Dive into the world of conspiracy theories that have captivated, shocked, and bewildered us over the past quarter-century. From Y2K to Taylor Swift's alleged government collusion, we're exploring the most mind-blowing conspiracies that had everyone talking!
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00:00One idea that has been tossed around a bit in jest, sending the president to a stop on
00:05Ms. Swift's Eras tour.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the deepest,
00:12most shocking conspiracy theories of the last quarter century.
00:15The U.S. Special Forces invited KXAN News to Camp Bullis to get an inside look at
00:20the unconventional warfare training also known as Jade Helm.
00:252000, Y2K Doomsday.
00:28Back on the Y2K front, despite all of the assurances that the Y2K computer problems
00:33are under control at a cost of $100 billion in this country, a lot of Americans nonetheless
00:39are taking no chances. They're prepared to survive no matter what happens.
00:43The Year 2000 problem, or Y2K as it's popularly known, is largely remembered for its near-total
00:50lack of consequences. While there could have been systematic mechanical failures, this was
00:56avoided thanks to the tireless preparation of engineers and tech experts. The dire predictions
01:01of some media commentators and certain niche religious leaders didn't come to pass, and
01:06both groups were accused of fear-mongering and stoking panic among the general public.
01:11Hello friends, we are going to be discussing one of the most serious topics that we have
01:16ever attempted to bring to you, and because of the seriousness of it, it is going to affect
01:23all of our lives.
01:25In particular, evangelists were admonished for promoting Y2K Doomsday theories as a way
01:30to profit. For example, they preached that the government would be dismantled to make
01:35way for Jesus Christ's return. Suffice it to say, that didn't end up sticking.
01:39Rexella, that is so dynamic, so powerful, so potent. I want you to read it one more time.
01:44In the expanse of human history, nothing this big has been this predictable with this much
01:51precision. This much precision. They know exactly what's going to happen, Jack.
01:56Well, it's not hard to figure it out, Rexella.
01:592001. An Inside Job. The attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, was a tragedy
02:05that shook the world, leading to a death toll of nearly 3,000 and escalating conflict in
02:10the Middle East. But there are those out there who don't believe the story that Al-Qaeda
02:14were responsible, despite Osama Bin Laden taking credit for the attack, and instead
02:19think that 9-11 was an inside job. They think it was perpetrated by George W. Bush and the
02:24U.S. government in order to justify going to war in the Middle East, and frequently
02:29cite alleged evidence like the explosions at the base of the tower and Bush's calm
02:34demeanor when informed about the attack. 2002. Chemtrails.
02:38Well, the white line behind a jet is a natural process that goes on with the relationship
02:45between the aerodynamics of the aircraft and the atmosphere.
02:48They won't even say that word. Scientifically, they're called condensation trails,
02:53contrails for short. Here's the thing. The notion that the condensation trails left behind
02:58by planes are a government plot to spread mass quantities of biological agents, it's
03:03been widely disproved, and it's roundly dismissed by scientists. But that hasn't
03:08stopped conspiracy theorists from suspecting that there are nefarious powers at work.
03:12I honestly, it might seem a little bit crazy that I have, I literally have almost 400
03:18videos. One, two, three, X means death. Chemtrail conspiracy theories have bubbled
03:27since the late 1990s, and a 2000 multi-agency collaborative project to prove their non-existence
03:33only fueled more distrust. This was with NASA, NOAA, the FAA, and EPA involved, by the way.
03:40An undated U.S. Air Force memo, but retrieved by Wikipedia in 2002, suggested that the conspiracy
03:47was based on misinterpretations of a 1996 military directive that described, quote,
03:53fictional representations of future situations slash scenarios.
03:57So what you're really doing is you're sort of artificially generating a cloud.
04:01It's like a long white cloud. That's essentially what it is.
04:04That's right.
04:05As jet fuel burns, it produces mostly water vapor. Picture my mouth like a jet engine.
04:10I know that sounds weird, but as I exhale, my breath contains a lot of water,
04:14so we'll see something like a cloud.
04:162003, Iraq War WMDs.
04:19My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of
04:25military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger.
04:33On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance
04:39to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war.
04:42One of the most reviled, overwhelmingly unpopular war efforts of all time,
04:47the so-called War on Terror has been lambasted as a blatant attempt to enrich the American empire.
