Top 10 Biggest Conspiracy Theories of the Last Decade

There have been a lot of replacement theories as of late. In 2011, a Brazilian blog called Avril Está Morta theorized that pop star Avril Lavigne was replaced with a body double back in 2003. Aside from subliminal messaging in her music, the biggest piece of “evidence” in regards to this theory is her altered physical appearance. This same conspiracy was later applied to First Lady Melania Trump, whom some believe was replaced for public appearances. Whether she was dead or in hiding, the real Melania was nowhere to be seen. Trump himself addressed these rumors, calling them, as he has so many things, “fake news.” And this time at least, that was actually the case, with Business Insider calling it “a ridiculous conspiracy theory.”

Back in the early days of the internet there existed a website called ZetaTalk, which was run by Nancy Lieder, who claimed she had contact with extraterrestrials. She asserted that a planet called Nibiru would pass close to Earth and instigate a cataclysmic pole shift, ending all life as we know it. While this theory dates back to 1995, it was continuously revived throughout the 2010s. The first instance was the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012, with many believing that Nibiru would destroy Earth on December 21. And in 2017, an end times conspiracist named David Meade revived the conspiracy to great media attention. Of course, nothing happened, and NASA was once again forced to confirm that Nibiru does not actually exist.

The idea that wireless signals will destroy our health has been around for a long time - pretty much since wireless signals became commonplace. The “5G is killing us all” conspiracy achieved mainstream recognition when it was blamed for starting COVID, but the health scare actually predates the pandemic. In 2019, The New York Times published an article blaming the Russian network RT America for spreading misinformation about 5G. According to RT, the cellular network caused the likes of Alzheimer’s, autism, and cancer. Of course, none of this is true, but the conspiracy spread far and wide, with cities like Brussels, Geneva, and Mill Valley preventing the implementation of 5G networks.

Back in 2016, the emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair were hacked and published by WikiLeaks. Within these emails were alleged clues related to a secret human trafficking ring. Now called Pizzagate, the theory posits that powerful Democrats are running and engaging in a secret underground trafficking scheme. The term “Pizzagate” comes from Comet Ping Pong, a Washington pizzeria that was said to be related to the scheme. Spread by conservative pundits and alt-right trolls, the totally false conspiracy gained steam and had real world implications. In 2019, a small fire was started in the restaurant. Three years earlier, a man shot a lock inside the restaurant to investigate a storage room. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Much like the 5G debacle, anti-vaxxing became an enormous problem during the COVID pandemic. But the issue has unfortunately been around for a much longer time. Vaccines were first made mandatory in the mid 19th century, and the idea was immediately met with resistance. The movement continues well into the 21st century, and its consequences were made fiercely and scarily relevant in 2019. That’s when measles outbreaks saw a 300% increase from the previous year, a sharp jump that is largely blamed on the anti-vax movement. The measles vaccine was introduced in 1963 and is now on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines.

Remember the Satanic Panic of the 1980s? Remember how ridiculous that was? Well, this is the 21st century’s version of that, and it is equally ridiculous. Part cult, part alt-right movement, QAnon posits that a group of powerful Satanists run a human trafficking ring and battled the Trump administration, who aimed to secretly arrest and execute its members. Trump is widely depicted as the savior in this narrative. While the conspiracy originated on 4chan, it was mainly spread by its even-worse and more-underground counterpart, 8chan. However, it found mainstream recognition once Russian and Chinese media got hold of the story. Donald Trump retweeting QAnon accounts certainly didn’t help, either.

On July 6, 2019, financier Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on charges of sex trafficking. He was dead just one month later. The official story is that Epstein was unwilling to face punishment and took his own life. But many people aren’t buying it, claiming that too many things don’t add up, including discrepancies in the story and a lack of proper prison procedure. The conspiracy theorists posit that Epstein held powerful secrets about powerful people, who subsequently ordered a hit to ensure his silence. Numerous reports prove the widespread belief in this theory, with a 2020 Rasmussen Report showing that just 21% of Americans believe the official narrative.

We’ve known that the Earth is round for millennia, with Ancient Greek thinkers like Pythagoras and Plato writing about a spherical Earth, and the idea quickly became commonplace. Point is, we’ve known that the Earth is round for well over 2,000 years, yet people still hold to the archaic belief that it’s flat. The internet was a huge boon for the flat Earth movement, which earned widespread prominence throughout the 2010s. Celebrities like basketball player Kyrie Irving have espoused flat Earth beliefs, and the first Flat Earth Conference was held in North Carolina in 2017. Furthermore, a YouGov poll conducted in 2018 showed that just two-thirds of millennials believe that the Earth is round. Let’s hope the rest were just trolling.

Conspiracy theories develop around many government activities. They also develop around many secret places. Put them together and you have the granddaddy of them all. Ever since the government acquired the site in the 1950s, Area 51 has been the subject of countless conspiracy theories, with most of them involving aliens and UFOs. The base received widespread recognition in 2019 in the midst of the Storm Area 51 phenomenon. What started as a joke on Facebook quickly blossomed into a cultural event, as millions of people planned to “storm” the base and uncover its long-hidden secrets. In the end, only about 150 people showed up, no one got in, and the event fizzled out with no mind-blowing reveals.

It seems like we’ve been getting a lot of weather-related conspiracy theories as of late. In 2021, one bizarre theory went viral claiming that Texas snow was “created by the government.” But that’s nothing compared to the widespread belief that climate change is a hoax. Proponents of the theory argue that climate change is either outright fake or grossly overexaggerated. Most of these opinions stem from oil industry propaganda and far-right political outlets, and they’re having a huge effect on public opinion. Between 2001 and 2012, American belief in this environmental issue fell from 75% to just 44%. However, there was a brief resurgence in 2017, with 60% of Americans believing in climate change. Yet many people still find that a worrying number.

Which of these theories do you think is the least plausible? Let us know in the comments below!