Conspiracy theories

Overview
This page is a list of known conspiracy theories. For discussion of the idea itself, see conspiracy theory.

Related Pages

 * Issuepedia:Rampant Paranoia: theories we aren't taking seriously, given the current evidence
 * Manchurian Candidate scenario: subornation of a high-level official by malign foreign interests

substantially investigated

 * 9/11 anomalies: not so much a theory of what as pointing out that the official story has holes you could pilot a plane through
 * Bushco engineered 9/11: extrapolating the evidence to one possible (but unproven) conclusion
 * global warming denial often takes the form of arguments for the existence of a conspiracy between international scientific organizations, the environmental lobby, the green industry, and Western politicians

to be investigated

 * The US Federal Reserve
 * The 2005-07-07 bombings ("the British 9/11")
 * The JFK assassination
 * The RFK assassination
 * The MLK assassination (discussion): a jury found in 1999 that the US government was behind the killing. This has not been contested.
 * The John Lennon assassination
 * The Oklahoma City bombing
 * The 1993 WTC bombing
 * The Lockerbie-PanAm bombing
 * The Pearl Harbor attack
 * The Columbine massacre
 * The TWA Flight 800 disaster
 * flight800.org: at first glance, this appears to have some pretty solid arguments in favor of a cover-up
 * alien contact
 * 2008-07-24 NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell claims alien contact cover-up "...he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades."
 * 2008-07-24 NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell claims alien contact cover-up "...he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades."

Queries:
 * Are there any major tragic events since approximately 1900 for which no popular "conspiracy theory" exists?
 * Why are there so many conspiracy theories?
 * What is the approximate ratio of theories which remain unproven or disproven to those which prove true? Is there enough data to draw a curve of {likelihood that any given theory will be proven or disproven} over time? (What is the half-life of a conspiracy theory?) Are there any characteristics which make a theory more likely to be resolved sooner? Are there any characteristics which make a theory more likely to be found true when it is resolved?

Later Proven Valid
Some conspiracy theories which turned out to be true and are now officially recognized (and are no longer called "conspiracy theories"):
 * The Iran-Contra affair : Reagan traded arms for hostages while denying that he did so; there was also allegedly a global narco-terrorism network headquartered in the basement of the White House. (kudos: apostle_of_eris)
 * "P-2 in Italy was real. They didn't completely succeed in taking over the Italian government, but they did steal the Vatican bank; and though I'm skeptical that they poisoned a Pope, they did get away with murder." (kudos: apostle_of_eris)
 * "remember the Maine!" - more of an anti-conspiracy, where an accident was claimed as a provocation for war

Inconclusive But Taken Seriously

 * If Karen Silkwood had died in the Internet era, the theory that she was rammed from behind by agents working for her employer might well have been branded as a "conspiracy theory".

Humor

 * The Mad Revisionist: pokes fun at conspiracy theories and revisionist history. Never mind the "moon landing was a hoax staged by NASA" or "there was no Jewish Holocaust"; try "THE MOON: A Propaganda Hoax", "Do the Jews exist?" and "There is no physical, forensic evidence of the existence of the Twin Towers".