Conspiracy theory

Over 40% of Republicans think Bill Gates will use COVID-19 vaccine to implant microchips, survey says

Fighting misinformation and conspiracy theories about the novel coronavirus has almost been as hard as battling the pandemic itself. And a new survey has found that one conspiracy theory about Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is taking hold.

A conspiracy theory that Gates is planning to use a future COVID-19 vaccine to implant microchips in billions of people in order to monitor their movements has gained supporters particularly among Fox News viewers and Republicans, the survey found.

The representative survey of 1,640 US adults by YouGov for Yahoo News found that half of respondent Americans who say Fox News is their primary television news source believe the conspiracy theory. It's the largest group responding this way, followed by self-described Republicans and "Voted for Donald Trump in 2016" -- 44% of both those groups said they believed the conspiracy theory was true. Twenty-six percent of respondent Republicans said it was false, and 31% said they weren't sure.

Representatives for Fox News, the Republican Party, the White House and the Trump 2020 campaign didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which the namesake founders use to fund medical research and vaccine programs around the world, also didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Conspiracy theory

COVID19 and conspiracy theories: A Chinese virus or a bio-weapon?

United States’ president Donald Trump thinks that COVID19 is a `Chinese virus’. Conspiracy theories are making rounds that the virus was compounded in a Wuhan laboratory. Several American politicians, such as Senator Tom Cotton, suggested that the coronavirus is a bioweapon leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Trump is convinced that US economy is suffering for China’s lies about events in Wuhan, with connivance by the World Health Organization. He stalled WHO’s funding to teach it a lesson. With an eye on November re-election, Trump assured voters that his rival, Democratic nominee, Joe Biden is weak on China. And, his son Hunter was involved in cloudy dealings with Beijing.

Americans are receptive to Trump’s tirades. When he suggested taking disinfectants as cure for COVID19, many Americans did so. A Pew Research poll found that two-thirds of U.S. voters had an unfavorable view of China compared to 47 per cent two years back. Wuhan’s lockdown was viewed as “draconian” and “undemocratic” step taken by the “despotic Orient”.  The truth remains that a nation’s ability to contain the coronavirus depends on numerous factors: Climate, demographics, location, wealth, leadership, medical stockpiles, healthcare system, and so on.

Conspiracy theory

A psychologist explains why people cling to conspiracy theories during uncertainty and after traumatic events

Conspiracy theories are as old as time, but it's only in more recent years that psychologists have begun to unravel the belief that some people have in them. According to researcher Goertzel (1994), conspiracy theories are explanations that refer to hidden groups working in secret to achieve sinister objectives.

Whether it's the killing of a US President (Kennedy), a mass-shooting involving a seemingly-normal older white, adult male (Las Vegas), or the Charlie Hebdo murders, conspiracy theories are never far behind. Even climate change has a conspiracy theory attached to it (the US government is to blame, naturally).

What drives people's belief in these "out there" explanations for significant events? Let's find out.

There is a conspiracy theory that there were two shooters at the Las Vegas massacre, the largest mass-shooting in modern US history. The theory — believed by tens of thousands of people around the world — rests on the "evidence" of two grainy, hard-to-hear videos from eyewitnesses.

Conspiracy theory

Did the CIA Invent the Term ‘Conspiracy Theory’?

Conspiracy theories have a long history, but the actual term “conspiracy theory” emerged much more recently. It was only a few decades ago that the term took on the derogatory connotations it has today, where to call someone a conspiracy theorist functions as an insult.

So it may come as no surprise that there is even a conspiracy theory about the origins of the label. This conspiracy theory claims that the CIA invented the term in 1967 to disqualify those who questioned the official version of John F Kennedy’s assassination and doubted that his killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, had acted alone.

There are even two versions of this conspiracy theory. The more extreme version claims that the CIA literally invented the term in the sense that the words “conspiracy” and “theory” had never been used before in combination. A more moderate version acknowledges that the term existed before, but claims that the CIA intentionally created its negative connotations and so turned the label into a tool of political propaganda.