04:52The administration of President George W. Bush saw an opportunity in post-911 anxieties,
04:58and seized on its history-making fashion.
05:00Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure.
05:06The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live
05:10at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.
05:15The American and British governments both accused Saddam Hussein, then president of Iraq,
05:20of covertly aiding Al-Qaeda and developing weapons of mass destruction.
05:25The U.S. invaded Iraq in March of 2003, but as early as 2004, the CIA reported that Hussein,
05:31quote, did not possess stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion
05:36in March 2003, and had not begun any program to produce them.
05:40The main reason we went into Iraq at the time was we thought he had weapons of mass destruction.
05:45It turns out he didn't, but he had the capacity to make weapons of mass.
05:48But I also talked about the human suffering in Iraq,
05:51and I also talked the need to advance a freedom agenda.
05:542004, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.
05:57Things happen, you know, and they can happen any second.
06:04It can be the most beautiful moment in the next week.
06:08Whether you attribute the cause of this natural disaster to a sinister conspiracy
06:12or just nature, the tragic facts of this incident are undeniable.
06:17Almost 228,000 lost their lives in 12 countries,
06:21with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand hit the hardest.
06:25The actual cause of this devastating double threat
06:28was a rupture along the fault between the Burma and Indian tectonic plates.
06:32I felt that the waves took my daughter away.
06:34I was so mad at the sea.
06:36I cannot bring myself near it and not even have my feet in the sand.
06:41I wouldn't come around here if necessary.
06:43Never.
06:44The sea took my daughter from me.
06:45However, according to conspiracy theorists, President Bush was responsible.
06:50According to New York Magazine, proponents of the belief cite
06:53Defense Secretary William S. Cohen's 1997 warning about the threat of an ecotype of terrorism.
07:00In this case, they suggest that Bush dropped tsunami bombs in the ocean
07:04to destroy East Asian prosperity.
07:07Children trying to scream for help.
07:09I couldn't go and swim to them or try to help them because I couldn't move my legs.
07:182005.
07:19Harp caused Hurricane Katrina.
07:21But there are some users that allege that you know what else is causing extreme weather events.
07:28Harp and Geoengineering, which go hand in hand, weather modifications.
07:33There's one tweet, one right there from The Who.
07:36There's also these TikToks.
07:38This user in French claiming that the actual temperatures right now aren't real.
07:43Much like our last entry, Hurricane Katrina was an indisputable humanitarian crisis,
07:48killing nearly 1,400 people and costing over $125 billion in damages.
07:54While, of course, we know that weather control isn't a real thing,
07:58certain conspiracy theorists will tell you that the culprit was actually
08:01the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HARP.
08:05The program, coordinated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks,
08:09aims to study the Earth's ionosphere.
08:11Here we have an up-close image on Google Earth of this research program
08:16composed of up to 190 antennas.
08:19We can see it up close here on Google Earth.
08:22And these antennas and radio transmitters right here
08:25can only affect a small amount of air above it.
08:28They definitely can't control weather conditions or natural disasters.
08:32However, conspiracies abound that HARP was to blame.
08:35And this is despite the fact that popular science has called HARP's energy waves
08:40almost too weak to measure.
08:42Another thin defense of the theory is the fact that
08:44HARP's funding was also increased in 2005.
08:47This Twitter user is saying, weather modification is real,
08:50HARP is real, Hurricane Katrina, Gustav, Isaac, and now Harvey,
08:54all happened around the exact same date,
08:57so this user contributing all hurricanes to HARP.
09:002006, Lou Dobbs and the North American Union.
09:04To think that it is acceptable for the President of the United States
09:08and this executive department of his government,
09:11his administration, our government,
09:14to proceed without the approval of Congress
09:16or a dialogue and a debate and a public voice
09:22from the people of this country is absolutely unconscionable.
09:26Hey folks, any chance you're able to spare an Amaro?
09:30That would be the hypothetical shared currency of Canada,
09:33Mexico, and the United States
09:35should a European Union-style collaboration ever come to fruition.
09:38Critics say foreign policy elites are promoting a European-style union,
09:43erasing borders between the three countries
09:45and eventually moving to a single North American currency called the Amaro.
09:49A Commerce Department spokesman, however, denies this,
09:52quote, there is absolutely no plan for a common currency.
