Browse Conspiracy Theories

The concealment by Boeing of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) from pilots and regulators, which caused two fatal crashes — Lion Air 610 (October 2018, 189 killed) and Ethiopian Airlines 302 (March 2019, 157 killed) — and led to a 20-month global grounding.

The October 2, 2018 assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The US Intelligence Community's February 2021 declassified assessment concluded Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the operation.

The cluster of unexplained chronic symptoms affecting ~25-32% of 1990-91 Gulf War veterans, and the decades-long VA resistance to acknowledging it as a distinct service-connected condition.

The US military's use of Agent Orange herbicide in Vietnam (1961-1971) and the decades-long effort by the VA and chemical manufacturers to deny connections to veteran illnesses — cancers, type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's, peripheral neuropathy.

A cluster of unexplained neurological symptoms reported by US diplomats and intelligence personnel beginning at the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba in 2016, and subsequently at US facilities in China, Russia, Vietnam, Austria, and elsewhere.

The September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 underwater natural gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in the Baltic Sea. Attribution has varied: Russia, Ukraine, or US/NATO operation.

The 2014-2019 lead contamination of Flint, Michigan's drinking water following a cost-saving switch from Detroit water supply to the Flint River, and the systematic suppression of evidence by state officials.

The December 21, 1988 bombing of Pan American World Airways Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. Attribution to Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi via 2001 conviction; sub-dispute over whether Megrahi was the primary perpetrator or a scapegoat for a broader Libyan or Iranian operation.

Claims that Freemasonry — a 300-year-old fraternal organization — exercises secret control over governments, the Catholic Church, and world finance through esoteric initiation rituals and networks.

The claim that Earth is hollow, with inner surfaces, inhabitants, or openings at the poles. Versions include the 17th-century scientific proposal by Edmond Halley, 19th-century Symmes Hole theory, and 20th-century Nazi/UFO-adjacent versions.

The claim, based on a 1984 packet of allegedly leaked documents, that President Truman in 1947 established a secret committee (Majestic 12 or MJ-12) of 12 scientists and military officers to study recovered UFO craft from Roswell.

A secret senior society at Yale University, founded 1832. Claims of Bush-family/CIA pipelines, elite control of US foreign policy, and occult initiation rituals are partially supported by documented facts and partially fabricated.

A private organization founded in 1973 by David Rockefeller to foster dialogue between North America, Europe, and Japan. Frequently cited alongside Bilderberg and Council on Foreign Relations as evidence of shadow world governance.

A satirical movement launched in 2017 by Peter McIndoe claiming that all birds in the United States were exterminated by the CIA between 1959-2001 and replaced with surveillance drones. Designed as parody, it was widely shared without the satire being recognized.

The false claim, most prominently promoted by Alex Jones and Infowars, that the December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut was staged by "crisis actors" to justify gun control legislation. The shooting killed 20 first-graders and 6 adults.

The claim that the antiparasitic drug ivermectin is an effective COVID-19 treatment being suppressed by pharmaceutical companies, regulators, and hospitals to protect vaccine profits.

TWA Flight 800 (Boeing 747) exploded and crashed off Long Island on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 aboard. The NTSB ruled the cause was an ignition of flammable fuel-air vapor in the center wing fuel tank. Claims of a Navy missile strike or terrorist attack have persisted.

Claims that the US Air Force HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program) facility in Gakona, Alaska is used for weather modification, earthquake generation, or mass mind control.

Claims that a secret US military base at Camp Hero in Montauk, New York ran experiments on time travel, mind control, teleportation, and contact with extraterrestrials from 1971 to 1983.

The claim, popularized by British writer David Icke from 1999 onward, that a race of shape-shifting reptilian humanoids from Alpha Draconis secretly rule the Earth by posing as political and royal elites including the British Royal Family.

Claims that Denver International Airport (opened 1995) houses an underground New World Order bunker, hosts occult murals, and that its dedication capstone contains coded Freemason messages.

A fabricated antisemitic text, first published in Russia in 1903, claiming to document a Jewish plan for world domination. Extensively proven a forgery — plagiarized from Maurice Joly's 1864 Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu (a satire about Napoleon III, not Jews).

The 1997 death of Diana, Princess of Wales in a Paris car crash has spawned decades of conspiracy theories alleging assassination by British intelligence, the Royal Family, or other state actors — most forcefully championed by Mohamed Al-Fayed, father of Dodi Fayed who died in the same crash.

The false claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism, originating in a fraudulent 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield published in The Lancet, which the journal formally retracted in 2010 after investigation revealed data manipulation and undisclosed financial conflicts.