The more moderate version has been particularly popular in recent years for two reasons. First, it is very easy to disprove the more extreme claim that the CIA actually invented the term. As a search on Google Books quickly reveals, the term “conspiracy theory” emerged around 1870 and began to be more frequently used during the 1950s.

Conspiracy theory

Covid-19: Who is Charles Lieber, the man conspiracy theorists say created the coronavirus?

In January, Harvard professor Charles Lieber was charged with lying to US federal authorities about payments he allegedly received from Wuhan University of Technology and concealing his participation in China’s Thousand Talents Plan, a state-run programme that recruits elite scientific talent.

Given that the coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, however, Lieber’s apparent connections to the Chinese city quickly sparked internet rumours that he had in fact been arrested on suspicion of playing a part in manufacturing the virus.

This kind of speculation was only encouraged by Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, who said on Fox News in February that the question of whether the coronavirus came about in China by artificial means was one “we at least have to ask”.

Chinese nationals' arrest adds to Lieber rumours

The online gossip surrounding Lieber was further fuelled by the fact that his detention by US law enforcement was announced alongside that of two Chinese nationals, one of whom was described in a Facebook user's viral post as having been caught smuggling vials of “sensitive biological samples” back to China.

Lieber-was-behind-coronavirus claims debunked

But in an article that comprehensively debunks the idea that Lieber was apprehended for reasons relating to Covid-19, the fact-checking website Snopes.com clarifies that there is no connection between the arrests.

Conspiracy theory

These far-right Christian fundamentalists believe God killed Elijah Cummings for opposing Trump

The Christian Right has a long history of praying for the deaths of political opponents, from the Rev. R.L. Hymers urging members of his Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle to pray for God to kill Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun back in 1987 to fundamentalists praying for Sen. John McCain to win the 2008 presidential election and die in office so that his running mate, Sarah Palin, could become president. And following the death of Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland at the age of 68 on October 17, some far-right Christian fundamentalists are claiming the House Oversight Committee chairman was struck down by God for opposing President Donald Trump.

Appearing on conspiracy theorist Chris McDonald’s program “The MC Files,” Christian fundamentalist Stacey Shiflett insisted that Trump was sent by God himself to govern the U.S. and that Cummings helped lead a “cooked, deceptive, demonic attempt” to remove Trump from office. Shiftlett said of Cummings, “Everything that he’s done has been nothing but trying to take this president out. I believe that God had had enough, and God moved.”

Conspiracy theory

End of the WORLD: Biblical prophecy claims Rapture is coming TODAY on summer solstice

The Rapture is an event many Christians believe marks the return of the son of God – and all the believers will disappear from Earth up to Heaven in the "twinkling of an eye".

But this happens after a tribulation period – seven years that are first of peace and unity around the world and then three and a half years of war and global pandemics.

And Steve Fletcher, who monitors events that could signal the end of mankind, believes the Rapture starts today.

He said: “Time is up and all hell breaks loose after June 21, 2018.”

He explained a number of factors had allowed him to pinpoint the end of times – which coincides with Summer Solstice, the ending of spring and the starting of summer.

Conspiracy theory

The Spy State Unleashed

None of the official reports issued by our intelligence agencies and made public contains a lick of real evidence that the Kremlin guided and encouraged Trump’s rise to power: they consist of simple assertions, and exclamations of “high confidence,” without giving anyone a reason to feel the least amount of confidence in their conclusions. They hide behind the old “sources and methods” excuse in their failure to provide what could even loosely be defined as proof of their allegations. Yet some of these “sources and methods” have come to light anyway, as the leakers desperately try to salvage their failing narrative.

Conspiracy theory

Trump and Russia: Washington's fashionable conspiracy theory

"Does intelligence exist that can definitively answer the following question, whether there were improper contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials?" This was the question posed by Chuck Todd to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Meet the Press last Sunday.

"We did not include any evidence in our report … that had anything, that had any reflection of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians," Clapper answered. Todd pressed: "But does it exist?" Todd asked.