09:56While it's a fun thought experiment,
09:58the idea has been derided by economic experts as extremely unlikely.
10:03Nevertheless, conservative CNN pundit Lou Dobbs
10:06suggested on his self-titled news show
10:08that not only was such a merger in talks,
10:10it was already happening
10:12and without the consent of anyone in any of the three countries involved.
10:16While this picked up some mainstream steam,
10:19being parroted by Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, among others,
10:24Dobbs's fears didn't materialize.
10:26What they're doing is creating a brave new world,
10:29an Orwellian world in which the will of the people is absolutely irrelevant.
10:35And I think we've had a sampling of what's going to happen
10:38to people who do that in the future.
10:402007, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
10:43Why would somebody keep her there for so long after she disappeared?
10:47Because of my background and the work that I've done with the technology,
10:50but also my work in the police, just said to me, it doesn't add up.
10:54We all hope and pray that she's alive, of course.
10:58But for me, it was highly unlikely.
11:00The case that The Daily Telegraph deemed
11:03the most heavily reported missing person case in modern history
11:06continues to baffle and frustrate both relevant authorities
11:10and the general public.
11:11British three-year-old McCann, on vacation in Portugal with her family,
11:15went missing after being left alone with her infant siblings in their hotel room,
11:19just 180 feet away from where her parents were dining.
11:23Because we're talking about a girl.
11:25We're talking about the child that's missing.
11:27This is not a circus.
11:28This is not a show.
11:29This is awful.
11:31This family needs closure.
11:33There's a criminal out there that knows what happened.
11:36As with other high-profile missing children cases,
11:38the McCanns were immediately suspected of having taken their daughter's life,
11:42and British tabloids exploited this angle.
11:45They posited the deplorable means by which the McCann parents had allegedly done it.
11:50The media coverage slowed to a halt
11:52when the McCanns won several libel lawsuits against the publications responsible.
11:57I think we need to make it clear to people,
11:59we took on this case because of the pain and distress
12:02that Mr. Antmel has brought to us and our children.
12:05And every time he postpones the case like this,
12:08it brings us more pain and distress.
12:10Every time we come here,
12:11we have to make arrangements for our children to be looked after.
12:14We have to book flights.
12:16We have to book hotels.
12:172008.
12:18Barack Obama and the birther movement.
12:21In 2008, history was made when Barack Obama
12:24became the first black president of the United States.
12:26However, a worryingly high number of Americans refused to believe
12:30that Obama was one of their own,
12:32and claimed the new president was born in a different country,
12:35meaning his presidency was against the Constitution.
12:38In an attempt to stamp out these ideas,
12:40Obama released his long-form birth certificate.
12:43But this hasn't stopped many theorists from calling the document a forgery,
12:47and continuing to suggest that Obama is a foreigner.
12:502009.
12:51The swine flu pandemic.
12:52We begin with swine flu now widespread in 46 states.
12:56President Obama has taken steps to ratchet up the response.
13:00Officials hope the move will give the government
13:02the authority and flexibility to react to a virus
13:04that continues to confound the medical community.
13:07Some of our younger audience members
13:08may not remember the swine flu or H1N1 scare,
13:11or even have been alive for it.
13:13For the uninitiated, think of it as a mini-proto-COVID.
13:17It never got to the point of shutting down the world economy,
13:19but it was definitely scary.
13:21Secretary Napolitano will be offering regular updates
13:24to the American people as well,
13:25so that they know what steps are being taken
13:28and what steps they may need to take.
13:30But one thing is clear.
13:32Our capacity to deal with a public health challenge of this sort
13:36rests heavily on the work of our scientific and medical community.
13:39A 2016 report published by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City
13:44revealed that the virus most likely originated from pigs in central Mexico,
13:49before being passed to humans.
13:51A familiar-sounding narrative in the post-COVID world,
13:54fearful conspiracists accuse the World Health Organization
13:57of colluding with Big Pharma,
13:59that is, engineering a manufactured conspiracy
14:02to boost the pharmaceutical industry's profits.
14:05It's entirely reasonable to ask for absolute transparency.
14:09What the experts did was entirely ethical.
14:12They declared their own interests,
14:14but for some reason the World Health Organization
14:16is still refusing us full transparency
14:20and publishing those interests.
14:212010, Deepwater Horizon.
