h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here are a few more:-

JFK (Yawn.)

UN Invasion - the belief that the UN is amassing troops on the Mexican border, and that the citizens of Brussels are planning an all-out invasion of the US. Sad, unbelievable, but true.

Flouride. Water poisoning and all that stuff.

UFO's. Where do you begin with this one? Where to start? Quite frankly the most prevalent conspiracy theory on the planet, bar none. The most well known of these is the Roswell incident where a UFO was meant to have crashed in the desert, and the "inhabitants" were taken off for further investigation. No more, please!

My favourite is the nutto who believes that the moon is actually a spaceship and is populated by little men in black who are recording our every move. Why can't we ever see behind the moon for instance?

Conspiracy theories abound in the movies - my favourites are Men In Black (which is a total send-up of conspiracy theorists), The Matrix (which takes conspiracy one step further by suggesting that reality itself is a conspiracy), and the Truman Show, (which is excellent in that it demonstrates the essence of conspiracy - that the whole world has someway been constructed to prevent the central characters from getting at the truth).

On a more serious note, unchecked conspiracy theories can sometimes lead to widespread paranoia with absolutely horrific consequences. It was a conspiracy theory that was at the heart of the anti-witchcraft trials of the 17th century, and a conspiracy mentality had a lot to do with the rise of Naziism in 1930's Germany.

If I think of more I will let you know.

CR

Thanks! I like the wierd one about the moon. That reminds me of a popular American conspiracy theory that NASA never actually landed anybody on the moon, it was all made up. There's lots of 'evidence' - including one of the most famous pictures, I think of Neil Armstrong planting the flag, where you can see the reflection of not one but two spacesuited men in Armstrong's visor. Apparently.
I think I'm going to avoid JFK or Roswell theories like the plague because about 50% of the internet is already devoted to that! I might follow up your other suggestions when I have time.

Oh yes, the false moon landings. How could I have forgotten that one! *Crymonal bangs his head against the table repeatedly*

I think one of the most prevalent conspiracies in the world, and one which hardly anybody has noticed yet, is the conspiracy involving traffic lights.

The extent to which this conspiracy reaches is frightening in the extreme, because every single branch of government appears to be mixed up in it.

Have you ever noticed how whenever you approach traffic lights, whether in a bus, a car, or a bicycle, they ALWAYS turn red. And they don't turn red until that annoying point when you're not quite near enough to carry on, but you're close enough to make it difficult to stop.

This is not coincidence; this is conspiracy.

No, it's how Lampposts conspire to turn themselves off whenever I am under them that is a weird conspiracy...

Look at my page on Pixies, Gnomes and Gremlins for more details on that.
http://www.h2g2.com/A206759

Or indeed on MY article, once I get around to writing it!

Traffic lights! Yes..... I know that one and suffer the same which is made doubly annoying by my other half's ability to have the damn things turn green when he approaches them! (I don't actually believe in "luck" but some people are "jammy gits"!)

I've come to the conclusion that life in general is one very large coincidence.

There is one thing that has bothered me for a couple of years now... Why did Tony Blair, when first elected as British Prime Minister invite Margaret Thatcher into No. 10 and what did they talk about. Is Tony Blair a "plant" into the Labour Party by Margaret Thatcher? Did he just want to "gloat"? Am I just a paranoid old "leftie"? Why has everything that Mr. Blair has done just added to my niggling concerns?

Also, I'm up in the middle of the night here in the U.K. and watching C.N.N. on satellite and what on earth in going down in Seatle? What's happened to freedom of speech? We've had demonstrations in London and the police have stormed in. Can't people object to the World Trade Organisation any more?

Here's an interesting conspiracy theory for you. Aer lingus,(Irish plane Travel company) have only ever had one plane crash. However there is a theory that it was shot down by a British missile. However this was covered up not only because of the obvious, but because the British would have been moving their weaponry in Irish waters as well.

Of course, the british would never do anything to harm the Irish.

An even better conspiracy theory!
Maggie Thatcher is supposed to have started the Falklands war to get re-elected.
It worked.....

Err... covered up by who? The crew of the ship that shot it down? The plane manufacturers?, The air crash investigators? The Irish Government? And not _one_ of them would talk about it?

Wouldn't it have been a little easier just to slip a bomb on board. Who were 'they' trying to kill, or impress, or frighten, or is that a secret as well? What was the alleged purpose? Who benefits?

Maybe it was just a terrible accident, and the navy got the plane mistaken for a member of one of the IRA's notorious squadrons of jumbo jets?

If the plane had been shot down, which would presumably count as an act of war, why would it make a cover up even more necessary if it had been shot down from Irish, rather than international, waters.

