Introduction
Welcome to your guide through the world of conspiracy theories.
You will today learn about different types of conspiracy theories, which you will have to use later on. You will go through 15 different conspiracy theories, some you will probably already have heard of but some of them will the entirely new to you. So pay attention to what they say as you cant be sure what you will use later on.
Task
Your task for today will be to read through some of the most commonly believed conspiracy theories that you can find online.
TASK #1 Read through the different conspiracy theories provided and understand them.
TASK #2 Research the conspiracy theory that you have been assigned, there is links to further research under each conspiracy theory.
Process
Flat Earth
One of the biggest global conspiracies is called flat earth, The flat earth society was established in the early 1800s by the English inventor Samuel Birley Rowbotham and remains at the very forefront of 11th Century thinking. ‘Zetetic Astronomy’, as the society prefers to call it, has had to explain away many threats to its principles over the years. Things like manned missions to the moon, satellites, photographs of the (round) Earth from space, and endless series of Prof. Brian Cox’s inspirational TV shows. Still, they’ve got 121,000 likes on Facebook, and celebrities who’ve expressed anti-sphere sentiments include B.o.B, Shaquille O’Neal and Freddie Flintoff.
For more flat earth research use: https://www.theflatearthsociety.org/home/index.php/about-the-society
Hitler is still alive
The advent of the internet hasn't just cooked up new conspiracy theories, it's also accelerated existing ones. "Hitler is still alive" rumors have circulated since the 1970s, fuelled by the fact that his crony Josef Mengele hid in South America. However, speculate the 125-year-old Hitler has been responsible for various world disasters, including 9/11 and the 2010 Gulf oil spill, which happened on his birthday.
For more research about Hitler still being alive use: https://www.timesofisrael.com/hitler-lived-scholar-explores-the-conspiracies-that-just-wont-die/
9/11
Another one of the world's biggest conspiracy theories is those that surround the tragedy that took place on September the 11th. Some famous conspiracy theories rely on anti-Semitic tropes, such as the attacks being orchestrated by Israel. Many claims that because "jet fuel can't melt steel beams," the Twin Towers must have been brought down by controlled demolition from bombs planted before the planes hit. (A 2006 NOVA documentary debunked these claims. It is, in fact, quite possible for the columns holding up skyscrapers to fail catastrophically when exposed to fires burning on multiple floors.) Other claims are refuted by simple logic: If a hijacked airplane did not crash into the Pentagon, as is often claimed, then where is Flight 77 and its passengers? Are they with the Roswell aliens at Hangar 18? In many conspiracy theories, bureaucratic incompetence is often mistaken for conspiracy. Our government is so efficient, knowledgeable, and capable — so the reasoning goes — that it could not possibly have botched the job so badly in detecting the plot ahead of time or responding to the attacks.
For more research about 9/11 use: https://www.bbc.com/news/58469600
Moon landing hoax
NASA landed astronauts on the moon in 1969. By the 1970s, a bizarre conspiracy emerged — that the moon landing never happened.
The conspiracy was described in a 1976 self-published book, "We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle," and a 1978 movie, "Capricorn One." Even as late as 2001, there was a Fox documentary, "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?" that gave air time to the claims that the whole Apollo moon-landing program was faked.
For more research about The moon landing hoax use: http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1860871_1860876_1860992,00.html
John F. Kennedy's Assassination
John F. Kennedy was shot in 1963 in a Dallas motorcade. But did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone? Or was there a second gunman on the grassy knoll?
These questions are the gateway to a vast arena of conspiracy theories that have spawned endless speculation and hundreds of books, articles and films. It didn't help that Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters while surrounded by police officers only two days after the assassination — and by a guy with ties to the Mob. The whole thing stunk, people figured.
Plenty of shadowy culprits have been suggested as the masterminds of the Kennedy assassination: Fidel Castro's government, or maybe anti-Castro activists, or organized crime, or the CIA, or Vice President Lyndon Johnson, or … Well, the thing about presidents is, it turns out, they have a lot of enemies. The Warren Commission report, produced by the official investigation into Kennedy's death, found no evidence of overarching conspiracies, though plenty of theories still flourish.
For more research on the JFK Assassination use:https://www.britannica.com/event/assassination-of-John-F-Kennedy/Conspiracy-theories
Covid and 5G
One of the newer conspiracy theories is those that surround the Covid pandemic,
There are conspiracies about the origin of the virus as well as basically every government's reactions. Many people even believe doctors are lying about COVID-related deaths, blaming the virus for deaths with other causes. A distrust of "Big Pharma," fomented for years by "alternative medicine" advocates like Kevin Trudeau (bestselling author of "Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About" — a textbook conspiratorial title if there ever was one), have also fed into conspiracies about medical treatment and vaccination.
One of the odder conspiracies mixes long-standing fears of 5G wireless technology with fears about the virus. According to the COVID 5G conspiracy, electromagnetic frequencies from cell phone towers undermine the immune system, making people sick with COVID, researchers reported in 2020 in the journal Media International Australia. Another conspiracy theory claims that the COVID-19 vaccines contain tracking chips that connect to 5G networks so that the government, or possibly billionaire and vaccine philanthropist Bill Gates, can surveilling everyone's movements.
For more research on the covid-19 conspiracy use: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/04/24/1089786147/covid-conspiracy-theories?t=1653227887829