Things to know about 15 conspiracy theories that have been debunked but some people still hold on to them

Updated on August 16, 2022 21:43 PM by admin

Certain unexplained theories carry a sinister background that would have been rumored by some anonymous person or sometimes an anonymous group that creeps out people believing the theory. Those experts now and then try their best to debunk these theories.

However, there is still more than a non-negligible percentage of people who believe in this theory that starts from believing Flat earth theory to denying the holocaust ever happened as it was intended to inflate and popularize things.

Most people haven’t changed; even in this 21st century, where science and science-based facts are evolving, people still believe in the uncanny work of others or theories laid upon.

One thing is sure how much these theories are debunked; still, believers will tend to believe they carry no solution for them. And here are such 15 popular conspiracy theories that have been debunked; still, people find it a mystery.

John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy

On November 22, 1963, the entire world was stunned by the assassination of the 35th U.S President, John F. Kennedy Jr, in broad daylight. And on the same day, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in Texas. After two days, while he was being transferred to a new jail, and on the way, he was shot dead by a Texas nightclub owner named Jack Ruby.

This is where the conspiracy theory kick-started, as people worldwide went numb after the series of incidents. In the 1960s, half of the American citizens believed that Lee Harvey Oswald didn't act alone, as it also involved a second shooter. And based on a report in 2017, around 61% of U.S citizens believed that the assignation of John F. Kennedy Jr carries some conspiracy to date.

Many theories revolve around the assassination, and one such popular theory is that the CIA was responsible for assassinating JFK, which was an act of retaliation because of his foreign policy failure in the Bay of Pigs, which aimed to invade Cuba using 1,500 of these anti-Castro Cubans trained by the CIA.

This was planned to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro. As per the biographer Philip Shenon, Bobby Kennedy, JFK's brother and the attorney general, initially thought the CIA agents did this, but later it was dropped. Another theory was that he was shot dead to take revenge on JFK, who cracked down on the mafia.

Also Read: President Joe Biden Tests Negative For COVID-19 Exits 'Strict Isolation'

Princess Diana's death was a murder

The beautiful young lady from Britain's royal family, called "the people's princess," died in a car accident in Paris in 1997. Immediately post her death, a lot of conspiracy surrounded her.

One such conspiracy was that it was not the car accident that killed her, as before getting killed, she was dating Dodi Fayed who got to be an Egyptian film producer who died in the same accident alongside her, who was planning to propose to Diana the same night of the accident and this was just one year after the divorce.

According to court witnesses, Dodi Fayed's father, Mohamed al-Fayed, said they both were killed as the Queen did not like the thought of Diana and Prince Charles's son's heirs to the British throne having a step-father who was an Egyptian and a Muslim. Mohamed al-Fayed also claimed that she was pregnant at the time of the crash, but on cross-examination, it was proved false.

Another theory is that Henri Paul, the limo driver, was drunk at the time of the accident and made the car crash on purpose, as he was the head of security at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. Many believed that he was a part of the national intelligence service group that wanted Diana dead at any cost.

Other theories believe that emergency care was to be blamed. According to French emergency care, the protocol makes the personnel attempt to first stabilize the patient before transferring them to the hospital.

However, that is not the same with the U.S system, as their main and only concern is to rush the victim straight to the hospital. But in the case of Diana, she was treated at the scene rather than rushing to the hospital, which serves the purpose of killing her deliberately.

Also Read: Princess Diana and Prince Charles' royal wedding: 8 Untold Secrets

9/11an insider job conspiracy

The 9/11 twin Towers attack was the deadliest attack on the U.S. that killed more than 3000 civilians and injured 1000 people, and the nation proclaimed a state of emergency on September 11, 2001. Over 2000 responders lost their life due to the illness associated with working at Ground Zero.

The footage of two planes hitting the Twin tower in New York City and another struck the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and a fourth crashed into a field outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This was the second deadliest attack next to Pearl Harbor due to the death toll that killed within hours on a bright morning.

After this terror attack, many conspiracy theories evolved, among which the popular one was that George W Bush&rsquo's administration let the attack happen so that the country could wage war in Afghanistan and Iraq for oil.

