous people, especially rappers, are believed to be in [[The Illuminati]] (or the Freemasons, depending on who you ask), including [[Tupac Shakur]], [[Jay Z]], [[Beyoncé]], [[Rihanna]], [[Ye|Kanye West]], and even [[Barack Obama]]. Just Google "illuminati". Kanye West in particular received a lot of heat after his music video for "Power" came out. Conspiracy theorists believed that it was supposed to be Satanic and he was trying to brainwash our children to become Satanic Freemasons.
== Health ==
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** Never mind that continual research has expanded upon the construction techniques that might have been used. One researcher, for instance, made the rather (in hindsight) obvious jump that the Egyptians might have used some of the technology they used in boats and such to aid in building the pyramids.
* Then there's the [http://www.thirdamendment.com/nobility.html Lost 13th Amendment theory]: the notion that the ''actual'' 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibited any U.S. citizen from accepting any "title of nobility or honour", or from receiving "any present, pension, office or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince or foreign power". This amendment was never ratified by the necessary number of states, and so never became part of the Constitution; the theory claims that it ''was'' ratified, that it became part of the Constitution, and that '''then it was covered up''' -- because (so says the theory) the suffix "Esquire", which attorneys in the United States traditionally append to their names, is (... so says the theory!) a "title of nobility", and thus under this amendment ''lawyers cannot hold public office in the United States''.
* There's recently been reports that both the moon and Mars have ruins on them. Some of these ruins are truly bizarre, such as two crystals, 7 and 4-miles tall respectively, a colossal submarine-looking thing just sort of being there in a crater, and what is apparently a castle floating 9 miles above the lunar surface, suspended from nothing by a sometimes visible cable. What absolutely does not help quell the conspiracy is that the area northeast of the Ukert crater (where the majority of these things are supposed to be) appears to have been sloppily photoshopped out of the Google Maps moon version. Also on Mars, there's apparently several complexes of ruins near the infamous "face" formation. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101206015341/http://www.informantnews.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=38 Here's] [http://www.philipcoppens.com/moon.html plenty] of information for you to look over. Strangely, there seem to be no alternate explanations for the majority of these, possibly because the conspiracy isn't well known enough to have detractors.
** The typical explanation for these is just that the brain is good at picking signals out of random noise, particularly in low-res photos such as these. The Face of Mars looks a lot less like a face when you look at it [http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast24may_1/ in high detail or at a different angle.]
** One really out-there theory is about the Martian moon Phobos. It's orbit characteristics lead Russian scientist Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky to declare it was most likely hollow, as they indicated it was extremely light. This in turn led some, most notably Fred Singer, science advisor to President Dwight Eisenhower, to declare that if Phobos was hollow then it might have even been a massive artificial satellite created by the ancient Martians. Even though this theory has since been proven incorrect and current research indicates that Phobos is not hollow (at least not entirely), there are still plenty of people out there saying [[Star Wars|that's no moon]].
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* The "Gay Agenda." Since homosexuals cannot reproduce with each other, the theory goes that they must "recruit" new homosexuals by infiltrating schools and the media to promote the gay lifestyle. Any depiction of a homosexual in media in which they are not [[Depraved Homosexual|evil and depraved]], or which does not show their life devolving into pure hell, will inevitably be accused of this.
** [[wikipedia:The Puppy Episode|And, if you recruit enough, you get a free toaster oven.]]
** Betty Bowers claims to have uncovered the Gay Agenda [https://web.archive.org/web/20170614043435/http://www.bettybowers.com/homoagenda.html here]. Of course, Betty Bowers is part of the '''fictional parody church''' [http://www.landoverbaptist.org Landover Baptist]. She isn't a real person. <ref>Assume complete control of the U.S., state, and local governments (in addition to other nations' governments); destroy all healthy Christian marriages; recruit all children grades Kindergarten through 12 into your amoral, filthy lifestyle; secure complete control of the media, starting with sitcoms; molest innocent children; give AIDS to as many people as you can; host a pornographic "art" exhibit at your local art museum; and turn people away from Jesus, causing them to burn forever in Hell.</ref>
** The Gay Agenda is widely suspected to be a tangible printed book, but access is tightly controlled by the conspiracy – to the point that the LGBT community have their own bookstores in most major cities to prevent copies of The Gay Agenda from falling into the hands of outsiders. There have been the occasional rumours... such as one episode of ''[[The Daily Show]]'' claiming Jon Stewart procured a copy of the gay agenda, unearthing a nefarious scheme of brunch and crudité. [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|But you can prove nothing...]]
== Jews/Israel ==
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** Not that this excuses the accusations, but it must be remembered that it was a long time before anyone realized that rats were the ones spreading the disease. Bear in mind this all happened hundreds of years before the concept of germs was even presented (and even then, it was a while before anyone believed that germs were real). Ironically, there have been accounts of villages exterminating the ''cat'' population, for their traditional link with witchcraft, an action that certainly couldn't have ''helped'' keep the number of rats down.
* Conspiracy theories about Jews are unfortunately still common. ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a particularly famous (and [[Based on a Great Big Lie|fiction-based]]) 19th-century book detailing the supposed [[Evil Plan]] of the Jews and the Freemasons to conquer the world using such evils as Darwinism, socialism, liberalism, Nietzscheism, universal suffrage, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|porn]]. To the conspiracy theorists' credit, many are now blaming other groups, such as [[David Icke|space lizards]] and [[Atheism|Atheists]]. The groups that still blame Jews are almost universally white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and Islamic extremists (and the last group has some very ''[[Pragmatic Villainy|pragmatic]]'' reasons for wanting to eradicate the Jews, rather than reasons based on superstition and prejudice.)
