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27 Conspiracy Theories That Were Once Dismissed But Later Shown To Be True
Many people went into a flat spin when Katy Perry and the rest of her "astronaut" friends took a trip to space. Did they really go? Or was it all just a lie? The internet sleuths were on top form, searching for clues to back up their beliefs that the Blue Origin space tourism flight never actually happened. A similar thing occurred when the Air India plane crashed this year. Was the lone survivor even on the plane? The questions came in thick and fast.
If one thing is true, it's that the world loves a good conspiracy theory. Defined as the belief that some secret but influential organization is responsible for an event or phenemonen, there have been dozens since the dawn of time. Many turned out to be utter bollocks. However, some ended up being totally legit.
When someone recently asked, "Which conspiracy theories were later proven to be true?" the internet didn't hold back. There were over 3,000 responses. And some might make you question the things you once believed. Bored Panda has put together a list of the top answers for you to scroll through while you wait for the next big conspiracy theory to hit. Let us know your favorites by upvoting them.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
McDonald's villified the older woman who got burned by their coffee by saying she was greedy/faking when in reality they kept the coffee extra hot so it would stay "fresh" longer and she had 3rd degree burns that scarred her severely. She really only asked for her medical/lawyer bills to be covered.
Upstaged75 3 months ago
The poor woman was burned so badly that her labia fused together. Can you imagine the pain of that? Plus all the reconstructive surgery. Burns are no joke.
RELATED:
#3
The Free Britney movement. It all started online as a conspiracy theory of her being held against her will. There were posts with videos of bodyguards watching her every move, people started to march for her freedom, it all ended up in court, it was proven it was the case, and she is gladly a free woman now.
#4
Tobacco companies knew about the dangers of smoking and withheld and falsified data for decades, probably condemning thousands of people to deaths from cancer & other smoking related diseases.
The Catholic Church covered up a***e by priests for decades.
#5
Cointelpro. The FBI actually ran a secret program to spy on and disrupt civil rights groups, anti-war activists, and other political organizations they didn’t like. This wasn’t just passive surveillance either, they actively tried to discredit people like Martin Luther King Jr. and infiltrate groups like the Black Panthers. It all came out in the 1970s when activists broke into an FBI office and leaked the files.
#6
The Non-Fat/Low-Fat craze of the 80s/90s was created by the Sugar Industry lobby.
#7
Lance Armstrong using performance enhancing d***s. Lot of people had this conspiracy theory about him that he was and then finally it turned out that he did actually use d***s.
Upstaged75 3 months ago
Remember when everyone was wearing those Livestrong bracelets? Bet they're all in a landfill somewhere now.
#8
I don’t know if it was a theory but it was most definitely a conspiracy.
Johnson and Johnson knew their talcum powder contained asbestos.
Especially harmful to females because they make up the larger majority of users (outside of babies) It’s only relatively recently they were exposed. There’s more too it. One of many potential links below.
Paywall removed via Archive.is
J&J talc scandal.
#9
Snowden. Before that we probably all assumed the government was probably spying on us, but to what extent was unknown and to think the answer was "everyone, all the time, any time" was in conspiracy theory territory.
Then Snowden was like no yeah, they know just about anything they could ever want to know about everyone and whatever you do digitally is completely at their disposal, as well as plenty of things you do in the physical world. Workarounds like Tor just slow them down or deter, but if they really wanted you in particular, they can get around that too.
Upstaged75 3 months ago
I can only imagine how bored someone would be if they decided to find out "everything" about me! 🤣🤣 Unless they find spending too much time on Bored Panda fascinating.
#10
Hemingway said the fbi was spying on him. Files were released after he died and they were.
Jrog 3 months ago
In the 1950 the FBI was spying upon a large part of the population. How many exactly is not known yet, but it's known they already had 10 million individuals under surveillance in 1939, that is ONE IN 13 Americans had a file on them. The Chicago office alone, on a city of barely 3M inhabitants, in 1950 had 15.000 people on their "security index", 50.000 people under active surveillance and an undisclosed number, likely between half a million and a million, with a record routinely updated.
