If we ignore a lot of strictly far-right oriented conspiracy theorism, there’s a surprising amount of theories that are at least very likely true but either governments or government organizations deny.
And, of course, some of the strictly far-right theories are based on likely true stuff, but they lean much too far into fantasy, or delude themselves by blaming the wrong elements of society - or just flat out linking likely true stuff to obviously fake stuff. (pizzagate comes to mind, for instance)
But, while talking about Pizzagate, there is an element of that does seem to be true. That being that there’s an illegal child sex-trafficking ring that this nation’s elites take part in, and the government murdered Epstein to keep covered up.
Then there’s a healthy amount of stuff that gets called ‘conspiracy’ by the establishment, but clearly doesn’t count as such because all of the evidence is out in the open, you just have to look anywhere but where mainstream media wants you to be looking. Stuff like the war on terror being a front to secure oil from the middle east and destabilize the governments of that region. The US using death squads and funding opposition groups around the world to destabilize governments that disagree with them diplomatically. There are others, but I don’t see much point in writing out a whole-ass list.
We could also talk about pseudo-conspiracies that are likely true, but which lack official evidence. Things like Facebook controlling narratives on the site. Twitter shadowbanning political opponents to the West. ETC. These theories are interesting and if you’re even slightly online you may have already either heard of or experienced them. But, of course, because these aren’t rigid theories with ample evidence you’re bound to see people on the far-right use these to ‘prove’ their far-right bullshit. So grain of salt them.
There are what I like to call “hybrid theories”, which is a conspiracy theory that ties into other conspiracies, while also using well-researched sources. Depending on if sources are to be trusted (I’m not going to say whether or not they should be) 9/11 would count as one of these. Though we’ll ignore the far-rights “jet fuel can’t melt steel beams” line. In this case, 9/11 is a hybrid because it can be tied directly into the US’s support, funding, etc. of the Mujahadeen in the '70s and '80s against the USSR, previous disruption efforts carried out by the US prior to the event, and the US using the war on terror to do what I’ve previously discussed in this comment.
We could talk about “pop-theories” too (alt. “urban legends”). Things that are popular subjects that people will just talk about without having any evidence, but which spread before the internet age (or after it for that matter, but most are from before) via word of mouth. Walt Disney being frozen is one, Polybus is another. Both of those are false, but a couple of these were possibly true. A recent likely true one being that during the storming of the capital, the police guarding the white house just let people get by them, because the police in the US have become a mostly fascist-oriented career and so they tend to support fascist-oriented causes.
But, the big thing about conspiracy theories is that if you’re not in a top-level intelligence agency position, it’s very hard to know for absolutely sure if things are true or not until someone in that position either spills the beans, or documents leak. Which, due to the inherently negative effects of the internet and its cult-like communities, just feeds the cycle. There are a couple of theories that I’d argue are provably real (the child sex-trafficking ring, for instance) but won’t gather popular support, simply because certain elements of the internet take the evidence way too far, and makes so-called “rational” people sceptical of all theories, even when the evidence is laid out in front of them.
I know you asked about theories that I think are real, but I spend way too much time researching and learning about conspiracies (it and studying the far-right are fascinations of mine) and apparently I had a bit more of a ranty answer in me than I thought at the start.
If we ignore a lot of strictly far-right oriented conspiracy theorism, there’s a surprising amount of theories that are at least very likely true but either governments or government organizations deny.
And, of course, some of the strictly far-right theories are based on likely true stuff, but they lean much too far into fantasy, or delude themselves by blaming the wrong elements of society - or just flat out linking likely true stuff to obviously fake stuff. (pizzagate comes to mind, for instance)
But, while talking about Pizzagate, there is an element of that does seem to be true. That being that there’s an illegal child sex-trafficking ring that this nation’s elites take part in, and the government murdered Epstein to keep covered up.
Then there’s a healthy amount of stuff that gets called ‘conspiracy’ by the establishment, but clearly doesn’t count as such because all of the evidence is out in the open, you just have to look anywhere but where mainstream media wants you to be looking. Stuff like the war on terror being a front to secure oil from the middle east and destabilize the governments of that region. The US using death squads and funding opposition groups around the world to destabilize governments that disagree with them diplomatically. There are others, but I don’t see much point in writing out a whole-ass list.
We could also talk about pseudo-conspiracies that are likely true, but which lack official evidence. Things like Facebook controlling narratives on the site. Twitter shadowbanning political opponents to the West. ETC. These theories are interesting and if you’re even slightly online you may have already either heard of or experienced them. But, of course, because these aren’t rigid theories with ample evidence you’re bound to see people on the far-right use these to ‘prove’ their far-right bullshit. So grain of salt them.
There are what I like to call “hybrid theories”, which is a conspiracy theory that ties into other conspiracies, while also using well-researched sources. Depending on if sources are to be trusted (I’m not going to say whether or not they should be) 9/11 would count as one of these. Though we’ll ignore the far-rights “jet fuel can’t melt steel beams” line. In this case, 9/11 is a hybrid because it can be tied directly into the US’s support, funding, etc. of the Mujahadeen in the '70s and '80s against the USSR, previous disruption efforts carried out by the US prior to the event, and the US using the war on terror to do what I’ve previously discussed in this comment.
We could talk about “pop-theories” too (alt. “urban legends”). Things that are popular subjects that people will just talk about without having any evidence, but which spread before the internet age (or after it for that matter, but most are from before) via word of mouth. Walt Disney being frozen is one, Polybus is another. Both of those are false, but a couple of these were possibly true. A recent likely true one being that during the storming of the capital, the police guarding the white house just let people get by them, because the police in the US have become a mostly fascist-oriented career and so they tend to support fascist-oriented causes.
But, the big thing about conspiracy theories is that if you’re not in a top-level intelligence agency position, it’s very hard to know for absolutely sure if things are true or not until someone in that position either spills the beans, or documents leak. Which, due to the inherently negative effects of the internet and its cult-like communities, just feeds the cycle. There are a couple of theories that I’d argue are provably real (the child sex-trafficking ring, for instance) but won’t gather popular support, simply because certain elements of the internet take the evidence way too far, and makes so-called “rational” people sceptical of all theories, even when the evidence is laid out in front of them.
I know you asked about theories that I think are real, but I spend way too much time researching and learning about conspiracies (it and studying the far-right are fascinations of mine) and apparently I had a bit more of a ranty answer in me than I thought at the start.