{{quote|[W]hat the ''Communist Manifesto'' is for Marxism, the fictitious ''Protocols'' is for antisemitism.|Stephen Eric Bronner|A Rumor About the Jews: Reflections on Antisemitism and the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.}}
** And even they apparently haven't read ''The Protocols'', as it's a transparent propaganda-piece that hails ''a return to monarchy'' as the only force capable of opposing the [[Strawman Political]] caricatures behind this [[Evil Plan]].
*** More to the point, anyone who knows anything of Russian history would know to immediately be able to tell the work of the Okhranka, the [[Imperial Russia
** Some modern conspiracy theorists claim that, while the conspiracy presented in ''The Protocols'' is real, the stuff about it being Jewish-led was put in by Them in order to discredit it and cause it to become associated with outdated, bigoted ideas. It's... kind of strange.
* Others believe that Jews [[The Turner Diaries|control Hollywood and the American media]], and that they use this to spread their propaganda. This includes spreading ethnic stereotypes to undermine nonwhites and generally being evil, which is apparently just what Jewish people do.
** Jews also control all banks, and are therefore responsible for all recessions and depressions in history. You know, [[For the Evulz|for funzies]].*
***Not only do they control banking they are all Bolshivicks. At the same time. Because of course not only are they [[Greedy Jew|mad for wealth]] they want to wreck the means of getting it.
** Of course, [[White Collar Crime|Bernie Madoff]] has, unfortunately, thrown a good deal of gas on that particular fire... despite the fact that he was primarily ripping off Jews. Including Henry Kaufman, [[Steven Spielberg]], and ''Elie Wiesel''. The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity lost $15.2 million, and Wiesel and his wife, Marion, lost their life savings.
** Note that beliefs like this also caused things like a brief interest in the government of Japan in recruiting massive numbers of Jews to immigrate because it was believed that Jews in essence had magical money powers. Possibly one of the few times stereotypes about Jews were used to their benefit.
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** Ironically, the man who popularized the Khazar theory in [[The Seventies]], Arthur Koestler, was an Ashkenazi Jew who was trying to challenge religious anti-Semitism, thinking that it would lose its basis if it were to be proven that the Ashkenazim weren't descended from the "[[Sins of Our Fathers|Christ-killers]]". He had a huge [[Oh Crap]] moment when he saw his theories hijacked by neo-Nazis and radical Islamists to use for ''ethnic'' anti-Semitism.
* Allegedly, the kosher labeling on various foods is to show that the producer had paid a "secret tax" to the Jews in order to support Israel -- and of course, this "tax" gets passed on to the goyim (non-Jews). In reality, the labels simply do exactly what they say -- show that the food was made in accordance with Jewish dietary regulations so that observant Jews can eat it without breaking kashrut. [[Snopes]] took this one on [http://www.snopes.com/racial/business/kosher.asp here].
== Media ==
* Types 1, 2, and 5 of the [[Strawman News Media]], in all of their various forms.
* The alleged use of [[Subliminal Advertising]] to sell products. In 1957, a market researcher named James Vicary (who later [[Trope Namer|coined the term]] "subliminal advertising") performed an experiment at a movie theater in New Jersey. The words "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry? Eat popcorn" would be flashed on the screen for 1/3000 of a second at five second intervals. Vicary alleged that sales of Coca-Cola and popcorn increased at that theater by 57.8% and 18.1%, respectively. Although the results have never been replicated, and Vicary himself later admitted to faking his results, conspiracy theories pertaining to subliminal messages persist to this day, and have inspired countless writers and filmmakers.
** One form of subliminal message used in music is "backmasking," or recording a sound or message backwards so that it is audible only when played backwards. Many bands, most notably [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] and [[Pink Floyd]], used backmasking for effect and as a way of putting [[Easter Egg|easter eggs]] into their music<ref>The former's use of backmasking, incidentally, led to the "Paul is Dead" conspiracy theory, and the rumors that there was a backmasked homage to Satan in [[Led Zeppelin|"Stairway to Heaven"]] started a lot of the fears about rock music being specifically Satanic, instead of just rowdy.</ref>, and it is also used by radio stations as a crude way of censoring explicit lyrics. Conspiracy theories surrounding backmasking are often religious in nature, the idea being that [[Rock Me, Asmodeus|rock bands and other popular musicians]] are using it to, among other things, [[Subliminal Seduction|encourage devil worship, sex, drug use, and suicide]]. Psychologists have pointed out that listeners can't understand words heard backward, let alone be subliminally influenced by them, and [[Judas Priest|Rob Halford]] has pointed out [[Artistic License Economics|how bad a business model it is]] to brainwash your fans into killing themselves. This theory was at its height in [[The Eighties]], as a part of [[You Can Panic Now|the general hysteria]] over Satanic ritual abuse.
* A [[YouTube]] series called ''The Industry Exposed'' (or simply ''The Industry'') alleges that the music industry is controlled by occult/Satanic groups, including the Freemasons, and that they put subliminal messages and esoteric imagery into songs and music videos in order to seduce young people to [[The Dark Side]].