Another theory suggests that the Pentagon was not hit by a plane but by a missile. Many consider the attack to be an inside job of the country, but still, the conspiracy needs proof to settle it.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a prominent figure in the country, even believed in the conspiracy theory. Additionally, it was InfoWars radio host Alex Jones who helped achieve the theory more influence among the people of the United States.

Democrats are behind a child sex group conspiracy

In October 2016, during Hillary Clinton&rsquo's tenure as a United States Secretary of State, she attracted a lot of controversies by using a private email server for official communication rather than using official state department email accounts taken care of by federal servers.

John David Podesta Jr., the political consultant who worked as a chairman of Hillary Clinton&rsquo's 2016 presidential campaign, wrote about holding the fundraiser at the D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong and mentioned ordering cheese pizza.

And Cheese Pizza meant child pornography, and Comet Ping Pong was the headquarters of a child sex-trafficking ring run by the Democratic leaders, including Clinton and Podesta. But this theory became an unknown code that only an insider could decode.

After the leaked emails, “ Pizzagate” gained momentum, and that’s where a 28-year-old man walked into the northwest Washington pizzeria with an AR-15 rifle and searched the premises by firing at the locked doors for child sex slaves, if any, and then surrendered himself to the police. This” Pizzagate” conspiracy continued and evolved into another branch of QAnon conspiracy.

QAnon conspiracy started when an anonymous person claimed himself as Mr. Q, an intelligence officer in the U.S. government. As per this theory, it operates sex trafficking globally as an extension of “ Pizzagate,” which was conspired against former U.S. President Donald Trump during his tenure. Many experts describe QAnon as a cult.

Flat Earth theory

The first ever Flat Earth International conference was held in Raleigh on Nov. 9 and 10, 2017. Among its guest speakers were Darryle Marble, who went on to prove that the Earth doesn't curve, and another speaker Mark Sargent who created a YouTube series, the Flat Earth Clues, who believe all life is enclosed in a "Truman Show"-like dome structure. Jeran Campanella is a YouTuber and online radio personality who makes flat-Earth, 9/11 Truther, and other such theories.

This conference was headed by Kryptoz Media, which makes DVDs and other media arguing that "scientism" is a plan designed to keep people from God, and the Creation Cosmology Institute, an organization with little online footprint except for a now-deleted YouTube channel.

This has a series of theories emphasizing that the Earth is flat, not a globe. Most of these people believe that the planet is a flat disc with an ice wall. Though it seems like a joke, these believers go beyond science and believe in such theories by claiming the science to be false.

Also Read: Solar storm hits Earth and interferes with satellites!

COVID-19 as population control

COVID-19 Coronavirus was spread initially to reduce the population in the world, and that's what the conspiracy theory of Coronavirus says. Added to this, the theory also explains how a microchip is implanted in the vaccine and that it tracks the activity of people through which the death rate has been inflated crazily.

The billionaire Bill Gates is highly responsible for the spread of this virus and is the leading head to plot the control of the population through this virus.

Still, people believe such crap in the 21st century. Though many such theories have been debunked, they still exist. Some even called the Coronavirus a bio-weapon that the Chinese created for the mass destruction of people.

Former President Donald Trump even said that the virus was not deadly and would disappear like a miracle without a vaccine. Some people can't get straight even after millions of people have died.

Also Read: Another Public Health Emergency after COVID-19 in U.S. amid the Monkeypox outbreak

Sandy Hook mass shooting 'false flag attack'

Mass shootings are so common in a country like the United States, where one can easily get a license for arms. One such brutal mass shooting happened on December 14, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in hat Connecticut where 20 first graders and six school staff members were killed in the gun shoot.

Bombastic far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said to his followers that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, the children weren't killed, and the parents were none other than actors, which was done just to fore gun control law. He called the entire mass shooting to be fake.

On hearing this, the agitated parents of the kids started to release birth certificates to prove that their children existed and had to deny the request to exhume their children's bodies. These mass shootings invite more conspiracy theories and make the victim's close and dear ones grieve more of their loved ones.

