Anyone here who used to believe way too much in Conspiracy Theories?

[Inuhanyou]

I still believe in conspiracy theories. I think questioning motives of people and institutions is great, and there are unfortunately substantive reasons to do so in a clearly corrupt world.

I think what your actually talking about OP is insane ramblings. Right wing conspiracy theories generally involve no substance whatsoever and have much more to do with mental reflexive paranoia than an actual healthy questioning of legitimate power structures.

Its easier to think Obama is a secret muslim kenyan trying to secretly influence America through sharia law than just accept he is a normal charismatic politican who unfortunately was all too happy to enable a military and private extension of that military around the world for profit and geopolitical gains of the United States apparatus

 

[molnizzle]

Serving in the military taught me just how many people would have to have eyes on any of these theories, and how utterly impossible it would be for proof of them to not be leaked.

The government simply isn't that competent.

 

[wenis]

I don't know if I've ever bought all in on conspiracy theories but I do think they're built on partial truths and they're fun to read and dig into if you take them as mostly entertainment.

 

[Mulciber]

I never believed conspiracy theories, but I always loved reading about them. Conversely, I was definitely into thinking things like bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, aliens, etc. were real when I was a kid.

 

[Deleted member 8674]

I used to believe them. Sadly some people believe the most stupid, unbelievable theories outthere just because everyone is repeating it. With the right music people would believe anything. Just look at the Saudi woman who fleed to Canada as a recent example.

 

[Deleted member 1086]

Never believed conspiracies, but I love to read about them. Over the years I feel like I've come close to consuming every article and every video about 9/11(I probably haven't, but it feels like it). One of my favorite threads back on GAF was the old 9/11 conspiracy thread, which I read from start to most recent posts numerous times(until some butthole mod deleted it for some unknown reason). I don't know what it is, but I'm fascinated by all of it.

 

[Clefargle]

Nah because I found out early that they're moronic. I like the concept of them. But hoooly fuck do you have to be dumb to keep actually subscribing to them. No offense op

 

[Strangelove_77]

I believed in the government knowing about and interacting with space aliens.
I'm my defense I was a teenager at the time
that loved the X-files.

 

[Jecht]

Conspiracy theories used to be a lot more fun before 9/11 truthers were a thing.

 

[bmdubya]

Yes, it started when I was around 16, lasted until my mid-20s. I believed most conspiracies. I loved showing people Zeitgeist (I actually still think the religious part of that movie is pretty good, but everything after is bullshit). I believed in the Illuminati, chemtrails, the birth certificate conspiracy, all that kind of stuff. The only one I never could get on board with is the moon landing being faked. I think that is what kept me grounded and got me out of my conspiracy mindset.

After you stop believing in conspiracy theories, it takes a long time to feel like a part of the world again, if that makes sense. I never was like a loner; I've always had a large friend group, performed well at work, things like that. But in the back of my mind I would think how there is more out there that people don't know about. I guess it made me feel superior to others, and it kind of takes you out of reality.

There was definitely a point in my life where I was just going through the motions and didn't really care about advancing myself because it didn't matter at the end of the day. No matter how hard I tried, there are other forces out there keeping me back, and my destiny has already been written for me, so there is no point in trying. It sucks that I held those beliefs at one of the most defining times of my life, and I think it's the reason I did so poorly in college.

The last five years I've been working on pulling myself out of that funk and really applying myself, and my life is so much better now. When I believed in conspiracy theories, it kind of felt like a thunder cloud was hanging over me all the time. It doesn't feel like that anymore.

 

[corasaur]

illuminati shit makes me the most confused.

rich people around the world already regularly make decisions for personal profit at the expense of others with near-impunity that are publicly known. does the available evidence just not have enough reptilians for people? is it just too impersonal unless you throw in supernatural forces of darkness?


Halfway through this post I remembered the antisemetic angle here. the illuminati is basically a laundering of jewish banker conspiracy theories into a less blatantly bigoted product.

 

[sirap]

I used to be super into aliens and the whole area 51 thing, but that was just me yearning for sci-fi.

 

[Deleted member 31873]

I don't know if these count as conspiracy theories, but I'll post them anyway:

The predictions of Nostradamus, until nothing happened in 1999. I read books about him as a teenager that my dad owned.

Terrence McKenna's Timewave Zero theory, which basically predicted some world/reality/universe altering event occuring on December 21st 2012. The prediction was apparently made entirely independently of the Mayan Calendar, which also happened to end on the same date. I still respect a lot of the work that Terrence McKenna did

 

[Lkr]

I've always been interested in 9/11 conspiracies. I think it stems from being a kid when it happened and having constant footage drilled into your brain on TV. I don't necessarily believe in the conspiracies, I just find the memes interesting ("did you know about tower 7?" As an example).
I was interested in the FEMA camp stuff during the W administration as well, but realized in like 5 minutes it was all bullshit

My favorite new conspiracy is that 9/11 conspiracy theories were pushed by Russian trolls on the internet to make younger Americans not believe their government. There's no evidence of this, but that's what makes it a conspiracy theory!