#11
I remember back in like 2017 I was serving a table and I was joking with the dude at the table about how my husband told me he wanted to go shopping for winter boots, and literally as soon as I opened FB literally EVERY ad was for winter boots.
The guy was laughing along, but the girl got very quiet and seemed perturbed, so I took the hint and left quickly.
As I was leaving, I overheard her say “you don’t really believe that s**t, do you?” And he was like “what? That companies are listening to your voice to market things?” And she was like “YES. It pisses me off sooo much when people talk about that becayse it’s just not true, and that would be such an invasion of PRIVACY.”
Like this lady was MAD.
I’ve always wondered how she’s doing in 2025 knowing that not only is it true, it’s f*****g normalized and expected now, and a lot of people have a smart home that knows what they need for groceries before they do.
Upstaged75 3 months ago (edited)
Oh it's true. That's why I keep my Alexa unplugged unless I'm using it to listen to music. Otherwise I start getting an obnoxious amount of ads for whatever I happen to mention out loud. My brother once mentioned new tires at my parents' house (they keep the Alexa on all the time) and the whole family started getting stuff about it. 🙄
Yvonne Dauwalder Balsiger 3 months ago (edited)
This is still not true (would use too much data storage and voice recognition is still pretty bad). What is actually happening is that Google, Meta, Apple, etc. know exactly what you look at online, what you like, what content you engage with, what you search for, where you are and who your friends are.
Luke Branwen 3 months ago
I have one very interesting story about this. As a fun fact, I told my students once that the legend of Cyclops came to be after ancient people discovered elephant skulls that look like giant human skulls with one big eye socket. Later that day, I got a facebook ad for some museum (in the US, I'm European) with an elephant skull and the exact same fact I've told.
Nikki Angulo 3 months ago
So true! I’ve had ads show up in my devices when I’ve talked about something near my phone!
quentariel 3 months ago (edited)
This seems to depend on country and laws. I've never experienced this and neither has anyone I know. It might also matter than people in here very rarely use voice assistants on phones (that's Finns and their love for peace and quiet), and try to have all possible appliances without any smart features. Of course it takes only one google search/link clicking to start the ad-avalanche on certain subject.
Yvonne Dauwalder Balsiger 3 months ago
It's a myth. People leave so much information online, big tech doesn't need to listen to you, it just uses your search history, what content you engage with, where you are, who your online friends are, what they do online, what other people in your location/social group are searching for and so on.
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michael Chock 3 months ago
UK and several EU countries sued tech companies. You can now turn most of this off on your devices.
Shortstuff 2 months ago
We have been talking of buying a canopy for our patio. Now getting ads every day for canopies!
Jane Hower 2 months ago
I will NEVER have one of those 'speaker' things in my home. OMG, a listening device???? NEVER
Rebecca McManus 3 months ago (edited)
My phone and laptop are the only online items in my house, I don't have them connected, I use DuckDuckGo as my phone browser, and only access social media on my phone. If I search for something on the internet (MS Edge) on my laptop then Facebook on my phone shows me ads related to the laptop search. I hate it, I'm going to look at installing a different browser on my laptop today and see if that makes a difference.
Janine Randall 3 months ago
I was kind of dumbfounded when people were surprised they were getting coupons for what they had previously shopped for. Hello?! Your "Club Card" recorded everything you just bought and sent the info to the big corporation in the sky!
Courtney Christelle 3 months ago
I told my son I needed to buy a light bulb for the lamp. Ads started popping up on my phone for freaking light bulbs.
Plentyofoomph 3 months ago
I dunno. There's stuff I talk about all the time and never see ads for
Scott Rackley 3 months ago
I remember arguing with my parents when they got an Alexa. Why would you bug your own home? Hell even my cell phone goes in a box when I get home. It's bad enough I have to carry it around when I'm out and about.
