Conspiracy theories can range from serious to absurd, and while they are often taken seriously by their proponents, they can also be a source of unintentional humor. Some of the most humorous conspiracy theories include the moon landing conspiracy, Earth within Earth, and Prince Charles living as a tiger.
Conspiration theories that have flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic can legitimize violence, impaired public health, and undermine democratic governance. Containing their harms begins with understanding the reasons behind these theories and how to identify, debunk, and counter them. A great deal of conspiracy theory research presupposes a falsehood, and that conspiracy theories are irrational to believe.
Some of the craziest conspiracy theories include the dead internet conspiracy theory, 9/11 conspiracies, Princess Diana’s murder, subliminal advertising, the moon landing hoax, and Paul McCartney’s death. This study aims to fill this gap by examining a dataset of humorous responses to proliferating COVID-19 conspiracy theories based on a corpus of tweets bearing these theories.
In his research on Reddit, Lars de Wildt found no evidence of rabbit holes and echo chambers, instead, many people simply liked playing with alternative ideas. By examining these memes and other sources of humor, we can better understand the dangers of conspiracy theories and how to identify, debunk, and counter them.
📹 Insane Conspiracy Theories Dumb People Actually Believe
📹 Conspiracy Theories and Crazy People
Is it a conspiracy that I think you’re cute or does that make me illuminaughty Second Channel …
*Pokes fun into dumb conspiracy theories *Makes sure to fit in some of the more believable/grounded ones as well *Questions you’re belief system, without even mentioning it *Ends with a “statement” which we don’t know if its serious, or just to say something during the credits *Pulls a CIA badge under his coat, completeing the self aware joke *Inmense satisfaction
Hey jreg just wanted to say that your articles genuently made me a better person . Many of these articles have been reasuring me that troubling thoughts arent only mine and we shouldnt be afraid to discuss opinionated topics or ones that hurt our soul just because its taboo ( here in greece at least amongst high schoolers ) . A big thank you, you are doing the absolute best with the platform you have, good luck big man
Imagine “reasoning” with people and “allowing them to make up their own minds”, when you could just dominate them at such a deep level that you can make your subjects believe whatever you want at any given moment, while at the same time allowing them to think that they’re acting of their own free will. I mean, think about it logically – once the system works perfectly, there won’t be any dangerous conspiracy theorists ever again. Everyone will finally be normal.
The plane is 50 miles out… the plane is 30 miles out… and when it got down to the plane is 10 miles out, the young man also said to the Vice President “do the orders still stand?” And the Vice President turned and whipped his head around and said “Of course the orders still stand, have you heard anything to the contrary?”
Very funny and ironic, J-reege, but my personal favorite wacky conspiracy theory is that one about the CIA killing JFK. Like, sure, the CIA determined there were upwards of 10000 points along the route where an assassin could be placed to Snipe him, and they covered none other of them, and sure, rather then speed up or stop the car to get the president to safety after the first shot was fire, the two agents in the front instead leaned as low as they could and kept the car a steady pace preventing easy escape to the occupants, and SURE, for years the CIA claimed only 3 bullets were shot, even though most witnesses heard six shots and it would be literally impossible for a bullet to have hit both JFK and the governor, a theory literally called “The magic bullet” theory, and the rifle Oswald used literally could not fire that fast, and sure, Oswald was killed in prison by a man who mysteriously had all his debts paid off, and sure, this original official story is so fucking bullshit that years later the house collected a committee together investigate and post-investigation, officially rules this narrative was false, and officially there were two shooters now, AND FUCKING SURE, the second tape covering the shooting recorded a mystery person raising their umbrella they had on a sunny day and immediately after the first shot being fired, and sure sure SURE, the tape was “””lost””” by the CIA in the middle of the investigation, forcing it to close without a proper resolution and preventing further investigation, and sure, the CIA has publicly spent money to push the idea that the original story is what happened despite the fact it’s been debunked officially for longer then it was the official story now, but how does any of that prove that we can’t trust the CIA on this one telling us the debunked story is true?