14:24Still got about 11, I think 11 or 15 people missing.
14:31There are many checks before you get to activating the blowout preventer.
14:37That is the ultimate failsafe mechanism,
14:40and for whatever reason, and we don't understand that yet,
14:43it failed to operate.
14:44Perhaps more commonly known as the BP oil spill,
14:47the Deepwater Horizon platform explosion
14:49has been deemed one of the worst environmental disasters in history.
14:53The appropriately named Oil Spill Commission
14:56determined that BP had taken several unnecessary risky steps
15:00in building the rig
15:01that ultimately led to its literally explosive failure.
15:04Controversial radio host and viral internet sensation Alex Jones
15:09alleged that the disaster had been manufactured.
15:11Now we are operating six remote-operated vehicles
15:14simultaneously around the blowout preventer,
15:16both monitoring the blowout preventer
15:19and trying to close in the flow of oil.
15:23Development drill of three is now on location,
15:25and we expect to start drilling the relief well within 48 hours.
15:29Jones described his belief that Halliburton,
15:31the second largest oil services company,
15:34had, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center,
15:36quote,
15:37acquired a company that suppresses oil well fires and blowouts
15:40just a little more than a week before,
15:43end quote.
15:43Jones also claimed that there had been a mass dumping of BP stock
15:47shortly beforehand,
15:49suggesting some individuals foreknowledge.
15:51I think BP is going to go through a very rough period,
15:55especially in the next six to nine months.
15:59The first step here is to stabilize the company financially,
16:02which they have done so with the agreement
16:04with the White House a couple of days ago.
16:07They're already going to establish this escrow account,
16:10which they will fund.
16:12It was $5 billion every year this year
16:14and then the next three years.
16:162011, Osama bin Laden's fate.
16:19Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world
16:23that the United States has conducted an operation
16:25that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda,
16:30and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands
16:33of innocent men, women, and children.
16:36The May 2nd killing of Al Qaeda founder bin Laden
16:40raised more questions than one would expect,
16:42especially given the fact that this supposedly ended
16:45a major chapter in the war on terror.
16:47Bin Laden was buried at sea,
16:49and no photos of his body were ever released to the public,
16:52and the secrecy surrounding the operation
16:54rather predictably gave way to some interesting ideas.
16:58Today, at my direction,
17:00the United States launched a targeted operation
17:03against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
17:07A small team of Americans carried out the operation
17:09with extraordinary courage and capability.
17:13No Americans were harmed.
17:15They took care to avoid civilian casualties.
17:18These included the notion that bin Laden hadn't been killed at all,
17:21and that President Barack Obama's administration needed a win.
17:25A somewhat more outlandish theory was posited by Alex Jones
17:28that bin Laden had been killed almost a decade earlier,
17:31and that the U.S. government had cryogenically frozen his body.
17:35So Americans understand the costs of war.
17:39Yet, as a country, we will never tolerate
17:41our security being threatened,
17:43nor stand idly by when our people have been killed.
17:47We will be relentless in defense of our citizens
17:50and our friends and allies.
17:52We will be true to the values that make us who we are.
17:552012, Nibiru, and the 2012 phenomenon.
17:59Back in the early days of the internet,
18:01there existed a website called ZetaTalk,
18:04which was run by Nancy Leder,
18:06who claimed that she had contact with extraterrestrials.
18:09The Earth is indeed a battleground between good and evil.
18:11The self-focused want instant gratification.
18:14She asserted that a planet called Nibiru
18:17would pass close to Earth
18:18and instigate a cataclysmic pole shift,
18:21ending all life as we know it.
18:23While this theory dates back to 1995,
18:26it was continuously revived throughout the 2010s.
18:29The first instance was the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012,
18:33with many believing that Nibiru
18:35would destroy Earth on December 21st.
18:37It's the apocalypse.
18:39End of days.
18:41The judgment day.
18:42The end of the world, my friend.
18:45And in 2017, an End Times conspiracist named David Mead
18:49revived the conspiracy to great media attention.
18:52Of course, nothing happened,
18:53and NASA was once again forced to confirm
18:55that Nibiru does not actually exist.
19:042013, the Vati leaks.
19:06Look, it's not every day
19:08that the incumbent pope decides to resign.
19:11The pope's loneliness in front of what is happening
19:13in the Vatican Curia,
19:15a pope that was alone and was left alone.
