Theory: The 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing was staged by "crisis actors". Seriously injured bystandered Jeff Bauman was really amputee Lieutenant Nick Vogt. Best evidence: These pictures are the evidence: Evaluation: Jeff Bauman, born 1986, lost his legs during the annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, and lives with his wife Erin in New Hampshire. Lieutenant Nick Vogt, born 1991, lost his legs in Afghanistan in 2011, and now lives in Ohio with his wife Lauren. Snapshot moments can always be picked out of a video to show facial similarities between two different people. But there is no real evidence that these two people are really the same person.
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Theory: This "faked" murder in Roanoke, Virginia was staged by "crisis actors". Conspiracy theorists believe that many shootings are staged in order to create public sentiment for helping to pass gun control legislation. Best evidence: There are 2 videos of this shooting: a) live media film footage and b) the footage taken by the gunman, Lee Flanagan II, with a hand-held video recorder. Conspiracy theorists claim that these are 2 different takes -- that the two videos do not match because they were not filmed during the same time. Evaluation: While the two videos seem to be different, that is because they are different angles. Here, the two videos are aligned and stabilized, and you can see that the videos are authentic and real. And finally, there are shootings in America every day, and the media picks and chooses which ones it wishes to cover, and which to ignore. If gun control were the goal of the media, then why are so many shootings ignored? They should all be covered, and exaggerated, in order to scare the public into pushing for gun control. And why bother to stage fake shootings when you have real ones already, to emphasize --- but yet, so many are ignored?
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Theory: "Trump Claims Obama Ordered Wiretap On Trump Tower, Offers No Evidence." - NPR All Things Considered, March 6, 2017 Best evidence: Evaluation: The semantics of words is a game here, but the Obama administration did have wiretaps and spies infiltrating the 2016 Trump campaign. The following 2016 Trump campaign advisors were wiretapped or contacted by government informants during the 2016 Trump campaign: George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn.
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Best evidence: Observing that some of the condensation trails left by planes do not dissipate is mostly cited as best evidence. Also, they measured the increased byproducts of aluminum and barium in the chemtrails. Baal refers to the Levantine deities who were false gods, and has importance in demonology. If you look on the periodic table, barium is BA, aluminum is AL, combined might be a reference to Baal. The documentary "What In The World Are They Spraying?" is the most popular summary of evidence. Evaluation:
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Theory: "Vladimir Putin could care less about delivering healthcare to the people of Russia, or building infrastructure and Vladimir Putin many people know well, Wakes up every morning, and goes to bed every night trying to figure out how to destroy American democracy. He has organized all infrastructure of his government around that effort." - January 30, 2020: Senate Impeachment Trial, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey Best evidence:
Evaluation: Since most of the social media activity from Russians noted above happened after the election, and the activity mostly involved posting videos of police abuse to Black Lives Matter websites, without mentioning either candidate, this does not seem like election interference. To call this activity election interference is a conspiracy theory without evidence.
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Theory: In order to disarm U.S. citizens for assisting in a social control agenda, this horrific mass shooting was staged to help pass gun control legislation. There were no actual deaths, and this event was staged by crisis actors. Theorists claim there were multiple gunman and the real shooter, Adam Lanza, may have been a patsy. As a result of the shooting, Congress attempted to pass the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, although it never had a chance to pass the Republican Senate. Best evidence: Many initial mistakes in reporting by the media (for example, the number of shooters, the type of gun, and the locations of the gunman) were cited as proof of a staged event. Secondly, mistakes in online records concerning the gunman and victims were also cited. Finally, allegedly disingenuous behavior by the families of the victims seen on live TV were also cited as proof that this event was staged by "crisis actors". Pauses in moments of grieving are picked up as "bad acting" according to conspiracy theorists. Evaluation:
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Theory: Before and during the 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the Federal Bureau of Investigation harassed and/or killed African American civil rights leaders. The F.B.I. program of CoIntelPro (Counter Intelligence Program), where U.S. government officers infiltrated peaceful organizations in order to direct them towards violence, was especially important to these distruptive government operations. Best evidence: F.B.I. documents claim to watch and intimidate Martin Luther King for the purpose of "neutralizing King as an effective Negro leader." On November 18, 1964, the FBI Director called MLK "the most notorious liar in the country" and King received death threats from the FBI in the years following. In another example, the singer of the 1954 song "Strange Fruit," a song written as a critique of African American lynchings, was harassed by Harry Anslinger, the Commissioner for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He specifically sought to neutralize and imprison outspoken African Americans. In another example, Black Panther Party member Fred Hampton was killed by the F.B.I. in 1969, after two years of harassment. Evaluation: These disruptive actions against civil-rights workers, and many more, are well-documented by public declassified U.S. government documents.
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Theory: Russian government officials hacked into the DNC email servers in order to help Trump get elected in 2016. The Trump campaign had knowledge of this illegal breach and supported it. Best evidence: Evaluation: Whether "Guccifer 2.0" is fake persona created by CrowdStrike, or if "Guccifer 2.0" really is "the Russians," the timeline clearly shows that Guccifer 2.0 was not involved in the DNC data breach --- which was complete by May 2016, before any existence of activity from "Guccifer 2.0" or any Guccifer 2.0 communication with Wikileaks ---- and therefore there is no evidence that Russians hacked the DNC emails. Julian Assange of Wikileaks had the leaked emails in May, while traces of "Guccifer 2.0" did not exist until June 15, and there was no transfer of email data from "Guccifer 2.0" until July 14. This was too late to be relevant for any Russian connection. Attempts to connect Guccifer 2.0 or DCLeaks.com to Russians cannot inform anything related to the DNC hacking, which pre-dates their activities and appear to be part of a false narrative.
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Best evidence: Symbols in emails and on menus, handsigns, and photographs are interpreted to provide evidence that shows a web of secret connections. Evaluation: There is no direct evidence, just interpretations of symbols and photographs. Many of these interpretations are extrapolated from believing in the larger conspiracy, but do not in themselves actually constitute evidence. The contents of the photographs, such as pictures of children, or a photo of a pizzeria basement, are almost always misidentified.
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Best evidence:
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