Some people are convinced there are secret cities hidden under Antarctica. Others swear the government can control hurricanes. Then there are people who still can’t believe that we landed on the moon.
There is no shortage of weird and crazy conspiracy theories out there.
They’ve always existed, but the internet has given them a megaphone — and now, more and more people are sharing their wildest and most unhinged ideas online.
A few of them even made us dig a little deeper, and let’s just say we lost more hours than we’d like to admit going down that rabbit hole.
Bored Panda also spoke to Dr. Karen Douglas, a professor of social psychology at the University of Kent in the UK, and Professor Stephan Lewandowsky at the University of Bristol, to understand how conspiracy theories take hold.
Let us know which theory sounds the craziest to you, and which ones you believe in.
Epstein isn’t at the top, it’s why he documented everything
America’s turning into 1940s Germany.
Before the internet, these ideas traveled through word of mouth, late-night radio shows, and tabloid magazines.
People whispered about UFO crashes in the 1940s. They debated whether Bigfoot is real. The stories spread slowly, but most people have heard them.
But now, they move at lightning speed.
“It is easy to find and share conspiracy theories on social media. People who are interested in conspiracy theories can find them almost immediately and they can spread rapidly,” Dr. Karen Douglas tells Bored Panda.
Dr. Douglas has spent more than a decade studying conspiracy theories, how they start, and why they persist.
“Once conspiracy theories are out there, they are difficult to quell, especially when some of the facts are still unknown. Even after that, once people believe in a conspiracy theory, it is often difficult to convince them otherwise.”
homophobia/racism/sexism etc exist so the masses fight each other instead of looking at what the rich are doing
Believing in conspiracy theories doesn’t automatically mean someone is crazy. It’s often related to how people think and make sense of the world.
Research suggests that people are attracted to conspiracy theories when one or more fundamental psychological needs are frustrated, says Dr. Douglas.
“The first of these needs are epistemic, related to the need to know the truth and have clarity and certainty. The other needs are existential, which are related to the need to feel safe and to have some control over things that are happening around us, and social, which are related to the need to maintain our self-esteem and feel positive about the groups that we belong to.”
She believes that people might be attracted to conspiracy theories to try to satisfy these needs and to cope with difficult situations.
Big events such as pandemics, wars, elections, and extreme weather create uncertainty. And conspiracy theories offer simple answers with someone to blame.
“This perspective essentially means that anyone can fall into conspiracy theories if the circumstances are right. This is perhaps one explanation why we tend to see a lot of conspiracy theories when things happen like assassination attempts, important elections, sudden controversies surrounded by secrecy, or during pandemics,” says Dr. Douglas.
“People are looking for ways to understand what is going on and they don’t like the uncertainty that often surrounds unfolding events. Also, a simple explanation is often not very appealing. People assume that there must somehow be a bigger explanation, or more going on than people know about.”
The reason cursive is no longer being taught is so later generations can’t read original texts. The constitution, bill of rights, anything like that is written in cursive.
Princess Diana was murdered by the royal family
The tip of the iceberg, they faked the moon landing…. Now to go deeper. The government takes yearly photos of all the kids in school to sell them into human trafficking if someone wants that kid bad enough
Surveys over the past few years suggest a large percentage of people believe at least one conspiracy theory.
Most Americans, at least 54%, believe that Lee Harvey Oswald definitely or probably did not act alone in assassinating John F Kennedy in 1963.
One in five or fewer think it’s likely true that the government is using COVID-19 vaccines to microchip Americans.
The phone reads thoughts
the model that ran out of a party and was screaming about them eating humans was 100% telling the truth😬
While many of these alternative narratives may seem like harmless stories shared online, their impact can stretch far beyond casual conversation.
“Conspiracy theories do have consequences, and can affect people’s, intentions, and behaviours. Conspiracy theories historically have been linked with prejudice, genocide, risky health behaviour, climate denial, and more recently some disturbing behaviour related to QAnon and COVID-19 conspiracy theories,” says Dr. Douglas.
She believes they can turn people away from mainstream politics and science in favor of more extreme political views and anti-science attitudes. “For some people they might just be entertaining and harmless fun, but in many cases, they are potentially much more dangerous.”
We are constantly being watched
Dr. Douglas says, in conversations with people who believe in conspiracy theories, that it is important to remember these people can sometimes feel quite alienated.
“In a conversation with them, it would not be constructive to be hostile, or behave in a way that ridicules them. This dismisses their views and might alienate them even further. It is therefore important to keep calm and listen.”
“Another thing to bear in mind is that strong conspiracy believers will have done their homework — that is, they usually know a lot more about the topic than other people do. So, when you get into a conversation with someone who believes strongly in a conspiracy theory, it is quite difficult to change their mind, or even to keep up with the discussion, because it always seems like they are one step ahead,” she adds.
