Are there any conspiracy theories you actually believe?

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Surely it's more honest to state that "I read somewhere" at the outset rather than instantly declaring that you know it to be definitely true?

It is honest, but the problem is how that information is treated. When it comes to conspiracy theories, any that start with that line, then is repeated and it becomes that lots of people have reported the same thing. Then what happens is people find spurious “evidence” that could perhaps point to that thing having been true. More pertinently it tends to be things that can only be refuted is by people having to prove a negative which is incredibly difficult to do. Conspiracy theories often thrive because even the factual evidence provided is disbelieved or people’s biases interpret it to be actually proving their case.

I think people have a responsibility to provide their sources when presenting any sort of information as quasi factual. The thing PP said was provably false and misleading. But it would be interesting to see where it came from. If it was from //www.official911report.gov that puts a different spin on it than if it came from //www.911wasdonebythegovernemnt.com

That is very true – BUT, equally, there does exist a certain snobbery around information discovered and shared online. Some people will still dismissively say “Oh, is that something you read on the internet ?!” regardless of the credibility of the source on the world’s main platform for sharing knowledge and information. You hear people scoff at those worried about their health who have “consulted Dr Google, have you?” – even though the information they have researched may have all come from the NHS website and similar.

Even my 12 year old knows the difference between what’s credible on the internet and what isn’t. The scoffing will usually come because of the information itself rather than the fact it came from the internet. Of someone says “I read on the internet that Mount Everest is over 8,000m high” nobody is going to scoff at that. If they said “I read on the internet that there is a family of yetis who live on Mount Everest” then the scoffing begins.

Same with health. “Dr, I looked at Google and my symptoms are of a rare disorder only ever found in the rainforest” or “Dr, I looked at Google and it seems my symptoms might be tonsillitis” two very different things.

@jollygreenpea I didn’t say Prince Philip was blocking it but that’s what Fayed was saying at the time

Apologies if it has already been mentioned, I can't be arsed to RTFT😅, but there is a podcast on the Wind of Change theory

open.spotify.com/show/3vikAuFxKVNe2GBZC61IYD?si=LoE2ClHUTweF4W9iHqnNqw&utm_source=copy-link

After listening, I was left feeling that the CIA probably didn't write the song, but that they engineered the concert Moscow Music Peace Festival in 1989. This was the trip where the song was written.

All of the bands where managed by Doc McGhee and it seems likely it was arranged as a plea deal for Doc McGhee's hefty drug offences.

I don't think you can dismiss every subversive theory. Do you believe the Russian narrative that 2 FSB agents visited Salisbury for the cathedral spire? When does something become a conspiracy theory?

I'm just saying that, if it had been the case that a member of the RF or a high-ranking British diplomat had insisted on her being seen by their nominated person, I can't see them being refused

It's about 90 mins by helicopter from London to Paris. And of course flights are public record, so it would be readily discoverable if there had been any such flight bringing a doctor (would surely have to be an actual doctor to be able to assess what to do and how to do it leaving no trace if admittance permitted)

But it seems implausible that all those who gave sworn statements to the enquiry omitted to mention a visitor. And it wouid take a remarkable amount of people to be involved to conceal any such visitor. Hard to arrange beforehand, unless you could fix which hospital she wouid be taken to (you'd need cooperation of French paramedics and dispatchers) and impossible, I would have thought, to arrange in a watertight way once the event was unfolding. For wouldn't it be memorably odd for nurses, police, doctors, ward receptionists and other admin all to be briefed in short order, and all be willing and able to conspire? Not to mention the Embassy staff who were there, and of course the press who were asking questions right left and centre

Feeling a bit nostalgic for the 'God was an alien' and 'Pope John Paul I was murdered' conspiracy theories of yesteryear.

Oh, there's one I do believe! Roberto Calvi was murdered by the Mafia, I'm sure of that, and I do think that there is a lot if looking the other way in government, yes. I don't know though where organised crime really shades into conspiracy theories.

Dita73

I appreciate that, just though we should have some facts, people tend to read things badly then think they are facts.