* It has been claimed that the ''[[The X-Files|X-Files]]'' [[Spin-Off]] ''[[The Lone Gunmen]]'' predicted not only the 9/11 attacks, but the alleged [[Government Conspiracy]] behind them, and that this is why it was canceled.
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* Bohemian Grove, a men's club in northern California that counts many influential political and business leaders among its ranks. Sometimes alleged to be a front for the NWO. In 2000, [[Alex Jones]] garnered lots of attention by sneaking into the Grove and filming their fraternity-esque Cremation of Care ritual, which he alleged to be a pagan sacrifice.
* The [[The Illuminati|Bavarian Illuminati]] was a short-lived secret society that was formed in 1776 and was devoted to freethought and the ideals of the Enlightenment, claiming over 2000 members across Europe. They fell apart in the mid-1780s, after Bavaria, where they were based, outlawed all secret societies. However, this hasn't stopped people from claiming that they somehow managed to not only survive, but complete their alleged goal of world domination. They are often alleged to be the masterminds of the New World Order.
** Well, Freethought and Enlightenment ideals ''are'' fairly mainstream in the western world now...<ref>Unless, of course, you're an American Republican in the early 21st century, in which case they are Dangerous Socialism.</ref>
* The Freemasons. Fears regarding their influence over America (many of America's Founding Fathers, including [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[George Washington]], and [[Andrew Jackson]], were Masons) were strong enough to lead to the creation of the Anti-Masonic Party in the early 19th century, which managed to get nearly eight percent of the vote at its peak. Today, they are sometimes alleged to be a part of the aforementioned NWO or Illuminati.
** In [[Tsarist Russia|Imperial Russia]], the Freemasons were widely associated with pretty much all the views and creeds coming from the West that the ruling elite despised: [[The French Revolution|republicanism]], [[Napoleon Bonaparte|Napoleonism]], [[The British Empire|Anglophilia]], [[Nuns-N-Rosaries|Catholicism]], [[Hollywood Atheist|atheism]], you name it. The image of the Evil Scheming Freemasons has made a bit of a comeback in recent years, giving the ultra-nationalists not only a convenient explanation as to why Russia's history for most of the 20th century [[Grigori Rasputin
* [[The Knights Templar]]. [[Foucault's Pendulum|You just can't]] [[The Da Vinci Code|have a conspiracy]] [[Assassin's Creed|theory without 'em]].
* The Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderberg Group, three policy institutes dedicated to promote greater global cooperation, are all alleged to be fronts for the NWO, and are often mentioned in the same breath. In 2006, [[Alex Jones]] led a protest of a Bilderberg meeting in Ottawa.
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* Also overlapping, part of the Rapture theory is that either in the days before or days following the Rapture, a One World Government will form under the leadership of the Antichrist. The EU, UN, and pretty much every other international government are simply the buildup.
* Agenda 21, a non-binding [[United Nations]] plan for sustainable development written in 1992, is often claimed (particularly on the right wing of American politics) to be a blueprint for imposing socialism, radical environmentalism and, in some versions, [[Kill the Poor|population reduction]] onto the world.
* Recently, some American conspiracy theorists - mostly those who support President [[Donald Trump]] - have proposed the existence of a "deep state", presumably run by Trump's critics, political opponents, and the media. In theory, a "deep state" a government body that functions autonomously and competes with the true government for power. There have been confirmed cases of real ones elsewhere in the world, including Turkey, Egypt, the Ukraine, and the Soviet Union; the last case the "deep state" was the KGB, and is now Russia's ''actual'' government. Despite such accusations, there is very little proof (well, actually, none at all) that such a conspiracy exists, and the idea of the President - who has the Department of Justice, National Guard, FBI, and CIA at his disposal - being simply unable to identify and arrest any "deep state" seems absurd.
** The 'deep state' theory presumes that a significant portion of the senior administrative apparatus of the DoJ, FBI, CIA, etc. are ''part of'' the deep state, and would thus be of little use when ordered to collect evidence for the eventual prosecution of themselves and their co-conspirators. And not even by any blatantly actionable acts of cover-up either, but simply by exercising malicious compliance and selective obliviousness. You can of course disagree whether or not this is ''actually happening'' here and now, but fairness does compel us to admit that the conspiracy theory in question actually does try to explain this one. And also that it's certainly a thing that's genuinely happened elsewhere and elsewhen in the real world. Ultimately the entire 'deep state' theory is a treatise on the exact difference between position authority and actual authority, and every government and major institution in human history has been arguing that one since the beginning.
== Race and Immigration ==
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** "Biblical Doomsday" is actually [[Older Than They Think]]. Starting around 300 BCE, apocalypticism (that is, the belief that the world was caught in an epic struggle between good and evil and that good would eventually triumph any day now) took hold in Judaism. Writings of near-future apocalypses became a literary genre in their own right; books like Revelation and Daniel are just two of ''many'' that cropped up during this period.
** Some people, in a misguided attempt to bring about the Second Coming, actually take steps they believe are in accordance with biblical prophecy. One major example of this is Christian Zionism, which is the idea that the survival of Israel, and its encompassing the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, are necessary prerequisites for the beginning of the End Times. As a result, some fundamentalist individuals, churches and organizations have taken on a very hawkish and pro-Israel stance in order to strengthen Israel's position in the Middle East, supporting its actions against its neighbors.
* There
** Some, of course, take the "new age" idea and run with it, claiming that 2012 will be the dawn of a new era of spiritual enlightenment.
