Conspiracy theories are infectious for a lot of human beings. They’re the topic of many TV shows. They became the subject of many films and have served as an inspiration for a lot of fiction writers. We ask ourselves, why the craze for conspiracy theories? Aside from the fact that humans are naturally curious creatures, it’s because conspiracy theories are too interesting to let go. Many of us believe in the saying, “when there’s smoke, there’s a fire” and the premise that these conspiracy theories can be real gives us all an equal opportunity to solve it. This is perhaps the reason why they continue to stand the test of time.
The juiciest conspiracy theories are those that involve politics, an unsympathetic arena where public image and trust is a big issue. Here is our list of the top ten political conspiracy theories.
10. Deep Throat
“Deep Throat” is the alias of the secret informant of Woodward and Bernstein, the two Washington Post Journalists who exposed the Watergate Scandal.
The mysterious identity of Deep Throat ended in May 31, 2005, after William Mark Felt Sr., finally revealed himself as the elusive whistle blower. There were numerous rumors around the early 80s, all trying to point out Deep Throat’s real identity. Some believed it was Nixon’s chief of staff, Alexander Haig. Some said it was Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, boss of the National Security Agency. Others say it was the deceased Bob Kunkle, the former FBI field office head. There were even rumors that “Deep Throat” was just a strategy to silence newspaper lawyers. The Deep Throat mystery and the Watergate Scandal are in this list because these are the first conspiracy theories in US history that proved to be correct all along.
9. Roswell Mystery
Cover-ups by government agencies are common among “X-files” conspiracy theories.
Among the most popular is the flying saucer that crashed near a ranch just outside the Roswell Air Force base in New Mexico. On July 8, 1947, the air base released a statement saying that the crash came from what appeared to be a flying disk. Shortly after the release of the first statement, the Air force nullified their first statement and said that the wreck actually was from an experimental balloon. Soon, many different manifestations were released by the Air Force, which resulted to more skeptics. Until 1997, the Air Force released yet another report saying the Roswell mystery is just a case of compiled false memories. Then Major Jesse A. Marcel’s story released his story. Marcel was the person assigned to inspect the wreckage and he reportedly told other personnel that the debris was something he had never seen before.
8. Boston Marathon
As happened with the Sandy Hook shooting, conspiracy buffs have circulated images claiming that persons associated with the Boston Marathon bombing are not who they claim to be, but rather “actors” or “plants” employed to pull off a staged event. One such image stated that a news photograph showing a bombing victim who suffered a serious leg injury in one of the explosions actually pictured Nick Vogt, a U.S. Army lieutenant who lost both his legs to an IED explosion in Afghanistan in November 2011
Another image purportedly demonstrated a connection between the Boston Marathon bombing and the Sandy Hook shooting:
The woman pictured above is the late Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, the school principal who was killed in the Sandy Hook shootings, and the right-hand panel purportedly shows her picture being displayed on the screen during an interview with someone named Donna about the Boston Marathon bombings. Some commentators have noted that the woman who stepped in as principal at Sandy Hook after Dawn Hochsprung’s death was Donna Page and theorized that the former was the “Donna” referenced during the pictured interview about the Boston Marathon bombings (in the course of which her predecessor’s picture was shown on-screen). Although at least one woman named Donna who ran in the marathon that day did give media interviews about her experience, the only such reference we have seen that mentioned a surname identified the interviewee as Donna Bruce, not Donna Page.
A group of Newtown parents known as Team Newtown Strong entered the Boston Marathon and ran the 26 miles to honor the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook shootings, so it’s possible Dawn Hochsprung would have been mentioned if one or more of those team members had been interviewed.
This conspiracy has proven to be false.
7. The New World Order
Many of us cringe over the fact that secret societies could control the behavior of world leaders. Something to that effect exists, popularly known as the Illuminati.
They’re referred to as the secret society that can influence and manipulate the world’s governments. Their name means “the illuminated ones”. They are believed to be “the power behind the throne”, or “de facto” leaders, which speaks to their ability to set policies by influencing and manipulating a particular politician or group. There are allegations that the present affairs of many governments and corporations are controlled by Illuminati. Some conspiracy theorists say that in history, the Illuminati were the mastermind behind many revolutions. They were allegedly organizers of the 18th-century French Revolution and the Russian October Revolution. This ambiguous group was also featured ion Dan Brown’s novel Angels and Demons.