Bored Sailor 3 months ago
I have had many but once Alexa told me I was being to loud and not being nice, not an exact quote. Also get emails from Amazon telling me I need printer ink, but it is that I am not using HP ink so the printer reports it to HP and Amazon picks up that info.
Geoffrey Scott 3 months ago
More eerie. Daughter was on her phone and kept getting pop-ups for redeye solution. She went into the bathroom, and when done looked in the mirror...yup! eyes bloodshot. She always pooh-poohed Dad about phones and spying. No more.
#12
The US government k**led illiterate black people by giving them STDs and not curing them... Even though curres existed. This included watching CHILDREN die.
The US government took the lessons from the nazis and perfected them.... Just like Israel today.
Google the "tuskegee experiment".
Upstaged75 3 months ago
The Tuskegee Experiment is another of many disgusting parts of US history.
#13
There were rumors that the FBI infiltrated civil rights and black power movements. Turns out not only was it true, the rumors were spread by the FBI to further disrupt those groups.
#14
Mountain Meadows M******e, Joseph Smith’s conviction for scrying with rocks and his very early conning of New Englanders for cash: his fleeing the jurisdiction after his Kirtland Ohio money cons and escapades there and then his polygamy and his shooting his way out of jail during his drunken, planned prison break.
Denied. Lied about. Covered up. The whispers on the winds that anyone who believed in these conspiracies were Satan’s minions. The pretense. The holy rituals devised to absolve those who participated, of their sins. Blamed on persecution and meddling outsiders—called tall tales and malicious lies—when most of the whistleblowers were born in the covenant or were true-blue Mormon converts, themselves.
All true. All factual. All proven. All documented. All corroborated, and later all admitted to by church authorities—after decades, or in several cases after a CENTURY, of punishing anyone who dared speak of them.
It’s not paranoid if they really are out to get you, and it’s not slandering if what you say is true. .
Grape Walls of Ire 3 months ago (edited)
i grew up Mormon, but never believed all the bizarre nonsense they preach. Regardless, it really did a number on me. Took several years of therapy to deal with it. If you're not familiar, read up on deconstructing religious beliefs.
#15
That people (mainly Chinese) went to Thailand and got kidnapped and disappeared. Government of Thailand denied it for a long time because powerful people within the government and military was involved.
Fast forward a couple of years it turned ot to be true, people was kidnapped in Thailand and made to work in scam call centres just across the border in Cambodia and Burma. There are thousands of people still trapped in such places.
Dave Baxter 3 months ago
Could be worse - they cpuld've been some of the truly vast numbers of people tricked into a life of virtual slavery without even having to leave China.
#16
The lightbulb cartel.
They were a group of lightbulb manufacturers in the early 1900’s that purposely designed lightbulbs to fail after awhile so people keep buying more lightbulbs.
This included General Electric, Phillips, and other big-name manufacturers.
Dave Baxter 3 months ago
Planned obsolescence is very definitely not limited to just lightbulb manufacturing!
#17
There was a kid in school who told us his dad worked for the CIA doing mind control experiments using LSD on mental patients at the hospital in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan. LOL. AS IF. Welp... MK Ultra was real, run by the CIA at mental hospitals in Canada and they used megadoses of LSD. They admitted to a lot of stuff but never to the stuff in Moose Jaw. But there is no way this kid could have known this stuff decades before it came out unless he was telling the truth.
Dave Baxter 3 months ago
What fascinates me is the HUGE quantity of pure, liquid LSD which Owsley manufactured for the US Govt back in the 60s... & where it's being kept now...?
#18
The FBI surveillance of John Lennon. He would talk about hearing voices on his phone (phone taps), being followed etc - and the media just brushed it off as “crazy d**g fueled hippie”. But it actually was a think Nixon got J Edgar Hoover to do because they were afraid his “Beatle power” would be used to swing the election(s) from Repugs.
#19
So this isn’t really a conspiracy theory, but in the late 80’s early 90’s sort of time frame they blamed mass hysteria for kids telling therapists that they were being s******y a********d. Then comes the Catholic Church, Boy Scouts, and Me Too movement from those kids who are now adults saying they were s******y a********d and told to shut up about it.
