10 Conspiracy Theories That Actually Affected the Real World

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for 10 Conspiracy Theories That Actually Affected the Real World.

For this list, we’re looking at high profile cases in which conspiracy theories have had real consequences. There have been real conspiracies in history - such as Watergate and Big Tobacco’s Operation Berkshire. Conspiracy theories however postulate conspiracies to explain events, often in ways that ignore more probable explanations, cherry-pick evidence, and can’t be falsified.

Have you watched close friends or family members get lost down the misinformation rabbit hole? Were your relationships OK? Share your experiences with us in the comments.

Satanic Panic

Moral panics over ‘ritual abuse’ aren’t new. Romans accused early Christians of murdering children; Christians did the same to Jews in medieval times. And it was also a feature of witch-hunts. Such a panic swept through the US in the 1980s, as conservative religious reactionaries accused heavy metal musicians and “Dungeons & Dragons” players of promoting Satanism. False accusations of ritual abuse, bolstered by the now discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy, led to 12,000 unsubstantiated cases. Dozens of day care workers were brought to trial; the most infamous case, against the McMartin family, lasted seven years before charges were dropped. The conspiracy theory endures today in new forms, such as Illuminati theories and the QAnon movement, which targets actors, Democrats, and the so-called ‘Deep State’.

5G Misinformation

Anxiety around new technology is normal. And caution about our health is … healthy! But 5G conspiracy theories have spun wildly out of control. Wireless communication relies on electromagnetic radiation - specifically, the range of frequencies called ‘radio waves’. Radiofrequency radiation is non-ionizing - it doesn’t have enough energy to knock electrons from atoms and damage our cells. It can convert into heat, and thus be harmful at very high levels of exposure … which our devices and networks are well below. 5G, the fifth-generation of wireless technology, operates at higher frequencies than 4G, but still relatively very low on the spectrum. Nonetheless, conspiracy theorists have blamed it for cancer, the spread of Covid-19, and even the deaths of bees. This has erupted in protests and sabotage, especially in the UK, where 5G towers have been set on fire.

Sandy Hook

Alt-right radio host Alex Jones has promoted a host of deranged conspiracy theories on his fake news show and website InfoWars. His most infamous claim is that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was staged - and that the gunman’s 26 victims were only “actors”. As parents grieved their children, Jones spread falsehoods online, claiming that it was all a ploy to take guns away - sending his revenue and viewership soaring. This fuelled years of harassment, including rape- and death-threats, towards the families of victims. Incensed conspiracy theorists told bereaved parents that their children had never existed. The families sued Jones, and in 2022 were awarded $1.487 billion in damages. Jones has blamed “globalists”, who he says are out to get him.

Pizzagate

Amid a perfect storm of fake news and political polarization, this alt-right conspiracy theory went viral in the run-up to the 2016 United States presidential election. In November of that year, the personal emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta were leaked online. Proponents of the conspiracy theory claimed to have uncovered dirt on Democrats in the form of coded messages implicating liberals and a Washington D.C. pizzeria in a human trafficking ring. In a sense, it was a resurgence of the Satanic panic, complete with accusations of ritual abuse. The restaurant owner James Alefantis and his staff received death threats, and on December 4, a North Carolina man fired three rounds inside, having decided to “self-investigate”. Pizzagate would become a forerunner of QAnon.

Helter Skelter

In the Summer of Love in San Francisco, 1967, singer-songwriter Charles Manson preached a message of hope and salvation. But he was not who he seemed. A master manipulator with a criminal record that included theft, forgery, and sex trafficking, Manson preyed on impressionable young women in the counterculture of the 60s to build a doomsday cult known as the Manson Family. He was a white supremacist who believed that Black Americans would initiate an apocalyptic race war, and choose Manson as their ‘master’. According to his conspiracy theory, it was all foretold in the Beatles song “Helter Skelter”. The ideology may have been a motive in the Family’s murders of six people in August, 1969, including actress Sharon Tate.

The Anti-Vax Movement

Ultimately, you are the person most invested in your health. And doing real research, with reliable sources, is important. However, that is not the basis of the anti-vax movement. In 1998, British physician Andrew Wakefield published a paper alleging a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Investigations revealed he’d falsified data and been paid over £400,000 by lawyers who wanted to sue vaccine manufacturers. Reportedly, he expected to make $43 million a year selling diagnostic kits. Wakefield’s paper was retracted and his medical license revoked. Nonetheless, his work kicked off the modern anti-vax movement. Reductions in vaccinations have led to outbreaks around the world. In 2019, reported cases of measles were the highest in 23 years.

Trump’s Big Lie

Former President Donald Trump has peddled a long list of conspiracy theories, such as the ‘birther movement’ around Barack Obama’s citizenship. After he lost his bid for a second term in 2020, he claimed the election had been rigged and led a campaign to overturn the results and reinstall himself as President. However, his pressure on state and federal officials failed; courts threw out 63 lawsuits, which failed to substantiate their conspiratorial claims; and recounts, some by machine and some by hand, confirmed Biden’s win. Nonetheless, Trump’s falsehoods about a ‘stolen election’ inspired the January 6 United States Capitol attack in 2021, as Trump supporters, among them neo-fascist and far-right militias, assaulted police and stormed the building. The attack left five dead, and four distraught officers later took their own lives.

Eurabia

In his manifesto, far-right extremist Anders Breivik cited British writer Bat Ye'or’s concept of “Eurabia” - a conspiracy theory that political elites are plotting to Islamize Europe. On 22 July, 2011, 90 minutes after disseminating his manifesto online, Breivik exploded a car bomb in Oslo, Norway, killing eight people. He moved on to a summer camp on the island Utøya, organized by the youth wing of the Norwegian Labour Party, shooting and killing a further 67. Breivik saw himself as a knight opposing Muslim immigration into Europe. In 2019, Australian terrorist Brenton Tarrant would cite Breivik as inspiration for his attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, which left 51 people dead. Tarrant’s own manifesto cited the Great Replacement theory, a similar far-right conspiracy theory about Muslim immigration.

HIV/AIDS Denialism

Conspiracy theories about HIV/AIDS have circulated since it was recognized as a global epidemic in the 1980s. A Soviet disinformation campaign, Operation INFEKTION, sought to propagate belief it was made in the USA. The idea became particularly prevalent in African American communities, linked to the CIA and genocide - perhaps an echo of the real life Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The most pernicious conspiracy theory however has been HIV/AIDS denialism, the belief that HIV does not cause AIDS. Proponents accuse the medical community of lying to sell antiretroviral drugs. Under South African President Thabo Mbeki in the 2000s, HIV/AIDS denialism had disastrous consequences, leading to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths. Here’s the thing … antiretroviral drugs save lives! An estimated 40 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses, but death rates have dramatically declined, due not only to lower infection rates, but also expanded access to antiretroviral therapy.

Jewish War Conspiracy Theory

This antisemitic conspiracy theory rationalized unspeakable violence. In 1903, a fabricated text published in Russia, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," described a Jewish plot for global domination. It was exposed as a hoax, but Adolf Hitler seized on the idea, using Jews as a convenient scapegoat for Germany’s post-WWI hardships. As Nazi Germany prepared for war and unleashed pogroms against Jewish communities, World Zionist Organization president Chaim Weizmann pledged Jewish support for Great Britain and democracies. Nazi propaganda twisted this into a declaration of war in order to portray the Holocaust, which took six million Jewish lives, as self-defense. The theory remains popular among neo-Nazis, and antisemitism continues to underlie some conspiracy theories about secretive cabals and ‘New World Orders’ today.