Which of these conspiracy theories is most plausible?

Conspiracy theories are all fabricated, to divert attention from what's REALLY going on!

latebloomer so otm, was thinking the same thing. ruined all the fun for everyone else.

also missing, flying saucer technology devised by nazis

(xpost) That's what you want us to think!

I think these are plausible, as in not batshit insane, although I wouldn't go so far as to say I believe any of them:

There are remains of aliens/UFOs in Area 51
John F Kennedy was murdered by the Mob/Expat Cubans/CIA etc
AIDS is a man-made disease
US government knew about attacks on Pearl harbor and let them happen
Pope John Paul I was murdered by the Mafia/CIA etc
Dr David Kelly was murdered by MI5/British government

There are remains of Pope John Paul I in Area 51
Dr David Kelly was murdered by the Mob/Expat Cubans/CIA etc
aliens/UFOs is a man-made disease
US government knew about Expat Cubans and let them happen
British government was murdered by the Mafia/CIA etc
John F Kennedy was murdered by MI5/British government

Elvis T very much OTM.

The whole conspiracy theory game used to be a kind of fun hobby, (I used to rather enjoy keeping track of them, because I was interested in how the human mind could put together patterns) but now it's turned into some kind of mass hysteria post-9/11.

As much as I enjoyed the program, I also think the X-Files didn't help, either - a lot of people took that rather too seriously.

I voted for JFK, because that's the most Classic of the plausible ones. But that's only coz there was no fun Masonic sh*t in there to amuse me. (Masons have rather lost their hold on the public imagination, haven't they?)

The conspiracy theory I have most time for worrying about personally is that artificial sweeteners are somewhere between "kinda unhealthy" and "carcinogenic mind-control death chemicals", forced knowingly upon the American and consequently worldwide public by D. Rumsfeld.

Obviously this one is missing from the list because, ahem, it is perfectly sensible and not at all batshit, despite anti-sweetener pages generally being a click or two away from a) global warming denial, b) Masonic chemtrail antidepressant NWO, or c) websites hailing herbal wonder panaceas that The Man does not want you to know about to combat giant skin-insects nobody else can see.

(Aspartame and Acesulfame-K make my head and gut hurt. This seems not a good thing. I think food and medical trials could do with a little more regulation, but don't actually see a conspiracy.)

Where is Jill Dando/Bosnian Secret Service band?

That would have got my vote

But that's only coz there was no fun Masonic sh*t in there to amuse me. (Masons have rather lost their hold on the public imagination, haven't they?)

I know you hate football, Kate, but you could have a field day with the Masonic conspiracies pervading Scottish football, and referees in particular.

Hrrrmmm, see that's something you could interest me in. Tell me that there are interesting parallels between secret masonic handshakes and scottish referee hand signals!

Um, it's not conspiracy theory that sweeteners are bad for you! There's loads of perfectly decent scientific evidence for that. Don't know about mind control, tho. But there's loads of evidence that aspartame decomposes when heated into some pretty nasty potentially brain-damaging chemicals.

But then again, life causes cancer, doesn't it? etc. etc.

I find many of these theories utterly implausible. But in a way I don't understand the virulent reaction against them that one encounters, for instance on this thread. If you don't believe a theory, OK, don't believe it; maybe even produce some evidence for that disbelief. Does one's response need to be any fiercer than that?

Plausible, to me:

-- John F Kennedy was murdered by the Mob/Expat Cubans/CIA etc -- surely this is quite mainstream, not a bonkers belief at all? In fact I'll vote for it here.

-- Jews control Hollywood and the worldwide financial system -- well, there are two different claims here. In fact Hollywood in its early days certainly did contain a proportion of rich and powerful Jews, possibly because they were fleeing anti-semitism elsewhere (in America as well as the rest of the world). It probably still does. It would probably be true to say that some people of Jewish descent do indeed wield significant power and influence in Hollywood. I don't see any reason, though, to think that they pursue a 'Jewish agenda' in any way, in their film-making. They are probably to be distinguished from the Israel Lobby that Mears and Walsheimer have described (is that just a conspiracy theory? I don't think so: I think it's true).

