YouTubeYou know that stoner you went to school with whose Facebook page is basically just a constant barrage of unfounded, ill-researched nonsense – usually about how people who wear yarmulkes run all the world’s banks or how Sebastian Coe is really a space lizard?
Well, he’s not on his own, apparently.
According to a survey carried out by Public Policy Polling there are literally millions of like-minded twits who believe that level of obvious garbage.
Here’s a selection of some of the best ones!
A UFO Crashed In Roswell New Mexico & The U.S. Government Covered It Up – 65 Million People
WikimediaThe one defining reason why almost all conspiracies are utter tripe is a simple one – people.
The amount of people that would need to be involved to carry it off and keep their mouths shut just makes it impossible.
Remember that time your mate told you he’d shagged another mate’s ex and told you to keep quiet but you almost immediately told someone else? Well, imagine he told you that he found some dead aliens in a crash landed ship – you’d last about four seconds before you posted it on Facebook.
Verdict: Bollocks.
Vaccines Are Linked To Autism – 62 Million
WikimediaApparently, 62 million people believe that vaccines contain autism.
You might remember vaccines as those scientifically verified things which you’ve been getting throughout your life to stop you dying from illnesses that have formerly devastated humanity.
Well, when your child dies of measles or some other largely eradicated preventable disease just because you think science is a belief like the Easter Bunny or Christianity, don’t go crying to a doctor for help. Maybe try praying instead.
Verdict: Nonsense.
The Moon Landings Were Faked – 21 Million
The general premise of this sounds plausible – the U.S. needed to outpace Russia in the space race as part of their strategy of winning the Cold War.
But when you add in the brilliant little details like not only were they faked but Stanley Kubrick directed them, then you lose all plausibility!
Verdict: Put down the Kool-Aid, Agent Mulder.
Paul McCartney Died In 1966 – 15 Million
WikimediaEven though this is mad, a reported 15 million people actually, genuinely think that former Beatle, McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced with a lookalike – one who happened to not only look like Paul but also sounded, acted, sang and wrote songs exactly like the original.
A part of me would love this to be real but a part of me also would like to believe that Tupac is still alive or that my drinking habits aren’t unhealthy, but I’d just be lying to myself.
Verdict: Great but false.
Bigfoot Exists – 43 Million
WikimediaAnother example of where speculative science – an evolutionary link between modern man and ape – meets wishful thinking.
It’d be great if there was this elusive ape-man-thing roaming the North American wilderness like a lone reminder of the wonder of the nature but, if he actually did exist – being American – he’d have been shot in some kind of hunting “accident” ages ago.
Verdict: He doesn’t.