19:17A pope who is a great theologian,
19:19but who hasn't succeeded in bringing forth his reforms
19:22in the battle for transparency.
19:24When Pope Benedict XVI
19:26made the decision to retire from his position,
19:28which he'd taken up in April 2005,
19:31he became the first pope to resign
19:33since Gregory XII in 1415.
19:36So yeah, kind of a big deal.
19:38But before Pope Francis could take Benedict's place
19:40in the Holy See,
19:42this unprecedented historical moment
19:44became ripe breeding ground
19:45for all kinds of conspiracy theories.
20:06The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported
20:09in an unsourced and unverified story that,
20:11quote,
20:12the Cardinals were said to have uncovered
20:14an underground gay network
20:16whose members organize sexual meetings
20:18in several venues in Rome and Vatican City,
20:21leaving them prone to blackmail.
20:392014.
20:41What happens to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?
20:44ACAS was either switched off or it failed.
20:49We don't know which.
20:50Because whatever did happen,
20:53this is the crucial moment.
20:55We pretty much know that all the comms are disabled,
20:59switched off, broken, blown up.
21:02Over a decade later,
21:04and it seems that nothing has changed,
21:06Over a decade later,
21:08and it seems that no one is any closer
21:10to explaining what many have called
21:11the greatest aviation mystery of all time.
21:14Rivaling that of Amelia Earhart,
21:17an international passenger flight
21:18departed from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
21:20to Beijing, China,
21:22but never made it to its ultimate destination.
21:24At this point, I've got two different paths.
21:28One is that that aircraft was taken over
21:31and that the systems were intentionally shut down.
21:34The other side would be
21:35that there was a singular failure
21:37at a common location
21:39and that singular mechanical failure
21:40would have done exactly the same thing.
21:43At this point in the investigation,
21:44there's no evidence one way or the other.
21:46How does one manage to lose a plane?
21:49That was the question on everyone's minds
21:51and the sheer lack of answers
21:53has fueled the rise of,
21:54well, let's call them alternate theories.
21:57These included the idea
21:58that the flight had been swallowed by a black hole,
22:01struck by a meteor,
22:02or even somehow abducted by aliens.
22:05When we look at that route as pilots,
22:07we all look at the charts
22:08and we look for the waypoints and the airways.
22:11There aren't any.
22:13It's as remote as you can get
22:15and still be on this planet.
22:162015, Jade Helm 15.
22:19And KXAN Crews got a closer look
22:21at the military exercise
22:22that's generated so much buzz,
22:24so much controversy this year.
22:26It's called Jade Helm 15.
22:28And earlier this year,
22:29city leaders in Bastrop and the army
22:31held a town hall meeting
22:32after people had concerns
22:33about the troops practicing in their backyard.
22:35Well, the training is also happening
22:36over in San Antonio.
22:38How is the US military
22:39supposed to curb the wild conspiracy theories
22:41that emerge every time
22:43another clandestine operation is uncovered?
22:45No, seriously, we want to know.
22:47Jade Helm 15 refers to a series
22:50of realistic military training exercises
22:52sponsored by the United States
22:54Special Operations Command.
22:55Roughly 1,200 military personnel participated,
22:58mostly green berets.
23:00But a publicly available map
23:02declaring the exercises' locations
23:04set off alarms in conspiracy circles.
23:07Various claims that were floated
23:08included that the program's
23:10scheduled conclusion on September 15
23:13would coincide with the imposition
23:14of martial law by the government
23:17or, harder to believe yet,
23:18a catastrophic asteroid strike.
23:21Would the commissioner's court
23:22consider reversing their invitation
23:25to these guys?
23:27And would the court be offended
23:28if I told the colonel
23:29that I didn't believe a single word
23:30that he just said?
23:312016, Pizzagate.
23:33This case shows how fake news
23:35can lead to a dangerous situation.
23:37Back in 2016, the emails
23:39of Hillary Clinton's campaign chair
23:41were hacked and published by WikiLeaks.
23:43Within these emails were alleged clues
23:45related to a secret human trafficking ring.
23:48Now called Pizzagate,
23:49the theory posits that powerful Democrats
23:52are running and engaging in
23:53a secret underground trafficking scheme.
23:56The term Pizzagate comes from
23:58Comet Ping Pong, a Washington pizzeria
24:00that was said to be related to the scheme.
