Conspiracy Theories: Difference between revisions
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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
** 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 General Kenobi 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.
== Famous People ==
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