Buckle up for a wild ride through the most mind-bending conspiracy theories that have captured the public imagination! From alien cover-ups to secret global cabals, we're diving deep into the world of outlandish claims that some people believe are actually true.
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00:00You know Bruce Lee's not really dead, don't you? Yeah, it's in a book.
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down
00:07our picks for the most popular and widespread conspiracy theories.
00:11After a century of dominating the world's soft drink market,
00:14Coca-Cola is changing.
00:16Number 30.
00:17The MLB juiced their baseballs.
00:20There it is! 62! Touch first, Mark! You are the new single season home run king!
00:28Let's start with a rather harmless theory before things get dour.
00:32Home runs in baseball were skyrocketing to record levels in the late 1990s,
00:38leading many to believe that Major League Baseball was intentionally
00:41juicing the balls to increase offensive production.
00:45The sport was in a dark age in the mid-1990s, led by the infamous strike of 1994.
00:51According to the conspiracy, MLB wanted to bring fans back,
00:55so they juiced the baseballs to increase home runs and generate public interest in a home run race.
01:02This theory was mostly dropped when it was discovered that steroid use
01:05increased substantially in the late 1990s.
01:08But therein lies another conspiracy.
01:11Did the MLB look the other way and allow steroids to be used?
01:15Of course we all used PEDs in that time, but they asked Mark McGuire a question.
01:20They said, Mark, do you think you would have broken the home run record without using PEDs?
01:24And he says, yes, I agree with him 100%. I'm gonna tell you why.
01:28Number 29. The Dead Internet Theory.
01:31Now, Meta has just publicly announced that they are doing their best to make Dead Internet Theory
01:36not just a theory, but the reality.
01:39As AI becomes increasingly prevalent, so too does the Dead Internet Theory.
01:44This postulates that everything you see online, or at least a large majority,
01:49is generated by bots and artificial intelligence.
01:52Discussion threads on Reddit? Bots talking to each other.
01:55Cool photos and videos on Instagram? AI.
01:58The reasons for this vary, but some believe that it is designed to manipulate public opinion,
02:03promote products, or push specific narratives.
02:06An increased awareness of AI content and social media manipulation in recent years
02:11have only fueled these beliefs.
02:14Indeed, there may be something to this.
02:16According to cybersecurity company Imperva,
02:19bots made up 49.6% of all internet activity in 2024.
02:24100%. It's a new baby bot.
02:26Its name? At Loser Donald Trump.
02:29Someone out there wrote some computer code to create a Twitter account with just one purpose.
02:35Pump out posts slamming Donald Trump.
02:37Number 28. The Titanic Was Intentionally Sunk.
02:41But this ship can't sink.
02:42She's made of iron, sir. I assure you, she can.
02:46And she will.
02:47Ask people what happened to the Titanic,
02:49and most will correctly tell you that it hit an iceberg.
02:52But there are some out there who believe that the iceberg was merely a convenient scapegoat.
02:57There are a number of conspiracy theories related to the sinking,
03:01like the idea that the brand new Titanic was swapped with her damaged sister,
03:05Olympic, in some kind of insurance scam.
03:08Another prominent, if somewhat libelous, theory contends that financier JP Morgan
03:14had the Titanic sunk to kill off some business rivals who were traveling on board.
03:19Of course, neither of these theories have any substantial evidence to back them up,
03:23but that doesn't stop people from believing them.
03:25Mr. Andrews, I saw the iceberg.
03:30And I see it in your eyes. Please tell me the truth.
03:33Number 27. Countless Celebrities Have Faked Their Deaths.
03:37We don't know what it is, but some people just refuse to accept that certain celebrities are
03:42dead. Tupac supposedly survived his shooting and is now living in Cuba. Elvis grew sick of
03:48the fame and disappeared, fueling countless sightings throughout the years.
03:52Bruce Lee supposedly faked his death to go fight the Triads in Hong Kong.
03:57Yeah, I reckon that's true, because if you were going to send someone undercover to
03:59investigate the Triads, you'd probably want the world's most famous Chinese film star.
