Another week, another dollar, another set of conspiracies from r/conspiracy to analyze and debunk for this scholar. We have five posts to analyze this week, all with different topics. Two notes though before we dig in.
Note 1: I’m skipping the anti-semitic posts this week. In my mind, there’s not much to debunk or analyze when it comes to anti-semitic rhetoric. It’s hateful speech, and not worth debating or addressing. Hate has no reason to it, so reason won’t fix it.
Note 2: Our first post this week deals with child sexual abuse. This is a highly sensitive and triggering topic for many people, myself included. For my and your mental health I will not be digging into the details of the case here. Put simply, the details of the case are not relevant to the claims and innuendos in the post.
- Is this another case of elites protecting their own?
Our first post deals with the sensitive and difficult topic of child sexual abuse. While the case is incredibly troubling and the men involved are now behind bars and preparing for sentencing, the claims in the post reiterate multiple conspiracy theories. Specifically, the claim is that there are elite pedophiles who secretly protect other elite pedophiles.
The post ignores the crucial fact that the men have been found guilty of abusing their adopted children. These supposed “elites” did not actually protect the two men. And as for the story supposedly disappearing, I would argue that it has not disappeared, it’s simply fallen down in the rankings as bigger news stories have shown up.
The comments on the post though highlight a few interesting pieces of conspiracy theory psychology. First is that the immediate suspicion is that there is a conspiracy afoot. Second, and more interesting, is that the conspirators are both powerful (ie. able to hide the case from the public) and weak (ie. not able to stop the court case).
This facet of conspiracy theories is an important piece of conspiracy psychology. The enemy is strong but also weak. They act in secret, but also leave public “breadcrumbs” to show their influence. The alleged conspirators are living contradictions in multiple ways.
One final note here is that cases like this also support the broader conspiracy theories related to real-world elite families such as the Bush and Clinton families. Indeed, there are even comments in the above thread saying there is criminal and satanic support for people close to those in power. You understand that right, there are people who suggest there is a supernatural element to these cases.
- “Crazy plane lady” saw nothing on plane
This post about Tiffany Gomas caught our attention because anyone who watches the video would know she provided context that it was the end of an argument and was an odd expression, not a statement of fact. However, r/conspiracy cannot accept that she used a weird term, and instead lays on the conspiracy explanations.
The most interesting take is that Ms. Gomas is giving “as above, so below” hand sign, a supposed magickal sign that has ties to magickal practices, occultism, and various other traditions. The implication seems to be that she is signaling that the incident was somehow occult or magickal in nature. This layer of supernatural ties is interesting because it exemplified anomaly hunting in conspiracy theories. Put simply, there are multiple parts of Ms. Gomas’ interview where she does not have her hand raised with two fingers pointing up, but since she did in the screenshot, that has meaning for the commenter.
Slightly less interesting, but probably more concerning is the idea that Ms. Gomas was participating in a scripted interview here and that her outburst in the moment was a statement about reality. The concern arises from the fact that despite the woman at the center of the incident has clarified her statements, the commenter insists on believing their preferred narrative. It is rare to have someone at the center of a weird or bizarre incident come forward and clarify what they meant or what happened. And despite having that clarification in this case, some people prefer to believe the bizarre or supernatural explanation.
- Was the term “Crisis Actor”?
I hoped to avoid the Israel/Gaza conflict this week since we have discussed it a lot previously. However, this post about an alleged crisis actor caught my attention because we have not discussed that type of conspiracy theory before.
A crisis actor is someone who is skilled at acting as a victim or part of a crisis event. People running in mobs in movies, folks screaming when the monster attacks in a TV show, or pretend victims in emergency drills are real examples of crisis actors.
For conspiracy theorists though, a crisis actor means someone who is found at multiple crises over time. In the post here for instance, the alleged man is supposedly seen in nine different roles. Similar claims have been made around incidents in the USA as well.
The crisis actor claim helps support conspiracy theory beliefs because it provides “evidence” that the bad thing was actually faked or scripted. Because remember, conspiracy theories ultimately are about someone, somewhere being in control of things. Crisis actors are one of those “breadcrumbs” left by the powerful elites.
But what is the explanation behind such similar looking people being found at events then? Simple: we look like each other. Not perfectly or from every angle, but people can look very similar on a superficial level.
