What are your Favorite Conspiracy Theories?

Have you ever listened to late night radio? Sometimes you can hear shows where the government is developing some sort of mind control device or how some secret organization is plotting world dominance. I love this stuff. I get a real charge out of the creativity and imagination of the people who come up with this stuff.

Why You Should be a Fan - I have my favorite all time theories but I am a big fan of the conspiracy industry and I hope after I am done here you will be a fan too!

1. Conspiracy theories are often entertaining and colorful
2. The good ones make you think a bit and wonder
3. The more twisted and contorted they are the better they are because it takes more imagination to create the pseudo plausible explanations.
4. I makes me realize what a wealthy prosperous time we live in. Despite the current economic situation, we live in a time where people have the time to dream this stuff up.

The Conspiracy Industry - The conspiracy theorists have spurned a number of industries from entertainment to travel. For example, cities like Roswell, New Mexico host a UFO festival to promote tourism. Conspiracies are mixed with reality in the movies like JFK where the CIA is the bad guy and the Da Vinci Code where secret societies play a central role in a fictional thriller.

That said, it is fun for a while to indulge in such theories because it gives a person a chance to escape. However, all too many people believe this stuff when in truth most conspiracy theories do not hold water. So much so that there is now a growing list of web sites that seek to debunk such theories. Here are a couple of examples,

Snopes.com - Snopes is a great site that debunks or confirms Internet rumors including conspiracy theories. They use a graduated scale to conform or debunk the theory. They seem pretty accurate and fair.

Junkscience.com - Another web site that takes on myths and conspiracies. This one is a bit more political as it takes on the world of medicine and science and touches on more politically explosive topics. It does also take on such tasty conspiracies like low sperm counts due to fluoride and the moon landing hoax conspiricists (one of my favorites!)

Late Night Radio - Another breeding ground of conspiracies is the late night radio show. This is truly one of the most creative and passionate groups of people in the world. Just give the AM dial a spin from midnight to 5am and you are likely to find a number of radio programs where they deal with everything from religious to government and alien conspiracies. The cream of the crop is called Coast to Coast. Let me say I am a huge fan! I love the format and the people they have on there. I don't take them as seriously as they take themselves but I am a big fan. If you ever have a sleepless night, I highly recommend tuning in. The entertainment value alone is worth a night without sleep.

OK time to get rolling on my top 5. While there are many great conspiracy theories, I have my top 5 of all time.

5. New World Order - This conspiracy is really a group of conspiracies that often go something like this; XYZ group is using a super secret exclusive club of powerful individuals to rule the world. XYZ is an alphabet soup of groups like the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or the Trilateral Commission. There are dozens of other organizations that can be replaced in this equation and the only thing they have in common is they are all apparently trying to take over the world.

4 Roswell Aliens/Area 51 - This theory goes something like this, a UFO crashed in Roswell, New Mexico and the Army came in and took them away to study their biology and technology. There was a big cover up and the official position was that the sighting was due to weather balloons. The craft and the aliens were taken to a super secret location in Nevada... which leads me to part B of this conspiracy that the technology was being tested at a place in Nevada called Area 51. Well it is no secret that the US has been developing technology to get the upper hand on enemies. What makes me smirk is that the basis of these breakthroughs has been because of aliens and not the innovation and spirit of the American inventor.

3. JFK Assassination - I had to put this on the list. I was only a year or so old so I don't remember it but there are books and movies on the subject. Countless theories from the CIA to the Russians and the Mafia are all 'viable' alternatives to the lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. My problem with all these theories is too many people would have to have been in the loop to pull this off. Common sense is that someone would have talked by now. Look at Deep Throat from Watergate fame. That mystery was finally revealed.

2. 911 Attacks - This one goes something like this, that the government, specifically President Bush knew/planned/turned a blind eye to the plot and allowed it to happen. On some levels this is just a redux of the FDR knew about Pearl Harbor conspiracy theory. No matter how cynical I have been about government and the way it operates, I refuse to believe an American Commander in Chief would allow/encourage enemies to attack us to bait them into a war. That personal believe aside, such widely non-political and highly respected entities like Popular Mechanics took on this notion and nuked pretty much the whole basket of nonsense.

1. The Apollo Moon Landing Hoax - I mentioned this earlier. This is my favorite conspiracy theory bar none. The lengths to which the theorist go to twist and try to poke holes in the moon landing are too numerous to count. The idea that a whole industry, NASA could fake such an event and not have one person come out and let the truth be known would be astounding. This includes our enemies by the ways. See my piece on the Race to the Moon and why so many countries are trying to get back there. If this was a hoax and the rocks that were brought back are not real, they why are so many countries trying to get back to the moon?

Well there it is my top 5 conspiracy theories. What are yours?