Which of These Conspiracy Theories Do You Believe?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Of course, because if anybody would know secrets in the Bush the Lesser White House it would be everybody that lives outside the US.  You Euros are especially known for not being ones to fall for conspiracy theories, so it must be true.

I think the point here is that people outside the United States have a better vantage point about the American government's impact on the world (which is a lot bigger than the United States, you know..) than most Americans have.

Europeans were not coerced into a false patriotism the way Americans were in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.

coerced? 

[Mr. Morden]

First, I think that Bush may have lied about WMD's, but I can't for the life of me understand why he would have.  Perhaps he thought they were there at first, but eventually started lying at some point in a failed attempt to avoid embarrassment.

It is of course possible to think that Iraq had WMDs, but to lie about the details of the evidence, to try to make it look like the case is stronger than it actually is.  I assume that would count as "lying about WMDs" for the purposes of the poll.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

WMD's, aliens (though I have no idea if there's intelligent life), Kennedy assassination.

[angus]

I voted for four of them.

Most of these aren't really conspiracies.  To conspire means to plan in secret.  For example, it is likely that there are aliens out there, but I think most of them are probably about as complex as our single-celled eukaryotic organisms, hardly evolved enough to amuse themselves by throwing feces and other bodily excretions at the paying customers on the other side of the bars, much less enough to secretly plan to hide their existence from terrestrial beings.
 
I also think it may be possible that vaccines contribute to physiological or psychological problems, perhaps even autism, but I don't think that that the companies that make them have knowledge that they cause the problems but are trying to hide that knowledge from us.  The AMA statement that there is no evidence that they do isn't an intentional fake, in my opinion, and we may never know whether there's a link between vaccines and autism, even if it exists.

As for Roswell, I guess that one counts as a conspiracy because the government probably did try to hide evidence of the crash from the public.  

The only other one I voted for was Airplane exhaust.  That's not a conspiracy either.  I don't like using the word evil, and I'm not even sure evil exists outside the mind of man, but taking "evil chemicals" to mean "potentially hazardous compounds" then yes, it is well known that pyrazine and other azabenzenes from the partially-oxidized soot of airline exhaust have exhibited mutagenic effects on some organisms such as yeast, and they're known to cause rashes on the skin, and acute respiratory effects when inhaled.  This is not a secret, and the plan isn't to cause these health problems, so it's not a conspiracy by the airline companies.  It's just a side effect.

I'd considered a few more, but I don't really have an opinion about Bush, Oswald, or McCartney, so I didn't vote for them.  I could be persuaded if the evidence was compelling enough.

[minionofmidas]

First, I think that Bush may have lied about WMD's, but I can't for the life of me understand why he would have.  Perhaps he thought they were there at first, but eventually started lying at some point in a failed attempt to avoid embarrassment.

I doubt anyone in Bush's governing circle followed the Clinton-era weapons inspections to any higher degree than the general public - they wouldn't have known, at the time they started drumming up the propaganda, just how bleating unlikely their claims were.

And later, of course, they used that because their other arguments for attacking Saddam sold even worse, and they had decided long ago that they were going to make this war happen. That's the lazy reader's summary of the sad sorry spectacle, anyways.

[California8429]

JFK Assassination

[Joe Biden 2020]

The ones I'm most inclined to believe are that Osama bin Laden is indeed alive (but possibly imprisoned somewhere), that aliens landed at Roswell, that Oswald wasn't working alone, and that bigfoot is real.

I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I can think of a lot of reasons for why bin Laden's death might have been faked. It just... makes sense to me. And I can't say that for many of the other things on the list. Plus, I'm still really miffed that we never got to see the photos of his corpse. To me, Obama really sold us short. The world deserved it, and I don't care if it would've been sensationalized.

If he's still alive then it sucks to be the person tossed overboard!

Anyway, I still have a hard time believing Global Warming is real.  The earth has natural heating and cooling cycles and I am of the conservative opinion that the recent warmth is earth's natural heating.

[Paul Kemp]

If he's still alive then it sucks to be the person tossed overboard!

I don't believe the OBL conspiracies (or really any) but it's not like we saw any thing from the "funeral" to know that they even put a body to sea.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

There's also the conspiracy that OBL died before Obama killed him, and was dug up by Obama to get re-elected.