04:04Jim Morrison staged his death and became the recluse he always wanted to be.
04:09And perhaps the most famous of all,
04:11Andy Kaufman pretended to have cancer as some kind of elaborate prank on the public.
04:16These theories often stem from curious inconsistencies in official reports,
04:21but most of the time, it's just an unwillingness to accept a tragic loss.
04:25You die, and then you come back to life.
04:30That's funny. That's funny. But it's not a gag, Bob. I got cancer. I got lung cancer.
04:39Number 26. New Coke was a marketing stunt.
04:42We gave America a choice, and more people said, Coke is in.
04:47One of the biggest corporate blunders in history occurred in April 1985,
04:52when the Coca-Cola company introduced New Coke. The classic drink was struggling against
04:57competitors, so the company decided that a reformulation was in order. New Coke had a
05:02much sweeter taste, upsetting Coke devotees. And to make matters worse, it was marketed as
05:08a full-on replacement. You liked the OG Coke? Well, too bad. The public backlash was incredible,
05:15and just three months later, Coke announced that it was bringing back the original.
05:20Sales skyrocketed, prompting many to believe that it was all a marketing ploy meant to get
05:24Coke back into the cultural conversation. However, executives have continuously denied this,
05:30admitting that the intense hatred of New Coke caught them off guard.
05:34Sweeter, bolder, better.
05:38You're insane.
05:39Number 25. Crisis actors.
05:41This is supposed to be a man of God, but yet he's told the whole world that 26 people died
05:45in his church when he's no, nobody died, he's a liar.
05:47To be clear, crisis actors are a real thing, often used to train first responders in emergency
05:53situations. But quote-unquote crisis actors have been a prominent conspiracy theory since at least
05:592012, led primarily by the controversial Alex Jones. According to its proponents,
06:05these actors are hired to play the roles of victims, witnesses, or other participants
06:09during tragic events like shootings and bombings. According to them, these events are either
06:15outright staged, or the victim count is exaggerated by crisis actors. Why? Mostly
06:20for political agendas like increasing surveillance or implementing stricter gun control. This
06:25conspiracy isn't just untrue, but actively harmful, and Jones has been famously sued for defamation.
06:32InfoWars broadcaster Alex Jones is being sued again by families of the victims of the Sandy
06:38Hook school shooting.
06:39Number 24. Princess Diana was killed by the royal family.
06:43We have reports from Paris that Diana, Princess of Wales, has been killed in a car accident,
06:50and that her partner, Dodi Fired, has also been killed.
06:54If there's one news story that dominated the 1990s, it was the death of Princess Diana.
06:59Many people refused, and continue to refuse, that she was killed in a car accident instigated by
07:05aggressive paparazzi and an intoxicated driver. Instead, they think she was killed by the royal
07:11family. According to many theorists, the royals disapproved of Diana's relationship with Dodi
07:16Fired, and feared her mothering a Muslim child. As such, they hired professional hitmen to
07:22orchestrate the car accident, and ensure that both Diana and Dodi were killed. Despite the
07:27conspiracy's enduring popularity, it has been continuously debunked, with numerous investigations
07:33ruling it an accident.
07:52Number 23. Covid was caused by 5G.
07:58Social media platforms are trying to limit the spread of conspiracy theories connecting 5G
08:03networks and the coronavirus pandemic.
08:05The Covid pandemic spurned a number of outlandish conspiracy theories,
08:10but none were quite as goofy as the infamous 5G debacle. In the early days of the pandemic,
08:15many people supported the theory that 5G radiation was either causing the virus outright,
08:20or weakening our immune systems, allowing it to spread more easily.
08:24The theory points to the simultaneous rollout of 5G in certain major cities,
08:29and the emergence of Covid-19 as evidence of a connection, but this is simply a correlation
08:34fallacy. And unlike many on this list, this theory actually had real-world ramifications,
08:40with many vandals burning or destroying 5G towers. Fear and a lack of certainty will
08:46make people do some shocking things.