** Some people
* Remember the [[Millennium Bug|Y2K bug]]? Back in the day, most computers only calculated the last two digits of the year in the date and time. When the year 2000 rolled around, the computer's internal clock would reset to "01/01/00," which would supposedly cause it to crash. Combine this with the increasing computerization of society, and people were proclaiming that on January 1, 2000, society would be sent back to the Dark Ages as electricity failed worldwide, planes fell out of the sky, and [[Ghostbusters|cats and dogs started living together]]. Businesses, schools, and the government spent the late '90s working to "Y2K-proof" their computer systems in order to keep them running after the big 2-0 rolled around, providing a lot of easy work for young computer programmers at the height of the "dot-com" boom.<br /><br />Just how much damage Y2K would've actually done if not for these preparations is debatable. One side holds that the lack of catastrophes was due mainly to the countless man-hours put in by programmers to fix and update the world's computer systems, while noting that [[New York City]]'s Y2K preparations allowed it to more effectively respond to the 9/11 attacks two years later. The other side, meanwhile, counters with the fact that, even in places that saw little preparation for the Y2K bug (such as America's school system and in countries like Italy, China and Russia), very few problems were reported as the new year rolled around.<br /><br />What certainly ''wasn't'' plausible, however, were the assortment of non-computer-related theories that proliferated in the late '90s, often taking the most pessimistic predictions of computer experts and running with them in various bizarre, apocalyptic directions. When one considers that Y2K coincided with the [[Turn of the Millennium]], it wasn't much of a stretch for religious nuts to claim that it was the beginning of the biblical End Times and the seven years of tribulation. Others alleged that Y2K would be the date when [[Ancient Conspiracy|the New World Order]] would openly [[One World Order|seize power]], when [[Police State|martial law]] [[Day of the Jackboot|would be declared]], when [[World War III]] would begin, and/or when aliens would arrive on Earth to [[Alien Invasion|invade]] and [[Planet Looters|pillage]] us (or, more optimistically, to [[Benevolent Alien Invasion|raise us]] to [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|a new level of spiritual awakening]]). Meanwhile, many ordinary people started [[Crazy Prepared|stockpiling survival gear]] in a way not seen since the "Duck and Cover" mentality of [[The Fifties]].
** Of course, the major question that is overlooked is how the changing of a date would actually affect certain systems. Most systems not dependent on keeping a calender or otherwise requiring long term calculations would simply roll over and treat the new old date as normal -- so a clock, for instance, would return the wrong date but would still otherwise give you the correct time. (Some clocks returned the year on January 1 as "19100" rather than "2000".)
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*** The first [[Evil Plan]] of the Catholics was probably helping to bring about the Dark Ages: they were the ones to close Plato's academy, and they took a turn burning the library at Alexandria.
**** Though to be fair, these institutions were closed because of their connection to Pagan Cults which were outlawed by the Roman Emperor Theodosius. Many of ancient philosopher's works were preserved by the Church through the Dark Ages, though the only ones who could read them were Churchmen and those nobles who cared.
**One of the most famous is the idea that the Catholic Church, or Christianity in general, was a construct of Emperor Constantine. As if the Roman Empire was a totalitarian state. No state was at the time, certainly not one that size; the emperor could only have absolute power at any given time and place and in any event, even modern states with extensive technological resources and the desire to rule over every aspect of life(assuming it has such} can find it difficult to force an ideological concept down it's subject's throat in it's despite the way Constantine was accused of. Furthermore the history of the time shows other Emperors demonstrating the impossibility of doing that in the Rome of that time by the discreditable method of actually trying to do so not only with Christianity but with other new fangled religions of the time. Romans actually did have a capacity for passive resistance if they cared enough about something. In any case Constantine's history does not show him as a would-be Torquemada. He was possibly a sincere Christian in his later years though that is arguable. What is true is that he was a politician and all his religious policies could be interpreted through the rational goal of making sure no one riots in the street over religion and getting a good relationship with the strongest special interest in the Empire. He certainly showed no sign of unusual interest in the theological details of in-house Church arguments other then to want them settled one way or another. Certainly not enough interest to decree the Churches theology by fiat.
***A large part of this is that this comes from telescoping the reigns of several Emperors and aspects of religious policy which evolved slowly. There were still Pagans in the empire by Justinian's time and Justinian was in any case a closer fit then Constantine to the character and policy associated with this theory.
** While we're on the subject of Antichrist accusations and the Catholic church, there's the [[wikipedia:Vicarius Filii Dei|Vicarius Filii Dei]] <ref>Vicar/Representative of the Son of God</ref> rumor. The link has the whole story, but to sum it up -- this is given as a supposed title of the Papacy, and present on one of the Papal Tiaras. The name, while innocuous, can be numerologically represented as none other than [[Number of the Beast|666.]] Problem is, no such title is actually ''claimed'' by the Papacy, and none of the extant Papal Tiaras have such writing on them.
* Back in the 1920's, Margaret Murray claimed that there was an "Old Religion" in Europe predating Christianity (all the way back to the stone age!) that had secretly survived under the Church's nose for centuries. Witch hunts were an attempt at wiping these people out once and for all. Oh, and Joan of Arc was a voluntary human sacrifice for this pagan cult. Despite the fact that she has been completely discredited (her claims have pretty much no basis in fact, and some of her "facts" were completely twisted), many new agers and pagans continue to believe the myth she's propagated.