Even after the Parkland, Florida, shooting that happened on February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High leaving 17 students to die, the shooting survivors were labeled as "crisis actors."

On October 1, 2017, another gunman killed 58 people in Las Vegas, and the gunman didn't act alone. Though after witnessing these many shootings, there are still people to call it a false flag attack and come up with their conspiracy theories. But still, after these many attacks, there is no stringent policy or rule on gun control.

Fake moon landing conspiracy

The first ever astronauts to land on the moon's surface were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. The entire nation watched the landing of the moonwalk's converted video signal on July 21, 1969. After a year, Americans somehow believed the moon landing was faked.

The American writer William Kaysing went on to write a book titled "We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle," who wrote the entire book based on his conspiracy theory. The main idea in the book was that the footage that captured the astronauts taking their first steps on the moon's surface was shot at Nevada's Area 51.

According to a 2019 survey, 10% of Americans still believe that the moon landing was a hoax, and even the NBA star Steph Curry was part of that 10%, so NASA offered him a lunar lab tour.

Myths about the Holocaust

During World War II, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler cruel genocide between 1941 and 1945 killed at least six million Jews. And this genocide was called the Holocaust and reduced two-thirds of Europe&rsquo's Jewish population. This Holocaust was documented in history though there exist people who never believed in the Holocaust, and the death toll was just inflated to millions.

A 2014 survey conducted on 53,000 people across 100 countries by the Anti-Defamation League found that only 30% of respondents thought historical accounts of the Holocaust were accurate. And the majority of respondents under the age of 65 never believed in an instance like Holocaust that was explained in the history books.

Many still believe this Holocaust was exaggerated to gain sympathy for the Jewish people. The historian and professor Deborah E. Lipstadt had written books on Holocaust denial and grouped those people into two.

One group is the hard-core deniers who claim Holocaust never happened. And another group of less-fervent deniers may admit the Holocaust happened but question the official death toll or that gas chambers were used for mass murder.

Also Read: Holocaust statements regretted by Whoopi Goldberg

The author raises a question as

“For the deniers to be right, who has to be wrong? Well, certainly all the survivors… the bystanders… but most of all you have the perpetrators. They never said it didn’t happen.” Whatever or how much ever proof we come up with, people will still tend to believe in conspiracy theories.

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Paul is a dead conspiracy

The most successful performer of all time, Paul McCartney, is still alive until 2019; he was touring, and later his shows were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. He is still active at the age of 80, but because of some conspiracy, he died in 1966.

This conspiracy started on November 9, 1966, when Paul McCartney got into an argument with the other Beatles and walked out of the studio, and he was beheaded in a car accident. To cover up the entire incident, the band hired a doppelganger.

It is believed that the band took pain to drop the clues on their album that veiled references to the death of Paul were the album covers that illustrated the loss of their friend.

As per the original cover of 1966's Yesterday and Today album that featured the crew amid raw meat and dismembered doll parts that symbolized Paul McCartney's horrific accident, when a mirror is placed in front of Sgt Pepper's album cover, the words Lonely Hearts on the drum logo could give some clue, in the Abbey Road cover, John, George, and Ringo forwent all pretense and pretended to cross the street as a funeral procession. John was dressed in white, and Ringo was dressed in black.

George donned jeans like a gravedigger. Paul wore no shoes. Even after all these instances, despite the public denials by the band, fans couldn't let it be and searched for more clues.

The Roswell incident

In 1947, in New Mexico, something crashed on the land on a remote ranch outside of Roswell. The government initially claimed it was a flying saucer, then later claimed it was a weather balloon.

But according to experts, it was later confirmed that a high-altitude, top-secret military balloon dubbed Project Mogul. According to the first ever recorded eyewitnesses, the balloon closely matches Project Mogul balloons that carried the strange symbols on its side. Thirty years later, a book on the topic was published, calling it a spy program.

It was later found that Project Mogul was conducted out of Washington, D.C.; being a classified program, the balloon was launched in the ionosphere, hoping to monitor Russian nuclear tests, but no one didn’t know until 1947.