#20
**That time the United States military conducted secret chemical testing on unsuspecting residents of a predominately-Black and low-income housing complex in St. Louis.**
During the Cold War (e.g., 1950s and 60s), the Pruitt-Igoe housing development was one of a number of sites across the US chosen for testing where the Army would release particles of **zinc cadmium sulfide**—prolonged or repeated exposure to which *can cause cancer and damage to internal organs*.
The *official* purpose of these tests was to study how an aerosol agent might spread in various environments.
Ostensibly, St. Louis was selected due to its similarities to Moscow (i.e., a densely-populated area with similar architectural characteristics in some areas, accessibility to a large river, etc.). *The fact that the vast majority of residents being subjected to these dispersion tests were black was of course*, **entirely unrelated**. (Then again, by the mid-1980s, the CIA would be deliberately funneling crack c*****e into black neighborhoods all over the country, so...).
Tabitha 3 months ago
The mid-eighties crack c*****e thing was yet another attempt by a republican administration—-Reagan’s this time—-to keep a group that always voted for the Democratic candidate from doing so. Remember how ridiculous d**g laws were, when possession of an ounce of pot would send a person to prison—-and not only could they not vote while incarcerated, ex-convicts weren’t allowed to vote after they got out (and in many states still aren’t, no matter how successfully they turned their lives around)? So many underhanded attempts to keep those who want the country to move forward from putting the people in place who could achieve that goal, and all perpetrated by a tiny minority of rich white men, primarily “Christians”, who merely want to keep the status quo, and in many cases turn back the clock, simply because it makes THEM rich?
#21
Idk about a theory as much as pretty much fact.
MLB ignored the mass use of steroids in baseball which peaked in the 90's and early 2000's because it was stimulating ticket sales following the players strike in 1994 where public opinion and interest in baseball was dwindling. It gave them a quick rebound and they only gave it attention when the health effects came to light more and congress got involved in the mid 2000's.
#22
TLDR: A conspiracy theory that South Korea and North Korea worked together to prevent a popular South Korean politician from being elected president was actually proven to be true.
---
In 1990s South Korea, there was a suspicion that there was some funny business going on to prevent a guy named Kim Dae-jung from being elected as president. Basically, he was a left-leaning politician who favoured a more reconciliatory tone towards North Korea.
South Koreans in charge obviously didn't like that. But surprisingly to some, neither did the North Koreans in charge. To legitimize their power, North Korea needed a South Korean enemy to fight against. Kim Dae-jung's friendlier approach would threaten that.
So South Korean and North Korean officials cooked up a scheme. They met secretly in China, where South Korea gave money to North Korea to create border disruptions whenever Kim Dae-jung got too popular during election campaigns.
This became so routine that South Korean citizens nicknamed it the "North Wind." It was a conspiracy theory that North Korea would do something to sabotage Kim Dae-jung whenever he got too popular.
Eventually a South Korean spy blew it wide open. He was posing as a businessman from South Korea who was interested in filming advertisements in the North, meeting North Korean officials in China. In reality, he was working for South Korean intelligence to gather proof and details of North Korea's nuclear program.
During one of those stays in China, he happened to be in the same hotel and proximity to the North and South Koreans in the scheme and confirmed the scheme's existence with his North Korean colleagues. He gathered enough proof of what was happening to threaten to go public, if they kept going with it. They didn't and without the "North Wind," it resulted in Kim Dae-jung winning the election.
Kim Dae-jung eventually became known as South Korea's greatest president and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his North Korea strategy.
This whole thing was dramatized in the film [The Spy Gone North](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spy_Gone_North). If you want to Google more, the spy's code name was "Black Venus." None of this was publicly known until around the 2000s to 2010s, when the people involved were convicted.
#23
Let's ask famed trouble maker, Abbie hoffman. He suffered from bipolar I with psychotic episodes and claimed there was systematic harassment and attempts to frame "dangerous" people by the FBI
Well turns out he was right, and it was called COINTELPRO. It focused mostly on nonwhites, but also targeted people and groups it considered leftist.
