I don’t really know what constitutes a conspiracy theory. Diamonds in wedding rings are essentially worthless, yet people still pay exorbitant amounts for them. So, I guess I’ll leave it to personal judgment.

  • Toes♀
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    234 days ago

    The most destructive one I’ve seen has been the anti-vax crowd. Almost feels like a state actor trying to gaslight the world.

  • adhd_traco
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      • queerlilhayseed
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        154 days ago

        I remember “Covid was a Chinese bioweapon” being popular, alongside “Covid is fake and just an excuse for the government to inject us with 5G microchips”

        • @Treczoks@lemmy.world
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          43 days ago

          I was scratching my head about this “vaccination with 5G chips” when I heard it. Apart from not being feasible, I was wondering where they got this absurd idea from.

          Until I stumbled over a product: You can buy syringes with embedded RFID chips. That you can use to track “best before” dates and lot numbers with. Or one can check if they forgot one inside the patient after a surgery. It has, of course, nothing to do with the contents of the syringes, and of course it is not 5G but NFC/RFID. But yea, for the stupid and confused this is close enough.

        • 鳳凰院 凶真 (Hououin Kyouma)
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          3 days ago

          The “bioweapon” thing really triggers me. Even if that were true, these racists be attacking anyone that looks Chinese and blame literal civillians for something that a government allegedly did. Absolutely insane.

          If someone mentions “Covid” and “Bioweapon” in the same sentence, I’ll gonna keep my distance because I afraid to get attack by a bunch of Karens/Kens for how I look.

  • @listless
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    Popular conspiracy theories according to me:

    1. Fluoridation of municipal water supplies is some evil government program to disperse drugs / chemicals
    2. Roswell was an alien UFO crash, the aliens / craft are being kept at Area 51.
    3. JFK was not assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald alone. He was killed by the CIA / 2nd shooter on the grassy knoll.
    4. Moon landing was faked
    5. Condensation trails (contrails) from high altitude aircraft are actually chemicals being dispersed by the government (chemtrails)
    6. The Earth (and only the Earth, not the Sun, moon, other planets) is a flat disc.
    7. Automakers have cars that run on water but they refuse to sell them to protect the oil industry.
    8. Global warming / climate change is a hoax to sell solar / wind / hydro power.
    9. Big pharma / doctors have all the cures but they’re not selling them to keep you sick & them rich
    10. 9/11 was an inside job (planned by George W. Bush)
    11. COVID-19 vaccines deposited secret microchips in the population
    • JFK was not assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald alone. He was killed by the CIA / 2nd shooter on the grassy knoll

      Actually no one killed him. His head just did that.

    • @FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      Most of the flouride stuff ive read about is more about concerns with the toxicity of flouride and some about it promoting calcification of parts of the body.

      And a lot of the anti climate change stuff i find is less about promotion of alternatives and more about the government wants to control your freedom, self sustainability, and independence.

  • Hegar
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    114 days ago

    My favourite atm is that kirk’s wife had him killed.

    • @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      ngl, seen deer shot with 30.06, not sure how anyone can figure he got zapped in the neck and it went in-through-out without a lot more damage…

  • Chozo
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    114 days ago

    I like the theory that suggests that JonBenét Ramsey wasn’t killed, and was instead kidnapped and secretly raised by her captors to be a singer, and grew up to become Katy Perry.

    • That’s a new one! I recently saw a different one About JonBenet that says Erika Kirk is actually her grown up, and she was kidnapped by Ghislaine Maxwell because she was in a picture from that birthday party or something.

    • Ooh that’s a fun one. Paul McCartney as well, apparently. The McCartney one gets me thinking sometimes because supposedly they left clues to this in some of their lyrics.

      I have also heard this about Jamie Foxx and Kanye West. I’m sure there’s more.

  • Boomer Humor Doomergod
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    94 days ago

    My least favorite one is ancient aliens, because it is both inspired by Carl Sagan and inspired a ton of sci fi especially Stargate, but it’s also just white supremacy with extra steps.

    I’m so conflicted.

      • @I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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        54 days ago

        He wrote a book in the 60s that kind of suggested it was a possibility, but then walked it back within a few years and criticized people who latched on to it.

        Intelligent Life in the Universe is the book.

    • I think the US government knew about it, maybe not exactly orchestrated it, but they intentionally allowed it to happen to justify expanding powers.

      I mean like… I only believe this 60% true, there’s 40% of me that think government is just this incompetent.

      • @deranger@sh.itjust.works
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        94 days ago

        I think even that gives them too much credit. It’s just incompetence.

        The US “did 9/11” by interfering with global affairs for decades until one of those schemes finally backfired.

        I don’t think there’s any conspiracy necessary beyond that to explain everything.

      • @PumpkinDrama@reddthat.comOP
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        44 days ago

        I’ve seen a clip from a Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) that describes the motive weapons companies could have for it very well, the government wasn’t necessarily involved but I believe some of the elite definitely were.

        • @IronBird@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          there certainly were a lot of suspiciously timed, and very risky, trades made immediately before the crashes

      • @LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world
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        154 days ago

        If only ai didn’t get its information from people like us casually chatting on the internet, then passes off everything we say as fact.

      • Rhynoplaz
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        144 days ago

        It had been the target of less permanent terrorism multiple times before that.

      • @brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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        Discussing conspiracies is basically the worst case for LLMs. They’re both extremely sycophantic (they try to figure out and tell you what you want to hear), and not grounded in real references.

        If you must, use something like z.ai’s deep research mode, with a single even, neutral question. It’s way better than ChatGPT.

        • @sleen@lemmy.zip
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          13 days ago

          So is z ai an ai which uses more critical thinking patterns to make it better?

          • @brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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            It’s GLM 4.6 underneath, which is a good model and has a really helpful “default” tone without a system prompt. And it’s open weights! I host it locally, sometimes.

            But no. In of itself it does nothing different from other “thinking” LLMs.

            What really sets the website apart is its “deep research” tool, specifically. It’s just good at scouring the web for references… it sucks that you can’t change the temperature/sampling, but for a free web portal, it’s not bad.

      • snooggums
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        33 days ago

        The guy set up the insurance for the building he just purchased that had a terrorist attack in 1993. Of course he got insurance for terrorism for a building he just purchased that was a target for terrorists.

  • @carl_dungeon@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Chemtrails, trump not being a felon, 5G caused Covid, horse de-wormer covid cure, drinking bleach cures autism, god

    • sbird
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      13 days ago

      driving bleach? I assume you mean drinking (which for obvious reasons is not a good idea). Also, what the heck is a horse de-wormer?

  • @it_depends_man@lemmy.world
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    74 days ago

    Depends.

    Birds aren’t real is fake, but pretty popular, because it’s funny.

    Flat earthing is also fake but somehow has a huge following.

  • @xePBMg9@lemmynsfw.com
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    53 days ago

    I would guess:

    • Moon landing was faked
    • Anti-vax stuff.
    • The entire scientific community and goverments are making global warming up and hiding evidence to the contrary. Somehow, for some reason.

    Popular in media but probably not many actually believe:

    • Space aliens are here and goverments somehow are able to hide that. Good luck with that I say.
    • The eart is flat and all of academia is teaching the wrong thing. For no reason.

    Try selling diamonds jewelary on the second hand market. You’ll get the gold value.

  • FerretyFever0
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    54 days ago

    Flat Earth, the New World Order, the Illuminati, Jewish space lasers, Democrats/ Jews controlling the weather. MLK being killed by the government could be considered one, but, well. You know. All the classics.