It seems like there’s a conspiracy for every aspect, event, and occasion in our life. Think of the theory that there is some kind of a connection between 5G internet and the coronavirus pandemic, which has been continually debunked by our experts. In fact, raising these rumors is considered inappropriate, and those who do can even get into trouble for spreading fake news.
But leaving the pandemic conspiracy aside, there are numerous other conspiracies that people genuinely believe in: Area 51, Bigfoot sightings, chemtrails, New World Order, Freemasonry, Illuminati, Sandy Hook, “stolen election,” the list goes on. And while most skeptics cringe at such improbable scenarios, some actually scratch their heads and wonder… “what if?”
So when someone asked “What is a conspiracy theory you actually believe in?” on r/AskReddit, people, skeptics included, shared some very interesting answers. Let’s see what they had to say below and be sure to share your thoughts on conspiracies in the comment section!
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The media is the biggest stirrer of fear and anger and use it in order to stay relevant to keep the funds rolling in
That my phone listens to conversations. Far too many situations where I’d talk about something random and see adverts about it on FB and Instagram without me ever searching for it
This is not a conspiracy. It does. There is actually a setting in the phone which allows certain apps (like facebook, chrome etc) to access your microphone. Use the settings and turn it off.
No, really, it doesn't. The permissions allow the app to use the microphone WHEN IT IS RUNNING. It allows you to deny access to functions of your phone to apps that you don't trust. This grew out of it being a means for apps to delare what features they used, so that you could choose when installing. In a similar vein, you could argue that your phone is tracking you because you gave an app permission to get your location. Some apps do seem to overstep the mark with what they request use of, but considering how many apps now take voice input, it is hardly surprising. Yes, malicious apps do exist that can record audio, watch you through the camera, and track you, but they are absolutely not put there by mainstream phone vendors.
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IT guy here: They don't have to bug you. It is enough that they know your social bubble (keyword: metadata). I talk to a friend about a topic, he (not me!) researches it - and thanks to our WhatsApp (instagram/fb/whatever) link, the relevant companies know that they should offer me the topic as well. After all, it seems to be a "thing" in our social bubble. Or it works the other way around: My friend sees an ad (consciously or not) and that's why he approaches me about a topic in the first place. Since the ad is currently airing in our social bubble, I naturally get it shortly thereafter. But it can be haunting, i know :D
I loved your explanation! I always fail at trying to explain that this + conformation bias makes it look like they are not only listening but being able to descifer what you want. Many time a search made on purpose needs to be modified to get what you're actually looking for, imagine how the AI would need to work to disentangle from a random convo the products we mentioned
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I have one better. Have you ever THOUGHT (but not spoken one single word aloud) about a specific product and then start getting adverts for it on your phone/laptop? That happens to me quite a lot and is a lot more disturbing than having a conversation and your phone listening. A few others have said that’s also happened to them too.
Yes! A lot! I figure it's some awesome intuition or something.
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How's this for creepy. My brother and I were talking about inflatable spas. Now at this time my phone had absolutely no internet capabilities. Anyway the next day whilst browsing FB the first ad I see is for an inflatable spa. Like wtf.
Similar situation with me. A while back, my boyfriend and I were driving to our cottage and were talking about a specific subject. There's no cell phone service or data available in that area (wifi at the cottage only amd my data is always "off"). During the drive we changed the subject. The next day, I had an article about it on my facebook. Neither one of us googled it (there was no need).
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I have never bought diapers before, have no kids and don’t know anyone with kids. Made a trip to Costco last week and a coworker asked me (on a phone call) to buy these “rascal & friends” diapers - never heard of them before. ALL WEEK I’ve been getting ads online for these diapers. I didn’t even use my own Costco card and I paid in cash so idek 😂
Let's test this with something totally random. Everyone say aloud, "I'd really like to find a shower curtain with pictures of giraffes on it. We should know the truth really soon.
They don't have to listen to your conversations. You've given them access to your contact list, your browsing history, your location, etc. If you've talked about something random to your friend, and he/she googles it, they will just advertise it to his/her friends.
Ever notice how you see BABY CARRIAGES all around you when you're pregnant? How how suddenly everyone is driving that car you've been considering of buying? Jeez ... it's just your brain focussing on things.
debunked hundreds of times. it doesnt need to. the data you share is enough.
Yep. Don't care how often FB deny it, I have NOT SEARCHED for new PVC windows, holidays in Cambodia, car repairs, aftershave or anything else I may have just talked about over dinner. Don't tell me the algorithms are so well designed they can anticipate my every need - I'm not even on bloody FB. But my husbands phone WAS within earshot.