"Not to my knowledge," Clapper said.

Conspiracy theory

Russian meddling? Conspiracy theorists go WILD over BIZARRE US 'hacking-style' incidents

...Earlier in the day, a hearing in Washington to confirm Donald Trump’s CIA nominee Mike Pompeo was plunged into darkness during its opening statement.

Sen. Mark Warner was discussing Russian hacking when the blackout took place.

Then later in the day an American TV station broadcasting proceedings from the House of Representatives mysteriously switched to Russian state television.

Representative Maxine Walters was mid-way through a speech on the House floor at 2.30pm when programming on the C-Span station suddenly switched to Russian state channel RT for approximately 10 minutes.

Conspiracy theory

Zio-Gladio strikes Europe! Berlin suspect, NATO auditor shot dead

Yet another “radical Islamic ISIS-linked terrorist,” identified thanks to yet another “magic ID drop,” has once again been shot dead by police and silenced forever. Are we starting to see a pattern here?

In the words of the immortal Yogi Berra, it’s “deja vu all over again.”

Exactly one week before today’s police execution of the “Berlin truck terrorist,” NATO’s chief auditor, Yves Chandelon, was found dead in Andenne, Belgium with a bullet in his head. Official story: Suicide due to financial problems.

Chandelon supposedly killed himself because he was $43,000 Euros in debt. His family calls the suicide verdict ridiculous. As a high-level executive, he would have viewed 43k as chump change. And every aspect of the crime scene points to murder, not suicide.

Meanwhile in Ankara, mainstream reports claim that the cop who assassinated Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov last week had served on Erdogan’s security detail. This detail, and its highlighting by the Western mainstream press, adds to the case that the assassination was an Operation Gladio job designed to punish Erdogan for cozying up to Russia and accepting a Syrian peace road map with no NATO involvement.

Conspiracy theory

Where Is Princess Diana Buried? And 4 Other Conspiracy Theories About Her Death

Richard Tomlinson, a former MI6 officer, claimed in a sworn statement to the French inquiry in May 1999 that Britain's MI6 had been involved in the crash. The previous August, he had been reported by the BBC to have claimed that Paul was working for the security services and that one of Diana's bodyguards, either Trevor Rees-Jones (now known as Trevor Rees) or Kes Wingfield, was a contact for British intelligence.

Tomlinson alleged that MI6 was monitoring Diana before her death, had told Al-Fayed that Henri Paul was an MI6 agent and that her death mirrored plans he saw in 1992 for the assassination of then President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević, using a strobe light to blind his chauffeur.

However, on 13 February 2008, Tomlinson told the inquest that he may have misremembered and that he had no evidence that Paul was an MI6 agent.

Conspiracy theory

Vulture arrested in Lebanon on suspicion of spying

A vulture from an Israeli nature reserve has been captured in Lebanon on suspicion of espionage after flying across the border, Israel’s nature reserve authority has said.

Members of the Israeli public phoned the Israel Nature and Parks Authority to alert it to Facebook reports and pictures of a vulture with an Israeli identification ring and location transmitter captured by residents of the south Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, a spokeswoman, Tali Tenenbaum, said.

Conspiracy theory

Seymour Hersh's bizarre new conspiracy theory about the US and Syria, explained

In a lengthy London Review of Books piece, Hersh says that the top leaders of the Pentagon deliberately subverted American policy toward Syria, sabotaging US efforts to aid Syrian rebels and even sending US intelligence to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. From fall 2013 to September 2015, he says, US military leaders effectively conducted a secret alliance with Assad and with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom they saw as their best allies in fighting ISIS.

Conspiracy theory

Asteroid 'to destroy Earth in four weeks' as conspiracy theorists claim September 21 could be our last day

Earth will be destroyed in four weeks as a giant asteroid heads towards our planet, it has been claimed.

Conspiracy theorists claim that the world will be destroyed upon its arrival between September 21 and 28.

The origins of the claim come from self-proclaimed prophet Efrain Rodriguez, who has passed his research onto NASA.