What's the difference between 'I read somewhere' and what the OP posted at the start of the thread -

"I cant remember the details but I remember doing a bit of online research years ago..."

There isn’t any difference.

Are you going to ask everyone to this thread to tell YOU where they got their information (which could deemed just as misleading as mine). Or are you just singling me out to make a point?

No, because I’m not going to repeat any of it as fact, or even as supposed fact, or that I read it somewhere. I’m not singling you out, I’m using it as an example. I mean, if you really wanted me to, I could go back and highlight every single poster who started with a similar phrase, but I think most people understood what I was getting at.

I have no interest in finding out where any of the “I heard that…..” information comes from because I know the base story of pretty much every theory here and how they have been debunked, but if one came up that I was interested in learning more about, I’d certainly ask where the information came from.

Covid came from a Wuhan lab…

But whenever Crypto or Bitcoin is mentioned it seems the auto response is one of horror, pearl clutching, ‘ooh no it’s gambling’. It can be time consuming waiting for launches etc but the payout is completely worth it.

I recoil in horror because there are a whole load of crypto scams out there. The risk of people believing it is an easy way for anyone to make money is that they fall for one of those scams and end up losing money they can’t afford to. But, I should point out that trading in any commodity is actually gambling, which is why the advice is always never to bet more than you can afford to lose.

@SugarlumpsesBumpses
I'm not hugely active (just hold some coins and not trading) but I've been interested in the topic since 2015. There have been a few threads on MN on crypto but those quickly sink due to lack of interest, which of course is the objective, or they degenerate into arguments about it being a scam or the environmental impacts of mining. That's why I had to vent my frustration in this thread because it seems like certain demographics (i.e. women) have been brainwashed to ignore or hate the topic of crypto.

@alldropitlikeitsloth
Absolutely agree. It's no coincidence that FB is trying to spearhead the move into metaverse because they will have most control over virtual wealth. Most social media companies make all their revenue through advertising, including Google. Albeit massive, Google is still wholly dependent on real-world events and things like covid can give it a serious hit. FB doesn't care about advertising or its users anymore which is why Instagram and FB have become so shit in the past years. FB is basically hoping to own huge swathes of the metaverse which would be akin to owning all the land, infrastructure, advertising rights, financial systems in the real world. However what I can imagine is possible is that FB will use their existing platforms to manipulate events or purchase decisions in the metaverse (as has been proven with real world elections, anti vaxx movements etc). So if they can get millions of real people buying & banking in the metaverse then it's like they own a country

@Okbye
You are lucky! My husband doesn't understand much of it but he knows it's a pet interest of mine. We also have a few friends (all male) who love the topic and I'm trying to learn more. The problem of course is that gullible people will attempt to gamble everything in hopes of getting rich but it's no longer that easy. However no real life riches come easy. People happily study 3 years for a bachelors degree that gets you an entry level job of 25K. I daresay if someone studied crypto FULL TIME for 3 years then they would almost definitely end up a millionaire.

I think a lot of people struggle with crypto as it has a bit of a ponzi / MLM vibe to it.

I think Diana was an accident, no one can be sure that a person will die in an accident.

I think the more wacky conspiracy theories are promoted by various governments to hide the real life atrocities they have committed in the past.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3941673/

www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history/40-years-human-experimentation-america-tuskegee-study

These are just 2 that spring to mind. And then they wonder why we are suspicious of their vaccines....

David Kelly ?
Princess Diana??????

TWA flight 800. It may have been the official cause. But it's awfully co incidental that the navy were practicing there and eye witnesses said they saw a missile.

David Kelly dying by suicide isn't believable.

The man in the bag.

Russia being behind 9/11.

WTC 7.

JFK' 3 rs bullet which turned mid air. There was a shooter on the grassy knowl.

Denver airport is definitely an underground post apocalyptic shelter!

Savile and Thalidomide were conspiracy theories until they were proved to be true!

Willie McRae's death. He was certainly assassinated.

Jill Dando.