[7,052,770]

The ones I'm most inclined to believe are that Osama bin Laden is indeed alive (but possibly imprisoned somewhere), that aliens landed at Roswell, that Oswald wasn't working alone, and that bigfoot is real.

I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I can think of a lot of reasons for why bin Laden's death might have been faked. It just... makes sense to me. And I can't say that for many of the other things on the list. Plus, I'm still really miffed that we never got to see the photos of his corpse. To me, Obama really sold us short. The world deserved it, and I don't care if it would've been sensationalized.

If he's still alive then it sucks to be the person tossed overboard!

Anyway, I still have a hard time believing Global Warming is real.  The earth has natural heating and cooling cycles and I am of the conservative opinion that the recent warmth is earth's natural heating.

Check out this page.  It is a good overview intended for skeptics: http://www.skepticalscience.com/Newcomers-Start-Here.html

[batmacumba]

I think no one outside the USA would put the lying about WMDs in the conspiracy theory label.

BTW, I know people who were offered by staff on the American diplomacy to bring heroine to Brazil. This person is pretty sure about the CIA role in the beginning of massive drug traffic in the 70's.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Of course, because if anybody would know secrets in the Bush the Lesser White House it would be everybody that lives outside the US.  You Euros are especially known for not being ones to fall for conspiracy theories, so it must be true.

So do you believe that Bush sincerely believed that there were WMDs in Iraq based on careful weighing of the evidence and strongly considering the possibility that there wasn't, and made an entirely well intentioned invasion without any deliberate misinformation of distortion of evidence? Because that's a lot more absurd than any "conspiracy" here.

My view (and probably that of most non-Americans) is basically "Bush didn't care if there was WMDs, he was invading either way", but since of course evidence against there being WMDs wouldn't help, this was never considered and not all options in the event of there being WMDs were carefully weighed. And as Morden noted this counts as "lying about WMDs".

[angus]

I think no one outside the USA would put the lying about WMDs in the conspiracy theory label.

I've met plenty outside the USA who think that, the fact that the term "conspiracy theory" hasn't been popularized in their native languages notwithstanding.  You should get out more.

I'm not sure about it.  From what I've read, the CIA and other US intelligence agencies believed before the war that Saddam had stocks of biological and chemical weapons, was actively working on nuclear weapons and might have a nuclear weapon before the end of the decade.  Just before the vote to authorize the use of force, that faulty intelligence was shared with Congress, along with multiple mentions of some doubts within the intelligence community and within his own administration.  Very few times in my life I've written my senators.  In fact, only twice.  I wrote both of them in 1991 to urge them to oppose the use of force against Saddam's Iraq, and again in 2003 to urge them to oppose it.  In both cases, one of my senators voted for and one voted against.  I was as opposed to both of those wars as anyone I know, and even I don't think that there is any credible evidence to support claims that Bush somehow manipulated the findings of intelligence analysts.  In fact, two bipartisan investigations probed for such evidence and said they found none.  This is why I didn't vote for that option, but I am not surprised at the results.  I'm sure many US and foreign posters prefer to believe the story about Bush fabricating the WMD story.  For all I know, they may be right.  I just haven't formed a strong opinion one way or the other, and in the absence of a strongly held ideology, I'll just go with the facts.  As inconvenient as they are, none credibly suggests a conspiracy.  Same goes for Paul McCartney.  Just something folks like to believe, I suppose.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I've often had in-depth discussions with friends and colleagues concerning the exact history of Lizard-Americans in our country's history. Voted that and the CIA-cocaine one.

[dead0man]

Of course, because if anybody would know secrets in the Bush the Lesser White House it would be everybody that lives outside the US.  You Euros are especially known for not being ones to fall for conspiracy theories, so it must be true.

So do you believe that Bush sincerely believed that there were WMDs in Iraq based on careful weighing of the evidence and strongly considering the possibility that there wasn't, and made an entirely well intentioned invasion without any deliberate misinformation of distortion of evidence? Because that's a lot more absurd than any "conspiracy" here.

My view (and probably that of most non-Americans) is basically "Bush didn't care if there was WMDs, he was invading either way", but since of course evidence against there being WMDs wouldn't help, this was never considered and not all options in the event of there being WMDs were carefully weighed. And as Morden noted this counts as "lying about WMDs".

