List conspiracy theories here.

this one is good, don't know if it's been discussed
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/05/06/bp-oil-spill-conspir.html#previouspost

http://gawker.com/5556281/was-obama-in-the-1993-music-video-for-whoomp-there-it-is?skyline=true&s=i

XXDATE: 10-Jun-2010

EMAIL: (removed)
NAME: (removed)
CITY: Washington
STATE: washington
PHONE: /

THOUGHTS: This mail is from the grandmoviestar from Hollywood [NAME DELETED] and is for the reporter Jay Hernandes. Before you read the rest of this mail you have to understand that most movies what you see in the theaters from Hollywood right now like Ironman,Prince of Persia,Clash of the Titans,Avatar,Transformers part 1,2,3 and 4 were filmed 11 years ago in 1998/1999/ 2000.I got kidnapped in Hollywood in 1999 and after this something happened and these movies were removed/ stolen.It caused a situation between 1999 and today that evolved into a scandal like Watergate.To give this some credibility;When you watch the movie Jennifer’s Body there isn’t 1 girl that’s Megan Fox but there are 6 different girls who are all 1 Megan Fox in this movie.That’s because Megan Fox isn’t 1 person but they are 23 different models and actresses who are all 1 Megan Fox.Just watch the movie because some girls don’t look like each other at all. -The movie G.I.Joe and the promotion material[posters,bilboards etc.] from this movie don’t belong together[you can see scene's and characters on the posters etc.from the 2nd G.I.Joe movie that aren't in the 1st G.I.Joe movie]that’s because the movie is the 1st movie but the promotion material is from the 2nd G.I.Joe movie[with me as Sergeant Slaughter and Sienna Miller as The Baroness] that was stolen[the 2nd movie and the promotion material from the 1st movie] by Vin Diesel and Jennifer Aniston by burglarising the moviecompany that had these movies.Jennifer Aniston was jealous because I dumped Jennifer Aniston and started a relationship with Sienna Miller so she stole our movie. For more information about the scandal and a list of all the movies that were filmed go to my space and type [DELETED CONTACT INFO]. Vin Diesel still has the promotion material from the 1st movie and Jennifer Aniston still has the 2nd movie.

not so much conspiracy theory as person with schizophrenia

OMG I have a total weakness for that kind of conspiracy rant (the 'i am at the center of a web of celebrity conspiracy' mode). You have just made me v v happy.

There is a guy on a Rush usenet group who has a similar steez with regard to Geddy and Neal and how they have fucked his life over.

Also I REALLY REALLY like the premise of this one.

megan fox is like the father, son, and holy spirit + 20 other people

That rainbow video is the greatest thing ever

Can I just

There is a guy on a Rush usenet group who has a similar steez with regard to Geddy and Neal and how they have fucked his life over.

Oh man, if you want to read something great Google "solaris blueraven rush" and stand back.

i found those kinds of things incredibly depressing, it's not like just some wacky idea some dimbulbs have run with but some serious mental illness shit. that person is probably living in a kind of hell

true. i didn't know if it was even real or not. i found it on some entertainment blog that was linked somewhere.

well shame on u

"There is a guy on a Rush usenet group who has a similar steez with regard to Geddy and Neal and how they have fucked his life over."
more details please!

have we talked about the guy who thinks sylvester stallone is dead and the stallone we have now is a b-movie actor from the 70s who has had a ton of plastic surgery?

jimi hendrix rock prophecy guy

"There is a guy on a Rush usenet group who has a similar steez with regard to Geddy and Neal and how they have fucked his life over."

>>more details please!

Wow, see last time I looked in there were actual sane conversations about Rush going on, with L1b3r@tor's insane posts here and there. Now it seems he's almost the only one posting:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.music.rush/topics?lnk=rgh

Holy shit wait is it the same guy as latebloomer's?

Scientists create synthetic cell/organism (Megan Fox is proof)

We all know by certain individuals thought to be dead they're way way
beyond this. This was achieved 50 years ago, probably by a Nazi
scientist. Megan Fox wants people to know by her tatoo. That's all I
can say at this time (for those that don't know).

That rainbow video! I immediately signed this petition and you should too:
http://www.petitiononline.com/h2o/petition.html

And also it seems like they ALL GET RACIAL when you trace them far enough, it's kinda depressing.

― Blog is a concept by which we measure our pain (Jon Lewis)

Can't spell "comspiracy" without r-a-c-i-s-m

lol

Speaking of Usenet crazies, anyone recall the guy on alt.prophecies.nostrodamus that some guy posted in August 2001? Look up "Xinoehpoel".

Oops I brainfarted. the guy on alt.prophecies.nostrodamus that posted in August 2001 about "911" and then on sept 4 said "in 7 days I am going away and wont be back". Creepy.

A cabal of evil corporate geniuses have generated thousands of useless internetish and cell phonish technologies as the most invasive and effective way to distract the minions from the fact that they have taken over our government, committing crimes against humanity and are polluting our environment.

http://alllayedout.com/Images/Funny_Posters/graphics/whatever.jpg

o_0 at that Solaris Blueraven/Neil Peart thing. She could practically be another Verbal Kint-level talespinner

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9219647520615705963#

USA Today's been reading this thread:

Matt Chasansky, the public art administrator at Denver airport, has watched all the YouTube videos, answered many e-mails and read all the internet postings about the secret messages allegedly embedded in murals, sculpture and other art pieces in the airport. He's glad people are responding emotionally to the airport's collection but insists concerns about strange doings at DEN are just misunderstandings.