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** General Motors' EV1 electric car was supposedly doomed from the start due to this. The alleged culprits include the oil industry, who feared their profits being undercut and supported efforts to kill the mandate requiring zero-emissions vehicles, and GM itself, which allegedly sabotaged the EV1 program by engaging in negative marketing and failing to build enough cars to meet demand. This was the subject of the documentary ''Who Killed the Electric Car?''.
*** Likewise, the [[Urban Legend]] regarding the gentleman that purchased a car, and quickly discovered that it seemingly ''never'' ran out of fuel. He goes home, and in the middle of the night, sees strange men working under the hood of his new wondercar. After that night, the car only gets normal mileage. Supposedly, the miracle car was a high-efficiency prototype and the gas companies sabotaged it to prevent the loss of profits from gas sales. This implies that gas companies and car companies were working at cross-purposes: if a car company designed such a miraculous car -- one that that no other company had -- they would ''dominate'' the industry, and wouldn't give it up voluntarily, so were sabotaged against their will.
**** This theory also requires that the car company that made this miraculous invention never actually profit from it in any way whatsoever, because there is no way they can make back their investment on it without actually ''selling'' it to someone. Even if we hypothesize a secret, closed clientele (such as the military) it still doesn't make sense. Anyone they
* Another one about the oil companies: they are supposedly hiding the existence of vast amounts of untapped oil from the general public, creating the illusion of "peak oil" in order to keep prices artificially high. One version of this theory (and the reason why it's under "Suppressed Science and Technologies") holds that oil reserves replenish naturally over time (the abiogenic petroleum origin theory), and that the oil companies have been suppressing this and pushing the "fossil fuel" theory in order to protect the value of their investments. Comparisons are usually drawn between this and the diamond industry (see "Real Conspiracies" below).
** Conversely, it is often the case that small gas/oil companies will under-report their production to prevent competitors from leasing all the land around good properties before they do. But that is not really a conspiracy against the consumer, and is not illegal except in Texas. Which is one of the many reasons the Hubbert Decline Curve predicted the production history of Texas more accurately than it did other parts of the US.
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*** Well, normal aircraft contrails ''have'' been proven to contribute to Global Dimming...
* Going beyond chemtrails, some claim that advanced [[Weather Control Machine|weather control technology]] is being used to remotely manipulate the weather. They claim that Hurricane Katrina was an example of a storm created using this technology, and that HAARP, a research project to examine the ionosphere, is actually a cover for just such a weather control device. Other theories claim that HAARP was designed as a weapon to knock out enemy satellites and spacecraft, and that it doubles as an earthquake machine.
** Similar claims about [[wikipedia:Typhoon Haiyan|Typhoon Haiyan]], known locally in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Yolanda, were made by conspiracist circles soon after it passed through the Visayas region in 2013. One such conspiracist video went viral but was promptly rebuked by mainstream news and local blog sites as nothing more than fake news.
* Both sides of the [[Hollywood Global Warming]] debate <ref>professional climate scientists/liberal academic elitists on one side, and climate skeptics/corporate shills on the other -- pick whichever labels fit your worldview best</ref> accuse the other of suppressing and fabricating evidence in order to support their theories. '''[[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|And let's just leave it at that.]]'''
** There is [[Take a Third Option|a third option]] -- it's not natural ''or'' man-made, but is being caused by aliens to [[Terraform|xenoform]] our planet.<ref>It's not ''terra''form because "terra" means "Earth", and Earth [[Shaped Like Itself|is already as Earth-like as possible]].</ref>
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** Probably the most obvious response to this is to ask why the Soviets, who were perfectly capable of watching American spacecraft, didn't call them out on the fraud. If there was even a shadow of a doubt that the Americans really had landed on the moon, the Soviets would have thrown it right in their faces.
*** Incidentally, the Apollo crews left three retroreflector arrays on the Moon that can be observed with laser to this day. And before anyone can say "unmanned drone", it would have been ''more'' expensive to develop [[wikipedia:Surveyor Program|such a device back in the 1960's]] than to send human astronauts.
* The [[wikipedia:Bielefeld Conspiracy|Bielefeld Conspiracy]] is one of the most famous satirical conspiracy theories (also listed under [[German Humour]]), making fun of the ways a [[Conspiracy Theorist]]'s mind works. In short, it postulates that the German city of Bielefeld doesn't exist, and that They are hiding the fact. As proof of the idea, it employs a whole plethora of [[You Fail Logic Forever|logical fallacies]] by asking three questions: Do you know anybody from Bielefeld? Have you ever been to Bielefeld? Do you know anybody who has ever been to Bielefeld? If you answer "no" to all three, it is concluded that Bielefeld doesn't exist. If you said "yes" to any of them, it's concluded that you work for Them. As for why They are doing this, [https://web.archive.org/web/20131005065849/http://conspiracy.wikia.com/wiki/Bielefeld#Theories various explanations] have been proposed.
** Variations include the non-existence of [[The Several States|Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota]], Belgium, and countless other places.
* New Coke: a near-catastrophic marketing disaster by the Coca-Cola Company, or a [[Xanatos Gambit]] designed to increase the sales of Coke by replacing it with an unpopular new blend, then bringing back the original formula?