People are so misinformed these days! My friend once told me that US government tortured innocent Iraqi civilians in 2006, he even had “real” printed documents! He committed suicide in an alleyway with 3 shots to the back of his head a couple of weeks ago though, so I can’t listen to his whacky ideas anymore.
is this gonna be an episode where Jreg impersonates someone who mocks people who believe in silly conspiracies but then gets all serious and starts talking to the camera, telling us that these people only want something to hold on to, and that just because your life is miserable, it doesn’t mean theirs has to too
Gov officials and giant business oligarchs aren’t corrupt, self-serving elitists who want to separate from the poor. They’re doing their best to help everyone, and really super duper care about the plights of the people that hate them, but through bad luck and coincidence, poverty keeps getting worse and all the money keeps getting lost accidentally
jokes aside, i actually am so tired of conspiracy theorists being humiliated so much. im out of a family of some of the kinda moderate ones* so i’ve kinda managed to see their point of view from the inside. i’d guess at least 50% of people are unable to disprove them because they aren’t knowledgeable enough or dont care to research and discuss each of their sources thoroughly, i cant at least. There’s tons of critical questions i can ask them but neither side seem to really break through to the other. Additionally, most of these people are empathetic and feel that they’re taking responsibility for what is right yet i feel like they’re being portrayed as border-line evil. almost as if they should be treated not as as people worth explaining things to but as zombies that should only be ignored. i know this might be the case for many of those you find floating around yelling, drawing wild parallels between nazi germany and masks, and oftentimes spreading the word of the Lord or something. That is clearly a very distasteful combination, especially when delivered with confidence and childish anger. the debunking articles i’ve come across may offer some actual critique of the theories but also deliver the violently degrading “people’s feelings are hurt because their political opinion is not popular so their brain begins to look for dumb patterns”. it may be true but it instantly portrays the other person as an imbecile in the most academic, indirect way as possible so im fucking sick of hearing it and it’s really unhelpful.
Removing the irony for a second, what’s the point of this article? What does it seek to convey by mixing the absurd (robot brains, flat earth), the true (medicalization (though this is a simplified picture of it), MK-Ultra) and the possible but uncertain (Epstein, Lab leak)? What I’m getting from it is “‘Conspiracy theories’ is a broad, heterogeneous category, consisting of things both true and false, and trying to collectively ban ‘conspiracy theories on social media’ is a bad idea because it requires an unrealistic confidence in the censoring agent’s belief about what is correct”.
DUUDE, Thats exactly how I feel, when some of the things that are fucking obvious (coronavirus from lab, Epstein killing himself) is connected with “nutjobs” from flat earth, lizard people or that coronovirus did not exist to just make them less believable… and it fucking works. My favourite conspiracy theory is that governments/other entities create ridiculous conspiracy theories just to make real stuff less believable…
Cool Bug Facts!: Nobody was punished for MKULTRA. Not one person. Not in any capacity. Sydney Gottlieb, torturemaster and disgusting stain on our species, retired in 1973 just as it was about to get found out. Died happy on his homestead in 1999 advocating for peace and environmentalism. Congress investigated this in 1975! And we didn’t punish anyone or charge anyone with a crime because, (shrug) it was so long ago and they’re all better now anyway don’t think too much about it
Hey guys! I have an even more wacky and insane conspiracy theory! What if this JrEg made this article only because there’s an underlying and unknown form of control that we are all unknowingly part of where you are forced to do things you don’t like or even despite doing for an average of 1/3 of your entire life and you don’t even question it because you think it’s all your fault so you’ll feel ashamed if you say anything to communicate those conditions, in this bonkers theory there is a very small group of people who control everything and even exploit everyone else for personal gain even though they already have everything in an endless spiral of unfettered gluttony all by design, and if you somehow refuse to be a part of that because you realized that the illusion of becoming one of the oppressors is ever so slim… You’ll just die! How wacky would that be guys am i right?
I know youre trying to be funny and sly and informative but putting epstein on the same tier with flat earth cmon man do you want people to have lucid sober discussion about these things or not? Because you clearly believe in at least some of it. Why muddy the waters between truth and fiction? We can clarify truth with comedy as well.
I didn’t know debunking something was so easy this guy gave us no details just name things and said it’s not true mlk situation how is that not true please it’s public information this dude is a conspiracy plus I see micro aggression and obvious racism to even lie on mlk like that and say the government wouldn’t do a thing shows what side you on white power side I see.
Number 37: The anti Christ will come back from the bloody bowls of hell and reign on earth for a 1,000 years until some guy who made the universe in 7 days decides to return and save us from the armegddon and take all our souls into the afterlife where we will be granted immortality. Yeah…people actually believe that.