This was explained to me in such an easy way that I think even a conspiracy theorist should get it. You connect to your parent's Wi-Fi. Hours later you get home. Adverts on your phone are about a toothpaste you've never used but you know your mom does. Because phones (and other tech) share that info through the Wi-Fi, your metadata can be shared through an entire group of people. That includes bars, restaurants, hotels and other places with Wi-Fi. It won't always offer a product based on that but when the data is available so easily, why wouldn't they use it? My husband frequently googles weird sh*t and I end up seeing some weird ads.
Yea I had to go get my blood drawn to test for an iron deficiency or something and literally as soon as we got in the car after I got it drawn I opened tiktok and the first video on my FYP was one about an iron deficiency. We talked about it but never looked it up or anything and uh
Exactly. Last week, a colleague talked that she bought "mismatched socks". I had never heard of them, but suddenly I see adverts about them all over facebook!
I think a definition of conspiracy is needed again for these posts. This is, yet again, not a conspiracy.
Or maybe because you've recently seen those ads the topic got in your head. Or it's just a very common advertised topic, or a google search you did. My daughter was learning about car insurance at school and after doing homework involving googling information she started noticing ads for car insurance to this day.
Iphone > Settings > Pull down to search > Search for 'microphone' > Turn off all apps you dont want listening
Yep. Talking to my kids about Pokemon one day and suddenly my phone was bombarding me with ads. Same when I was talking about bikes. And obscure things like cake mix etc.
Bored Panda reached out to the redditor Come-What-April and the author of this thread who said they were always fascinated with themes about the paranormal, conspiracies, and scary stuff.“I always wondered if I could maybe get this channel to dedicate a video to a question I could ask on r/AskReddit and that’s how I ended up on Reddit writing my question one night I was pretty bored,” they said.
Come-What-April added that “the conspiracy theory stuff being a subject I know inspires many people, I knew I could get many interesting (and different responses) if I were lucky enough for my post to be seen by many.”
Aliens 1000% exist, maybe not UFOs and all that but there’s no way in hell we’re the only life in this gigantic galaxy
This might not be a groundbreaking hot take, but i think that applying for disability status/benefits is intentionally made to be a convoluted mess of bureaucratic jargon and endless hoops to jump through SOLELY so that disabled people don’t take advantage of them, either because they give up trying to navigate an intentionally confusing system, or because they make a mistake along the way, and the process gets f***ed up. I’m really lucky I had my mom helping me with a lot of the paperwork because otherwise I would never be able to get the supports I need in post secondary. It’s like someone purposefully designed the process to be as unobtainable, messy, and overwhelmingly complex for a disabled person as they possibly could.
The successful appeal rates for disability benefits in the UK is very high, because of the bollox applicants are put through. Stories of people in wheelchairs having appointments for a second floor room with no lift; where if they crawl up the stairs they fail as that is evidence that they are fine, and if they can't get to the room they fail for missing their appointment.
The US doesn't provide free college because military numbers would plummet
The U.S. doesn't provide free college because Republicans understand that educated people tend not to vote Republican.
Many responses the redditor received were something they expected. “I know how conspiracies on Covid/vaccination, 9-11 and such are pretty well spread. I loved reading some more 'personal' conspiracy theories, like that guy talking about the weird soup place in his town that seems to be a facade to hide illicit activities.”
When asked if the author themselves believe in a particular conspiracy theory, they said they’re open to the multiverse theory (which is not really conspiracy stuff). “But I like to believe we all evolve on a specific timeline and that other (if not infinite) timelines where things are different exist. I love reading posts on the r/Glitch_in_the_Matrix subreddit.”
There are people out there hired by companies to make dozens of fake accounts that retweet, reblog, etc and act like real people just to advertise products.
The “Fine Art” market is a scam used/run by the ultra wealthy to hide and preserve their wealth.
Women's clothing doesn't have adequate pockets because the purse and handbag industry wants to ensure women continue to buy bags to carry their things.
“I believe that as citizens, there definitely is some information we are not yet aware of. I mean, definitely, some things are hidden from us (Area 51 is a good example). By knowing some stuff is hidden/covered up, how can we be sure about what to believe in?” Come-What-April wondered.
“I find the Covid conspiracies interesting,” they said and added that “I am staying very neutral in the Covid category. I don’t take a position regarding the virus’s origin and vaccination theories since the Covid conspiracies tend to divide so much. I strongly disagree with everyone saying the virus is fake, though. I saw people die from it working in a long-term healthcare facility,” the redditor concluded.
Trump ran as a stunt. He was never supposed to win and didn't even want to.