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* In Utah, there is a minority but [[Serious Business|bitterly]] [[Vocal Minority|vocal]] theory that democracy -- ''[[Insane Troll Logic|all]]'' [[Insane Troll Logic|democracy]] -- is the work of [[Dirty Commies]] trying to establish Marxist regimes. The solution? Oppose democracy and promote a ''[[Better by a Different Name|republic]]''. This is believed to be rooted in Utah being so staunchly hard-conservative in culture and politics, and any word starting with "democra"- is anathema, and words beginning with "republic-" [[Newspeak|are preferred]]. The irony is that the majority Mormon culture had traditionally practiced a form of [[wikipedia:Christian socialism|Christian socialism]] called the [[wikipedia:United Order|United Order]], which is still manifested in institutions like [[wikipedia:LDS Family Services|LDS Family Services]] (formerly called LDS Social Services), the [[wikipedia:Bishop's storehouse|Bishop's storehouse]], etc. There was a tectonic [[Values Dissonance|cultural shift]] during the [[Cold War]]/[[Red Scare]] when Mormons were suspected of being [[Acceptable Political Targets|socialist sympathizers]], so Mormon culture came to [[Fanon Discontinuity/Real Life|retroactively deny]] all socialism or the association of the United Order as socialist in nature. (In fairness, the United Order had no direct relation to Marxism under the common umbrella of socialism, and the United Order actually [[Older Than They Think|predated Marxism]].) With the continual rightward shift since Utah became a predominantly Republican state in the [[Civil Rights Movement]] (and now one of the most solidly red states in the United States), ''democracy itself'' has also increasingly been seen as a conspiracy by [[Dirty Commies]] to spread Marxism. While still a minority view, it has become notable enough to make [http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogschalkboard/50771956-57/democracy-district-alpine-bromley.html.csp repeat] [http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51130453-78/state-education-board-control.html.csp news] [http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51186884-76/bill-committee-democracy-government.html.csp reports] in local publications like the ''Salt Lake Tribune'', and even a national mention or two in publications like ''The Week'' (in their "Only [[Eagle Land|in America]]" section).
* [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/glenn-beck-rape-murder-hoax#.TiTAEeBE-Yk "Did Glenn Beck rape and murder a young girl in 1990?"] Similarly to the Bielefeld conspiracy above, this is a parody of conspiracy theories, specifically spoofing the style of talk [[Radio]] host (and former [[Fox News Channel]] pundit) [[Glenn Beck]], who is known for making outrageous, highly speculative allegations and asking his guests to disprove them.
* There's been a fairly new{{when}} conspiracy theory involving celebrities and Scientology. This theory is that a lot of the alleged celebrity scientologist aren't real believers of the religion. Instead most see the organization as more of a facade and a country club made up of Hollywood insiders. And most join for the perks, and networking. In essence it's a organization within another organization. Basically celebs and Hollywood insiders are exploiting the group for their own end, while Scientology gets to use the celebs' fame (and money).
* In the wake of the Libyan revolution, there has been a noted increase in violence against black migrants. Some people [http://new-power.org/2011/09/05/more-ethnic-cleansing-by-nato-backed-forces/ have extropolated this] to claim the NTC is initiating a mass ethnic-cleansing program against said migrants, supported by NATO, of course. [[Fridge Logic|Despite the fact that such a program would be rather antithetical to the principles of NATO]].
** A few people have gone so far as to say that the revolution itself doesn't exist.
* And of course, every American military action in the Middle East is done either for oil or imperialism. No exceptions.
* The ''HMS Invincible'' Conspiracy states that during the Falkland Islands War, the light aircraft carrier ''HMS Invincible'' was sunk by an Argentinean fighter pilot using an Exocet anti-ship missile (who conveniently died in the attack). The gist of it being that ''Invincible'' was damaged and met offshore with another aircraft carrier, ''HMS Hermes'' (a ship the conspiracy claims "should not have been there") and personnel and material were moved onto it, with the ''Invincible'' sinking or scuttled. Then the ''Invincible'''s sister ship ''Illustrious'' carried the name ''Invincible'' until a replacement ship could be built. Critics point out the numerous logical fallacies, such as the fact that the war was heavily covered by the media and the sinking of an aircraft carrier going unnoticed would be impossible, the ''Illustrious'' had the Phalanx CIWS system installed when the ''Invincible'' only had it installed after the war, it would have left a wreck and it would be impossible to disguise the construction of a brand new aircraft carrier. Despite this, the theory still has a following in Argentina, where it originated.
* Due to some bizarre leap of logic, police officials on the West Coast of the United States and even the Attorney General of New Mexico came to the conclusion that [[Memetic Mutation|Pedobear]] [[Did Not Do the Research|was some kind of a rallying mascot for pedophiles]]. Officers were told to look out for Pedobear symbols or paraphernalia as the mark of pedophile activity and distributed flyers warning parents of the "menace". [http://gawker.com/5636011/stupid-california-police-warn-parents-of-pedobear-the-pedophile-mascot The internet] [http://www.buzzfeed.com/rebeccae/pedobear-police-warning-a-seemingly-innocent-mena had a] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120119013635/http://gammasquad.uproxx.com/2010/09/police-issue-pedobear-warning-seriously field day].
