The word “conspiracy” may sound alarming and immediately make you think of someone standing in the middle of a field with a foil hat. Alas, conspiracy theories are everywhere and they are usually harmless. It can be fun to sit and discuss just what the government might be lying about today. Here are ten theories that may rile up some lively discussion, but are innocent and fun in the end.
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The Moon Landing is Fake
This may be one of the most widely believed conspiracies: Buzz and Neil never stepped foot on the Moon’s surface and the whole thing was faked. This may to be due to the quick progression of Kennedy promising the American people that he was going to put a man on the moon, then actually doing it. There was increased pressure to beat Russia in the space race, which could lead to the U.S. using any means necessary to get ahead. People have reported seeing microphones and lighting fixtures in the “live” video. The flag continues to wave despite the absence of wind on the moon. Why have we not sent anyone up there since? All of these speculations may be answered by Stanley Kubrick, the designated director of the false moon landing, or we may all be way off. Either way, our limited knowledge of the moon and space limit this theory from truly “taking off.”
2. Mattress Firms are Meeting Places for the Illuminati
The existence of the Illuminati is a conspiracy on its own, but more and more theories center around its existence. This one relies heavily on the fact that many small towns in America are saturated with mattress stores, as much as one on every corner of an intersection. The question remains, how do all of these stores stay in business? People cannot be buying enough mattresses to keep all of these stores open. This raises the idea of an alternative purpose for these stores…or just a super solid business model.
3. Britney Spears was Cloned
People love to speculate about celebrities–which ones are secretly lizards or which ones died and were replaced by look-alikes. With Britney Spears, the conspiracy runs deeper. Videos from her youth reveal that Spears used to have a much deeper voice than her current famous nasal sound. Theorists think that she was unable to keep up with her sound, which resulted in her being cloned and replaced. Also, many songs and videos allude to being cloned–namely, the music video for “Break the Ice” and lines from the song “Mona Lisa.” “Mona Lisa” was originally supposed to appear on the album “Original Doll,” which was never released, and this makes us think: what other secrets were hidden on that album that prevented its release?
4. Mandela Effect
The Mandela Effect refers to thinking you remember something one way, only to discover you were wrong all along. This phenomenon arose in 2010 when people recalled Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 80’s, when he did not die until 2013. Common examples include remembering the name of the Berenstain Bears as Berenstetin, and remembering the Monopoly avatar with a monocle when he is actually bare-faced. The list goes on and on. This effect seems to confirm the existence of parallel universes. Whether or not this is true, it teaches us that our memory fails us more often than we think.
5. Everyone Controlling our Government is Secretly a Lizard
This one may be easier to believe in today’s slimy political climate, but confirmations of this theory are scarce otherwise. This theory comes from the easiness of imagining politicians as animals. It provides an outlet for hatred when a particular politician’s actions seem otherworldly. Even if some videos do hint at certain humans blinking to reveal reptilian eyes for a moment, it remains fun to image the White House beginning each day by morphing into passable human beings before going to work.
6. Aliens are Contacting Us
The conspiracy surrounding extraterrestrials ranges from whether aliens exist and how they will contact us, to when they will join our society or, inevitably, take over. With unexplainable UFO footage and more politicians and scientists speaking out about their existence, the possibility of seeing an alien becomes more and more real. Every passing day, more people speak about their own experiences of being abducted or cite objects in the sky as proof. The U.S. government has always kept high surveillance on what they apparently know about alien species in America. Some people even believe JFK was assassinated because of his insistence on reading the secret files on extraterrestrials. Either way, the possibility of meeting someone from another planet becomes more and more real as the alien topic gets brought up more and more.
7. Chemtrails
Those streams of white that follow jet planes and that are often seen in movies announcing wedding proposals could be harmful. Theorist believe that chemtrails, which are made out of condensed water vapor, actually contain harmful chemicals that harm the environment and the human species. This, like most theories, blames the government for the harm, saying that chemtrails belong to an initiative by the New World Order. Scientists continue to dismantle this idea, but who knows? It remains something to consider when looking up at the sky.
8. Elvis Presley is Still Alive
These ideas of people who are “dead” never actually dying circulate from figures like Elvis to Hitler. Fans of Elvis claim to have seen him walking around after his “death” in 1977. Some people believe Elvis faked his death in order to live a more normal life and pretended to be someone else. Others even thought they saw Elvis in the background of a scene from Home Alone. These theories, while fun to speculate, will definitely have you doing a double take the next time you walk down the street.
9. The Titanic Did Not Sink
This theory follows Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic, which supposedly did sink on April 15, 1912. Apparently, the Olympic crashed earlier in its career and White Star Line was blamed, which meant a lot of money lost for the company. To make up for that money, an orchestrated vessel disguised as the Titanic sunk as an insurance scheme. People see evidence in the number of windows on each ship and how it varies from picture to picture, confirming a switch. More evidence comes from J.P. Morgan supposedly canceling his Titanic ticket conveniently right before the voyage. Despite the truth, Olympic would not have been as catchy of a movie title anyway.
10. The Simpsons Can Predict the Future
This theory rose to popularity when an image from the show’s Season 9 premiere, which aired in 1997, emerged of Bart looking a magazine that had a large 9¢ followed by an image of the Twin Towers, spelling out 9/11 perfectly. This may seem coincidental, but the show continued to predict events that went on to come true, including Donald Trump running for President. They also predicted the Ebola outbreak and Disney buying 20th Century Fox. These occurrences add up to a list of predictions that is hard to ignore or cast aside. These revelations will definitely have us watching the Simpsons more closely, hoping to find out what is in store for the future.
We hope this article sparked some fun discussions with your friends!