Let's face it, if someone really wants to down a plane with some degree of deniability, they make sure it vanishes somewhere in the middle of an ocean, and anyway, do you have any idea how much those missiles _cost_?

It was supposed to be an accident, and I don't doubt it, But the question is why were the british testing their weapons in foreign waters? Of course, not that they're the first to do it, to any country. But with Irish-British relationships a bit iffy at the time, people were not going to be jumping with joy about it.

Anyway the British government denied knowledge of it, and the Irish government refused to say anything about it, so it was all but forgotten about.

And, I know how much the missiles cost, but you make a massive profit from selling them to your enemies. And when they don't pay the taxpayers(i.e. YOU!) foot the bill.

In other words they weren't trying to kill anyone.
They just mis-fired.

Sorry - I had taken your closing remark to indicate you (or other people) thought it was deliberate.
If it was really accidental, and the Irish government beleived that, I still can't see how it could have been kept as a secret for any length of time - there must have been too many witnesses, and people involved after the event.
Sure, the British armed forces, like most others, aren't exactly averse to covering up their mistakes, but apart from cases where there is little in terms of witnesses to contradict the official explanation, (like the Chinook/Mull Of Kintyre incident,) it's hard for them to do so completely, or for long.
Also, I think you'll find that whenever a plane crashes, numerous theories appear, only to fade away again afterwards. In this case, if there _hadn't_ been a theory somewhere about British involvement, I'd have been very surprised.
What was the evidence for the theory.?
Also, what was the _official_ story in this case - did they recover any wreckage. What, if any, evidence was there against a missile attack.?

PS
I'm with you regarding arms sales, but if I decided to move to an industrialised country that didn't sell arms to some dubious regime or another, unfortunately, I wouldn't have a masive choice. Arms companies usually use the 'good for jobs' or 'if we didn't, someone else would' excuses, but I suspect a likelier reason may be the amount of money involved in arms deals in terms of 'commissions', a fair proportion of which presumably finds its way back to offshore accounts of UK arms dealers, manufacturers, and their helpful friends.

An interesting theory that the Green movement are trying to eliminate the unsavory masses via plague intentionally distributed,planned chaos or a whole mess of other options. Could WTO be a part of this master plan for the new world order? I've heard from an unnamed source that the United Nations is either the brains behind the takeover of the world or the patsies for who really is.

You see Cully, some people get far too wrapped up in conspiracy theories. If the opportunity for armed conflict presents itself, it is an almost automatic election winner, especially in Britain, where the folk are easily roused by the thought that once again, the proud British nation could have imperial interests on the opposite side of the globe. When the pesky Argentines threatened this group of tiny, oil-rich islands in the South Atlantic, Maggie Thatcher must have wet herself (or rubbed her hands) with glee. It's common political behaviour, deflecting home troubles and re-inventing yourself as a patriotic leader because of your foreign policy.....see Bush (failed!), Clinton, Napoleon even....
This is not a conspiracy theory, and if it's considered as such, then this page must be shut down.

You see Cully, some people get far too wrapped up in conspiracy theories. If the opportunity for armed conflict presents itself, it is an almost automatic election winner, especially in Britain, where the folk are easily roused by the thought that once again, the proud British nation could have imperial interests on the opposite side of the globe. When the pesky Argentines threatened this group of tiny, oil-rich islands in the South Atlantic, Maggie Thatcher must have wet herself (or rubbed her hands) with glee. It's common political behaviour, deflecting home troubles and re-inventing yourself as a patriotic leader because of your foreign policy.....see Bush (failed!), Clinton, Napoleon even....
This is not a conspiracy theory, and if it's considered as such, then this page must be shut down.

I dont actually know that much about the plane crash. It's just a theory. But isn't that what this forum is all about?

And wasn't AIDS (and, I think it must have been said, Ebola) invented
by the Americans and the released accidentally/deliberatly...

This isn't a conspiracy either, and it's only really the top paragraph that I'm interested in...
Discounting the Brusellian invasion of the United States as delusional Belgian silliness, the invasion of 'evil' Mexico is quite amusing. I don't know if you're aware of the US treatment of 'very evil' Cuba. I read something in 'The Ecologist' the other day about the continuing attempts to depose Castro by cutting off all food, medicine, etc, etc supplies from the US and US-friendly nations. The Cubans, having long got used to clumsy, heavy-handed treatment from the Americans, have all turned to inner-city organic gardening, hence lessening their dependence on food whilst bettering their own health....presumably a million miles away from the American ideal of the Cuban people rising up in poverty against their leader. After the giant cock-up that was the Marielitos incident, you would have thought that the Americans would have relented from their futile idealism....wouldn't you?