Create a conspiracy theory

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

I kind of had an idea to create a conspiracy theory about the end of the world for rather trivial reasons, to have some fun with some people and exposue what a nonsense it is.
My idea is to aim for the year 2025, because it is the year when the astronomers are switching the J2000 reference for the J2050 reference (a rather trivial thing).
So i wanted to develop a end of the world conspiracy theory arround that, so I need ideas to make it crazy and look sound and scary.

 

[ExeFBM]

Revelation is always good for building up end of the world conspiracies! Here's a nice ambiguous section from Revelation

The Trumpets
6Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.

7The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

8The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

10The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water, 11the name of the star is Wormwood.[a] A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

12The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

13As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!"

You could start with your main claim that the astronomical shift is mankind attempting to shift the centre of the universe to make ourselves more important, and as a result of this shift, a third of the visible stars will appear to be in completely different constellations, as predicted by the fourth trumpet! I am aware that this is not the case, but having a highly distorted understanding of what the actual science says seems to be necessary for end-of-the-world predictions.

You can then pad out the rest of the verses with anything that might be vaguely true. ie. It's been calculated that in 2025 deforestation will have consumed one third of all the trees on then planet, and one third of all the oil in the middle east will have burned off from the wars.

Also the last date that we will be able to deflect Apophis from an earth collision is (sometimes) reported as 2025.

 

[SchrodingersFinch]

Using Revelation would only work for fundamentalist Christians. A more exotic culture would be better for other target audiences. The 2012 nuts already have the Mayans so I'd suggest maybe Indian or Chinese mythology.

 

[Baranduin]

Jews are speaking with the Vatican to embrace the Catholic Dogma. Point as an evidence of this that some anglicans ARE doing that right now.
Dissident Jews may want to pact with protestant/orthodox churches.

An old classic.

 

[g-off]

The end of the world referred to in the 1012 prophecy is in fact the date when the earth will begin to slip into the next ice age, (this is indicated by the references to the god who governs the earth's orbit in said prophecies) something that was determined through precise calculations made by the atlanteans, whose city was sunk by the rising seas at the end of the last ice age. When the ice age comes the atlanteans will reclaim the earth and use a weather control device powered by the crystal skulls in order to stabilize the orbit of the earth and make their reign permanent. The only thing standing in their way is the illuminati, a group of rebel atlanteans, who are trying as hard as they can to make global warming take hold, which would counteract the effects of the ice age. They caused 9/11 in an attempt to distract the people from the impending global warming and give them a fighting chance at stopping the atlantean takeover before it begins.

It all makes sense. I have a flowchart.

 

[xman]

Use a prediction that the world will indeed not end in 2012 as part of your proof. That way when it doesn't you can jump up and say, "See! I told you so".

 

[Kevin R Brown]

2050?

Then you absolutely must use 'Area 51'.


Afterall, have you ever wondered why Big Brother 2.0 calls it Area 51?

Well, obviously, it's because the military knows that (insert catastrophe / event here) is going to happen in 2050, and Area 51 will serve as the continuation point for the NWO hegemony currently controlling the world.




...Actually, I do have to be a bit of a Debbie Downer here and caution you against creating rumor of this ilk with the intent of 'exposing it' later. Someone (P.Z. Meyers, I think? Or perhaps Dr. Dennet?) tried a similar experiment a while back, and by the time they went to stop the meme, it was already beyond their ability to diffuse.

 

[Kevin R Brown]

...Bah, whatever. This is simply too much fun.

Step 1: Establish Credibility With a Genuine, Surreal, Event

All of the 'good' conspiracy theories do this. Zeitgeist and Loose Change (and even the conspiracy theory cooked up by the Bush administration, with the really horrendous consequences) use 9/11, the Roswell UFO Crash uses a real crash of some type of aircraft (likely a weather balloon), the HIV deniers use the AIDs epidemic, the 2012ers use the innovativeness of the Mayans (coupled with the still prevalent view within the public that anyone living in ancient times must've been a knuckle-dragging savage), etc.