* Pick any military conflict where the US or Great Britain directly or indirectly attacked a Third-World country. Hold it in your head for a couple minutes. Inevitably,
* One conspiracy theory begins with the known fact that in early 1982, the British Gov't was considering heavy cuts in the Royal Navy. Royal Navy Intelligence is supposed to have known all about the threat from Argentina, but deliberately with-held their information from politicians, knowing the Navy would more than prove its worth in any reconquest, and cold-bloodedly allowing the Argies to invade. The Royal Navy then duly proved its worth in the war, and made any cuts unthinkable Just to make sure, informaation about the cuts was leaked to daily newspapers and TV. Whatever the truth in this, the navy cuts were discreetly dropped after the war...
* During the conflict in Iraq, a rumor began to spread in the city of Basra that the British forces occupying the city had released a genetically modified hell-beast to kill cattle, maim children and generally cause panic and terror. The hell-beasts in question turned out to be honey badgers. They used to live in an area that was once swampland, dammed up by Saddam in an effort to evict a local Arab minority. When the marsh was re-flooded, the badgers left and started moving into the city. Major Mike Shearer shot the claims down saying "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area".
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* "[http://michellemalkin.com/2012/09/02/time-for-a-2nd-revised-edition-of-the-liberal-racial-code-words-handbook-chair/ Code words]": if your claims don't hold water even when propped with confirmation bias, the next step is to claim that The Enemies Everywhere actually confirm your conviction... in normal everyday speech - they just use "code words" to hide it!
* ''#[[Gamergate]] [http://www.salon.com/2014/10/23/gamergate_is_really_about_terrorism_why_bill_maher_should_be_vilifying_the_gaming_community_too/ is really about terrorism]''. Could there be some ''simpler'' answer than the vast conspiracy that is both hidden behind the anonymity and loudly in the open at the same time?..
* From the You Can't Make It Up department: the Bohm's quantum theory (in the sane world, discarded as an attempt to sit on two chairs at once with [//www.degruyter.com/view/j/zna.1992.47.issue-12/zna-1992-1201/zna-1992-1201.xml downright bizarre results] and no predictions that would vindicate it) is suppressed via "brainwashing" in favour of quantum mechanics as we know it is… due to good old Inquisition (or its spirit?) and good old US Senator McCarthy. Michael Brooks [https://web.archive.org/web/20190620231436/http://nautil.us/issue/73/play/the-spirit-of-the-inquisition-lives-in-science knows what really goes on] because a ghost of ⅩⅤⅠth century astrologer told him so. Amusing, but this guy is considered a "science writer" in ⅩⅩⅠ century Britain.
* Operation: High Jump. Here is what is known: In 1925, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Byrd Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd] was sent on a mission to the Arctic, presumably to figure out whatever the Germans were looking for there. (The entrance to the [[Hollow Earth]]? The [[Artifact of Doom| Spear of Destiny?]]) When he returned, he and his assistant Chief Aviation Pilot Floyd Bennett were detained and put in isolation for 32 hours; after this, both were awarded the Medal of Honor; Byrd was then discharged, while Bennet was promoted to the warrant officer rank of machinist. So, what did they find in the Arctic? Well, many think they discovered that the Nazis were up to something big and the public was better off not knowing...
== Real Conspiracies ==
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** Many people know that John Wilkes Booth was the man who assassinated [[Abraham Lincoln]]. What few realize is that the assassination was intended to be one of a number targeting the upper echelons of the U.S Government, specifically those in line for succession to the president, by a number of Confederate sympathizers allied with Booth. Secretary of State William H. Seward was injured, but not fatally in a stabbing by Lewis Powell. George Atzerodt, who was to assassinate the Vice President, chickened out and got the hell out of Washington. The assassination was in fact preceded by a plot to kidnap Lincoln during the war by Booth, but by the time they got around to organizing it, the Confederacy failed and Booth, angered by the prospect of "nigger citizenship" decided instead to kill him.
* [[wikipedia:Business Plot|The Business Plot]] in 1933 was a plan by several business leaders (including Bush Snr. Snr.) to overthrow President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and install a fascist government, conceived out of the fear that he would turn America into a socialist nation. The whole thing fell apart when they asked General Smedley Butler to act as the leader of the coup. Butler, who, although a registered Republican, was ''very'' disillusioned regarding US interventionism to support business interests, responded by revealing the whole plot to the government. It's pretty likely that the conspiracy was nowhere near as wide-spread as Butler assumed, and indeed may have only included a very few rabidly anti-Roosevelt individuals (Butler himself only met two, a contact man, and an eccentric heir to the Singer sewing machine company who he only met before the plot was finalized) who probably didn't have a real chance of success in their coup. The thing that stokes the conspiracy flames, though, is how limited the investigation was (even when it was clear that ''someone'' was planning what could only be described as a domestic terrorist plot; the "contact man," Gerald MacGuire had passed away at this point, and since he was the only one who had discussed the plot with Butler, most of the testimony was dismissed as hearsay), meaning that there are elements of the Plot that we will never know. Much modern speculation falls on MacGuire, who may have been acting in the business leader's perceived interests without going to the trouble of actually telling them anything (with the idea they'd come around to it later), or may have been stringing Singer heir (and former Marine under Butler) Robert Clark along in order to line his own pockets.
* Project
* The
** The rate of streetcar removal in cities where GM never looked at was essentially the same as cities where GM had a presence. GM didn't make the streetcars sell out; they just snapped them up as they did, albeit in an underhanded manner. At the time, it was conceded that streetcars were old-fashioned, dirty, rickety things that couldn't raise money for repairs or upgrades, while buses were new, shiny, comfortable, modern, quiet things that didn't have to raise money for their tracks, being as how they ran on existing taxpayer-subsidized roads. Their disadvantages would not be understood until much later, and in fact still are not understood by most people, even including many streetcar and rail advocates.
