Top 25 Biggest Conspiracy Theories of Each Year (2000 - 2024)

2000

Y2K Doomsday
The Year 2000 problem, or “Y2K” as it’s popularly known, is largely remembered for its near-total lack of consequences. While there could have been systematic mechanical failures, this was avoided thanks to the tireless preparation of engineers and tech experts. The dire predictions of some media commentators and certain niche religious leaders didn’t come to pass, and both groups were accused of fearmongering and stoking panic among the general public. In particular, evangelists were admonished for promoting Y2K doomsday theories as a way to profit. For example: they preached that the government would be dismantled to make way for Jesus Christ’s return. Suffice it to say, that didn’t end up sticking.

2001

An Inside Job
The attack on the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001 was a tragedy that shook the world, leading to a death toll of nearly 3000 and escalating conflict in the Middle East. But there are those out there who don’t believe the story that al-Qaeda were responsible, despite Osama bin Laden taking credit for the attack, and instead think that 9/11 was an inside job. They think it was perpetrated by George W. Bush and the US government in order to justify going to war in the Middle East, and frequently cite alleged evidence like the explosions at the base of the tower and Bush’s calm demeanor when informed about the attack.

2002

Chemtrails
Here’s the thing: the notion that the condensation trails left behind by planes are a government plot to spread mass quantities of biological agents? It’s been widely disproved, and is roundly dismissed by scientists. But that hasn’t stopped conspiracy theorists from suspecting that there are nefarious powers at work. Chemtrail conspiracy theories have bubbled since the late 1990s, and a 2000 multi-agency collaborative project to prove their nonexistence only fueled more distrust — this was with NASA, NOAA, the FAA, and EPA involved, by the way. An undated U.S. Air Force memo (but retrieved by Wikipedia in 2002) suggested that the conspiracy was based on misinterpretations of a 1996 military directive that described “fictional representations of future situations/scenarios.”

2003

Iraq War WMDs
One of the most reviled, overwhelmingly unpopular war efforts of all time, the so-called “War on Terror” has been lambasted as a blatant attempt to enrich the American empire. The administration of President George W. Bush saw an opportunity in post-9/11 anxieties, and seized on it in history-making fashion. The American and British governments both accused Saddam Hussein, then-President of Iraq, of covertly aiding al-Qaeda and developing weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. invaded Iraq in March of 2003, but as early as 2004, the CIA reported that Hussein “did not possess stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and had not begun any program to produce them.”

2004

The Indian Ocean Earthquake & Tsunami
Whether you attribute the cause of this natural disaster to a sinister conspiracy, or just nature, the tragic facts of this incident are undeniable. Almost 228,000 lost their lives in 12 countries, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand hit the hardest. The actual cause of this devastating double threat was a rupture along the fault between the Burma and Indian tectonic plates. However, according to conspiracy theorists, President Bush was responsible. According to “New York” magazine, proponents of the belief cite “[d]efense secretary William S. Cohen’s 1997 warning about the threat of an ecotype of terrorism.” In this case, they suggest that Bush dropped “tsunami bombs” in the ocean to destroy East Asian prosperity.

2005

HAARP Caused Hurricane Katrina
Much like our last entry, Hurricane Katrina was an indisputable humanitarian crisis, killing nearly 1400 people and costing over $125 billion in damages. While, of course, we know that weather control isn’t a real thing, certain conspiracy theorists will tell you that the culprit was actually the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP. The program, coordinated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, aims to study the Earth’s ionosphere. However, conspiracies abound that HAARP was to blame, and this is despite the fact that “Popular Science” has called HAARP’s energy waves almost too weak to measure. Another thin defense of the theory is the fact that HAARP’s funding was also increased in 2005.

2006

Lou Dobbs & the North American Union
Hey, folks, any chance you’re able to spare an… amero? That would be the hypothetical shared currency of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, should a European Union-style collaboration ever come to fruition. While it’s a fun thought experiment, the idea has been derided by economic experts as extremely unlikely. Nevertheless, conservative CNN pundit Lou Dobbs suggested on his self-titled news show that not only was such a merger in talks, it was already happening, and without the consent of anyone in any of the three countries involved. While this picked up some mainstream steam, being parroted by Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul among others, Dobbs’ fears didn’t materialize.

