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What's your favorite conspiracy theory? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 days ago by Chippys_mittens@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Doesn't have to be one you think is true or even possible. Could be niche or mainstream. Mine is probably Mike Tyson threw that Jake Paul fight. I heavily believe Tyson did everything he could and is just old. Not to mention he's fighting a roided up good athlete in his physical prime with a limited engagement strategy. I do like hearing people argue its all staged, understandable cope.

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[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 4 days ago

Alex Jones was a CIA plant to discredit conspiracy theories that were a liiiiittle too close to reality.

Basically, the government saw some conspiracy theories that were edging too close to what was actually happening. But they couldn’t just outright deny those theories. Because the government spontaneously going “no, we didn’t get microwaves from aliens, and those aliens definitely don’t live among us now as billionaire lizard people” would look suspicious as hell. Any outright denial would only lend credibility to those theories. Like the Streisand Effect, denying them would catapult them to fame. So instead, they created a patsy.

Enter Alex Jones. He’s an idiot, very opinionated, and very vocal about it. But most importantly, he has that spark that makes mediocre white dudes feel smart when they listen to him talk. All the government had to do was give him a platform, and occasionally feed him some juicy conspiracies for his next script. Alex doesn’t even realize he’s being helped along. The government used Alex to give conspiracy theorists a recognizable face and a household name. When Alex Jones hit the air, conspiracy theories were suddenly up front and center in the zeitgeist. Largely due to the government’s help, though he didn’t even know he was the controlled opposition.

And they intentionally got him to parrot those too-close-to-reality conspiracy theories, right alongside the super crazy ones. By making Alex Jones a household name, they were able to collectively discredit all conspiracy theorists. And all they had to do was set him up to skyrocket to fame, and then fail very publicly.

Sandy Hook happened, and that was what the CIA had been waiting for. I don’t think they caused the shooting, but they certainly capitalized on it by getting Jones to fall down the conspiracy rabbit hole with it. Once he had time to work through all of the theories they wanted to discredit, they realized he was getting out of control, and they needed to burn him. And so they did, by leaving him completely disgraced. And the best part (from the government’s perspective) is that burning him only helped further discredit those real conspiracy theories.