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Conspiracy theories

Large-scale secret-plot narratives.

9/11 was an inside job

False

Claims that the U.S. government orchestrated or knowingly allowed the September 11, 2001 attacks are contradicted by the 9/11 Commission's extensive investigation and by independent structural engineering analyses of the building collapses. No physical, testimonial, or documentary evidence from any investigation supports controlled demolition or government orchestration.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

A secret New World Order plans global takeover

False

The New World Order conspiracy theory has no evidentiary basis. Research by the Middlebury Institute traces its origins to 19th century anti-Semitic propaganda and its modern form to 1990s anti-globalization literature. The phrase was used by George H.W. Bush in a 1990 speech to describe post-Cold War multilateral cooperation, not a secretive cabal.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

Adrenochrome harvesting from children

False

Adrenochrome is a real chemical compound produced by the oxidation of adrenaline, but the claim that elites harvest it from terrified children as a drug or life-extension substance has no basis in chemistry, medicine, or any documented criminal case.

Conspiracy theories3 sources

Area 51 holds captured aliens

False

Declassified CIA documents from 2013 confirm Area 51 is a classified flight test facility used for the U-2 and A-12 Oxcart spy planes. UFO sightings in the region were explained by secret aircraft operating at altitudes above 60,000 feet. No declassified document references alien technology.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by a robot clone

False

In June 2025 Trump reshared a Truth Social post claiming Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by a robotic clone. The claim is baseless and physically impossible.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

Bill Gates is using vaccines to depopulate the world

False

Claims that Bill Gates plans to reduce the world's population through forced vaccination are false. They originate from a misquotation of his 2010 TED Talk, in which Gates argued that improving health and vaccination reduces child mortality, which leads to lower birth rates in developing countries, not to population reduction through harm.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

Denver Airport hides an elite bunker

False

Denver International Airport's unusual murals, underground tunnels used for standard baggage handling infrastructure, and public artwork have fueled decades of conspiracy theories about secret bunkers or New World Order symbolism, but the airport's own construction records, public tours, and independent journalism account for these features as ordinary architectural and artistic choices.

Conspiracy theories3 sources

Dominion voting machines changed votes in the 2020 election

False

Trump has long claimed that Dominion Voting Systems machines deleted or switched his votes in the 2020 election. Courts, the FBI, CISA and the DOJ all rejected these claims as baseless.

Conspiracy theories5 sources

Fluoride is used for mind control

False

Claims that water fluoridation is a government mind-control program have no scientific or documentary support. Community water fluoridation was introduced to reduce tooth decay, and its safety and effectiveness at recommended levels are supported by decades of dental and public health research, though a genuine, separate scientific debate exists about neurodevelopmental effects at higher exposure levels.

Conspiracy theories3 sources

Holocaust death tolls are exaggerated

False

Claims that deny or significantly minimize the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust contradict overwhelming documentary, demographic, and physical evidence. Historians using independent methods, including Nazi administrative records, demographic census comparisons, and testimony, consistently arrive at a death toll of approximately six million Jewish victims.

Conspiracy theories3 sources

Italy and the CIA stole the 2020 election using a satellite (Italygate)

False

The Italygate theory claimed Italy and US officials switched 2020 votes via an Italian military satellite. It is baseless, and the Italians cited as arrested were detained for unrelated industrial espionage.

Conspiracy theories3 sources

Michelle Obama is a man

False

The claim that Michelle Obama is a man or transgender is false. It is a long-running conspiracy rumor repeatedly debunked by fact-checkers, with no credible evidence and only forged or miscontextualized material offered as proof.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

Michelle Obama secretly signed Biden's pardons with an autopen

False

Trump amplified posts claiming Michelle Obama secretly entered the Oval Office and used Biden's autopen to sign pardons. The claim is fabricated with no supporting evidence.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

Nancy Pelosi planned the January 6 attack two years in advance

False

Trump shared claims that Nancy Pelosi planned the January 6 Capitol attack two years ahead. The cited video does not support this and describes something different.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