That the government creates or at least promotes crazy conspiracy theories to make the true ones seem crazy by association.
Everyone’s going heavy with theirs but I have one that’s less serious.
Baby wipe containers are purposely made so that you always pull 2-3 wipes out at a time and therefore need to buy more often. It’s definitely something I can see Big Wipe engaging in to get just a few more containers out of us each year!
That Facebook’s outage the day before the whistleblower went in front of the Senate was no accident.
That video game companies got a taste of the kind of money that gambling brings in and changed an entire industry to emulate the casino structure but for children.
Oh it's definitely all about money for sure, and they'll keep monetizing it for as long as regulation allows, but there's a fundamental difference between casino gambling and gacha or lootboxes people seem to ignore: money. In a casino you have the [extremely small] chance to win a life changing amount of money. In a game, you're only ever getting in-game rewards that have no impact on your life outside. It's still scummy, but it's not a fair comparison. Buying in-game currency so that you can try to win some kind of in-game lootbox reward is far more similar to playing for tickets in an arcade than gambling in a casino.
That questions like this are market research, and this question in particular is likely to be used for some pretty nefarious purposes.
The conspiracy that created the term "conspiracy theory". Think back to the 30s, 40s, 50s. There were stories of the black cars showing up and making people that start finding out too much "disappear". Enter the 60s and 70s. Mass media starts growing at a massive rate. A rate at which the government realizes that they cannot ever fully control. Their genius solution is to open the floodgates of crazy. Push a bunch of conspiracy theories into the populace that makes real conspiracy reports be ignored as just "tinfoil hat crazy". Label ALL reports as conspiracy theory. This over time creates a societal misunderstanding in the form of the term "conspiracy theory" becoming equated with "crazy". An example of this is I believe that there really aren't many people that truly believe the earth is flat. There are just some entities planted that push it as a "theory". This then becomes one of the main examples of "all conspiracy theorists are not to be taken seriously".
The government deliberately works on keeping the populace uneducated. From school funding being tied to local property taxes, to allowing militant religious parties to "politicize" and censor science based education. It's easier to manipulate an uneducated society by pitting it against itself across socio-economic and political lines. In the mean time the civil servants meant to b representing us do favors for the wealthy in return for funding and insider trading privileges.
That the international establishment are not cracking down on the slave trade because too many of them benefit from slaves, wage slaves, debt slaves, indentured servants, passport hostage victims, magdalene laundresses, unpaid internships, etc. themselves.
Unfortunately, everyone in the west benefits from slave labour. Fast fashion? Slave labour. Fresh produce (like fruit and veggies)? Slave labour. Phones, Laptops? Also slave labour. I'm not sure what we as consumers can do about it but that is the only reason those things are so cheap in the first place. Although, buying second hand is always better than buying new
Republicans/Democrats aren’t as hostile as we’re lead onto believe and actually agree a lot but are using our differences in beliefs to control us.
Marilyn Monroe did not die from an “accidental” overdose.
Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's when he was still in office and his advisers told him to write a letter to the American people to be released later after it got too bad to hide. When his condition went public in 1994, they released the letter and it was almost perfect handwriting, spelling, and grammar. Six months later he couldn't carry on a conversation. I'm convinced he didn't progress that fast in 1994 and that the entire thing was constructed over the years to look like he was mentally competent while he was president.
Observers at the time questioned whether he was quite all there. However, he died ten years after his diagnosis which is around average. If he'd already had Alzheimer's while he was in office, he would have had a life expectancy around twice as long as the average sufferer.
China is using tiktok to develop a database to experiment and perfect deep fake technology and techniques.
No that's ridiculous why would TikTok do that? You should download TikTok! You can watch funny vidos and more! 习主席万岁！
The cardboard rolls that toilet paper are on have gotten wider in diameter over the years. This is one way to make the rolls look bigger. Because you know 6 mega rolls equals 32 normal sized rolls...
The world stock market is rigged, and most trading happens behind the scenes
That the government collaborated with tech companies to promote taking "selfies" to advance facial recognition software.
Good luck recognizing anyone from a selfie with all the heavy editing, filtering and photoshop lol
Bic doesn't fill their lighters with as much fluid as they used to.
All countries have Ninjas. We only know about Japanese Ninjas bc they're the worst.
