List conspiracy theories here.

Yeah pizzagate is some unhinged scary nonsense

customer at tacqueria, to cashier: "hey did you see that light in the sky the other day? Here's a pic I took of it"
cashier: "hmm yeah. They said it was some rocket it but I don't believe it"
customer: "No that's true. It was a SpaceX launch in California"
cashier: "Nah I think they said that to cover it all up. They quickly launched some rocket so they could say that's what the light was"
customer: "Uh heheheh um ok but they can't really launch a massive rocket like that quickly enough to cov--"
cashier: "Funny how people are so quick to just believe what they're told"
customer: "..."

Extreme skepticism is almost always a cover for extreme ignorance

oh hell yeah, that rules

"focus on my taco, you shitgoblin"

There’s a new doc on Netflix called Gray State - haven’t watched it but looked up the story and it’s one of those “he was secretly murdered by his own govt for his political views” conspiracies. There’s an interesting New Yorker piece on it: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/10/death-of-a-dystopian/amp

Crowley and his wife were pretty clearly conspiracy nuts, and he obviously had mental health issues that were undiagnosed.

yea that's what they want you to think man

That article is worth the read. And devastating.

The Deep State as fictionalized by… Steven Seagal:

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Shadow-Wolves-Hijacking-America/dp/0999497502/

This is the story of an Arizona Tribal police officer who stumbles onto one of the of the biggest cases in the history of the Southwest. He is a member of an elite group within the Native American communities known as The Shadow Wolves. What comes with his discovery is the uncovering of massive corruption in places where he once had placed his total trust. Shadow Wolves is a book of fiction based on reality. Both author’s have worked with, confronted, and seen the power of the Deep State and the manner in which, at times, federal government agencies willfully violate the Constitution and the laws of the land in service to special interests. Recent events has for the first time made many American citizens aware that the Deep State is very real; that the mainstream media tends toward bias by often offering a false narrative designed by the secret intelligence world in service to special interests. The fight for America’s soul is taking place far from Washington, D.C. This is a story of one small group of patriots fighting the good fight.

Apparently any fire and collapse of a concrete-core high rise brings everyone out so here's the obligatory Metabunk thread on the São Paulo high rise fire/collapse today.
https://www.metabunk.org/são-paulo-high-rise-fire-and-collapse-wilton-paes-de-almeida-building.t9684/

so uh have we done the 'arizona child rape camp' thing currently setting the rightwing pizzagatesphere on fire? because holy shit this is dumb

helpful twitter-thread primer starts here

There's a one-sided standoff shaping up in Tucson, Arizona. A group called Veterans on Patrol, headed up by a guy who has never served in the military, found an abandoned homeless camp.

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) June 5, 2018

I really do think my capacity to be astonished by the stupidity of humanity is permanently disabled at this point. Like, this is obviously completely insane, but what else is new.

I kinda want to go there and stand on the sidelines gawking for a bit before suddenly looking very alarmed and strapping on a gas mask before I frantically run away.

this def sounds legit tho

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeyD2g1XkAAd7RN.jpg

when i was like nine years old one of my friends mocked up an old-looking treasure map and we spent a couple of excited hours running around the neighbourhood looking for buried gold before he admitted he'd made it all up

this is basically the same impulse except even if someone did stand up and say 'actually there are no dead kids i just wanted attention' these deluded idiots wouldn't believe them and continue to dig holes at random in the blazing arizona sun

because the actual problem of homeless children must be actively buried under a hateful fantasy

This is like that time when the neighborhood kids were all convinced that Hitler owned this big plot of land at the end of our block and that he had killed and buried a bunch of kids there except I'm guessing these people are not between the ages of 5 and 7.

Like, I think even at that age, I was half aware of how stupid a theory it was.

yeah, obviously it wasn't hitler, it was hillary

people desperately want to be useful, and on the side of good, and part of something bigger than themselves, and this society is not fucking providing it, is part of the problem

"This is the third time this guy has climbed a tower looking for attention."

to be fair to the guy, it worked

TBF, the thing which society isn't providing here is the set of basic life skills that allow people to operate as fully-functioning and autonomous individuals who shouldn't require the full-time supervision of a caseworker or mental health practitioner.

Maybe graduation from high school should depend in part upon how you respond after someone anonymously emails you an insane conspiracy theory.

i'd be v interested in a podcast oral history of "Veterans on Patrol"

There's a one-sided standoff shaping up in Tucson, Arizona. A group called Veterans on Patrol, headed up by a guy who has never served in the military, found an abandoned homeless camp.

— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab)

in fairness, he wanted to call the group "citizens on patrol", but that name was already taken

i'm getting more and more cynical about conspiracy theories. as i continue to read up on history, i am slowly coming to realize how much of history came about because of bizarre conspiracy theories. i posted on another thread about wat tyler's rebellion, and how much of it came out because of a conspiracy theory called the Great Rumour. in America, history was shaped by conspiracy theories like the Corrupt Bargain, the Slave Power Conspiracy, the Business Plot, and i'm starting to think, you know, fuck it, we should embrace this side of ourselves. because it's not about "smart" or "stupid". there were plenty of intelligent people who believed the Business Plot was a real thing and not just a couple of drunk plutocrats blowing off steam. if people are motivated to make positive changes in the world by believing donald trump killed his wife and buried her in the rose garden, go for it. obviously that's provably false, but it doesn't actually hurt a conspiracy theory for it to be provably false. at worst it just goes away to be replaced by a new one.

we are not reasonable people, but have the misfortune to live in a society that assumes and expects us to be reasonable. the worst thing we can do is buy into the lie that reason conquers all.

a satirical version of a weirdo militia called 'veterans on patrol' which was led by someone who had never served in the military would seem a little on-the-nose but here we are i guess

i'd be v interested in a podcast oral history of "Veterans on Patrol"

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, June 6, 2018 8:34 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thank u so much for getting the Police Academy 4 theme song stuck in my head.

And yes, rusho, the notion of humans as a rational species is maybe the most pernicious of our mythologies.

idk I view this like all the wacky sportswriters who always pick some terrible longshot team to "win it all this year", part tongue-in-cheek, part with the knowledge that if the 100-to-1 shot actually hits they'll get a good amount of publicity out of it. when it comes to stuff like this and Pizzagate and "9/11 was an inside job" I often wonder how much of it is legit and how much is trying to stake a claim on something that has a small chance of making you look very smart. mostly just so you can play out the ultimate fantasy of proving wrong all the people who called you an idiot.

anyway, not gonna get interested in this one until someone can tell me how the Clintons are involved

I dunno, I'd have to check with a professional to be sure but I think they call that psychosis.

Like running around every day at 4:27 to shove your busted watch in the face of all the naysayers who implored you to get it fixed. I knew it would be right eventually! I knew it!!!

I might as well just learn to roll with it, though, since this is clearly the direction we're headed as a species.

anyway, not gonna get interested in this one until someone can tell me how the Clintons are involved

well since you asked

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/De5q_DyU8AAqIAr.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/De5q_DyU8AAqIAr.jpg

i posted on another thread about wat tyler's rebellion, and how much of it came out because of a conspiracy theory called the Great Rumour. in America, history was shaped by conspiracy theories like the Corrupt Bargain, the Slave Power Conspiracy, the Business Plot, and i'm starting to think, you know, fuck it, we should embrace this side of ourselves. because it's not about "smart" or "stupid". there were plenty of intelligent people who believed the Business Plot was a real thing and not just a couple of drunk plutocrats blowing off steam.

― Arch Bacon (rushomancy), Wednesday, June 6, 2018 1:38 PM (three hours ago)

maybe i'm misunderstanding you but i thought the business plot was a real thing? even if it never got past the talking stage.

meanwhile the Trump administration defends keeping actual children in actual cages:

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/04/merkley-shelter-migrant-children-trump-593988

yea someone ought to tell the Arizona guys, they'll be pissed

I'm sure they'll get right on it

maybe i'm misunderstanding you but i thought the business plot was a real thing? even if it never got past the talking stage.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.)

my reading of the results of the congressional investigation was "no way in fucking hell were these guys ever going to actually overthrow the government". even if they hadn't picked as a figurehead smedley butler, who immediately made a big stink about it to the press, eventually they would've talked to somebody who would have pointed out to them what a dumbshit idea their "conspiracy" was.

government based on fabricated conspiracies isn't exactly a new thing. this goes at least as far back as that time cicero (as far as anybody can tell) totally made up a conspiracy about catiline because he was worried that catiline's policies were too friendly towards the poor.

I think the whole spectrum from center to left has really failed to appreciate what is going on with pizzagate, qanon, Alex Jones, etc. This is not mere "tinfoil hat" stuff, this is the deliberate weaponization of conspiracy theory against political opponents.

deliberate and coordinated, so there's my conspiracy theory I guess

Traditionally shadowy science group The Jasons get chased out of the Pentagon
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/storied-jason-science-advisory-group-loses-contract-pentagon

The Georgia Guidestones... wt actual f?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

I'd never heard of this until yesterday when I was talking with a friend about how she'd gone for a coffee with an old friend of hers and how the conversation had turned somewhat weird. Now, she's known this friend for years but they only catch up with one another every now and again, this friend has always been religious but is now super religious. So, they were talking about Brexit (of course) when the friend said Brexit was just a smokescreen for what is really going on in the world - the smokescreen being a product of an elite of the Vatican(?!), global bankers (naturally) and, er, some other people she couldn't remember, the clue to all of this being the Georgia Guidestones. I think my friend sort of nodded along politely but I think when she was told the 2004 tsunami was manmade because some scientist in the early 20th century had shown you could manufacture tsunamis by drilling into the earth and dropping some sort of device into the earth's crust and the whole thrust of the Georgia Guidestones and the elites behind it is to drastically reduce the world's population, she demurred. Apparently her friend invited me and her to visit at her house out in Sussex, I said if you think I'm spending a weekend with an insane person you can forget it.

yeah this is real tho, wake up sheeple

also very real:

https://preview.redd.it/ps04q9titmp31.jpg?width=547&auto=webp&s=cab61e040019c4b0d39ab1b603aa7b4cf9941e98

but what if i want to interfere necessarily!

damn i always suspected u were a freemason troll

the sky is fake

Justin Trudeau is the son of Fidel Castro.

obv