24:02According to the folks
24:03with the spider eggs
24:04hatching in their brains,
24:06Clinton and Podesta have a series
24:08of smuggling tunnels
24:09that connect to the basement
24:11of this pizzeria.
24:12Spread by conservative pundits
24:14and alt-right trolls,
24:15the totally false conspiracy
24:17gained steam and had
24:19real-world implications.
24:20In 2019, a small fire was started
24:23in the restaurant.
24:24Three years earlier,
24:25a man shot a lock
24:27inside the restaurant
24:28to investigate a storage room.
24:29He was sentenced
24:30to four years in prison.
24:32How scary was the situation?
24:33He allegedly pointed the gun
24:35in the direction of an employee
24:36and fired the weapon
24:37inside the restaurant.
24:392017, Melania Trump was replaced.
24:42Unless Melania had shrunk
24:43by about six inches
24:45and grown jowls overnight,
24:47this ain't her, goes one tweet.
24:49There have been a lot
24:50of replacement theories
24:51as of late.
24:52In 2011, a Brazilian blog
24:54called Avril Esta Morte
24:56theorized that pop star Avril Lavigne
24:58was replaced by a body double
25:00back in 2003.
25:01Aside from subliminal messaging
25:03in her music,
25:04the biggest piece of
25:05quote-unquote evidence
25:06in regards to this theory
25:08is her altered physical appearance.
25:10This same conspiracy
25:11was later applied
25:12to First Lady Melania Trump,
25:14whom some believe was replaced
25:15for public appearances.
25:16Some saw Melania last Friday
25:18with the president on the South Lawn
25:20and thought some of her facial features
25:22didn't look like her.
25:23Whether she was dead or in hiding,
25:25the real Melania
25:26was nowhere to be seen.
25:28Trump himself addressed these rumors,
25:30calling them,
25:30as he has so many things,
25:32fake news.
25:33And this time, at least,
25:34that was actually the case,
25:36with Business Insider calling it,
25:38quote,
25:38a ridiculous conspiracy theory.
25:40There's an element of truth
25:41to the idea
25:42that she doesn't want
25:43to spend time with him.
25:462018, the Flat Earth Movement.
25:48And the Earth is...
25:50Flat.
25:50Flat.
25:51The Earth is flat.
25:52My reality, my senses tell me
25:53that the Earth is flat and stationary.
25:55We've known that the Earth is round
25:57for millennia,
25:58with ancient Greek thinkers
25:59like Pythagoras and Plato
26:01writing about a spherical Earth.
26:02And the idea quickly became commonplace.
26:05Point is, we've known
26:06that the Earth is round
26:07for well over 2,000 years.
26:09Yet people still hold
26:10to the archaic belief
26:11that it's flat.
26:12The internet was a huge boom
26:14for the Flat Earth Movement,
26:15which earned widespread prominence
26:17throughout the 2010s.
26:18You know flat Earthers,
26:19I guarantee it.
26:20But you don't know who they are
26:22because they're afraid
26:22of talking about it.
26:23One, two, three.
26:25We're not crazy!
26:28Celebrities like basketball player
26:30Kyrie Irving have espoused
26:31Flat Earth beliefs.
26:32And the first Flat Earth conference
26:34was held in North Carolina in 2017.
26:37Furthermore, a YouGov poll
26:38conducted in 2018
26:40showed that just two-thirds
26:41of millennials believe
26:43that the Earth is round.
26:44Let's hope that the rest
26:45were just trolling.
26:46It's probably the most
26:49nonsensical suggestion
26:51that a thinking human being
26:54could possibly make.
26:56It is drivel.
26:582019.
26:59Jeffrey Epstein
27:00didn't end his own life.
27:01Epstein was dead,
27:02but EMTs inexplicably
27:05moved his body
27:06before investigators arrived.
27:07On July 6, 2019,
27:09financier Jeffrey Epstein
27:11was arrested on charges
27:12of sex trafficking.
27:13He was dead just one month later.
27:16The official story
27:17is that Epstein was unwilling
27:18to face punishment
27:19and took his own life.
27:20But many people aren't buying it,
27:22claiming that too many things
27:23don't add up,
27:24including discrepancies
27:26in the story
27:26and a lack of proper
27:27prison procedure.