I see someone mentioned Zeitgeist in this thread. The opening sequence in that movie, showing the evolution of humanity and what it has led to is always trippy af and thought provoking

 

[NPVinny]

I don't, but my dad believes in a lot of the 'major' conspiracy theories, like the JFK second gunman/9 11 was an inside job/Sandy Hook was faked theories and it makes it really hard for me to want to keep in touch with him because he always seems to find a way to bring these things up in our conversations and he's pretty old so he refuses to communicate via anything other than phone or e-mail.

 

[Panther2103]

I really enjoy reading about them, and looking at "evidence" of them but I don't believe any really. I think sometimes information is kept from us about some of the subjects but not to the extent that conspiracies say.

 

[Sloane]

For sure. Ten years ago, I was convinced the government was monitoring every kind of communication. I was convinced big corporations tracked out every move, collected and sold our data. I was convinced, water and thus alien life existed outside Earth, maybe even in our own solar system. I was convinced a small group of people controlled the fate of the entire planet. My friends laughed at me and rightfully so. I know much better now.

 

[lunarworks]

I used to work with some guy who strongly believed feminism was a product of some Rothschild initiative.

Myself, I've always been skeptical of conspiracy theories. I know some of them could be real, but most of the larger ones are just too big to be covered-up, or can be dismissed with a small bit of knowledge.

 

[JPLC]

I was really into UFO conspiracies as a kid, and the Metal Gear series got me all hyped up about the Illuminati via the Patriots around the same time. I grew out of it when I realized that the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories is bottomless and, when you fall into it, it makes you unable to trust anyone or anything (since "everything could just be part of the conspiracy"). I'm lucky I managed to climb out of that hole before I fell too deep.

 

[ZoSo006]

Lol i used to be absolutely convinced that the Paul is dead theory was true for awhile in my early twenties while I was obsessed with The Beatles.

Good times.

 

[Jerm]

I did when I was younger, it seems like there was a push in the '70s-'80s towards conspiracies after the '60s in mainstream culture from the media. I had a Reader's Digest Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries that got me started initially and would read about all your typical shit but when 9/11 happened I got really deep into conspiracy communities.

I will say, my absolute low point was watching footage of a documentary about a guy who had uncovered the real Saint Nicholas's sleigh (with reindeer bones and all) in a desert and how archaeologists and governments were attempting to cover it up and I fell for it until I reposted it on a forum with a slightly more intelligent userbase not involved in the conspiracy theory community and they ripped me, the documentary, conspiracy theories, etc to shreds, it was worse than Nas' "Ether"...

That one broke me from it all because I realized a lot about the community I was in, how you can be conned and manipulated by certain language and people misrepresenting themselves as professionals of a professional organization they made up, how to be more perceptive and diligent in researching conspiracy theories, and more. Basically proper skepticism.

Now that I'm older I appreciate that it happened at an early age so much because not only have I already experienced it, I got to an incredibly positive other side of it, and it's kept me from getting involved in modern conspiracy theories (particularly those orchestrated through politics, even more particularly by right leaning individuals) as well as keep a level head and be more cautious on certain aspects of "Russiagate", per the media.

 

[Link the Hero]

I don't believe in conspiracy theories. But I enjoy reading and watching stuff about them. Recently I watched videos of a youtuber who truly believes that the earth is flat. To watch people who are so much into that crazy ideas is fun.

 

[Rosebud]

Yes when I was a teenager, thankfully my life was changed by "The Demon-Haunted World" by Carl Sagan.

 

[Indy in the Fridge]

Used to love UFO theories, secret government theories, and Illuminati shit. I still wonder about Masonic Lodges and Freemasons in general from time to time.

 

[Officer Big Mac]

Aliens, bio duplication, nude conspiracies.

Lyndon larouche was right.

 

[Neece]

Around 2005-2010 there was a huge increase in Illuminati conspiracy theories in black churches. This dude named Craig Lewis came out with "The Truth Behind Hip Hop" series which basically posited that the music industry, including the gospel music industry, was all controlled by satan worshipers that put hidden messages in their music videos and lyrics. It had all of the church people I knew believing in it. I was still a Christian at the time, and though I found some of the arguments and coincidences a liiiiiiiitle compelling, I never fully bought in. I'd end up "playing devils advocate" and debating the ministers about it at get togethers and such. It was fun at the time but they clearly believed it. And then after we were done debating it, they'd go and pitch me on Melaluca or some other pyramid scheme bullshit they were part of.

Sigh.

 

[Einchy]

I used to be into that when I was around 11.

 

[cirr]

i used to read a bunch of rense and ATS back in the late 90s and early 00s. It was always nuts and had a bunch of crazy hateful takes that i skipped over. once i actually got out into the real world i dropped it all like a hot tamale and started consuming real news.

 

[chaostrophy]

Never a believer but fascinated with the subculture. My gateway was discovering the Illuminatus! trilogy by Wilson/Shea in high school. Got a bit obsessed with those books. Haven't re-read them in a while though, wonder if they'd still hold up.

 

[sgtnosboss]

not me personally, but I do have a friend that went to the dark side hard on those like you said OP. My fiancee believes the moon landing was fake though...