It is also true that some Jewish people have exercised significant influence on finance, and have been involved in or owned some of the richest corporations in the world, in the last century at least. I'm not sure that this should be a pejorative claim.

-- Scientologists control Hollywood (and are working on the financial system) -- Scientologists probably DO want to control Hollywood, and probably are trying to work on the financial system, though I imagine their success is limited. Certainly it would seem that there are more powerful and influential Scientologists in Hollywood than elsewhere. Various significant actors are Scientologists, whereas I have never met one in real life.

-- Pope John Paul I was murdered by the Mafia/CIA etc -- don't know much about this, but from the little I do know I think it could be true

-- Dr David Kelly was murdered by MI5/British government -- I don't particularly think that this happened, but it was a very murky affair and this might have happened; though I don't really understand the motives involved.

You don't really understand the motives involved behind this thread.

"I still have trouble grasping how the nerve-center of our country's national defense system can get hit by a known-hijacked plane without any attempt at interception for the 41 minutes that it was known to be hijacked post-WTC attacks."

No-one had ever intercepted a hi-jacked plane because such planes were never ever flown into buildings before. Someone would have have to have ordered the killing of all the people on that jet based on what?

While there is some evidence that the CIA was aware of a possible tactic of flying planes into buildings who knows who/what was in place to be able to get authorisation to scramble a jet, make a decision that this jet was going to be crashed into the WTC/Pentagon then order the pilot to shoot it down, all the time not knowing the hi-jackers intentions. I think the best info they had was that they said they had a bomb. Not to mention that shooting down could have led to more casualties on the ground

lol @ pinefox bemused at anti-semitic conspiracy theories

Aspartame = bad is not a conspiracy theory in itself but seems to be a favourite "oh, and by the way..." of people who want to tell you about the other conspiracies listed on this thread. I don't know whether the FDA-Rumsfeld thing counts as "OMG conspiracy" or just "hello capitalism" but makes a pretty good starting point for the former.

To be honest I haven't read up on some of these because I realised I'm far too likely to believe this sort of thing and try not to give it brain-time any more in case I do. A loose assortment of vaguely detailed "facts" that I haven't heard specifically rebuffed is too enticing for my brain. "This guy lists specific timings and quotes people I've never heard of, there must be something in it!"

And once you try to google counter-arguments for them all you're in a hall of mirrors of people out-batshitting each other, like the time I was looking for rebuffs of the moon landing hoax stuff and found some website of "duh, of course it's not a fake: [list of intricate scientific details] oh, and also, how else would top secret joint US and USSR cabal have built their pyramidal glass dark-side-of-moon palace for mind control and alien communication?"

Ha ha, I guess the problem is, that Aspartame = bad for you functions kind of like a gateway drug. Once you find out that the government lied to you about one thing, what's to stop them from lying to you about anything or everything?

And down the rabbit hole you go.

Lots of these "conspiracies" there is a sense of something unexplained or odd or underhanded at the bottom of them. And for the pattern-forming brain, well, it's hard for some people to know where to stop.

Coupla old school conspiracies:

Princes in the Tower
Man in the Iron Mask

One new school conspiracy:
Family in the Gutted Shropshire Mansion

David Davis Resignation

dom temp ban

Chaki Tombot Rant

doomie's novel

The Maracas Affair

ghostbusters 2 existed to try and help noo yorkans be friendlier

disappearance of ILX::OZ thread

Tesla coil used in secret invisibility experiments!

ongs hat!