One traveler wrote to complain about the "demons" in the baggage claim area. Those demons are part of Terry Allen's work, Notre Denver and are European cathedral-inspired gargoyles meant not to harm people, but to protect them from losing their luggage. Other travelers see a secret code in the words and images in 21st Century Artifacts, the four mosaic floors created by Carolyn Braaksma and Mark Villareal for Concourse B. "The piece is actually about geography, archeology and topography," says the airport's Chasansky, "And those are Native American words and symbols for the Colorado River and other sites around the area."

http://forums.abrahadabra.com/showthread.php?2681-the-Case-for-A-Binary-Partner-to-our-Sun

http://www.vimeo.com/9104959

I've always thought that one of the problems with most conspiracy theories is that they aren't outlandishly batshit enough to have any kind of lasting interest. Who cares about who plugged JFK when it's possible that the entire MIddle Ages didn't exist. Meet Phantom Time Hypothesis - what happens when a clerical error goes horribly wrong.

I read the Voodoo Histories book kingfish plugged upthread. It was a very high-quality and reasoned takedown of various conspiracy theories and the conspiratorial thought process. OTOH it was what I happened to have in my purse when my husband went to the ER and I have to note: this book will not cheer you up. It will only make a bad day worse.

dude elvis holy shit what

dude elvis holy shit what

In short, the current year is 1713 and not 2010. Also Charlemagne was a fictional character. Quoting from http://www.damninteresting.com/the-phantom-time-hypothesis

The Phantom Time Hypothesis suggests that the early Middle Ages (614-911 A.D.) never happened, but were added to the calendar long ago either by accident, by misinterpretation of documents, or by deliberate falsification by calendar conspirators. This would mean that all artifacts ascribed to those three centuries belong to other periods, and that all events thought to have occurred during that same period occurred at other times, or are outright fabrications.

damn I want a movie made out of that!!!

btw Danny Glover only got into the movies because he caught Gene Wilder choking a woman in the shower and blackmailing him

Abbs, yr boy ok?

omg this http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=1565

http://www.yardwear.net/blog/content/binary/dolphin.jpg
http://www.dingogames.com/dolphin/graphics/titlescreen.jpg
http://shirtoid.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/dolphin-revenge.jpg

there is a SyFy original movie in this

this one is my current fave:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redemption_movement

oh wow that is hilarious. more recommended reading:

http://skepticwiki.org/index.php/Freeman_On_The_Land

these people are waaaaayyy more fucked up than e.g. climate change deniers. the level of cognitive dissonance and just plain retardation is astounding.

3) In a democracy, 'a majority' does not depend on 'large numbers'. A majority can be as low as ONE. And that ONE must, of itself, (therefore) carry sufficient empowerment to put any motion into practice. (The US Supreme Court has 9 Members. A 5 - 4 majority carries any ruling. That's 'democracy')
http://www.fmotl.com/Fundamentals.htm#BM16

Reading that entry on the Redemption Movement, it's pretty much the first 1/3 of a David Icke book I read, "Tales From the Time Loop".

My favorite current theory is from Terrence McKenna, whose "Stoned Ape" hypothesis of human evolution says that ingestion of psychedelic mushrooms is mostly responsible for evolving us into modern man.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna#The_.22Stoned_Ape.22_hypothesis_of_human_evolution

A couple more fun crazy ones (killer dolphins, stoned apes, denver airport reptiles, jay-z the overlord) and we have a poll.

How likely is it, after all, that the people who drew up, for example, the tax laws, should have carefully provided a loophole such that anyone who prefers not to pay their taxes could get out of it just by shouting: "Abracadabra! Presto no taxo!"

Haha, I don't know that Terrance McKenna's ideas really count as conspiracy theories. The audience just doesn't seem like the same audience as all the other ones, is why I say that. (ie audience of McKenna = people who devote a serious percentage of their life to psychedelic drugs and/or anthropologists)

He did have that whole thing about how sugar and caffeine are drugs that fuel our society, which is true, but that they're evil and bad bcz they are not mushrooms & marijuana (maybe less true).

oooh i totally love american tax paranoiac theorizing

Ordered Voodoo Histories. Should have ordered all the books recommended on the Mexico thread as well but at this rate my book buying to reading ratio is getting ridiculous. Thinking I may have to delete my amazon account and ask them to keep pictures of me up in waterstones/charity shops so they remember to refuse me.

Sara Robinson, who've I've linked to for years on here, wrote a couple of bits using Voodoo Histories to help explain why the hell the weirder Obama conspiracies are floating around now, like he blew up the Gulf oilwell to get the energy bill passed, that sorta thing.

...Aaronovitch defines a conspiracy theory as any story that assumes that things happen due to the deliberate, covert actions of powerful others -- even when the preponderance of evidence points to the conclusion that the events were almost certainly accidental and unintended.

Unfortunately, the right wing doesn't hold the franchise on conspiracy theories -- a lot of progressives are quite ready to believe all manner of sordid things about the Bush regime, for example. But as Dr. Robert Altemeyer observed, there are distinctively conservative habits of mind (suspicion, fear of strangers, fear of change, faith in strong leaders, paranoia) that do seem to lend themselves to conspiracy thinking. It's no surprise we're seeing it out of them -- but we also need to be more acutely aware that we're hardly immune to the siren song of crazy paranoia, either.

Why do people believe this stuff? It turns out that it's a complicated issue, with several answers. Some of those answers have to do with the internal state of the people who believe them; others have to do with the cultural and political environment they're trying to navigate. This post covers some of the external factors that create a climate that predisposes people to suspend their judgment and believe the worst. Next week, I'll follow up with a second post about what goes on inside people's heads that untethers them from reason just far enough to be swept away by their fears...