Are there any conspiracy theories that you just think could have an element of truth?

[AhhhHereItGoes]

I love all things conspiracy theory - from a psychological/social point of view it's interesting to see what makes people fearful or pessimistic.

But I often do see some conspiracy theories a bit like Urban legends in that they could be an exaggerated truth.

Are there any conspiracy theories or rumours that you just think 'maybe...' or even ones you're completely sold on.

hopes nobody thinks the Queen is a metamorphic lizard alien

I’ve never felt so grilled about something that didn’t even occur to me as I’ve said on multiple previous posts, obviously so. And just 2 posters happen to have jumped on it

Options, do people think "nick" was lying or has he just been discredited to hide the truth and put off others coming forward?

It's a case of cui malo, isn't it. It's a bit like the Diana case - the official inquiry found that the very high up and powerful people were NOT guilty/at fault. However, if they had been found guilty - would that have been admitted and said people been stripped of their power, defamed and imprisoned?

The detective inspector from the Met who was involved with the case reportedly said in December that "Nick has been spoken to by experienced officers....they and I believe what he is saying is credible and true."

There was a programme on Radio 4 outlining the serious shortcomings of the Bramall inquiry. It seems that Nick originally started talking about the alleged abuse in 1999 to his wife having been encouraged to do so, in the course of undergoing marriage guidance relating to the issues originating from what was alleged to have happened to him (subsequently unsuccessfully) - rather than to seek attention by making accusations. It was only as a consequence of this that the accusations were made public, many years later.

Just out of interest, who is behind Snopes, who are their fact-checkers, what are their methods and who are their independent auditors? Is there not a chance that they might just have an agenda or some other bias?

People quote them as the definitive arbitrators on what has definitely been debunked, but they're quite mainstream and go on 'official' reports and findings, don't they? Have they ever given their official word to debunk something that has later been categorically proven to be true?

Essentially, how do they differ from Wikipedia? That contains an immense wealth of true, valuable information on just about everything, and yet it's almost infamous for the small proportion of errors. The other day, we stumbled across the page for the internationally-acclaimed classical singing group The Priests and, amidst all of the detailed info and stats, we were informed that they first found success with their song 'My Lovely Horse' I checked back and this has since been taken down.

Yeah one of the first sites I accessed after a pp told me to google the infamous Elm guest house was basically written by a raving anti-Semitic lunatic. I'm sure there are grains of truth in what was being said about the boarding house and its owners/ punters, but the really tenuous links to Judaism were embarrassing and frightening in equal measure.

Webuilt - interesting question.
I’ve often wondered how one website can confirm or deny facts.

It appears they describe it as a system to check where stories come from to ensure there is some written official back up for any rumours that start.

Just reading a thread like this is enough to question how reliable that could be all of the time though.

It seems at least that the original founders of snopes had and still have good intentions and want to ensure fake news is cleared up.

Unfortunately it’s now owned by a media company

@Herland that's the major problem with a lot of conspiracy theory type websites - grains of truth but for some reason they always extend it further to anti semitism. I hate that and believe me they're not my main source of info. I can't say what that is, but I have read the sites which then go and completely over egg it in my opinion drawing many more strings in.

I think that’s why a lot of people have no time for someone with a conspiracy theory or two.
It’s websites like that taking it too far.
I didn’t even realise they existed or would be allowed to having read through the one that hippo mentioned

Why do so many conspiracy theories connect to anti Semitism?

Is it that the anti Semites pick up conspiracies then twist them to their agenda, or do they start them but remove the anti Semitism to get people interested, then into their way of thinking.

I know alot also connect to Christianity and are used to try and convert people...........flat earth.

I still don’t get how the krays being Jewish affects their actions. Not really a conspiracy theory....

I’ve no idea. I actually didn’t realise it was until hippo pointed it out when I had been looking for a piece on CR I had heard years ago.
Those websites do seem to be just dodgy blogs though so most people wouldn’t take them seriously i’d Imagine

hadenough me neither

As said upthread, there was no intention of antisemitism.

If They were or they weren’t doesn’t make any difference to them being good or bad people.

The few people jumping on that one post are just trolling

I listened to a podcast recently about a flat-earther book that alleged that there is a grand Zionist conspiracy to deceive people into thinking the Earth is round. I think most conspiracy theories are rooted in anti-Semitism in some way going back to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, if not further. It's idiotic.

Almost as idiotic as c&ping something from a racist blog without actually stopping to read it first.

I wonder if the perceived anti-semitism is because most of the richest families in the world are Jewish. So any CT regarding the richest families controlling the world naturally focuses on families who are Jewish? Just a thought.