Lee Gilliland 3 months ago
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're not out to get you.
#24
Black Helicopters.
In the 90's these were the equivalent of tinfoil hats. Conspiracy nuts would talk endlessly about totally silent black helicopters - modified Black Hawks - that could move around at high altitudes almost undetected.
The thing is - they were real the whole time.
When the US government sent in Seal team 6 to bag Bin Laden, they public announced that ST6 dropped in on two silent black helicopters, and had to blow one up to stop the technology from being recovered. That a thing they just said with their full chest, like it wasn't a big deal.
Maybe it isn't - but I just imagined a whole lot of conspiracy guys fist pumping because a thing they've been saying for 20 years was proved true.
Nils Skirnir 3 months ago
Silent choppers have been around for a long time as have black/dark colored ones. The conspiracy at the time was that they’d be UN choppers. The truth is they’re more likely to be ICE.
#25
The Titanic splitting in half before it sank.
Although many survivors claimed it did, there were others that claimed it didn't. Cunard & nautical engineers denied it, indicating there was no way that could've happened. I have no idea why, what difference would it make? Yet, until Ballard found the wreck, there was a lot of denial & debate as to whether it went down in one piece.
Jrog 3 months ago (edited)
Cunard did not deny that the Titanic broke apart (why would they, they were competitors?); it was the White Star Line, the Titanic's owner, who initially denied it. White Star Line said the Titanic sank intact in order to avoid the negative publicity and reputational damage over alleged structural weakness of the hull. Mind that many eyewitnesses -the majority actually- initially reported the ship sinking intact. The highest-ranking surviving bridge officers, including Charles Lightoller, testified that the ship sank straight after reaching an angle of 45 to 60 degrees (while it was likely close to 30). In total darkness, they mistook the sound of the breakage as the explosion of the boilers.
#26
Project Eschelon.
It was a conspiracy theory during the Clinton Administration about the US governmnet monitoring domestic communication. We later found out it was true.
Jrog 3 months ago (edited)
ECHELON, not Eschelon. Not created by Clinton, it existed in same form since the Eisenhower administration but it was consolidated and rolled out properly under... you guessed it, NIXON. Because when you need a bast*rd it's always good ol' Nixon or Reagan. First leaked to the press in 1972, then again every 5 years or so, but nobody gave a f*ck because they said "but we are only spying our allies!". It was subject to multiple EU parliamentary inquiries in the 1990s and 2000s. Then in 2015 the Snowden files revealed that yes, since the 1970s they were spying on American's too! and this managed to breach the collective lack of interest for at least a few weeks.
#27
NSA mass surveillance program on US citizens, allies defense apparatus, individual heads of friendly states. All while collaborating with big telecom companies to bulk gather data and pass it on to NSA in-house tools.
It is FLABBERGASTING how easily all this was swept under the rug in the name of t*******m by passing FISA law that not only protected NSA but also telecom companies too (retroactively too).
Do people really know the tools NSA has? It's all very very very cool and very very very scary. Look up Tailored Access Operations. These people are legendary.
Edit: D**n... i come back from lunch and this post blew up. Don't come for me NSA, do some introspection.
Explore more of these tags
What do you think ?
Nils Skirnir 3 months ago
That the Republican Party, along with many over-wealthy, planned to destroy the secular, democratic USA Republic and replace it with a fascistic Christian Nationalist oligarchy.
Tabitha 3 months ago
That they do not believe in themselves, but run with because it makes them even wealthier.
Load More Replies...
Mark Fergel 3 months ago
I'm going to go ahead and get out on front of this one for the next time they do this list..........that "We knew he was on the list."
Roxy222uk 3 months ago
One of the most recent ones, which I am still cross about the confidence with which we were all assured was a complete conspiracy theory and there was no a shred of evidence that it could be true, was that the Covid virus had escaped from the research laboratory in Wuhan.
