Browse Conspiracy Theories

The 1950s-60s marketing of thalidomide (sedative, anti-nausea for pregnant women) by Chemie Grünenthal (Germany), Distillers (UK), and Richardson-Merrell (US) despite internal knowledge of risks, resulting in ~10,000 birth defects worldwide and a major documented corporate cover-up.

The documented failure and subsequent cover-up of the police response to the May 24, 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and 2 teachers were killed. Officers waited in the hallway for 77 minutes while the shooter remained in a classroom with surviving children and their mothers pleading outside.

The July 17, 2014 destruction of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 (Boeing 777) over eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people. The Dutch Safety Board investigation and Joint Investigation Team (JIT) concluded the aircraft was shot down by a Russian-owned Buk surface-to-air missile system from a field in Russian-separatist-controlled Donbas.

The long-documented relationship between Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and the US Central Intelligence Agency, including his role as a paid CIA asset (1967-1988) while simultaneously trafficking cocaine, running intelligence operations, and aiding US anti-communist operations in Latin America.

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 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.

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.

A sophisticated computer worm discovered in 2010 that sabotaged centrifuges at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility — later confirmed to have been developed jointly by the US (NSA/CIA) and Israel (Unit 8200) under Operation Olympic Games.

A UK-based political consulting firm that harvested Facebook data of up to 87 million users through a personality quiz app, then used the data for psychographic targeting on behalf of the Trump 2016 campaign and Leave.EU.

The Nixon administration orchestrated the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex, then engaged in a systematic cover-up involving hush money, witness tampering, and abuse of federal agencies. Led to the only presidential resignation in US history.

Internal documents proved that major tobacco companies knew cigarettes were addictive and caused cancer as early as the 1950s, while publicly denying both for decades. They funded fake research, suppressed internal findings, and targeted youth marketing. Settled via 1998 Master Settlement Agreement ($206 billion).

NATO and CIA-coordinated "stay-behind" paramilitary networks across Western Europe during the Cold War. In Italy, elements were implicated in false-flag terrorism (the "strategy of tension"). Confirmed by Italian PM Giulio Andreotti to Parliament in 1990.

Volkswagen deliberately programmed 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide with "defeat device" software that detected emissions testing and temporarily reduced pollution output. During normal driving, the cars emitted up to 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides. Exposed by West Virginia University researchers in 2014.

Major international banks including Barclays, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Rabobank colluded to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), which underpins over $300 trillion in financial contracts worldwide. Traders coordinated via chat rooms to rig rates for profit. Exposed 2012; $9+ billion in fines; four convictions.

Facebook secretly manipulated the news feeds of 689,003 users for one week in January 2012 to test whether emotional contagion could be achieved through social media. Published in PNAS in 2014 without informed consent from subjects.

Forty-year (1932-1972) US Public Health Service study of 399 Black men with syphilis in Alabama. Researchers withheld treatment — even after penicillin became standard cure in 1947 — to observe the disease's progression. Exposed by whistleblower Peter Buxtun in 1972.

1962 proposal by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to commit false-flag terrorist attacks against American civilians and military targets to justify war with Cuba. Rejected by President Kennedy. Declassified in 1997.

FBI covert program (1956-1971) that surveilled, infiltrated, discredited, and disrupted American political organizations including the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panthers, and anti-war groups. Exposed when citizens broke into an FBI field office in 1971.

The second attack in the Gulf of Tonkin (August 4, 1964) — used to justify escalation of the Vietnam War — never happened. Declassified NSA documents (2005) revealed the Johnson administration knew the attack was fabricated.

Reagan administration officials secretly sold arms to Iran (under embargo) and diverted the proceeds to fund Nicaraguan Contra rebels (Congressionally banned). Exposed in 1986; led to 14 convictions.

US program (1945-1959) that secretly recruited over 1,600 former Nazi scientists, engineers, and technicians — including many with documented war crimes — and brought them to America for military and space programs, circumventing President Truman's anti-Nazi directive.

A CIA program (1953-1973) that conducted illegal, often horrific experiments on unwitting American and Canadian citizens using LSD, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, and torture to research mind control. Declassified in 1977.