08:48For police in Quebec, this has fast become a familiar sight. A cellular tower set ablaze.
08:55In one week, police responded to seven similar fires, all targeting cell towers.
09:00Number 22. Holocaust denial.
09:03A suspect targeted Temple Emmanuel's welcome sign and a back door, taping up posters that
09:09called the Holocaust fake news. We've blurred out the rest of the antisemitic message.
09:13For whatever reason, many people are of the opinion that the Holocaust either
09:17never happened or has been greatly exaggerated by the history books.
09:21The theories range in scope and severity. Some believe that the Nazis did not utilize
09:26concentration camps or gas chambers. Others downplay the death toll, arguing that far
09:32less than 6 million Jews were killed, and that this number is merely propaganda.
09:37And yet others claim that the entire event is a hoax, having never actually occurred at all.
09:42Of course, this conspiracy only serves to legitimize and spread hateful ideologies.
09:48And it is actually illegal in various parts of the world,
09:51including Canada, Russia, and much of Europe.
10:03Number 21. 9-11 was an inside job.
10:13Trauma brings out the worst conspiracy theories, as people desperately try to
10:30make sense of an unimaginable situation. Or they're just trolling. Pretty much ever since
10:35it happened, people have been claiming that 9-11 was an inside job perpetrated by the
10:40American government. They posit that the collapse of the buildings resemble a controlled demolition,
10:45that a missile hit the Pentagon instead of a plane, and that the military was
10:49deliberately ordered to not intervene. And why? Supposedly to expand government
10:55surveillance and justify wars in the Middle East. However, engineers, aviation experts,
11:01and intelligence analysts have overwhelmingly rejected this theory and concluded that
11:06Al-Qaeda was solely responsible.
11:25Number 20. National Hidden Treasure. It's a very poorly kept secret that there's a hidden room
11:31behind Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. It's actually true. This has led some to theorize
11:37that it houses proof of alien life or treasure. The intent behind the area is anything but sinister,
11:43though. The original sculptor of the monument, Gutzon Borlum, wanted to create something he
11:51called the Hall of Records to house the recorded history of the United States for generations to
11:56come. Although Borlum only finished a tunnel during his lifetime, his daughter collaborated
12:01with the Mount Rushmore Society to build a vault with a visual history of the U.S.
12:06told through 16 porcelain enamel panels. It's sealed off and not open to the public.
12:12Number 19. Illuminati at the Denver Airport. The design of the Denver International Airport
12:18is certainly unique and a bit, well, strange. We're talking about a blue horse with glowing
12:28red eyes, intense murals, and a gargoyle that greets guests. Oh, and did we mention a time
12:37capsule with a Freemason symbol on the granite seal? Conspiracy theorists argue that the Freemasons
12:43have ties to the Illuminati and a New World Order. The new airport was dedicated in 1994,
12:49and rumors persist to this day about how the area isn't only a hub for passengers and travel,
12:54but for the Illuminati and other secret organizations.
12:58Number 18. Shakespeare didn't write all his plays. Could it be true that the greatest
13:04writer in the English language was as fictional as his plays? Did the most famous playwright of
13:10all time even exist? Well, yes he did. But according to this theory, he didn't write his
13:15plays. At least, not all of them. Some people claim that William Shakespeare was just a pen name
13:20used by various different writers. Then there are others who hold to the Oxfordian theory of
13:36Shakespeare authorship, which claims that the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere,
13:41actually wrote the Bard's work. These alternative authorship theories have gained some traction
13:50due to the lack of biographical information about Shakespeare's life,
13:54but are generally disregarded by English historians.
13:57Number 17. Lost Cosmonauts. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human to journey to
14:17outer space. Or was he? According to the Lost or Phantom Cosmonauts conspiracy theory, Gagarin was
14:24the first human to survive the journey, but he was not the first sent to space.
14:33Allegedly, the Soviet Union launched at least two unsuccessful manned space flights before Gagarin's.