We also can consider that styles and wealth can influence how much people look like each other as well. Facial hair and hairstyle for instance are often influenced by how much a person can afford to pay, or what there job is. If you doubt me, consider if there is a particular style of mustache or beard you consider stereotypical of a certain job. For instance, I have a very distinct idea of what type of mustache a police officer will have.
Finally, consider that posts like this one can be misconstrued jokes or even portfolios of real actors. A model could easily be found in dozens or hundreds of stock photos showing them in various roles and situations. And given that there are tiktok interface elements in some of the photos used in the post, I suspect that is the case here, one man took multiple photos of himself that the conspiracy theorists are misinterpreting as serious, real roles this one man has had.
- Giant pentagram-like star in the middle of the woods.
Finally, a real mystery to dig into. What is this thing? Who made it? Why? Where is it? Is it real?
Some of these are easy to answer. The pentagram is real and can be found to the southwest of Little Mantrap Lake in Minnesota. Bing Maps also shows the pentagram in different seasons depending on your zoom level.
In terms of who made it and why, there’s not much evidence to work with from just the photo I’m afraid. It could be an orienteering course, someone doing a practical joke, or any number of other things. Without speaking to the creator or owner of the area, it’s impossible to know for sure.
That does not stop r/conspiracy from throwing out some conjecture though. For instance, some commenters suggested it’s a masonic sign. Others tied it back to the pentagram in Washington DC. Others suggested it is a supernatural symbol writ large.
Ultimately, we can’t know the purpose of the pentagram in the woods. But it’s interesting to see how conspiracy minded folks jump immediately to it being nefarious, and that it being a prank or joke by a bored older man with a tractor gain less traction.
- What are some strong evidences that 9/11 was an inside job?
Twenty-two years after the fact, 9/11 “truthers” still spout conspiracy theories about the events of that day. It is to Millenials and Gen X what JFK’s assassination was to Boomers.
Sadly, 9/11 did happen and its repercussions are still experienced today. However, for some people, the idea that a handful of hijackers could so drastically affect the USA, and much of the world, is an unbearable level of chaos. If instead the attacks were orchestrated or supported by some elite, secret group that would make the chaos of the world less scary, more approachable. Someone must be in charge after all.
That all said, what evidence do conspiracy theorists have that suggest 9/11 was an inside job? The main poster refers vaguely to a phone call which he can’t remember details of aside from it ending with the words “it’s a frame.” With so little to go on, I was able to find the recording by Ms. CeeCee Lyles. I’ll be frank and blunt here, I don’t hear “It’s a frame” here. I hear something more like “I’m afraid” in the recording.
But let’s suppose she did say “it’s a frame.” So what? That does not prove anything other than that she said it. So where is Ms. Lyles? What happened to her? The conspiracy theorists must begin extrapolating and expanding the conspiracy to account for her disappearance.
The top comment on the thread gives the claim that airline stocks experienced an abnormal amount of short puts on them in the days before the attack. These options would have resulted in profits for people who bought them when the stock’s fell after the attacks. As the second link in this paragraph notes, Snopes thoroughly debunked this claim already. While there were interesting statistical shifts in the stocks of various airlines, that is not evidence of foreknowledge of the attacks. Unfortunately, some posters do not appreciate Snopes’ process and consider it part of the evil cabal.
The other comments are a typical hodgepodge of claims about Building 7 being referred to as collapsed before it actually fell (as if saying “It’s gonna fall” is an unrealistic prediction when a huge portion of a building is destroyed), or that the planes could not fly in the way they did. I could continue, but I could easily spend multiple posts just on 9/11 conspiracies and the various bits of evidence that don’t actually support a conspiracy explanation.
Conclusion
We touched on a lot this week. I honestly think any of these posts could have been an entire post in their own right. However, I want to note a couple commonalities from these conspiracy explanations.
First: Notice how many of the posts assume a nefarious or evil purpose behind events, even innocuous ones. The pentagram and “crisis actor” for instance could easily be explained as people engaging in an art project or hobby, but nefarious intent is assumed.
Second: Notice that control is a running theme in conspiracy theories. Secret cabals, “the elites,” and other nebulous groups supposedly orchestrate these world events. However, despite all of their power and control, the cabal can’t help but leave breadcrumbs out for anyone with an internet connection to find.