I do actually feel sorry for Jewish people at the moment. Not only do their entire religion get blamed for the Israel problem, but attempts by the left to appease the Muslim community are allowing anti-semitism to flourish.

I wonder if the perceived anti-semitism is because most of the richest families in the world are Jewish. So any CT regarding the richest families controlling the world naturally focuses on families who are Jewish? Just a thought.

I think you may be on to something there - it could be a gross syllogism. In the same way that you can legitimately be hugely distrustful and condemning of the oppressive, human-rights-denying actions of the Chinese government - but you'd have to have something seriously wrong with you to think to go and hurl abuse at the friendly, hard-working people in your local takeaway on the back of that.

There's also another parallel, I suppose, with the widespread hatred and distrust of Muslims in the UK common among certain communities and ideologies (and there's a big overlap of those who hate both Muslims and Jews). Yet, do you know what percentage of UK Muslims haven't had anything to do with committing terrorist acts? More than 99.99999999% of them.

Replace 'Muslims' with 'Jews' and 'committing terrorist acts' with 'using extreme wealth and power to subjugate humanity for global domination purposes' (as David Rockefeller freely admitted in his memoirs) and the percentage is about the same.

Western governments are kicking off about Huawei and surveillance and threats to privacy, but if you do a search for 'Global surveillance', it quickly becomes apparent that they aren't alone in their actions. The USA, UK and other prominent western nations have been involved in some extremely disturbing actions.

Many of these were originally categorically denied (and would likely have been 'debunked' as crackpot conspiracy theorist woo on many apparently reputable sites, had the internet been around then) - but are now a matter of admitted public historic record.

MK Ultra and Operation Northwoods are two more eye-openers, if anybody hasn't heard of them before. Operation Paperclip is also of quite some interest.

If people understand and acknowledge that governments have blatantly deceived the populations of their own and other countries and carried out atrocious operations in secret, denying them strongly if ever questioned - but then choose to believe that any inherent distrust or suspicion of the motives of those same countries' governments now is nothing more than a sign of sure paranoid madness.... well, that's entirely up to them.

Only if someone is Jewish or Muslim is their religion emphasised.

I think you are right that historically the Jewish community has faced the ultimate price for nonsense conspiracy and that currently both Judaism and Islam are both victims of rumour and discrimination, but to claim that no other religion is accused is naive. The Catholic Church has been involved in huge conspiracies and I hear "paedo catholics" more than I hear "paedo Jews" (but that could be because I'm listening with celtic ears) . I think Judaism has born the brunt of centuries of mistrust and conspiracy. I also think that more generally people distrust any powerful, organised religion.

Really? People read/ share/ post anything with Jewish slammed in front of whatever ... Krays, Bankers bla bla bla. And don't think ... anti semitic?

I am not Jewish but it screams out to me.

Joyful - I have said before I did not take it from that website. I hadn’t been on that website and I posted where I did take it from.
It’s upsetting to have false allegations being posted up on a thread I have been contributing to from the beginning. It’s misleading and I take it as a personal attack.

I’ve already said multiple times that it wasn’t what I had intended.

I’m baffled that the link you’ve posted up to a dangerous antisemite blog is allowed to remain and how you come back to tell people to read it is not seen as hypocritical.

Let the thread continue being an interesting discussion and back on topic and for the odd few to stop feeding this behaviour

Pedophillia in the Catholic church wasn't a conspiracy though. It happened. And the church actually did control the world at one point. Jewish people didn't but are constantly accused of it. Maybe the real powers try to blame all the ills of the world on Jewish people because they are a convenient fall guy and it detracts from the real villains.

Plus as said earlier families like the Rothschild make it seem more believable.

I was in a holocaust museum last year which had a timeline of events going back to pre 1200’s where Jews were targeted. The museum explained it being due to rumours started by influential people who were jealous and or scared of the wealth and intelligence of Jewish people.
It goes on to explain how history repeated itself over and over

Firstimpressions that’s pretty much the sum of it. Antisemitism has been rife at least since medieval times. Engineered by the Catholic Church. It’s funny all these CT’s about powerful and wealthy peadophile rings that protect offenders who are caught and are seemingly above the law. We know for sure there’s at least one.

Nicely summed up, Firstimpressionsofearth

Whether it's torturing and killing perceived heretics or paedophilia, the horrors perpetrated over centuries in the name of the Catholic church are fully documented, but these never seem to be dwelt upon, maybe briefly mentioned in passing - but that still doesn't in any way implicate 99.999999% of ordinary Catholics in committing these atrocities, though.