There's always plenty of catastrophe & surreality around. Pick something, even if it's totally unrelated to your central conspiracy (the connections you can hammer out later) and run with it. Pretend that every victim is a martyr for the cause, pretend that every expert & well liked public figure to have spoken about it is an undercover agent working side by side with you to raise awareness (it's just that, of course, they can't be as vocal about it as you can, because of (insert list of rationalizations here) ).

Avoid directly throwing anyone under the bus or making direct accusations. Imply where the blame might lie, and let people create the accusations themselves. Go watch Zeitgeist, and count the number of times the names 'Dick Cheney' or 'George Bush' are actually used; the indictments in the film mostly fall on people who are already deceased, or some unnamed shadowy 'International Bankers' who presumably are somehow pulling all of the strings. People know other people - if you accuse someone of being a bad guy, you're immediately breaking the illusion for anyone who personally knows the accused.

Step 2: Reinforce Credibility Through Pseudo-Expertise

Alex Jones isn't an engineer, but that hardly stops him from sounding like he knows structural engineering, or presenting pretty diagrams that provide the illusion of detailed knowledge of how building collapses happen. Quote mines are your best friend here, as you can use them to invent corroboration by accredited academics (you can even provide sources, if you're so daring - it's not like anyone other than skeptics actually check the sources anyway).

It's crucial that this component of your conspiracy theory makes the viewer / reader feel like they're receiving very privileged information; they're no longer like the naive and horrendously deceived rest of the group, they're special now, part of the 'truly free' underground movement that is going to save the world, somehow.

Step 3: Leave Not a Single Straw Man Standing!

No doubt that there will be a myriad of eloquent and reasonable explanations that refute your particular theory. First, it's important to become familiar with all of these explanations and categorize them together as 'The Official Story'. This particular branding has withstood the test of time better than any I can think of. For whatever reason, simply presenting something that is supposedly the anti-thesis of 'the official story' tends to make your work just that much more credible in the eyes of the average consumer.

Now, it's time to begin deconstructing all of the arguments in the 'official story'. Naturally, you probably won't be able to dent most (if any) of the explanations as they stand - but that's what the strawmen are for (don't worry - once again, the only people who will be able to readily recognize these burlap logical fallacies are skeptics; or, as you'll brand them, 'people who always just have faith in The Official Story (TM)' ). Characterize the truth as some total absurdity, then obliterate it with facts that your layman audience find accessible (you'd be surprised at how much wiggle room you have here for transforming reasonable arguments into strawmen. Think back to the Loose Change / Zeitgeist argument that, "It's scientifically impossible that an entire aircraft was vaporized by jet fuel,")

People directly effected by your initial credibility-gaining event may attack your assertions. Feel free to throw them under the bus in 'self defense', labeling them as either dupes to the official story or somehow tied-in with the conspirators. Scientific organizations may openly oppose and begin dissecting your theory; discredit them by implying that they are just fronts being used as part of the cover-up.

Step 4: It's All About 'Open-Mindedness'

Constantly demand that your theory is being 'oppressed', and pretend that you have the virtue of humility.

"All that I want them/you to do is have a look. That's all. If they/you can prove me wrong, hey, that'd be great!"

Most people don't realize that you've (very politely) shifted the burden of proof just now.


Keep repeating this rhetoric even after you know that the debunkers have already laid waste to your core arguments; in reality, most people don't care to take the time to look into debunking material, so this will serve as constant reinforcement that your idea are being unfairly censored / ignored, and people will invent reasons for this censorship (oppression from the conspirators, naturally, because they know that they cannot beat you in an 'honest debate') of their own accord.


So, there you go. Your very own global conspiracy recipe.

Have fun.

 

[MRaverz]

You just need to think of something that can't be stopped and can't be detected. Oh and it would destroy us all.

If you use something pseudo-scientific like "massive fluctuations in the space-time fabric caused by increasing solar winds", then add a simple example such as 'Imagine a sheet of cloth, now place a ball on it and wiggle the cloth. Ball flies in the air, resembling earth.

Then soon enough people will believe it.