6. Sandy Hook Shooting
The official account of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting has been disputed by a number of conspiracy theories. It is widely accepted that on December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza fatally shot his mother, and 20 students and 6 staff members, at the elementary school before committing suicide. Proponents of these conspiracy theories question the circumstances of the shooting with Adam Lanza as the sole perpetrator and are using early media reports that included inconsistencies about the identity of the shooter, wrong photos, incorrect location of victims, weapons used and other alleged misinformation as evidence for their claims. Others have suggested the shooting was orchestrated by government officials for political reasons, similar to some 9/11 conspiracy theories, claiming that the shooting was deliberately set up to push stricter gun control laws. There are also claims that Lanza was furious at the school due to the school-to-prison pipeline.
Some conspiracy theories have also alleged that the shooting was a hoax and a false flag operation staged by the United States government. Others claim the attack is being used by politicians to push through new gun control legislation, or to otherwise persecute gun owners and survivalists.
Gene Rosen, a Newtown resident who was reported to have sheltered six Sandy Hook students and a bus driver in his home during the shooting, has been subject to harassment online alleging he was complicit in a government coverup, among other things. Some journalists have cited such incidents as part of a “Sandy Hook Truther Movement” analogous to the 9/11 Truth movement. A writer for the Calgary Herald reported that the movement self-identifies as “Operation Terror.
5. PROMIS
PROMIS is a controversial database developed by Inslaw, an I.T company based in Washington. In 1970, Inslaw signed a $10M contract with the US Department of Justice that granted the licenses to utilize the PROMIS database and software provided that government would not modify the software, create versions of it, or sell it.
The theory claims that a PROMIS-derivative software was distributed by the US Justice Dept. and friends of Ronald Reagan sold the software internationally for their own profits. This theory was rooted out from an actual court battle between Inslaw and the government about this copyright infringement scandal. The media also fanned the flames of the conspiracy theory by reporting mysterious deaths related to the Inslaw case. In 2001, a report was released that stated that Osama Bin Laden obtained copies of the software from the black market in Russia. Osama allegedly paid $2M so that he could hack US intelligence systems. The US government never paid Inslaw any damages to PROMIS even after it admitted of some unauthorized use.
4. JFK Assassination
Of course, this is about the fatal sniper shot that transformed a festive presidential motorcade into one of the most horrific events in American history. There are many versions of this theory.
One is about the assumption that a secret organization conspired to kill JFK because he was the only American president that the organization could not control. Conspirators say that proof of JFK’s disobedience could be found in his August 1961 speech to the press that discussed his repugnance of word secrecy. Another version concentrates on the string of strange coincidences that took place after the Assassination. Lee Harvey Oswald, the known assassin, was shot by a man named Jack Ruby before he could even go on trial. Jack Ruby was then held by police. It was reported that Ruby feared for his life and died of pneumonia after his death sentence was overturned when he was granted change of prison venue. The most popular version is that Oswald wasn’t alone; there were reports of an unidentified man who hid behind the grassy knoll during the motorcade.
3. October Surprise
The October surprise conspiracy refers to theories about the alleged negotiations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and campaign representatives of Ronald Reagan during the 1980s.
According to the theory, the negotiation was about the plot to delay the freedom of American hostages in Tehran and only release them after the US Presidential Elections (when Reagan beats Jimmy Carter). This means that there would be no “surprising” release of hostages during the incumbent Carter Administration that could ruin Reagan’s chances for presidency. The theory also suggests that in return for Iran’s cooperation with dirty politics, the US government would remove the restrictions on Iran and would supply Iran with weapons. The theory is called October Surprise because presidential elections in the US happen on the second week of November, so any news or event that takes place in October has the power to influence election outcome. Strangely, the hostages were released 20 minutes after Raegan’s inaugural speech.
2. Princess Diana’s Death Inquest
Goodbye England’s rose and hello conspiracies. There are three strange stories about Diana’s death. Diana was so tired of the media that she and Dodi planned to stage their own deaths and run off to an isolated island until their attempted fake death accidentally went too far. Another story is about business enemies of the Fayeds who used Diana as a perfect strategy to assassinate Dodi. The most believable is that Diana was pregnant with Dodi’s child and threatened the royal family lineage. Whatever the theory, one fact about the Diana inquest is that the white fiat that veered towards Diana’s mercedes has not been found.
1. Martian Slavery
US government agencies are hiding Martians in huge warehouses and strategically-located sweatshops so that they could put the indelible color green on the US dollar which theorists said, are all made with special Martian body slime. Any unsuspecting civilian who recognizes the Martians will be flashed with a white light that induces memory gap.
We admit that this list is quite a mouthful. Like what we said at the beginning, conspiracy theories about politics are infectious, proven by the fact that you are reading this final sentence. You’ve just become our mind control guinea pig.