Please share your favourite conspiracy theories.

[KitchiHuritAngeni]

I home school my two teens.

Every couple of weeks I give them a conspiracy theory to look up, write a bit about, and give me their opinion on, and reasons for that opinion. It helps them with research and critical thinking (I hope).

I've done a lot of the obvious ones, New world order, 9/11, JFK assassination, some of the denial ones in WW2 etc.

I'm running out of ideas for other ones, preferably that incorporate history, geography etc, or just ones that are a bit out there or interesting.

TIA

R4 on Sundays currently has a repeat of 'The Coming Storm' about that very thing.

Nope.

There is a reason that schools don't prepare their curricula by going onto Internet forums and asking random people for their "fave conspiracy theories".

Ffs.

The Sandy Hook CT is utterly cruel and has compounded the grief and pain of the families. There are so many tragedies at the heart of these theories.

Maybe you should read again. Clearly you're completely misunderstanding, despite me blatantly spelling out what I'm doing, and why.

I'm not teaching them to believe conspiracy theories, but rather to look at a subject, find facts, find opinions, and then use their critical thinking to come to a conclusion. I use conspiracy theories because it's a fun topic, often with elements of history, geography, politics etc thrown in.

While I'm at it I also have other kids in school, so I'm not a person who keeps my kids at home and teaches them conspiracy theories all day long because its what I believe, my daughter have, quite serious, medical conditions which weren't managed well in secondary school, therefore I have to teach them at home.

However, one of the elective classes in school was conspiracy theories, that's where I got the idea from.

You'll be happy to know it's a small part of their learning, today we are making tin foil hats as our craft session, and learning about how to care for lizards just in case we bump into a member of the Royal family, I cant tell you other subjects we cover as 'they' are watching and I might disappear.

The D B Cooper Mystery. Have just discovered there is a movie on this which has a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Will be giving it a watch!

Thank you everyone.

I've just had a look at the glitter one. It's absolutely bizarre.

We covered the moon landings, they came to the conclusion that the moon landings were absolutely real but the video tech probably didn't work or wasn't that great so they possibly faked the videos, which I found pretty interesting.

Bermuda triangle theories were everywhere when I was a kid, but I haven't heard anything about it for years so I'm going to have a look at that too.

I heard the one about trump being knighted as king, and that's why he walked ahead of the queen. They really will believe anything to avoid just saying he's and insufferable twat 🤣

Thanks for all the ideas, there are some really good ones I haven't heard of before so this will keep us going for ages.

I'll give that a watch. I read somewhere that a load of money was found, but he never was. Its so bizarre.

I agree. So cruel. The people who are behind this CT, imo are right leaning Americans who get angry about any suggestion that gun control should be tighter in the US.

I always feel it’s important to always consider that the people who make this stuff up have their own agenda.

Have a look at the Corbett report, he's more into deep dive political stuff. The meme stuff people have mentioned nobody actually believes or takes seriously.

Dr David Kelly. I actually dont believe he killed himself.

How about who wrote shakespeares plays? Sorry if someone’s said it already don’t have time to read whole thread.

@KitchiHuritAngeni jon ronson has done some good BBC podcasts about conspiracy theories. Can't remember the name but is on IPlayer.

Marilyn Monroe was murdered

The Princes in the tower.

I heard that was to do with a certain Miss kitty.

Every single conspiracy theory relies on the idea that a large number of evil people are doing secretive things for nefarious reasons. They are almost all linked to antisemitic conspiracy theories - the blood libel being the original CT really. Soros, the Illuminati, the NWO, etc. etc.

The Sandy Hook one is particularly appalling because it targets individual families who have already experienced an unspeakable tragedy.

The whole area is utterly toxic though and seeking to tell as many as possible to your children is shit parenting and shit education.

A couple of different conspiracy theories are perfectly adequate to teach that, although a much crappier version of teaching it than looking at e.g. genuinely alternative views of history ,where there are disputed accounts (rather than an accepted fact and a load of made-up, thinly veiled racist bollocks). You don't need to source hundreds and hundreds to make that point. It's actively damaging to do so.

I don’t really agree with your last point. Surely someone who has been made aware of nonsensical ideas from a young age is more likely to be able to see it for what it is as adults.

Your first point, yes. The Watergate scandal showed that it’s almost impossible for large numbers of people to be in on something.

I talk to my children about the idea of conspiracy theories and we laugh at some of them. I also talk to them about other (much more important) areas where they might need to be able to distinguish truth from lies and to evaluate different sources.

What I don't do is actively source hundreds and hundreds of different ones - because what on earth is the possible value of going through all the utter shite spewed on this thread? How does it benefit a young person learning about the world to be told 50, 60, 70 different piles of shit rather than a couple of examples? It doesn't.

And are you telling me that the person who wrote this ^ is someone who genuinely understands how to evaluate sources, and is an appropriate person to be educating a young person about it?

Is it QAnon that are waiting for the Kennedy who was a lawyer (and long dead) to turn up somewhere to become the rightful president?

I can only apologise for my flippant comment there.

Maybe I didn't put enough laughing face emojis for you to realise that it was, in fact, a joke.

If you would be so kind as to share how you make a joke, and convey that on the internet I would be most grateful.

I will take your thoughts about my shit parenting, and the shit education I give my children on board, and change my life accordingly.

Thank you kind internet stranger for making me see the error of my ways. Consider me thoroughly chastised.

Apologies once more.

You've deliberately created a thread to attract and encourage conspiracy theorists. You're propagating these theories. It's utter bullshit that you need to collect page after page of these to make some flimsy point to your child about assessing the value of sources. Neither are you anywhere near as dismissive of these stupid 'theories' as you're now pretending to be. Your child is not going to benefit from endless lists of lies made up by racists. If you were genuinely concerned about teaching her how to evaluate evidence and construct an argument, this is not how you do it.

BloodAndFire why are you so obsessed with berating OP?

OP I get it. I think you are being given a hard time by Blood for reasons I can't grasp.

Teaching your children critical thinking skills through a media they enjoy which has historical, geographical and scientific relevance is great parenting.

You're not teaching them to believe the conspiracies FFS!

Of course I deliberately created the thread, it's pretty difficult to do by accident.

Tbh you've no idea what I do, what I teach, what happens after they look onto something, or anything else to do with my parenting or their education bar this snippet. I don't really care if you think I'm pretending to be dismissive or not either.

You've also assumed that the people posting on this thread believe the conspiracy theories. Lots of people just enjoy looking at them in the same way you would read a book or watch a film for enjoyment, but not actually believe the story as fact.

You're making up an entire backstory and scenario with a tiny piece of information, which is pretty ironic really considering the thread.

Re the spy in the bath, read a book called The seven ages of death by Dr Richard Shepherd. It debunks the conspiracy theories around that story