 

[Mapp]

It's easy The: (Jews, Reptilloids, Masons, Government, Bankers, Communists, Socialists, Fascists, Military, Aliens, Bigfoots, Moon-men) faked/did the (moon landings, 9/11 attacks, Kennedy Assassination, War in _______________, taxation of the poor/rich, flu pandemic, crack/cocaine epidemic, chemtrails, HIV/AIDS epidemic, election) in order to: (Take over the world, kill the _______________(s), start a war, get wealthy, fool the masses)! And you're too (brainwashed, hypnotized, gullible, stupid, retarded) to see the truth. Just (watch my Youtube video, read my manifesto, read my incomprehensible website, come to my seminar, listen to this sermon) to learn the truth.

There you go, have fun filling in the blanks!

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

This could be fun, some advises are interesting. But I must reenforce the fact that the theory must be something incredebly stupid that at the surface appears not, putting the current conspiracy theories in a fight and let it caught fire is a nice thing to see.
I will return with more details as soon as i have the basis of the plot, then I will move on to the twists, don't worrie if I don't post very often, i will be watching your comments.

And sense it was mentioned that it would be extremely hard to defuse the thing after it is done, I may have to extremely carefull to use ploys, like having a debunking video stored in a secret place even before the hole thing gets out. This forum page might become usefull.

 

[xman]

This forum page might become usefull.

But will need to be deleted eventually lest it give the game away.

 

[dr_esteban]

Here is a good conspiracy theory:

That a foreign national creates a US tv news network with the express aim of promoting misinformation in an effort to funnel increasing percentages of GDP to the top 1% richest of the population.


crazy i know

 

[stratos]

some humble ideas.

The economic crash was not caused by mortgages, those were only the first to fall. The WTO saw the economic rising of china and other 2nd world countries as a threat. Now because these economies are still very young, they set in motion the crash, knowing full well that the hardened western economies could take the punch, but the fledgling economies couldn't.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. the WTO is actually a sub-division of the illuminati. A friend of mine, who was a reporter actually infiltrated, which is why I know the above. But he's discovered a far worse conspiracy. Green energy, something everyone talks about today. Do you remember? it all became a hot item in just a couple of years. It's the Illuminati who have put it on the agenda, But not for a better world, but for more energy.

The average windmill only produces ~6 MWatts, while your average nuclear power station produces hundreds of Mega Watts. It just doesn't make sense. But what nobody knows but the corporations that build these windmills is that windmills aren't just windmills. They contain an underground element, that saps geothermal energy from the ground. This is exactly why they mostly put them in the sea.

My friend wasn't quite clear what this massive amount of geothermal energy was used for, but it was for something big. They seem to call it the ark project. It is supposed to be completed somewhere in 2025. But the big problem is, and this my friend verified with some professors, that the amount of geothermal energy that will be tapped is so big that it will surely create gigantic earthquakes and enormous waves.

The effects of this can already be seen. Global Warming they call it. But when you look at where the data is coming from, it's mostly from readings of the water temperature.

Hmmm started to sound like a bad movie script towards the end

 

[Baranduin]

This forum page might become usefull.

But will need to be deleted eventually lest it give the game away.

And the fact that the thread where you posted your plot was inmediately deleted is a proof there is someone somewhere trying to hide the Truth.

 

[Vladimir]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbl-vMN2gzo

Enjoy =)

 

[nasher168]

Sounds like a good idea for an April fool's day video-make anyone watching think you're a complete cuckoo.

 

[Shaedys]

Well there's the Apophis, the asteroid that is going to come really close to Earth, goes through a gravitational keyhole in 2029 and it hits us on 2036 or 2037 , how about you make that, due to experiments with CERN the asteroid will in fact hit us on 2029. Its not 2025, but its the best I could come up with that's somehow plausible in the eyes of scientific illiterate.

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

Since I'm currently studying about GPS, I taught on actually making a twist and say that since its waves are everywhere, that they can actually track everyones movement anytime anywhere.

And thinking on that, April fool is not a bad day to do it.

 

[CupOfWater]

God is coming. Soon. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
/thread