Based on a 1948 report from the government, this incident was called the “ Roswell Incident.” The conspiracy theory behind this incident is that it was not a balloon but a flying saucer, where aliens have landed in people’s backyards to date.

Chemtrails conspiracy theory

Airplanes tend to leave behind long water condensation trails called contrails. Though these tracks vanished quickly, even these trails still carried a conspiracy theory.

According to the conspiracy theorists, these condensation trails carry chemicals, and scientists and the government are seeding these chemicals into the atmosphere. So what is the reason to do it? The theory says it is a clue for biological warfare, population control, geo-engineering, or an attempt to manipulate the weather.

Researchers who study these subject matters are often harassed by chemtrails believers who spray unknown chemicals into the atmosphere. To debunk this theory, a 2016 study was conducted on chemtrails scientifically, and the conclusion found no evidence of any harmful chemicals or contamination. However, still, believers aren’t satisfied, and they still live with the conspiracy theory.

Barack Obama's 'birthers'

The 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was elected President; during his election campaign in 2008, the conspiracy theory called "birthers" began to circulate. According to the "birthers," Barack Obama, born in Kenya, cannot contest for U.S Presidential election as he was not an American citizen.

This conspiracy triggered like anything, and newspapers like Honolulu came up with information about Obama's birth. To fight this conspiracy, in 2008, he released his birth certificate to the public, alongside releasing an original document in 2011.

After this proof, the number of believers who believed in this conspiracy was reduced, as reflected in polling conducted according to Gallup polling. Many high profiles, including politicians, came up with birtherism.

Also Read: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Barack Obama

Subliminal advertising conspiracy

Have you ever been a victim of subliminal advertising? And the worst is that many aren't aware of this conspiracy. Say, for example, Have you ever been tempted to buy a car, a new tv, or anything while watching a movie because this advertisement makes the viewers do so?

The author of the book "Subliminal Seduction" and Vance Packard, author of "The Hidden Persuaders," both claimed that subliminal messages in advertising are damaging. This book made a hearing in court and was later debunked to be a fake one. And this theory was brought by Wilson Bryan Key.

Subliminal messages were spread to bands like Styx and Judas Priest, and the Judas Priest band was sued in 1990 for causing a teen to suicide over these messages; later, the case was dismissed.

There are no inherited benefits of this subliminal advertisement over the common ones as it takes a flash of a commercial than seeing an advertisement for more than 15- 20 seconds. This way, it is easy to reach to make a person see such split-second scenes. But that doesn't go well with buying anything.

Also Read: 23 Vintage Ads That Would Be Banned Today

The panic of satan

During the 1980s and 1990s, Americans were convinced that a Satanist network was working underground to abuse, kidnap, and torture children. Though nothing was proved true, it still destroyed the lives of many.

This story was captured in an NBC special "Devil Worship: Exposing Satan's Underground," which aired on October 28, 1988. And there came Satanism expert Geraldo Rivera, who gave misleading and false statistics to create a sensation in the media. To this day, this documentary is considered the most viewed in television history. Geraldo Rivera even proclaimed that

Also Read: A Satanist on why everything you think you know about his religion is wrong

There are over one million Satanists in this country

This idea was further popularized in the 1980 book "Michelle Remembers," co-written by a Canadian psychiatrist and the patient he eventually married. He explains that Michelle recovers memories of the supposed ritual Satanic abuse conducted by her mother. After this episode, panic grew like hell.

This conspiracy further exploded in 1983 with the McMartin preschool trial, in which a California parent accused the daycare owners of sexually abusing their son. This case was put under trial, and several eyewitnesses, made children, said they were secret tunnels and witches flying. After seven years of trial, the case was dismissed as one was jailed for five years.

After this incident, similar cases started to erupt across the country, focusing only on daycares. For which kids made sensational accusations. In 1992, FBI agent Kenneth Lanning concluded that the rumors around ritual Satanism were unfounded.

The Associate professor of anthropology Phillips Stevens, Jr., at the State University of New York at Buffalo, said that the widespread allegations of crimes by Satanists "constitute the greatest hoax perpetrated upon the American people in the twentieth century." And finally, this theory was also debunked but not with ease.