** The scandal was made light of in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'' when Judge Doom buys the "[[wikipedia:Pacific Electric Railway|Red Cars]]" in Los Angeles solely for the purpose of destroying them and promoting car travel.
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* The Church of Scientology's [[wikipedia:Operation Snow White|"Operation Snow White"]], [[wikipedia:Operation Freakout|"Operation Freakout"]], and the general practice of [[wikipedia:Fair game (Scientology)|"Fair Game"]].
* The quiz show scandals of [[The Fifties]], in which it was revealed that many of the hit [[Game Show|game shows]] on American television (most notably ''[[21 (game show)|21]]'') were being [[Executive Meddling|rigged]] by the [[Networks]] in order to increase tension for viewing audiences. Game shows wound up being [[Deader Than Disco]] for nearly twenty years as a result of these scandals.
* One wonders why religious fanatics go through so much trouble to make up conspiracy theories about the Catholic Church being Satanic/funding [[The Mafia]]/running the world, when a much more real conspiracy has made itself known over the past several years. To make a long story short (and it is a ''long'' story): over the past several decades, the Catholic Church has had a problem with [[Pedophile Priest|priests molesting children]], and has feverishly worked to hush up the allegations and prevent their image from being tarnished. Oftentimes, pedophile priests would simply be moved to another diocese, where they would molest again, rather than defrocked or otherwise reprimanded. There was even a special kind of priest called a [http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-pedophiles-paradise/Content?oid=1065017 "cleaner"] sent in to deal with the fallout whenever a priest was caught and transferred. While it's argued how far the conspiracy goes (local bishops certainly were involved in multiple locations, and questionable actions at higher levels), the scandal that ensued has already tarnished the Church's image in North America and Europe, and has led to calls for major reforms, not least making it automatic to turn all abuse cases over to secular authorities. There are also calls (with little to no chance of success) for radical changes such as the end of celibacy and the ordination of women. Of course, given the nature of pedophilia, those measures probably wouldn't actually do that much. Pedophiles become priests (or whatever job gets them close to children) far more often than priests become pedophiles. More relevant is the inordinate amount of authority that priests are accorded, and assumption of their moral superiority, which allows them to get away with abuse unquestioned and have people even make excuses for them.
* Terrorist plots are almost always conspiracies, particularly large-scale ones like the 2005 bombings of the London transit system or the 1998 suicide bombings of American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
* The nationwide news blackout of [https://web.archive.org/web/20090116020545/http://www.americanpolitics.com/20010808Klausutis.html Lori Klausutis's] dead body found in [[wikipedia:Joe Scarborough|Joe Scarborough's]] Florida office, summer 2001, in the middle of the [[wikipedia:Gary Condit|Condit]]-[[wikipedia:Chandra Levy|Levy]] media rage. The [http://www.nwfdailynews.com/ Northwest Florida Daily News] was the only newspaper to reasonably cover the case. The Klausutis articles have been removed from the archives, and also from Google's cache. The nationwide news blackout, plus the deletion from the archives, can only be the result of either a conspiracy or [[w:Lori Klausutis|a known liar lying about Lori Klausutis]].
** On the other hand, the [http://www.archive.org/index.php Internet Archive] still has some articles. For example, [
* April Fools: a worldwide united effort to spread disinformation and propaganda for a single day, thus bringing mass confusion and embarrassment upon the populace.
* The IB affair. IB was a
* [[wikipedia:Watergate|The Watergate scandal.]]
** Interestingly, the Watergate scandal actually serves to discredit most government-orchestrated conspiracy theories (that is, theories about conspiracies orchestrated by the government, not conspiracy theories ''created'' by the government). If the federal government was unable to keep a simple scheme to wiretap an office secret, how could they ''possibly'' orchestrate something as huge as the 9/11 attacks without anyone finding out and blowing the whistle?
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* [[wikipedia:Carnivore (software)|Carnivore]] was a system implemented by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that was designed to monitor email and electronic communications. It used a customizable packet sniffer that can monitor all of a target user's Internet traffic. Carnivore was implemented in October 1997. After prolonged negative coverage in the press, the FBI changed the name of its system from "Carnivore" to the more benign-sounding "DCS1000". DCS is reported to stand for "Digital Collection System"; the system has the same functions as before. The Associated Press reported in mid-January 2005 that the FBI essentially abandoned the use of Carnivore in 2001, in favor of commercially available software, such as [[wikipedia:NarusInsight|NarusInsight]] (a mass surveillance system). [[Paranoia Fuel|Yes, it's real]].
* [[wikipedia:Operation Northwoods|Operation Northwoods]] was a plan created by the Joint Chiefs of Staff which called for the CIA to create a series of false-flag operations with the intent on generating public support for going to war against Cuba. They ranged from mock Cuban military attacks on Guantanamo Bay to staged terrorist attacks in Miami. It was ultimately rejected by Kennedy. Probably (hopefully) because it was bugfuck crazy.
* [[wikipedia:Operation Gladio|Operation Gladio]] was the Italian section of NATO's back-up plan in case of a Communist coup or losing WWIII.
* The Gunpowder Plot, as described on this wiki's entry about [[Guy Fawkes]], is possibly the best-remembered ''failed'' conspiracy in Western history.
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