14:40However, any information about these flights was concealed from the public because of the
14:44ongoing Cold War. Although most of the state's formerly restricted information has become
14:49available since the collapse of the USSR, there has been little uncovered to support this
14:53particular theory. While the Lost Cosmonaut theory itself may not hold up to scrutiny,
14:59one thing's for sure. When it comes to Soviet Russia, there's plenty of stuff they don't want
15:05you to know. Number 16. Paul is Dead. If you're a diehard fan of the Beatles, then you're probably
15:11quite familiar with this conspiracy theory. That Beatles bassist Paul McCartney is actually dead,
15:17and was replaced in the band with a double. According to the story, Paul McCartney died on
15:22November 9th, 1966, after his car skidded off an icy road. According to the theory,
15:29the Beatles replaced him with an imposter, a lookalike named Billy Shears. Those who believe
15:35this theory often claim that the Beatles hid subliminal and back-masked messages in their
15:40songs as proof. In songs like Strawberry Fields Forever, there's a line where John Lennon supposedly
15:46says, I buried Paul. Then there's Revolution 9, a song from the band's white album that,
15:52when played backwards, is supposed to say, Turn Me On Dead Man. Is it there? Maybe. But spoiler
15:58alert, Paul McCartney is very much alive. Number 15. HIV-AIDS Created By The CIA.
16:16It's human nature to look for someone to blame in horrible situations. The HIV-AIDS crisis was
16:22just one of those moments in American history. Some nurses feared this unknown, unnamed disease
16:28so much they wouldn't even go near someone with AIDS. The fear was pervasive. Conspiracy theories
16:33persisted that the CIA invented the virus intentionally to attack homosexual and
16:38African-American communities. Although this wasn't true, it does possess links to a real
16:43disinformation campaign propagated by the Soviet Union in the 1980s known as Operation Infection.
16:50The intention was to implicate the United States as purveyors of bio-warfare by claiming they'd
16:55developed HIV-AIDS in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Today, Operation Infection is seen largely as
17:11a way to deflect similar accusations against the USSR over their own bio-warfare operations.
17:18Number 14. Satanic Panic. In the 1980s, a moral panic swept through the US,
17:24spread by now-discredited psychological practices and false accusations.
17:34Many people became convinced that Satan worshipers were all around them,
17:38practicing ritual abuse on hapless victims. A lot of the hysteria came from conservative
17:43religious reactions to the popularity of heavy metal music and role-playing games
17:47like Dungeons & Dragons. The panic led to numerous accusations of ritual abuse in daycare centers,
17:53culminating in the infamous McMartin Preschool Trial.
18:08Today, it lives on in new forms, such as the far-right QAnon movement,
18:16which targets celebrities and Democrats instead.
18:23Number 13. James Earl Ray was framed. The death of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.
18:30was a devastating loss that left many questions unanswered. On April 4, 1968,
18:35he was assassinated in a Memphis motel, purportedly by James Earl Ray. However,
18:41Ray's motivations have always remained hazy. This has led to theories that someone else was involved,
19:00for example, the FBI, who were running a smear campaign against King. Ray later recanted his
19:06confession, leading some to question whether he was even the shooter at all, including King's
19:11family. Given the number of enemies King had, we may never know the truth for sure.
19:15Number 12. Water Fluoridation for Mind Control.
19:37Fluoride helps make human teeth stronger, but some people believe that the government is putting
19:42fluoride in drinking water for another reason—to sap away our mental strength and control the
19:46population. In the 1940s, many conspiracy theorists became convinced that fluoride
20:00was part of a communist plot to take over America. Proponents have since claimed that
20:04the Nazis used fluoride to pacify people in concentration camps during World War II.
20:09While a minority of scientists do oppose water fluoridation,
20:12it isn't based on any of these wild claims, which lack any evidence.
20:26Number 11. Zionist Occupation Government Conspiracy Theory.
20:30The idea that a Jewish cabal runs the world goes all the way back to a fabricated document,
20:35The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which outlined a fake plan for global domination.