3:19 Isn’t this actually true to an extent? That you need to fix your own head first, to be a hero and an arbiter of change within your family and greater society. Is that a spook? Yes be aware of social issues and how the systems need changing, adapting with change and all this, but seriously. Shouldn’t we all focus on each other a little more as well? Not in the “small minds discuss people” way but more in the, ideas to improve our lives and mental well-being way?
Man it’s almost like constantly insulting conspiracy theorists doesn’t actually change their minds but only pushes them further to hiding in echo chambers, never challenging their viewpoints because everyone who disagrees with them are incapable of challenging their beliefs without being unnecessarily aggressive. I mean, wow, you showed those flat earthers who’s boss
Pause! It struck my super happy heart chord when you said something about talking to him/ his perspective & it being fascinating. BUT when you said “this human that I share a planet with, exists!!” 😍🤌❤ I could hear the happy/excited in your voice & the characters reaction/emotion/face was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! I definitely feel like those are the kinda things I do when I’m excited. Back to the words of excitement about sharing the world with this “crazy” person. The world could use more ppl who are like you, asking questions just to be polite basically, but then genuinely getting interested in hearing someone else’s perspective or being curious about someone’s thought process…… So… Are you the kind of person who “shows your work”
“A crazy person isn’t someone who has a pet snake” Me, looking at my two pet snakes: it’s okay babies, we’re good. edit: one pet snake, the other passed away yesterday edit 2: I just want to say thank you all, I’ve been feeling happier in these past few weeks/months. Hope you all have wonderful days, and don’t forget to wash your hands.
This is so fun to hear since in middle school i had a teacher, she was “human safety” teacher (sorry i dont know how its in english) and she frequantly told everybody that her family was abducted by aliens and she herself was she always told us all kind of weard storys how she cut her arm off and regrew it… yeah that kind of storys she was taken away mire and more kids until she dropped all of those claims lmao
My only conspiracy theory is that it was berenstEin bears…also that all the pigeons we see are baby pigeons and there’s one huge pigeon on an island, who is the mom pigeon. but I don’t strongly believe these so don’t worry james, I’ll rethink my life choices and go wash my hands while wearing my seatbelt.
The first time I met a flat earther was wild. He was perfectly nice, but believed the earth was flat and many other conspiracy theories. He was super chill though, he didn’t care what anyone else did or believed, he just wanted to live his life and eat raw garlic. I was so confused that someone didn’t believe in gravity though.
On a side note, I’d like to make people more aware of the different types of schizophrenia. The most common type is paranoid schizophrenia. It’s highly likely that many people who believe in these conspiracy theories have undiagnosed and untreated schizophrenia. Some symptoms are: – Seeing, hearing, or tasting things that others do not. – Suspiciousness and a general fear of others’ intentions. – Persistent, unusual thoughts or beliefs – Difficulty thinking clearly. – Withdrawing from family or friends. – A significant decline in self-care. If you are experiencing these symptoms remember it’s okay to seek help and seek a diagnosis. There’s nothing wrong with you, you aren’t “crazy” or “broken” or “insane”, your brain just formed a little differently than others. And yeah, that can cause some problems, but with treatment it’s manageable. My partner has paranoid schizophrenia and manages it well without medication (note: medication may work for you, it just didn’t work in my partners case. Ongoing therapy and grounding techniques work better with my partner). The world isn’t out to get you, it’s okay to seek help, I promise. And for everyone who doesn’t have or know someone with schizophrenia, remember that it isn’t the persons fault for having it. Schizophrenia is a genetic disorder that can lie dormant for generations. Many people have the genetic capability to develop it, a simple hit to the head could awaken those dormant genes. Be kind. Don’t use slurs like “retard” or “schizo”.
I met and spoke to a flatearther who was picketing at a university. I approached him and engage in a logic based discussion. That was a mistake. He got kinda aggressive and I had to tell to physically back off and stop interrupting me when it was my turn to speak. It was weird, like dealing with a stubborn 5 year old who believes something with all his being and can only make circular arguments to defend his point.
I totally agree on Jame’s perspective on saying it’s fine to believe anything that doesn’t harm anyone or yourself, but I totally disagree on judging them for it. For example, there isn’t any concrete evidence that god or Jesus existed, but I still choose to believe in Christianity, the same way that astrology tells us how people are supposed to be or whatever. All we have is faith, but I think that’s completely fine.