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The perfect conspiracy theory needs some element of truth in order to really suck you in. You can’t just toss up some outlandish claim and expect people to believe it unless it’s within the realm of possibility, and in order for that to happen, it needs a great degree of plausibility.
Of course, there are people who think the best way to conceal the truth as a conspiracy theory is to throw out something so outrageous that expectations are set unbelievably high. This way when the truth is revealed it doesn’t seem so insane after all because you’ve already been duped by something far more insane.
I stumbled onto this AskReddit thread last night asking what conspiracy theories are so believable they might actually be true. The responses range from Robert Kardashian’s alleged involvement in O.J. Simpson’s coverup to Trader Joe’s fooling customers to covert government drug dealers. I legitimately couldn’t stop reading these so I had to share some of the best with you bros:
BornAfternoon:
Robert Kardashian destroyed evidence that would have convicted OJ. He was handed a Louis Vuitton garment bag by OJ’s assistant right as OJ returned from Chicago. None of the cops paid any attention to him as he walked away with the bag. When the “bag theory” was discovered a month later Kardashian claimed to have lost it.
Anyone who has followed Michael Jordan’s career can believe this.
LettuceC:
Michael Jordan’s first retirement was actually a suspension by the NBA because of his gambling.
This seems 1000% plausible.
Melerann:
The real reason Apple removed the headphone jack was to try to remove Square paysystems as a competitor for Apple Pay
TheUnknownStitcher:
Snapchat worked with the FBI to popularize (and secretly test and improve) face-recognition-technology. We went from “wow, this is like magic” to “this is totally normal” in a few years and there’s no way that the technology isn’t being by law enforcement.
Man_of_Metropolis:
PETA is controlled opposition run by the meat industry designed to make animal rights activists look bad.
This one seems legit.
-eDgAR-:
The reason Disney came out with a movie called “Frozen” was so that when you Googled “Disney frozen” you would get information about the movie and not websites talking about Walt Disney’s body being frozen
Papua_New_Guiness:
Rob Gronkowski didn’t actually injure his groin after scoring his 69th career touchdown, he just thought it would be funny/appropriate.
mxbnr:
Cops go on Waze and leave random police sightings to cause people to slow without actually having to stay and check on people.
sickb:
Apple started the meme about AirPods being expensive as a marketing ploy
Gracey1314:
“Trader Joe’s makes their parking lots small on purpose to make them seem more popular than they really are.” —Kyle Kinane
Is this even a conspiracy? I thought this was a fact.
mozilla2012:
The development of the F-35 fighter jet is “so over budget” so the military can fund other top-secret projects without making a new line item on the budget.
I had an article about this a few weeks ago, but it focused on the ’10 Year Challenge’ instead of Throwback Thursday. The logic is sound.
-eDgAR-:
One of my favorites is that the government was behind #ThrowbackThursday in order to get us to digitize and upload pictures that they would not have had access to in order to improve age progression/facial recognition algorithms
gotemboysgoy:
Youtube in a mobile browser is so shitty so they can force you to use the app and not use an adblocker.
I could actually go for some Long John’s right now.
dangolebooman:
Long john silvers is some kind of money laundering scheme on the basis that they have been open for as long as i can remember but i have also literally never seen a busy long johns.
Too real.
TheDiggertron:
The Oil and Coal industries invested heavily in killing off nuclear power as an attractive alternative. These days we have reactor designs many times safer than other methods of generating power, and the waste issue is something that could be fixed with sufficient investment.
frankalliance:
“Everyone should learn to code” is a movement to flood the market with Software Engineers so that salaries can be reduced.That’s also why they’re dropping Software Engineer as a title for the lesser title of “coder”.
I’d say that this one disturbed me the most, assuming this person’s legit.
hey_there_kitty_cat:
I dunno if it’s a “conspiracy theory” at this point, but a lot of people still don’t acknowledge that your internet searches and social media profiles area absolutely being used as training models by major IT companies. I was a drunk college student and had access to them to run AI training, if you still think you’re “off the grid” you’re an idiot. Being frank, it’s not a big deal if you don’t have dark shit to hide, those people are too busy building the new technological world to give a shit that you look at midget porn. But don’t delude yourself to think people don’t have access to anything you do on the internet.
This will 100% come out in the news before his rule is over.
The_Dozzle
The president of The Philippines, Duterte, is very anti-drugs to hide his own involvements with drug cartels off which he makes billions.
This has basically been proven by journalist Gary Webb who mysteriously died by suicide with two shots to the head. A two shot suicide.
Brainstick:
The CIA was involved in selling crack to low income black neighborhoods to fund activities they couldn’t get approved by Congress. I mean, I’m pretty sure most people believe there was some involvement and it’s just a matter of degree. But, I think they were nuts deep in directly smuggling and selling crack through intermediaries to black communities with full knowledge of the justice department and executive branch.
gorgeousmountaingirl:
Amelia Earheart was taken prisoner by the japanese.
I’d be bothered by this one if I wasn’t so stoked to learn that I was 10% viking.
P0t4t0_Friend:
The idea that genetics services like 23 and me may be selling records to the government and/or insurance companies. There have been cases of criminals being caught with genetic
I’ve never heard this first one before but I love it.
knumb: I have a few I love.
1. Kobayashi the competitive eater is really a fantastic up close slight of hand artist.
2. Weather forecasters buy stock in supermarket chains and then over exaggerate winter storms.
TheRedLayer:
The value of expensive art is just as a pseudo currency for rich people to subtly buy drugs or other illicit things.
I can picture so many people losing their damn minds over this one.
_MormonBatman:
The NFL politicized players taking a knee to draw attention away from reports about the extent of damage caused by CTE.
Last, but not least
UsedDraw:
The government spreads true conspiracies to make them sound ridiculous and unbelievable so that people don’t suspect those conspiracies are true.
There are a lot more of these over in the AskReddit thread and you can read them all by clicking here. You can also add your own by hitting up the Facebook comments on @BroBible!