Results: Conspiracy Theories, Part Two

A frighteningly high percentage of Americans believe that a secret society called the Illuminati, similar to the Deep State, is conspiring at the highest levels of government to overthrow America's capitalist society and create a "New World Order" similar to globalism. It's important to note that a real organization called the Illuminati actually existed during the 18th century in Europe. It was secretive, it did pursue radical changes in the social and political structures of the day and briefly, it did wield real power. Where reality breaks from paranoia is in the idea that it continues to exist today and continues to pull the levers of power through everything from music and video games to labor unions and religious organizations. Do you believe that the Illuminati is actively trying to create a "New World Order"?

Infowars host Alex Jones is to conspiracy theories what Jerry Garcia was to psychedelic rock. In 2019, the country's preeminent theory-without-facts guru was ordered to pay $100,000 in legal fees for the father of a victim of the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre, which killed six educators and 20 children in Newtown, Connecticut. Jones used his platform to spread a conspiracy theory that the massacre never happened. It was all a hoax, the 6- and 7-year-old victims were child actors, and their parents were paid to lie. Easily convinced, his cult-like following bombarded the still-mourning families with harassment, accusations, and even death threats. It was arguably the grossest, but certainly not the first or only, false-flag conspiracy theory. Do you believe the Sandy Hook massacre was real?

False flag operations are the act of a nation deliberately fabricating an attack against itself as a justification for war or internal repression. Some are as old as the hills and are very much real. It's now known that the second Gulf of Tonkin incident, which the United States used as a pretext for the Vietnam War, was a false-flag operation. False flag operations are by definition conspiracies, which gives fuel to conspiracy theorists who repeatedly find false flags where none exist. Many 9/11 truthers, for example, believe that Sept. 11 was a false-flag operation to justify the War on Terror, but the vast majority of false flag conspiracy theories come in the wake of mass shootings like Sandy Hook. Virtually every major mass shooting in the last two decades was followed by a conspiracy theory claiming that the act was staged. The logic is virtually always the same, the government wants a reason to confiscate guns, abolish the Second Amendment, and disarm the U.S. population. Do you believe that the U.S. gov't. is currently using false flag operations to abolish the Second Amendment?

The conspiracy theory video "Plandemic" promoted previously debunked claims that SARS-CoV-2 was manmade and that Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and/or director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and voice of reason on the White House Coronavirus Task Force Dr. Anthony Fauci deliberately orchestrated COVID-19 in order to profit from a future vaccine. It was watched by millions before being removed by social medial platforms like YouTube and Facebook as false and potentially dangerous misinformation, but it continues to circulate online, with conspiratorially-minded people taking its removal from the mainstream as paradoxical proof that it must be true. Do you believe that the "Plandemic" conspiracy theory is real?

Legitimate experts have raised legitimate concerns about potential health hazards related to 5G wireless towers in residential neighborhoods and near schools. Those concerns, however, were co-opted and twisted early on by conspiracy theorists. They insisted the next generation of wireless technology, which is currently being rolled out across the country, causes cancer or, more ominously, is part of a government data collection or monitoring plot. When Covid-19 hit, things got really weird. Conspiracy theorists insisted that 5G technology itself triggered the virus, and as the virus spread so, too, did the crackpot information. Several 5G towers were burned or otherwise attacked by true believers. Do you believe that 5G technology causes cancer or Covid-19?

5G cell phone towers are not the only technology associated with coronavirus conspiracy theories. A scary percentage of Americans believe that Microsoft founder Bill Gates created Covid-19 as a pretext for mandatory mass vaccinations. It's all part of a massive plan, the theory goes, for Gates to use the vaccines as cover to secretly implant microchips in every American. Do you believe that there are microchips in vaccines?