20:40It was a hoax, but anti-Semitism has kept the idea alive. The theory achieved new popularity
20:46in the mid-90s, in part thanks to the efforts of the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group from
20:51Idaho. The hate first blossomed in 1974 when Richard Butler moved to Hayden and established
20:57the Aryan Nations' world headquarters. For decades, Butler shared his dream of a white-only homeland
21:02with recruits who came to his 20-acre compound. It comes in many forms, from claiming that Jewish
21:08people run the entertainment industry to denying the horrors of World War II. It's a strange but
21:14tragically true glimpse into the darkest recesses of the human mind.
21:18Number 10. Advance Warning of Pearl Harbor.
21:25The U.S. government has been the target of several conspiracy theories throughout its history,
21:29with one of the biggest revolving around Pearl Harbor.
21:32FDR certainly did have a motivation to deliberately withhold vital intelligence from Pearl Harbor.
21:38This theory suggests that Franklin D. Roosevelt knew about the planned Japanese attack in December
21:441941, but decided not to act because he needed an excuse to get the Americans into the Second World
21:49War. To overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might
21:58will win through to absolute victory.
22:01The theory gained some traction because the American public and Congress were overwhelmingly
22:06against joining the conflict at the time, but it has largely been dismissed by historians.
22:11Everyone who worked on it at the time has said then and since that we simply were not far enough
22:17along to read any of these Japanese naval messages for intelligence.
22:22Number 9. The Earth is Flat.
22:24The world is of course round, something that even the ancient Greeks figured out. There's
22:28plenty of proof. Commercial airline flights, time zones, images from space, and so many more.
22:34However, a small but vocal minority of people still believe the Earth is flat,
22:38spreading their ideas on social media platforms.
22:44While the Flat Earth Society has flourished online,
22:47its first iteration was founded back in 1956 by Samuel Shenton,
22:52a sign writer who created his own cosmology, partly based on the Bible.
22:56Today, some proponents even argue that Australia doesn't exist.
22:59We guess Hugh Jackman really is one hell of an actor.
23:03Number 8. The Stolen Election.
23:05After Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. election, Donald Trump and allies campaigned to overturn
23:10the results. Alleging widespread fraud, Trump claimed that Biden was staging a coup.
23:28His legal team filed dozens of lawsuits, which were dismissed,
23:32and claimed that voting machines had been rigged, an accusation contradicted by hand recounts.
23:37Some of Trump's allies even recommended that he suspend the Constitution and declare martial law.
23:42QAnon fueled the fires, arguing that the Deep State was backing Biden,
23:47but that Trump would be re-inaugurated in March 2021.
23:50The movement now leaping from echo chambers of social media to headlines in the news.
23:55The campaign culminated in the 2021 United States Capitol attack,
23:59when rioters stormed the Capitol, leaving five dead.
24:02It was a dark lesson in how deadly disinformation can be.
24:06Number 7. Adolf Hitler Escaped to Argentina.
24:09It became pretty obvious that the death in the bunker was nothing but,
24:14well, fiction. Or maybe somebody died in the bunker, but it wasn't Adolf Hitler.
24:17A number of conspiracy theories are attached to famous figures in history,
24:21and Adolf Hitler is no different. With the allies closing in on the war all but over,
24:26Hitler took his own life in his bunker with his wife Eva Braun.
24:36British authors Simon Dunstan and Gerard Williams have a different theory about Hitler's end,
24:41however. They believe that the Fuhrer didn't actually kill himself,
24:44but rather escaped to Argentina with Eva. And body doubles were shot instead.
24:58According to their book, Grey Wolf, The Escape of Adolf Hitler,
25:01the married couple settled down and had two daughters in South America
25:05before dying in 1962. This was during 1947.
25:22This idea has been widely dismissed by historians, who claim that the theory has no substance.
25:27We got to the age of information where the truth should be out there, so
25:31let's get it out. That's what we're trying to do.
25:34Roswell and Area 51
25:36Many of us are anxious for more information about life beyond the stars. And some conspiracy
25:41theories think we can find answers in the Roswell incident and US Air Force Base Area 51. They
25:47believe that an actual flying saucer crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico back in 1947,
25:53and not a surveillance balloon as the US Army claims.