I don't know.  My issue was with someone claiming to just know the entire story and that the story was so obvious that only stupid Americans would even consider it a conspiracy.  Which I found odd because Euros love conspiracy theories almost as much as Arabs.

[batmacumba]

I think no one outside the USA would put the lying about WMDs in the conspiracy theory label.

I've met plenty outside the USA who think that, the fact that the term "conspiracy theory" hasn't been popularized in their native languages notwithstanding.  You should get out more.

I'm not sure about it.  From what I've read, the CIA and other US intelligence agencies believed before the war that Saddam had stocks of biological and chemical weapons, was actively working on nuclear weapons and might have a nuclear weapon before the end of the decade.  Just before the vote to authorize the use of force, that faulty intelligence was shared with Congress, along with multiple mentions of some doubts within the intelligence community and within his own administration.  Very few times in my life I've written my senators.  In fact, only twice.  I wrote both of them in 1991 to urge them to oppose the use of force against Saddam's Iraq, and again in 2003 to urge them to oppose it.  In both cases, one of my senators voted for and one voted against.  I was as opposed to both of those wars as anyone I know, and even I don't think that there is any credible evidence to support claims that Bush somehow manipulated the findings of intelligence analysts.  In fact, two bipartisan investigations probed for such evidence and said they found none.  This is why I didn't vote for that option, but I am not surprised at the results.  I'm sure many US and foreign posters prefer to believe the story about Bush fabricating the WMD story.  For all I know, they may be right.  I just haven't formed a strong opinion one way or the other, and in the absence of a strongly held ideology, I'll just go with the facts.  As inconvenient as they are, none credibly suggests a conspiracy.  Same goes for Paul McCartney.  Just something folks like to believe, I suppose.

Oh, I definitely should get out more. Everyone should, but being away too often is not that good for wallets. It empties them and avoid refilling, so It shall be made with parsimony.

Yet, I'm still to met people who wasn't amazed, since the beginning, on how did the Bush administration keep insisting on the WMDs existence, when people with knowledge of the situation (i.e. intelligence and diplomatic folk, sure, not political lapdogs) were telling them It didn't; the International organisms were saying there was nothing concrete.

And I followed the CNN, the BBC, French and Spanish television, plus, sure, the Brazilian networks, which are generally feasible for international issues, at the time, and only at CNN people wasn't completely amazed with the US government insistence on that. All the time, former CIA operatives popped on screen to say that there weren't such reports, that the CIA had not that information and that Cheney's guys were the ones telling there were evidences.
In these last 12 years I've talked about the issue with fellow South Americans, Europeans, Chinese and Japanese, read news from any source using a language I may understand a little, and (apart for conspiracy theorists, but of the type that blames the NWO, which I take the liberty to not count as adults in the plenitude of their mental faculties) the response is the same.

But sure you'd make a point - there's much more in the world beyond we can reach. There surely are creationists in France and people who believes Brazil is the country of the future, outside here; so why not people people outside the USA who believes Bush was being sincere about WMDs in Iraq?

[morgieb]

Aliens do most likely exist. Whether they are intelligent though is another question and I don't believe they have visited Earth.

I think the JFK assassination is pretty fishy, though I find the more out there conspiracies (like the CIA/FBI/LBJ being involved) preposterous and there's little evidence either way.

Doubt the WOMD was intentional, though if Cheney was the President I would be more likely to believe it, lol.

The others.....lol.

[Gustaf]

It strikes me that Bush lying about the presence of WMDs in Iraq to start a war to get to oil fields is in this list along with lizard people. I mean, ask anybody outside the US, they will tell you "of course he did lie". It's just not a conspiracy theory.

So just that for me. But I read David Icke's book (well, parts of it), and it really is a laugh !

Eh, no. I'm outside of the US and I don't think that.

[Redalgo]

I went with "Aliens Exist" but I am very skeptical of claims regarding alleged sightings, abductions, etc.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

I've often had in-depth discussions with friends and colleagues concerning the exact history of Lizard-Americans in our country's history. Voted that and the CIA-cocaine one.

My respect for you has decreased.

[Bacon King]

but I have not seen sufficient evidence to convince me that the Warren Commission findings are not the most likely story.

"The committee found that, to be precise and loyal to the facts it established, it, was compelled to find that President Kennedy was probably killed as a result of a conspiracy." p97, Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations, U.S. House of Representatives