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN KEPT AT NUMBER 2 IN JUBILEE WEEK PEOPLE

Wire denied opportunity to perform "Outdoor Miner" on TOTP by EMI record hyping scandal

and Crass kept off the number one position by every other record in it, during the Falklands 'campaign'

1. Bob Krasnow adding phasing effects to "Strictly Personal"
2. Lou Reed remixing "Heard Her Call My Name" to make his guitar more prominent.

But seriously though:

http://digilander.libero.it/massimoxsempre/paul_is_dead_mag.jpg

Fluoridated water

http://www.bisleyonline.net/content/view/15/55/#boy

S OTM OPE POE

Board 77

The whole conspiracy theory game used to be a kind of fun hobby, (I used to rather enjoy keeping track of them, because I was interested in how the human mind could put together patterns) but now it's turned into some kind of mass hysteria post-9/11.

I actually don't think 9/11 is to blame; if it weren't for the internet, 9/11 truthers would be as obscure as the rest, and it'd be fun to report that there were actually people who believed this insane story about that awful day - you'd be like "oh, go on, nobody actually believes that" and then I'd produce some weird pamphlet somebody handed me at a political rally or something. The internet has kind of ruined these things by making it easier for them to acquire mass; a couple of crazy people believing something stupid can be really funny, but a group of them reinforcing one another's delusions and shouting people down is maddening.

and then it'd be like "not only do people believe this; organized groups of people believe this" and you'd be like "well, that's fucking depressing"

if it weren't for the internet, 9/11 truthers would be as obscure as the rest

hmm, my friend who rarely uses the net now wholly believes the 911 was an inside job because of some dreadful channel 4 docu. You could argue that the programme only existed because of the net tho ?

the truth is out there

omg he should play the joker

capone's hitman guy in the untouchables

haha YES

i honestly couldn't blame someone for believing elements of the 9/11 conspiracy, outside of the real hardcore frootloops. in times of yore, conspiracy theories used to be for the credulous but now they're for the cynical, at least where the US government is concerned, and who can blame people for that cynicism?

mind you, i still believe Marilyn Manson is that kid from the Wonder Years, so...

i remember getting shot down big style by some hardcore metal fan for even suggesting that one

my favourite conspiracy detail is the widely disseminated assertion that all members of a particular ethnic group who worked in the World Trade Center took the 11th of September off. I can just about imagine people thinking that 11-9 was some kind of government plot, but you would have to be seriously deficient in the reasoning stakes to believe something like that.

lol @ pinefox bemused at anti-semitic conspiracy theories
-- DG, Thursday, 28 August 2008

?? What part of what I said was inaccurate, DG? I am not at all bemused at the idea that anti-semitism exists. It does, and it has produced terrible damage and destruction in the world. I actually said that insofar as early Hollywood did contain some powerful Jewish members, this might partly be a result of anti-semitism that had in effect forced those people out to CA and that new industry.

I don't think that the much-discussed account of the Israel Lobby in the US is an anti-semitic conspiracy theory. I think it is a convincing account of how certain interests hold too much political power in the US and how this has damaged world peace and perhaps even US national interests. Again, what part of this view do you think is untrue?

It is also true that some Jewish people have exercised significant influence on finance, and have been involved in or owned some of the richest corporations in the world, in the last century at least. I'm not sure that this should be a pejorative claim.

the perjorative claim is that jews control world banking not that there's the odd guy called solly who works for barclays

What I said had nothing to with people who 'work for Barclays'. All kinds of people work for Barclays. I said it *is* true that a small number of Jewish people (ie: not the vast majority of Jewish people, many of whom have been very poor) have been involved at the top level of very high finance, at least in the past. The names of some of the world's biggest companies arguably demonstrate this. Again, to understand this, one would have to make a historical inquiry into how Jewish people have indeed, over a very long history, often been involved with finance. I suspect, again, that it must be partly a result of anti-semitism which excluded them from other areas. But this is doubtless a complex question on which should not comment too lightly without knowing and understanding more. I don't think one should make vague, incoherent sneers like the one you made above, either, about such a sensitive issue.