26:04There's also a widespread belief that Area 51 holds the remains of the crashed aliens,
26:10as well as alien tech. The theories have gotten traction in part thanks to the fact that Area 51
26:16is a highly classified Air Force facility, with the testing, training, and development that occurs
26:21inside kept secret from the public. 50 years after the incident,
26:26the Air Force released a report admitting that the wreckage was part of a secret system of atomic
26:31espionage. But for real believers, this is just another cover-up.
26:37World Leaders Are Lizard People, Also Known As Reptilians
26:52Who runs the world? Lizards. At least according to English former footballer and sports broadcaster
26:57David Icke. After he visited a psychic, he decided that he was the son of the Godhead,
27:02predicted natural disasters that never happened, dove headfirst into anti-Semitic conspiracies,
27:08and most famously, proclaimed that the world was being run by shape-shifting lizards.
27:27Many of these reptiles are supposedly people in positions of power,
27:36including the entire royal family. They are 7 to 12 feet tall and come from a different planet.
27:44Global Warming Is A Hoax
27:52A scientific consensus around climate change began to form back in the 1980s.
27:57In part thanks to discoveries by researchers working for fossil fuel companies.
28:01Since then, fossil fuel companies have spent billions of dollars on climate-related lobbying,
28:06and have been accused by activists of manufacturing doubt about scientific research.
28:19Today, the scientific consensus that human activities are warming the climate is greater
28:23than 99%. But that hasn't stopped conspiracy theorists from arguing that it's all a trick,
28:29one that involves basically all the world's climate scientists playing along.
28:40The theory takes various forms, with some arguing that it's a liberal plot to introduce socialism,
28:45others that it's linked to a bid for global dominance, and others that China is behind it all.
28:51Number 3. The Assassination Of John F. Kennedy
28:54The murder of the 35th U.S. President by former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963
29:00shocked the nation, and left imaginations running wild. Even today, questions continue to linger.
29:06Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone, or was there another shooter? Did someone put him up to it?
29:11Why did nightclub owner Jack Ruby kill Oswald while he was in police custody?
29:21What were Ruby's connections to organized crime? These questions and more have obsessed historians,
29:27true crime buffs, and ordinary citizens alike, and if there was a conspiracy involved,
29:32we may never know.
29:42Number 2. The Moon Landing Was Faked
29:44It seems too strange for words, but the theories are there. Did the United States
29:49fake its famed moon landing back in 1969? Some people think so.
30:13To the point where such ideas were dramatized in the 1978 thriller Capricorn One,
30:18as well as the 2015 comedy Moonwalkers. The latter expands upon a unique theory that famed
30:24director Stanley Kubrick was hired to film the footage that would eventually be part of the
30:28Apollo mission. This idea is thought to have been tied to Kubrick's 1968 film 2001 A Space Odyssey,
30:35and its groundbreaking special effects. Of course, this is all despite rock-solid evidence to the
30:40contrary, including astronaut tracks and American flags still planted on the moon's surface.
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31:02Number 1. The New World Order
31:04NASA is attempting to implement a New World Order, using organized religion as a means of controlling
31:09the masses. At the core of Project Blue Beam is the establishment of a global New Age religion.
31:15In a sense, it's a soothing thought, because it makes everything so simple. A complicated
31:19world full of rival factions with different interests is really run by just one cabal
31:24who's behind them all. The New World Order idea looks like a theory of everything,
31:34stitching together various theories into one all-encompassing framework. But at its heart,
31:38is the idea that a small circle of powerful elites are pulling all the strings,
31:43aiming to establish a totalitarian world government.
31:54It's a neat way to explain real trends today, such as mass surveillance,
31:58income inequality, and a global shift away from democracy.
32:06Naturally, the Illuminati and or the Freemasons are involved,
32:10probably flying back and forth out of Denver airport.
32:13Do you personally believe in any of these theories? Let us know in the comments.
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