Your Conspiracy Theory Free Pass

[The King Of Swing]

6 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

We hear all the time about "Russian bots" but I'd expect disinformation bots to come from pretty much everywhere now, every major power.

Who's a bot here?

Absolutely. 

It's just an evolution of the propaganda wars. 

[Chris B]

6 hours ago, Jesse said:

No-one shot JFK, his head just did that

Slightly more believable, but there was a documentary a little while talking about the 'JFK was accidentally shot' theory, and that sounded entirely believable to me. It doesn't change much from the official story,  but it does remove the sinister aspect of why a cover-up might happen - the basic idea is that when Oswald started shooting, one of Kennedy's bodyguards accidentally shot him while panicking and taking his gun out/turning around. 

Basically, it wasn't a conspiracy to kill Kennedy - it was a fuck up, and everyone who knew the truth was protecting one of their own, because why the hell should that guy take the blame when you had a guy genuinely trying to kill him at the same time. Of all the conspiracy theories I've heard, it's the one that makes the most emotional sense to me, because it gives a legit reason to everyone involved lying and covering up.

 

13 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

We hear all the time about "Russian bots" but I'd expect disinformation bots to come from pretty much everywhere now, every major power.

Who's a bot here?

To be fair, I think it's far more a case of astroturfing than bots - no need to automate something when you can just pay people peanuts to have multiple accounts and argue boringly with people. making the same circular points and over-expanded pedantic points that are actually irrelevant until the other person loses interest in... okay, now I actually think a couple of people on here may be part of it.

[Carbomb]

39 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

Which reminds me of an old favourite of mine, that Bin Laden was actually killed not that long after 9/11 and actors were used in his place to keep the war on terror going.

 

As evidenced in the documentary Iron Man III

[Just Some Guy]

I love a bit of Graham Hancock and pre ice age civilisation nonsense. I really enjoyed his recent Netflix series.

If you ignore the bits about pyramids and structures that shouldn't be there etc, etc I still think the fact of so many separate peoples around the world having a flood myth so there must be a single apocalyptic event plausible. Has that side of the argument ever been demolished?

Another joy from the annuls of pseudo history is Lincoln, Baigent & Leigh's Holy Blood & The Holy Grail. Totally convinced by this in my teens and even wrote off the debunking documentaries as "cover ups"

Only when Dan Brown's book was turned into a film did I face palm and go "Ah, bollocks!"

I'd still like both of these to be a bit true though

[SuperBacon]

7 hours ago, Jesse said:

No-one shot JFK, his head just did that

I have laughed over this approximately every 15 minutes today. It's so funny.

[Tamura]

Mine is whether Roger Hollis, Director General of MI5 from 1956 to 1965, was a spy for the Soviet Union (specifically the GRU, for reasons which will become apparent). This theory that Hollis was a GRU spy with the codename Elli became known to the wider public on publication of Chapman Pincher's Chapman Pincher book Their Trade is Treachery in 1981, but probably became known to a much wider audience as a result of the attempts to ban former MI5 member Peter Wright's book Spycatcher from publication in 1987. I never gave it much thought at the time, and it was only after sorting through my dad's things after he died that I found a copy of Spycatcher and decided to give it a read as I remembered the controversy. While Wright may be unreliable on some aspects of the Hollis case, there's plenty of anomalies regarding Hollis's career that just won't go away. He was supposedly cleared by a statement in parliament by Maggie Thatcher, but anyone who thinks that closes the case would be advised to remember Kim Philby was similarly cleared by foreign secretary Harold Macmillan in 1955, before his 1963 defection and exposure as a Soviet spy since the 1930s. Some historians, chiefly Christopher Andrew and Ben Macintyre (both of whom have worked with KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky), claim Hollis has been exonerated by Gordievsky's claim that Elli was in fact Leo Long. The difficulty with that being that none of the known facts about Elli actually match Long, specifically Long was a KGB spy not GRU, Elli is known to have had access to MI5 files about Soviet spies and Long never worked there, he worked for MI14 who dealt with Germany during World War 2. Andrew's claimed exoneration has been debunked at length by Paul Monk in Quadrant magazine and Chapman Pincher's 2011 book Treachery: Betrayals, Blunders and Cover-Ups: Six Decades of Espionage, rather than refute that many strange anomalies of Hollis's career Andrew simply ignores them completely. While the case against Hollis being Elli is far from completely proven, it's a significantly stronger case than Leo Long being Elli which rests solely on the evidence of a KGB defector (who would have no knowledge of GRU spies, the KGB and GRU being rivals, despite being sister organisations) saying that was the codename on his KGB file, despite other KGB sources who say his codename wasn't Elli anyway, it was Ralph. To me, it's strange that Andrew's claimed exoneration of Hollis as Elli rests solely on Leo Long actually being Elli. Andrew accepts that there was a GRU spy Elli who worked in MI5, yet then turns round and says Leo Long was Elli despite being a KGB spy (not GRU) who didn't work in MI5. Yet he has the brass neck to criticise "conspiracy theorists"...