Chap stick actually causes your lips to feel more chapped after their affect wears off, causing you to use it more often and buy more chapstick
Well I don't actually believe the government is putting stuff in our water that's turning the frogs gay
I do however believe the large amount of urine containing birth control waste getting out into the sewage is becoming an ecological problem
That accounts for less than 1%. The majority is from effluent overflow and seepage from farms getting into waterways and the ground. "Analysis found that EE2 has a lower predicted concentration in U.S. drinking water than natural estrogens from soy and dairy products and animal waste used untreated as a farm fertilizer. And that all humans, (men, women and children, and especially pregnant women) excrete hormones in their urine, not just women taking the pill. Some research cited in the report suggests that animal manure accounts for 90 percent of estrogens in the environment. Other research estimates that if just 1 percent of the estrogens in livestock waste reached waterways, it would comprise 15 percent of the estrogens in the world's water supply."
Note: this post originally had 55 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Russia is controlling social media with bots and trolls and increases polarization in society with this army of trolls. There is evidence for this theory, but I feel it goes way further than people think
Substitute "controlling" with "manipulating" and you have the simple truth.
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Someone makes it rain every day at school drop-off and pick up time. Might be crazy but I am convinced this is true
A conspiracy that I just made up is that the Anti-Vax movement was started by a misogynistic group of men to bring back high infant mortalities to get women out of the workforce and back to being baby makers full time
Most of these aren't conspiracy theories at all. I think this bored panda needs to research what that term actually means.
Does it mean: a nonscientific theory without any facts that has an elite group of people who know what is really happening and purposefully hiding it from others? Because that is what this post was doing.
Load More Replies... After all these years and all the millions of dollars given for cancer research the best they've managed to come up with is chemo? I have a hard time believing that. I think they just don't want the money to stop coming in.
There have been massive strides in cancer treatment over the decades. Cancer survival rates increase every year, and there are many non-chemo treatments either available or in trial or research. Not to mention that we have a literal vaccination for cervical cancer. Cancer is not a single disease with a single trajectory.
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a theory i heard recently is that the lottery was invented to trap time travelers
My local bus company is owned by the same guys who own the taxi firms. So it's in their interests that buses don't go places before or after a certain time of day.
Scott Morrison is an AI or robotics experiment. I am yet to see that man show any emotion.
Instagram and social media preys on people's insecurities and then sell you beauty products. Previous generation didn't use these many products, their skin looked better, they didn't have a skincare daytime nighttime routine. A lot of business would shut down completely if only people started getting Ok with their appearance, not talking about health, just appearance
The one I believe in is that the 2008 Housing Crash and Economic Crisis was allowed to happen. There is evidence to support this as well, since people from the Financial and Real Estate Industries had gone to Congress as far back as 2004 to warn them about what was going on. But I guess people were making too much money to care.
Totally random, but the DC Snipers could've been orchestrated as a distraction from the ongoing and mishandled lead crisis in the city.
Russia is controlling social media with bots and trolls and increases polarization in society with this army of trolls. There is evidence for this theory, but I feel it goes way further than people think
Substitute "controlling" with "manipulating" and you have the simple truth.
Load More Replies... Someone makes it rain every day at school drop-off and pick up time. Might be crazy but I am convinced this is true
A conspiracy that I just made up is that the Anti-Vax movement was started by a misogynistic group of men to bring back high infant mortalities to get women out of the workforce and back to being baby makers full time
Most of these aren't conspiracy theories at all. I think this bored panda needs to research what that term actually means.
Does it mean: a nonscientific theory without any facts that has an elite group of people who know what is really happening and purposefully hiding it from others? Because that is what this post was doing.
Load More Replies... After all these years and all the millions of dollars given for cancer research the best they've managed to come up with is chemo? I have a hard time believing that. I think they just don't want the money to stop coming in.
There have been massive strides in cancer treatment over the decades. Cancer survival rates increase every year, and there are many non-chemo treatments either available or in trial or research. Not to mention that we have a literal vaccination for cervical cancer. Cancer is not a single disease with a single trajectory.
Load More Replies... a theory i heard recently is that the lottery was invented to trap time travelers
My local bus company is owned by the same guys who own the taxi firms. So it's in their interests that buses don't go places before or after a certain time of day.
Scott Morrison is an AI or robotics experiment. I am yet to see that man show any emotion.
Instagram and social media preys on people's insecurities and then sell you beauty products. Previous generation didn't use these many products, their skin looked better, they didn't have a skincare daytime nighttime routine. A lot of business would shut down completely if only people started getting Ok with their appearance, not talking about health, just appearance
The one I believe in is that the 2008 Housing Crash and Economic Crisis was allowed to happen. There is evidence to support this as well, since people from the Financial and Real Estate Industries had gone to Congress as far back as 2004 to warn them about what was going on. But I guess people were making too much money to care.
Totally random, but the DC Snipers could've been orchestrated as a distraction from the ongoing and mishandled lead crisis in the city.