27:28Two guards sat just 15 feet
27:30from his cell,
27:31failing to check on him.
27:33Prosecutors say the guards
27:35slept and shopped online.
27:36The conspiracy theorists
27:38posit that Epstein held
27:39powerful secrets
27:40about powerful people
27:42who subsequently ordered a hit
27:43to ensure his silence.
27:45Numerous reports prove
27:46the widespread belief
27:48in this theory.
27:49With a 2020 Rasmussen report
27:51showing that just 21% of Americans
27:53believe the official narrative.
27:552020.
27:565G causes harmful health effects.
27:59Why are people afraid of 5G?
28:02One word.
28:03Radiation.
28:04The idea that wireless signals
28:06will destroy our health
28:07has been around for a long time,
28:09pretty much since wireless signals
28:10became commonplace.
28:12The 5G is killing us all conspiracy
28:14achieved mainstream recognition
28:16when it was blamed for starting COVID.
28:18Fueling fires on cell towers
28:20in recent weeks across Europe,
28:22the United States,
28:23and now Canada.
28:24But the health scare actually
28:25predates the pandemic.
28:27In 2019, the New York Times
28:29published an article
28:30blaming the Russian network
28:31RT America
28:32for spreading misinformation
28:34about 5G.
28:35According to RT,
28:36the cellular network caused
28:37the likes of Alzheimer's,
28:39autism, and cancer.
28:40Of course, none of this is true,
28:42but the conspiracy spread
28:44far and wide,
28:45with cities like Brussels,
28:46Geneva, and Mill Valley
28:48preventing the implementation
28:49of 5G networks.
28:51There's further no evidence
28:52that people living near 5G
28:54or other similar towers
28:56have increased risk of cancer
28:57or other health concerns.
28:582021.
28:59QAnon.
29:00And January 6th.
29:01Is there a conspiracy theory
29:02that you don't believe in?
29:05That's a great question.
29:07While QAnon had already existed
29:09for a few years before 2021,
29:11President Trump's 2020 election loss
29:13and refusal to concede
29:15to President Biden
29:16ushered in a new era of Q.
29:18Part cult, part alt-right movement,
29:20QAnon posits that a group
29:22of powerful Satanists
29:23run a human trafficking ring
29:24and battled the Trump administration,
29:26who aimed to secretly arrest
29:28and execute its members.
29:29The most far out of these beliefs
29:30say that celebrities
29:31and political elites
29:32actually farm children
29:34in underground caves
29:35so that they can drink blood,
29:37which supposedly staves off aging.
29:39Trump is widely depicted
29:40as the savior in this narrative.
29:42While the conspiracy originated
29:43on 4chan,
29:44it was mainly spread
29:45by its even worse
29:46and more underground counterpart 8chan.
29:49However, it found mainstream recognition
29:51once Russian and Chinese media
29:53got hold of the story.
29:55Donald Trump retweeting QAnon accounts
29:58certainly didn't help either.
29:59Update from the trenches.
30:00Keep red pilling.
30:01Keep going.
30:02Because it worked.
30:02It's working.
30:03It's beautiful.
30:042022.
30:06Empocs and lockdowns.
30:07Frustratingly, despite the fact
30:09we're still in the middle
30:10of the COVID pandemic,
30:11we seem to be replicating
30:12some of its key mistakes
30:13from persecuting strangers
30:15to spreading misinformation
30:16to badly mismanaging
30:18the public health response.
30:19Just when it seemed
30:20as though the COVID-19 pandemic
30:22was under control
30:23and things could return to normal,
30:25the 2022 Empocs outbreak showed up
30:27to scare the wits out of everybody.
30:29Just under a year after
30:31it had been initially declared
30:32a public health emergency
30:34of international concern,
30:35the World Health Organization
30:37cut it short,
30:38sharing that it had sufficiently curtailed
30:40new and existing cases.
30:41We have an outbreak
30:43that has spread around the world rapidly
30:46through new modes of transmission
30:48about which we understand too little
30:51and which meets the criteria
30:53in the international health regulations.
30:55However, the interim
30:56provided plenty of time
30:57for conspiracy theorists to claim
31:00that COVID was a dry run for Empocs
31:02and that world governments
31:04had intentionally leaked the virus
31:06as a bioweapon
31:07or as a way to justify more lockdowns.
