Which conspiracy theories do you believe?

[beluga425]

Which theories, dismissed by many as conspiracy theories, do you regard as the truth?

There is actually lots of evidence of Disney covering up crimes. So paying off parents and sacking staff. Anything to avoid bad publicity.

This wouldn't surprise me. Unfortunately such a mecca for children and money is bound to attract some horrible people of all types and I can imagine they have fairly robust legal teams fully versed in NDAs.

@backenette
But isn’t it gullible to believe everything the media tells you?
I take anything the media says with a pinch of salt especially when they don’t have any concrete evidence and are just assuming. It’s like most things.

I had moments of almost hysterical laughter when my father's body was in the next room. Unfortunately it didn't make him less dead, or mean that I was grieving any less.

Not really a conspiracy theory, but the Fatima thing made me think about the town of Knock in Ireland. This place is now a pilgrimage for religious folk because apparently the Virgin Mary appeared there in an apparition. Its now enormous tourist attraction, almost like a religious Disneyland, and sells huge amounts of religious tat, they must make tonnes of money.

Now I think most people can agree that the good lady herself didn't actually turn up there. But I am kind of fascinated as to how the story came about in the first place? Like, were all the villagers on some kind of drug that caused hallucinations? Or did they all conspire together to make it up to try and bring attention and therefore money to the town? Or did it all come from higher up in the Catholic Church? Why Knock, an up until then nothingy village in the West of Ireland? I just find it interesting how it can snowball into something so big.

There are quite a few of these places all over the world. Lourdes in France is another one, which is like Knock on steroids!

Fridgecut me too Is this Kamloops place the same place that always comes up on MN spooky threads as having a weird/horrid vibe? Surely if such goings on occurred more locals would would speak out/kick off about it? So the royals pretend to be CofE but are really Satanists? are they still lizards or did we decide not in the end?

Following cause I love all these

9/11, The only three modern day skyscrapers to ever have collapsed due to fire damage' world trade centres one, two and seven mmmm

I had moments of almost hysterical laughter when my father's body was in the next room. Unfortunately it didn't make him less dead, or mean that I was grieving any less.

That's my point HolyShmoly - people react in strange ways at times of bereavement.

Not everyone recognises that though, so a video of a father laughing and joking just after his 6 year old has been murdered, then switching to sad and solemn when he knows the cameras are on will seem bizarre to a lot of people. That then adds another tick to the conspiracy theory box.

Diana. 911.

But isn’t it gullible to believe everything the media tells you?

I think everyone is aware that all media has a bias, and that some stories do not get the full investigative journalism, such as Government whistleblowers commiting suicide with 2 gunshots to the head or people somehow locking themselves up into a suitcase, Saville etc or MKUltra or NSA stuff.

But some of the stuff on here is not being skeptical it is denying evidence, do people really believe that the Russians would have let a fake moon landings lie?

9/11, sandy hook is just boarding on crazy

With any conspiracy theories you have to ask why any organisation do that? And how easy is it to cover up.

So the guy locked dead in the bag who was officially suicide - reason is someone wanted him dead, but not to be convicted of murder. Very few people had to be involved, so easy to cover up.

Similarly corporations covering up wrong doing do so for a good reason. Whether they can hide it, depends on how many people know about it. So many Swiss banks stole Jewish peoples money after the war. But people have testified that they were asked to shred documents or saw others shredding documents that would have proved this. They could not keep it quiet, although the banks and top employers are powerful enough that they pretty much got away with it.

But isn’t it gullible to believe everything the media tells you?

Surely no one does? Although given the readership of the mail and viewership of Fox News...

Critical thinking is about looking at information sources and making judgements on how they may be biased. For example picking apart the stats in a government statement on the NHS. It’s aboit understanding how statistics are abused, how language can be used emotively (again DM is a master at this) etc etc. And how politics puts a spin on what should be value neutral facts.

While it’d be pretty exhausting to question every single thing the media tells you (I tend to believe local traffic reports aren’t a direct line from the illuminati ) it’s good to look at all news sources with a critical eye. Who paid for this? Are the stats valid? Do they support the conclusions the article gives? Any vested interests?

