The majority of people associate conspiracy theories with wackadoos living in trailers wearing tin-foil hats and writing blogs about how the government is not to be trusted. While most conspiracy theories such as Avril Lavigne dying in the early 2000s and having been replaced with a clone are probably not true (probably), some conspiracy theories make an eerie amount of sense, leaving us with the sneaking suspicion that they might hold some water. Here are 10 of the most disturbing conspiracy theories that I have come across that keep me up at night.
*Disclaimer: I'm not saying that any of these are true. This article is not intended to hurt any company's image or the image of the United States government.*
1. FEMA Camps
This one really messed me up because of the insane amount of evidence that backs up the claims. For those who don't know, "FEMA" stands for the "U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency". This agency is responsible for devising plans of action in case of a giant nationwide emergency (i.e. an invasion, bombing, etc.) Should something like this take place, marital law would be declared meaning that all citizens would have to give up their personal rights in order to be properly controlled and avoid chaos and anarchy. These are all solid facts. The conspiracy comes into plays when talking about exactly how so many people would be controlled. The answer: "FEMA Camps". The conspiracy states that the government is constantly creating "concentration/ internment camp-like" areas around the country to keep citizens after a massive attack on the nation. This would ensure that the government would have complete control of civilians while dealing with the situation at hand. The creepy part is how commonplace these camps might be. For instance, lots of conspiracy theorists are suggesting that Walmart stores might actually be turned into these camps due to their large size and the high numbers of them all over America. Strong evidence for this was released when five Walmarts in different states down south were all shut down at the same time supposedly for "plumbing problems". Walmart released a statement saying that fixing the problem would take six months-- a ridiculously long amount of time to fix a plumbing problem. Incidentally the stores were never re-opened. Furthermore residents of the towns with the closed Walmarts reported seeing a sudden heavy military presence in their areas as well as hearing loud booms seemingly coming from underground at night. The closed Walmarts spanning from central Florida to Los Angeles, California are all located on the line of an underground military tunnel system built a while back, leading people to believe that the Walmarts were being connected for military reasons. Interviews from people in the areas of the Walmarts show civilians deeply concerned over the secrets revolving around the closed Walmarts and the strange underground booming. Another interview with cops in charge of guarding one of the closed Walmarts revealed that the store was being gutted. Furthermore, the Walmart pharmacies were kept open for a little while after the stores closed so that customers could get their prescriptions. One woman going to pick up a prescription was incredulous about the strange circumstances surrounding the Walmart so she filmed her trip there one day to expose the suspicious goings-ons. The video shows police officers everywhere, blacked out windows and doors, military personnel, and the woman said that she was told to stop filming when the officers saw her with her camera.
None of us civilians know what's going on, but we can only hope that if the closed Walmarts are the doing of the government that they are doing what they're doing in our best interests.
2. Chemtrails ("contrails")
On many sunny days, if you look up into the sky you can see white streaks that we've always been told are let off by jet planes. Sometimes there are no streaks, sometimes just one, sometimes there are so many that you can barely see the sky. While these streaks are universally believed to come from planes, most planes don't seem to let these trails off leading civilians and scientists alike to believe that these trails int he sky are actually the result of planes dropping off chemicals into the atmosphere. Now, no one knows what these chemicals are, but many conspiracy theorists believe them to be something sinister. Theories range from the chemicals being used to manipulate the weather to chemicals being used to sicken people either as a form of population control or as a way to keep people subservient to the government. Either way you spin it, the theory sounds menacing. This theory was not just spun by some disgruntled anarchists as the president and co-founder of the Agriculture Defense Coalition, Rosalind Peterson, has stated several times that she believes that the conspiracy theories of chemtrails is true and a cause for concern. Even the late popstar, Prince, said in an interview with PBS that he believed that the chemtrail conspiracy was true and needed to be investigated.
Whatever is going on in the sky could explain our sudden climate problems or even our cancer crisis. Or may its simply streaks released by jets. Who knows?
3. The Mandela Effect
Do you remember the book/TV series from your childhood about the family of bears consisting of Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Sister Bear, and Brother Bear?
Think about the name-- don't Google it-- and write it out on a piece of paper.
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You wrote the Berenstein Bears, correct? Look at how you spelled it. Are you sure that's the correct spelling? B-e-r-e-n-s-t-e-i-n?
Wrong. It's actually been the BerenSTAIN Bears the whole time.
Take your time to freak out.
This is a shared false memory. Yes, it could be explained away by a simple trick of the mind, but the fact that it is such a widely shared false memory proves that the reasoning for this phenomenon could be the result of something a little bit creepier-- a conspiracy theory known as The Mandela Effect.
The theory first came about after the death of Nelson Mandela in December of 2013. After Mandela's death was announced at the age of 95, many people came forward insisting that they vividly remembered Mandela dying during his famous 27 year stint in prison. Due to the insanely large group of people sharing this false memory it was theorized that at some in some parallel universe, Mandela had died in prison and that somehow all of us or perhaps just a group of people managed to leave that universe and enter a different timeline where Mandela hadn't died. This theory also maintains that this inconsistency could also be a result of time travel. For instance, perhaps Mandela had died in prison but then a time traveler from the future went back to save him so that he could become the President of South Africa and do all the wonderful things that made him a hero.
Either way the phenomenon was incredibly eerie and received a second wind of fame when it was discovering that the Berenstain Bears had always been spelled, B-e-r-e-n-s-t-a-i-n rather than B-e-r-e-n-s-t-e-i-n as so many people remember. Personally, I remember BerenSTEIN as do my parents who bought me all of the books, read them to me as a child, and watched the television show with me countless times.
Yes, something as small as a misspelling of a name could simply be a psycological phenonmenon, but could SO MANY people be so incorrect about such a thing? It seems unlikely.
The Mandela Effect has been used to sum up some other inconsistencies in our timeline such as the fact that the famous line in Star Wars, "Luke, I am your father" has actually always been, "No, I'm your father". Also a large group of people remember Betty White dying over a decade ago and another large group remember the substance used to paint over spelling errors being spelled "White Out" when it's actually always been "Wite Out".
There are many YouTube videos and articles out there on this topic for those of you who want to do some more research, but one of the best is by the YouTuber, Shane Dawson who has a whole video series about crazy conspiracy theories.
There are loads more conspiracy theories out there and to get hip to some of the craziest watch Shane Dawson's conspiracy theory playlist. They may not be real but they're insane to think about and will have you researching for hours.
Enjoy and keep your eyes open!