31:09Monkeypox is a pox virus.
31:11It's part of the same family
31:12that causes smallpox,
31:14though thankfully it's not nearly
31:15as transmissible or as fatal.
31:17It usually presents in humans
31:18with fever, swollen lymph nodes,
31:20exhaustion, headache and a rash,
31:22though it can also cause complications
31:24like blindness
31:24if the lesions reach your eyes
31:26and in rare cases can result in death.
31:31Our sense of time is warped
31:33because we have to waste so much of it.
31:37Just adapting to the absurd organization
31:40and long distances of most of today's cities.
31:45On the face of it,
31:46a 15-minute city
31:47may not sound all that bad.
31:49In fact, it may sound downright innocuous.
31:52The concept is pretty straightforward
31:53and mostly self-explanatory
31:55as an urban planning concept
31:57that would limit
31:58all of a city dweller's basic needs
32:00to a short walk, bike ride
32:01or public transit journey away.
32:03Why is it not the city
32:06that responds to our needs?
32:08Why have we left cities
32:12to develop on the wrong path
32:14for so long?
32:15The idea has become widely controversial
32:18in the United Kingdom,
32:19with even elected officials
32:20in its minority government
32:22harshly criticizing it
32:23as a way to restrict personal freedoms.
32:25Former Transport Secretary Mark Harper
32:27expressed concern
32:28that the government could
32:30decide how often you go to the shops
32:32and that they ration
32:34who uses the roads and when.
32:35The Prime Minister has already tasked me
32:37to conduct a review
32:38into low-traffic neighbourhoods
32:40and that's ongoing,
32:41building on my decision
32:42to ensure no government money funds them.
32:45It can't be right
32:46that these schemes are imposed
32:48without proper local consent.
32:50So we will change the guidance
32:51to ensure that councils properly listen
32:54to what local people say.
33:05If you're on your phone,
33:06make sure you go into settings
33:08and switch on your notifications.
33:122024.
33:13Taylor Swift is colluding
33:14with the United States government.
33:16The Taylor Swift Super Bowl
33:18isn't making everyone happy
33:19because right-wing dinguses
33:22like Vivek Ramaswamy
33:24are claiming this whole thing
33:25is a conspiracy,
33:26suggesting that the Super Bowl
33:28will be rigged for the chiefs
33:30to set the stage
33:31for Taylor Swift's Biden endorsement.
33:34What?
33:34That's whack, Jack.
33:35Come on.
33:36For those of you
33:37who may live under a rock,
33:38pop megastar Swift
33:40makes up one half of the power couple
33:41with Kansas City Chiefs tight end
33:43Travis Kelsey.
33:44But, as certain conservative
33:46media personalities will tell you,
33:48things aren't quite so wholesome.
33:49That's never going to happen.
33:50Tay-Tay wouldn't even get me
33:51good tickets for the heiress tour.
33:53Waited in that ticker master queue for hours.
33:54No pre-sale code.
33:56Got stuck in the nosebleeds
33:57with Karlie Kloss.
33:58Come on.
34:00Karlie Kloss.
34:04It was me.
34:05It wasn't Biden.
34:06It was me.
34:06No.
34:07According to Fox News host Jesse Waters
34:10and failed presidential hopeful
34:11Vivek Ramaswamy,
34:12Swift and Kelsey were hired
34:14by President Biden's re-election campaign
34:16as a mass sigh-off
34:18to sway public opinion.
34:19Said right-wing political activist
34:21Laura Loomer, quote,
34:23It's not a coincidence
34:24that current and former
34:25Biden admin officials
34:26are propping up Taylor Swift
34:28and Travis Kelsey.
34:29They are going to use Taylor Swift
34:31as the poster child
34:32for their pro-abortion
34:33GoTV campaign.
34:35Could you imagine
34:36if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl?
34:39Ben Bankas, comedian and host
34:40of the Bankas Show podcast,
34:42joins me now.
34:43Ben, who do you have?
34:44You got the Chiefs?
34:47Um, well, I've just been thinking
34:49that if Biden wants to use
34:50Taylor Swift to get re-elected,
34:52I guess he's given up
34:53on the black vote.
34:54Which conspiracy theory
34:55shocked you the most?
34:56Are there any we missed?
34:58Be sure to let us know
34:58in the comments below.
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