You can see great examples of this just by reading coverage of the same event in different papers. Same story but the FT will cover it differently to the mail.

That’s a very different thing to conspiracy thinking. Take vaccines and climate change :vast body of peer reviewed individual papers driving a general scientific consensus. Some mild noodling around the exact details at most. Do I believe that? Yes, I do. I believe that data scientists produce is looked at and critiqued by those who know. I can see the source data and I’m qualified to interpret it.

And yet some people continue to believe that vaccines and climate change aren’t effective/real. That’s not critical thinking, it’s a rejection of solid evidence, coupled with an odd mix of gullibility and paranoia - because people instead believe ‘sources’ who have no accumulation of data or expertise.

The conflict between objective truth and the climate of accusing outlets of fake news is a whole thread by itself :/

swingout
Probably the only ones to have been hit by planes as well.

Not rtft yet because I’m savouring it - love these threads, this has made my night!

I believe that the data collected from fingerprint technology on phones is/will be used for other means and the data collected from fitbits etc also.
I believe Jill Dando was killed due to discovering too much about the paedophile ring that has many higher ups involved in it.

Lourdes is indeed a very strange place - lots of statues everywhere and tourist tat too! However, I think it gives a lot of people comfort to believe these things, not just in Lourdes, but other 'apparition' locations as well, so if they get that comfort, who are we to deride them?

So do I think Diana was killed? No. Nor do I think 9/11 was an inside job.

Do I believe that people in power will do very unsavoury things to cover up their misdeeds? Yes I do - the current sex abuse scandals being a prime example.

The whackier bits of conspiracy are generally harmless and it’s great fun speculating about aliens. For the sandy hook parents though it must add to unbearable grief.

the data collected from fitbits etc

There was a new report a week or two back showing that you could easily pick out military facilities in remote areas due to peoples fitbits etc tracking the routes. So even if it’s not deliberate any tracking technology can have unforeseen effects.
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/wearables/fitness-tracking-apps-expose-activity-on-sensitive-military-bases/news-story/2e54eab1bb849fc49bf21b52fd1c22c8

Lourdes is indeed a very strange place - lots of statues everywhere and tourist tat too! However, I think it gives a lot of people comfort to believe these things, not just in Lourdes, but other 'apparition' locations as well, so if they get that comfort, who are we to deride them?

I'm not deriding people getting comfort from these things, I'm just interested as to how they came about in the first place, why those particular places were 'chosen' etc. I had an Irish Catholic upbringing and am very much lapsed these days, but I still find the sociological side of religion really interesting.

David Kelly - bumped off
Guy in suitcase - bumped off
Jill Dando - bumped off
Princess Di - probably bumped off - why did the ambulance take such a circuitous route to hospital. Why was she partially embalmed so quickly.

Not conspiracy: Bigfoot - all yeti, Bigfoot evidence found have been discovered to come from various species of bear.
Not conspiracy: 9/11

I will add my conspiracy theories, I don't think they are quite as bizarre as some of these though

The Sphinx wasn’t built by the dynastic Egyptians. Erosion around it tells us it’s most likely much older. The head is not the original head. It’s too small for the lion body and has clearly been recarved.

The "Russian trolls" hasn't been as widespread as people make out, and that they are just as prevalent on the political left as they are the right, the US and within line the UK gov have been astroturfing just as much.

A more crazy one (considering I work in the field)

Snapchat is actually building a face recognition database to sell to the Gov at some point

David Kelly was a respected scientist. Although he was a sensitive soul, he had the know how to kill himself in the least painful, most dignified way possible. A muddy field, overdose of painkillers and slitting his wrists really doesn't ring true.

Sorry TrustNaeFucker I thought you were defending the conspiracy theory and got my back up.

Definitely think there was something more to JFK/Lee Harvey Oswald/Jack Ruby. Although the more I read about JFK the more the Camelot image gets tarnished.

Isn't Christianity the biggest conspiracy theory ever ?

All conspiracy theories enrage me (nonbeliever).

Thisusernamethingistricky - sorry I don't know how to bold your username! I was not criticising anything you said and I agree that I would like to know how these legends came about.