Jac Carr 3 months ago
I don't know why people are getting their panties in a bunch about this. It literally could have come from any lab in any country, it really doesn't matter - people don't seem to think their own government are creating death viruses which is comical in itself
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bElLa sTairZz 3 months ago
the hurricane katrina stuff coming out lately feels alot like a confirmed conspiracy, not sure about the people conspiring though
michael Chock 3 months ago
When the US wakes up to the danger that is president Orange, there will be a 100 point list just on the BS he did that the tinfoil MAGA refuse to believe is true.
Carrie Faith Johnson (FaithfulCarrie9) 3 months ago
Wow almost everything I thought was true growing up.
Floeckchen 3 months ago
Please know the difference: https://medium.com/@paulaustinmurphy2000/conspiracies-vs-conspiracy-theories-some-vital-distinctions-bcdec94b4543
Costa 3 months ago
What about the disappearing white dog turds? Turns out they had to stop putting bone powder in dug food.
BrunoVI 3 months ago
So we're not going to discuss the wiretapping of Donald Trump's office; the lies about Hunter Biden's laptop being russian disinforation; the fact that COVID came from a lab (the one in Wuhan having received money for gain-of-function experiements authorized by Anthony Fauci); the CIA coersion of YouTube, Facebook, Google search engine results; the IRS' interference with conservative 501(c)(3) and 527 organizations; the "experiment" by which the US government armed narco-terrorists so they could blame it on gun shows; the campaign to prevent use of HCL and Ivermectin. Nope! We're probably going to censor this to oblivion.
CP 3 months ago
I love downvoting 9/11 truthers. Not gonna waste my time with that useless book.
Load More Replies... Nils Skirnir 3 months ago
That the Republican Party, along with many over-wealthy, planned to destroy the secular, democratic USA Republic and replace it with a fascistic Christian Nationalist oligarchy.
Tabitha 3 months ago
That they do not believe in themselves, but run with because it makes them even wealthier.
Load More Replies... Mark Fergel 3 months ago
I'm going to go ahead and get out on front of this one for the next time they do this list..........that "We knew he was on the list."
Roxy222uk 3 months ago
One of the most recent ones, which I am still cross about the confidence with which we were all assured was a complete conspiracy theory and there was no a shred of evidence that it could be true, was that the Covid virus had escaped from the research laboratory in Wuhan.
Jac Carr 3 months ago
I don't know why people are getting their panties in a bunch about this. It literally could have come from any lab in any country, it really doesn't matter - people don't seem to think their own government are creating death viruses which is comical in itself
Load More Replies... bElLa sTairZz 3 months ago
the hurricane katrina stuff coming out lately feels alot like a confirmed conspiracy, not sure about the people conspiring though
michael Chock 3 months ago
When the US wakes up to the danger that is president Orange, there will be a 100 point list just on the BS he did that the tinfoil MAGA refuse to believe is true.
Carrie Faith Johnson (FaithfulCarrie9) 3 months ago
Wow almost everything I thought was true growing up.
Floeckchen 3 months ago
Please know the difference: https://medium.com/@paulaustinmurphy2000/conspiracies-vs-conspiracy-theories-some-vital-distinctions-bcdec94b4543
Costa 3 months ago
What about the disappearing white dog turds? Turns out they had to stop putting bone powder in dug food.
BrunoVI 3 months ago
So we're not going to discuss the wiretapping of Donald Trump's office; the lies about Hunter Biden's laptop being russian disinforation; the fact that COVID came from a lab (the one in Wuhan having received money for gain-of-function experiements authorized by Anthony Fauci); the CIA coersion of YouTube, Facebook, Google search engine results; the IRS' interference with conservative 501(c)(3) and 527 organizations; the "experiment" by which the US government armed narco-terrorists so they could blame it on gun shows; the campaign to prevent use of HCL and Ivermectin. Nope! We're probably going to censor this to oblivion.
CP 3 months ago
I love downvoting 9/11 truthers. Not gonna waste my time with that useless book.
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