NASA hides that the Earth is flat

False

Claims that NASA hides evidence of a flat Earth are contradicted by an enormous body of independently verifiable evidence, much of it not produced by NASA at all. Satellite imagery from multiple countries' space agencies, commercial aviation navigation, circumnavigation, and basic physics experiments reproducible by anyone all confirm a spherical Earth.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

Obama committed treason and faces a military tribunal

False

In December 2025 Trump shared QAnon-linked posts claiming Barack Obama committed treason and would face a military tribunal. There is no evidence, and US civilians cannot be tried by military tribunals.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

Pizzagate: a DC pizzeria hid a child trafficking ring

False

Pizzagate, the claim that a Washington D.C. pizzeria was the hub of a child trafficking ring run by senior Democratic Party figures, was investigated by law enforcement and journalists and found to have no factual basis, though it led to a real armed incident in 2016.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

Princess Diana was assassinated

False

Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. A French judicial investigation, the Metropolitan Police's Operation Paget (2006) and a 2008 British inquest all rejected claims of an assassination plot. The inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing caused by the grossly negligent driving of chauffeur Henri Paul and the pursuing vehicles.

Conspiracy theories2 sources

QAnon: a secret elite cabal runs a child trafficking network

False

QAnon is a wide-ranging conspiracy movement built around anonymous 2017 internet posts claiming a secret cabal of elites runs a global child trafficking network that Donald Trump is secretly fighting, and no credible investigation has substantiated the movement's core claims.

Conspiracy theories3 sources

Reptilian shapeshifters control world governments

False

The claim that shapeshifting reptilian humanoids secretly control world governments and impersonate prominent public figures originates largely from the writings of British author David Icke starting in the 1990s and has no scientific, biological, or documentary evidence supporting it.

Conspiracy theories2 sources

Secret FEMA concentration camps exist

False

Claims that FEMA operates secret concentration camps to imprison Americans under martial law are unsupported by any evidence. The theory has circulated since the 1980s and has been repeatedly investigated and debunked by journalists and fact-checkers, who trace the locations cited to ordinary military bases, prisons, and disused facilities.

Conspiracy theories3 sources

The 'missing scientists' were killed in a secret plot

False

In spring 2026, online posts and some US politicians linked about a dozen deaths and disappearances of people tied to NASA, national laboratories and the military into a supposed plot. Reviews by PolitiFact, CBS News and Snopes found no connection between the cases, several of the people were not scientists, and a number of the deaths have documented, unrelated explanations.

Conspiracy theories7 sources

The Bermuda Triangle is supernaturally dangerous

False

Statistical analysis by the U.S. Coast Guard, Lloyd's of London, and independent researchers has found that the Bermuda Triangle does not have a disproportionately high rate of unexplained ship and aircraft disappearances compared to other heavily trafficked ocean regions once normal shipping traffic volume and known hazards are taken into account.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

The CIA definitively killed JFK

False

Claims that the CIA orchestrated President Kennedy's 1963 assassination remain unproven despite decades of investigation. The Warren Commission and a 1979 House Select Committee both examined the evidence extensively; while the House committee found a probable second gunman based on acoustic evidence later disputed, no official inquiry has found credible evidence of CIA involvement.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

The Illuminati secretly controls the world

False

The historical Bavarian Illuminati was a real but short-lived Enlightenment-era secret society founded in 1776 and dissolved by 1785 through official government suppression, and no credible historical or investigative evidence supports claims that a continuous secret organization by that name has controlled world governments, finance, or events since.

Conspiracy theories2 sources

The Moon is hollow or artificial

False

The claim that the Moon is hollow, sometimes framed as an artificial construct, contradicts extensive seismic, gravitational, and sample-based evidence gathered by lunar missions. Seismometers placed on the Moon during the Apollo program and later gravity-mapping satellite missions have produced detailed internal structure data consistent with a differentiated, largely solid rocky body, not a hollow shell.

Conspiracy theories4 sources

There is a secret Epstein "client list" of powerful abusers

False

The claim of a hidden Epstein "client list" of elite abusers has not been substantiated. In July 2025 the Department of Justice and FBI stated in a memo that no such list exists, angering some of Trump's own supporters. Epstein's crimes and his network of associates are real and documented, but a single master list of clients is not.

Conspiracy theories5 sources