[SuperBacon]

4 hours ago, Merzbow said:

The Giant of Kandahar story has been going around again with these new giant sightings being reported, apparently the US military killed a giant in Afghanistan in the early 00's and covered it up.

Had never heard of this, so looked it up and was disappointed to find he was 'only' 13 feet tall. I thought it was going to be at least 20.

This did make me laugh though. 

Red hair and six fingers? Thought he was from Afghanistan, not the Isle Of Man...waheeeeeeeey.

[Jesse]

1 hour ago, SuperBacon said:

I have laughed over this approximately every 15 minutes today. It's so funny.

It's a stolen bit. I think I first saw it on Twitter 5 years ago and it routinely cracks me up every couple of months when I remember it.

[unfitfinlay]

Alex Jones is Bill Hicks for me.

I don't really believe it anymore, and I'd actually be a bit disappointed if it was true, but I do think it's plausible. They look very similar, Jones background is extremely sketchy and he just seemed to appear a few years after Hicks died, but with the same mates. Plus as influential as Hicks was, his on-stage persona severely hampered his ability to make money. He couldn't really do product endorsements while ranting about the evils of capitalism after all. He was supposedly working on a Jones-like character before he died and I could believe that grew into him faking his death and reinventing himself. As Jones he could still rant about what he liked, without the grind of touring and while selling out as much as possible. As much as a cunt as Jones is, the man knows how to milk his audience.

Ultimately though, I think it only made sense for me when Jones was a fringe figure that nobody really cared about. Considering all the attention, and lawsuits, that he's had recently, I don't think he'd be able to keep it a secret. I no longer think he's even close to being smart enough either.

[SuperBacon]

8 minutes ago, unfitfinlay said:

Alex Jones is Bill Hicks for me.

I don't really believe it anymore, and I'd actually be a bit disappointed if it was true, but I do think it's plausible. They look very similar, Jones background is extremely sketchy and he just seemed to appear a few years after Hicks died, but with the same mates. Plus as influential as Hicks was, his on-stage persona severely hampered his ability to make money. He couldn't really do product endorsements while ranting about the evils of capitalism after all. He was supposedly working on a Jones-like character before he died and I could believe that grew into him faking his death and reinventing himself. As Jones he could still rant about what he liked, without the grind of touring and while selling out as much as possible. As much as a cunt as Jones is, the man knows how to milk his audience.

Ultimately though, I think it only made sense for me when Jones was a fringe figure that nobody really cared about. Considering all the attention, and lawsuits, that he's had recently, I don't think he'd be able to keep it a secret. I no longer think he's even close to being smart enough either.

Never heard of this, and as a big Hicks fan, I am naturally appalled.

Fascinated obviously, but appalled.

[BomberPat]

2 hours ago, Just Some Guy said:

 I still think the fact of so many separate peoples around the world having a flood myth so there must be a single apocalyptic event plausible. Has that side of the argument ever been demolished?

 

Not so much "demolished", as the more likely truth being a lot more involved and complex - there are plenty of flood myths, but they didn't all evolve independently of one another. Over time, Christian missionaries spread the biblical version, and regional non-Christian myths started to skew closer to the Biblical account too. So to a lazy anthropologist, it looks like countless cultures independently believe similar stories, and to a dishonest anthropologist, it's easy to misrepresent things to look that way.

Like the Atlantis myth, it was likely helped along by a lot of mid-19th to early 20th century writers who believed in the Biblical flood as a literal historic event and did all they could to either find or manufacture evidence among other cultures to prove it.

[chokeout]

1 hour ago, SuperBacon said:

 

[Browser Brady]

I have two whacky ones.

 

 

1. I reckon Aliens are humans from the future.
2. i do believe in reincarnation . You might have to hear me out on this one but i do remember being a new born baby and having somewhat mature thoughts.

I remember lying in my cot and seeing a male person coming in and having the conscious thought “oh that must be my father” and also when i saw my mother I remember thinking something similar and thinking about how her hair was very nice and suited her and how i was glad that she was my mother.
I also  remember to consciously having thoughts that this isnt normal and is something i should try not to forget.

Am i lying  , no . Am i mistaken, very possible ! It also could be a false memory but i do seem to vividly recall this. I can see it now in my mind even.

 

So yeah, i do reckon i have lived before.

Make of that what you will.

 

[SuperBacon]

Ive just remembered I saw one the other day that is VERY plausible.

The lottery is a government trap to catch time travellers.

Now that is something I can get behind.

[Rockbus2]

Princess Diana was killed by a group of florists looking to reinvigorate the industry.