That and a few friends strongly believe the 9/11 stuff

 

[Sephzilla]

Not me personally but my friend went through a dark phase of this, he lived alone and smoked weed in a house all day looking up conspiracies on the internet and looking at the sky finding lights and shit. Used to rant to me about all of them, pretty sure he even believed the Royal Family were reptilians at one point. He's calmed a lot down now and admits some of the more absurd ones can't be real, but he is still a strong believer in the illuminati, that elections aren't real and it's all just a show, and a couple things like that, although you can tell he's not as comfortable talking about it any more.

Click to shrink...

Did he recently play Metal Gear Solid 2

 

[Strike]

9/11 being an inside job and Tupac being alive until about 2004.

 

[Sunster]

farthest I've gone is hearing about 9/11 conspiracies when i was 15> and thinking, "yeah, i could believe that."

 

[EchoChamber]

My dad is and now the conspiracy for this season is that the ice age is coming.

 

[Pickman]

A good friend from high school got really deeply into them shortly after we graduated. He's since been diagnosed as schizophrenic and is medicated to a functional level, and is extremely embarrassed about the shit he used to rant to people about.

 

[PopQuiz]

Love early UFO stuff and mass sightings. They're easy theories to indulge in because I can easily not believe them and they're largely not insidious in nature.

Like others here, it largely comes from just like sci-fi and alien fiction.

 

[Trice]

Farthest I was into conspiracy was when our history teacher assigned me to research why would the Moon landing be fake while my partner presented why it's not fake and we had to debate in front of class. The more I researched the more I strayed away from the conspiracy.

I still presented like a total tinfoil badass tho. Went full Alex Jones

 

[Deleted member 3542]

No. I enjoy listening to them, especially aliens and X-files type stuff, but no.

It's a good way to weed out the morons, though.

 

[chrisPjelly]

I found them fun to listen to, but even as a kid there was sooo much window dressing and narcissistic usages of "I" and "We" in relation to thinking that their knowledge was revelatory that it was hard to not think they were bullshit. Of course, this is just for the more outlandish theories like everything coming out of Alex "Gay frogs" Jone's asshole of a mouth. I have no doubt there's SOME truth to several more low key, less insidious and world dooming, consipiracies.

 

[UltimateHigh]

JFK.

I had to combat moon landing conspiracies way too much. Thanks the history channel.

 

[Goldenroad]

No. I enjoy listening to them, especially aliens and X-files type stuff, but no.

It's a good way to weed out the morons, though.

Click to shrink...

Yeah basically this. I've had to ditch some "friends" over the years because shit like this really drives home the type of person they really are. Like I'll deal the "government are keeping aliens secret" morons. You're not hurting anyone at that point, although it does speak to your overall intelligence. But as soon as it crosses that line into "crisis actors", or "jetfuel can't melt steel beams", which the alien conspiracy people, at least the ones who are deep enough in it, usually do as well....it's time to cut and run.

 

[Sqrt]

I used to read a lot about UFO conspiracies, when I was 9-10.

 

[Min]

Birds Aren't Real

 

[BringBackSonics]

I must confess.

Back in my early to mid teen years, I was way into conspiracy theories the majority of which were Right-wing ones.
I used to read up extensively about the Illuminati and the new world order and even a bit of reptile stuff. I used to also buy into the "vaccines make you get HIV" camp. Those were dark days for me.

Conspiracy Theories are scary 'cause it can make you too afraid and make you look at things from a distorted perspective but at the same time, it gets confusing when something like MK ULTRA becomes real.

Click to shrink...

Eh, I was really into art Bell, But it was some of the more fanciful stuff like planet Niburu and 'Mel's hole' and Atlantis.

 

[Sec0nd]

For sure. I believed the 9/11 stuff. I guess it was because it felt like a real life mystery that you could be part of. Some excitement to spice up the mundaneness of regular life. Plus the excitement of being 'in' on something the majority of the people aren't. I was young and thought the way the grown up world wasn't transparent to me meant there was a lot of room for stuff to be hidden.

Then I grew older and realized that growing up doesn't give you the secrets of the universe and that most people don't actually know what the fuck they are doing. Made me realize that these conspiracies would be hella hard to pull of and keep secret with all these idiots running around.

 

[Aftermath]

When I was a Teenager into Niravna - omg I heard Courtney Love had Kurt Murdered.

Nick Broomfields Documentary called Kurt & Courtney didn't help either.

 

[Bacon]

I was a 9/11 truther for a short time in my middle school/early high school days. Dark times for me.

 

[Lonewulfeus]

9/11 being an inside job and Tupac being alive until about 2004.

Click to shrink...

Yea but that second one... he's in Cuba.

 

[Deleted member 13328]

I got way in to conspiracy teories when I was young and The X-files was on tv. But mostly alien stuff.

And the assassination of JFK is still something I think about, it's just so damn intriguing I guess.

 

[Randam]

When even I heard about one, I went only and looked for stuff debunking the conspiracy theories.

Remember finding a page back in the day, that explained all the moon landing stuff.
Why the shadows seemed weird, why it seemed like the flag was waving and so on.