Smart phones are the worst thing to happen to mankind and it was not only made to be a distraction but a ball and chain keeping us from being better.
Many conspiracy theorists also believe that they are critical thinkers who are trying to uncover the truth, “whereas others are still in the dark, or are ‘sheep’ who believe everything they are told, says Dr .Douglas.
“One strategy therefore might be to appeal to this value and ask the conspiracy believer to critically think about their information — Where did it come from? Who said it? Is this information reliable? This might uncover flaws in the conspiracy theory and you might be able to challenge them this way.”
The Miami mall incident was the closest we’ve been to seeing the truth but it’s been silenced by them, why would something that crazy still not be BIG today.
The government does the Mandela effect to see how much they can change without us noticing. The Miami mall incident wasn’t just a bunch of kids playing around.
The squid games is actually real somewhere in the world
Usually, the boldest claims travel furthest.
“Conspiracy theories spread rapidly because algorithms amplify engaging content — especially if it is negative. And, because conspiratorial claims are emotionally arousing, they have an edge. Because platforms reward attention rather than accuracy, misinformation and conspiracy theories often outcompete accurate information,” Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, Chair in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Bristol, tells Bored Panda.
He says these theories have real-world consequences.
“I would point to the anti-vaccine conspiracy narrative linking the MMR vaccine to autism. Despite overwhelming refutation, it has eroded trust in public health, reduced vaccination uptake, and contributed to disease resurgences — illustrating how misinformation can produce tangible, population-level harms.”
I’m not a flat earther… but I feel like our world is much bigger than what we are taught
Sometimes, repetition can make even the wildest ideas seem believable.
There’s also something called confirmation bias. When someone believes something, they start looking for more evidence that supports that belief.
Earlier this month, when former US President Barack Obama was asked about aliens in a light-hearted interview, he said, “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them.” That was all it took for headlines to spread like wildfire.
He later clarified that while life may exist somewhere in the vast universe, he saw no evidence of alien contact during his presidency. But by then, the narrative had already taken off.
Area 51 is hiding more than just “aliens”
There were giants during the pyramids
Diana found out what Andrew and Epstein were doing
a lot of celebrities don’t actually name their kids those super weird names, they’re just the names they use in public to protect their kids actual identity
Egyptians did not build the pyramids by hand, there is far too much technology, symmetry and weight in them for a standard human to have done it!
Some celebrities fake their death as they believe that’s the only way they can escape fame
People with schizophrenia don’t actually hallucinate. They see things “normal” humans aren’t meant to see.
Nobody has ever walked on the moon
things like Epstein Island are FAR more common than we all think. there are probably thousands more Epstein islands.
The very Rich are into child sacrificing and are the Reason most children go missing
Children have the ability to see & talk to spirits & ghosts. They grow out of it due to peer pressure & self doubt
AI is being made to look so real so that we can’t trust anything we see in the future
Ever since covid world shifted, time is faster, everthing is off, wars are starting, I have a feeling something is coming
Why do things suddenly go wrong when your happy? It’s almost as if were in a simulation where this is planned
there’s no way no one has found a cure for cancer, i 100% believe that someones silencing the ones who discovered it
Dreams are just parallel realities that can only be accessed through the mind. The body can’t travel through dimensions, but consciousness can.
Nasa did NOT stop exploring the oceans. its like they know something we dont
Can we talk about a strange old lady who was caught in American airport with a passport of a country that doesn’t exist on earth and the passport was 100 percent original….Where was she from ? was she even real?
there is 100% something in the ocean
Schools are slowly teaching kids less and less important things so the future generations don’t know what the government are doing
The reason the goverment doesn’t develop education is that they don’t want us to think critically and see through their actions. They want to keep us poorly educated so we believe everything they’re doing benefits the country
There is no such thing as true freedom. From the moment that humanity learned how to control everybody else they understood that they couldn’t let people make their own decisions because we would all kill each other so they made sure that we could never.
Aliens are real, ghosts are real and the megladon species is alive
The reason trafficking is a thing is because it is run by the government and no one can tell me otherwise.
You guys remember the Illuminati conspiracy, where all the world leaders worshiped a demon and sacrificed humans ?? Yea. That’s not a theory anymore. It’s the reality.
MOST mental disorders are caused by the way we live today. the social standards we must obey, the way we treat each other, the way we are expected to have 12 hour shifts to survive. And instead of doing more research and trying to repair the issue, we are given pills.
Sometimes dreams can predict the future.
Technology is 100 years ahead in the secret programs than what we have today
the Simpsons were right for a reason. the person who created the Simpsons was involved in a bunch of government stuff involving how time moves and area 51. he was warning us.
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