2007

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann
The case that The Daily Telegraph deemed “the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history” continues to baffle and frustrate both relevant authorities and the general public. British, 3-year-old McCann, on vacation in Portugal with her family, went missing after being left alone with her infant siblings in their hotel room — just 180 feet away from where her parents were dining. As with other high-profile missing children cases, the McCanns were immediately suspected of having taken their daughter’s life, and British tabloids exploited this angle. They posited the deplorable means by which the McCann parents had allegedly done it. The media coverage slowed to a halt when the McCanns won several libel lawsuits against the publications responsible.

2008

Barack Obama & the “Birther” Movement
In 2008, history was made when Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States. However, a worryingly high number of Americans refused to believe that Obama was one of their own and claimed the new president was born in a different country, meaning his presidency was against the constitution. In an attempt to stamp out these ideas, Obama released his long form birth certificate, but this hasn’t stopped many theorists from calling the document a forgery and continuing to suggest that Obama is a foreigner.

2009

The Swine Flu Pandemic
Some of our younger audience members may not remember the swine flu (or H1N1) scare, or even have been alive for it. For the uninitiated, think of it as a mini, proto-COVID. It never got to the point of shutting down the world economy, but it was definitely scary! A 2016 report published by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City revealed that the virus most likely originated from pigs in central Mexico before being passed to humans. A familiar-sounding narrative in the post-COVID world, fearful conspiracists accused the World Health Organization of colluding with Big Pharma. That is, engineering a manufactured conspiracy to boost the pharmaceutical industry’s profits.

2010

Deepwater Horizon
Perhaps more commonly known simply as the “BP oil spill,” the Deepwater Horizon platform explosion has been deemed one of the worst environmental disasters in history. The appropriately named Oil Spill Commission determined that BP had taken several, unnecessarily risky steps in building the rig that ultimately led to its literally explosive failure. Controversial radio host and viral Internet sensation Alex Jones alleged that the disaster had been manufactured. Jones described his belief that Halliburton, the second-largest oil services company, had (according to the Southern Poverty Law Center), “acquired a company that suppresses oil-well fires and blowouts just a little more than a week before.” Jones also claimed that there had been a mass dumping of BP stock shortly beforehand, suggesting some individuals’ foreknowledge.

2011

Osama bin Laden’s Fate
The May 2nd killing of al-Qaeda founder bin Laden raised more questions than one would expect, especially given the fact that this supposedly ended a major chapter in the War on Terror. Bin Laden was buried at sea, and no photos of his body were ever released to the public, and the secrecy surrounding the operation rather predictably gave way to some… interesting ideas. These included the notion that bin Laden hadn’t been killed at all, and that President Barack Obama’s administration needed a win. A somewhat more outlandish theory was posited by Alex Jones: that bin Laden had been killed almost a decade earlier, and that the U.S. government had cryogenically frozen his body.

2012

Nibiru & the 2012 Phenomenon
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.

2013

The “VatiLeaks”
Look, it’s not every day that the incumbent pope decides to resign. When Pope Benedict XVI made the decision to retire from his position, which he’d taken up in April 2005, he became the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415. So, yeah… kind of a big deal. But before Pope Francis could take Benedict’s place in the Holy See, this unprecedented historical moment became ripe breeding ground for all kinds of conspiracy theories. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported, in an unsourced and unverified story, that “[t]he cardinals were said to have uncovered an underground gay network, whose members organise sexual meetings in several venues in Rome and Vatican City, leaving them prone to blackmail.”

2014

What Happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Over a decade later, and it seems that no one is any closer to explaining what many have called the greatest aviation mystery of all time. Rivalling that of Amelia Earhart, an international passenger flight departed from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China… but never made it to its ultimate destination. How does one manage to lose a plane? That was the question on everyone’s minds, and the sheer lack of answers has fueled the rise of… well, let’s call them alternative theories. These included the idea that the flight had been swallowed by a black hole, struck by a meteor, or even somehow abducted by aliens.

2015

Jade Helm 15
How is the U.S. military supposed to curb the wild conspiracy theories that emerge every time another clandestine operation is uncovered? No, seriously — we want to know. “Jade Helm 15” refers to a series of realistic military training exercises, sponsored by the United States Special Operations Command. Roughly 1200 military personnel participated, mostly Green Berets, but a publicly available map declaring the exercise’s locations set off alarms in conspiracy circles. Various claims that were floated included that the program’s scheduled conclusion on September 15th would coincide with the imposition of martial law by the government, or harder to believe yet, a catastrophic asteroid strike.
2016
Pizzagate
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

2017

Melania Trump Was Replaced
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.”

2018

The Flat Earth Movement
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.

2019

Jeffrey Epstein Didn’t End His Own Life
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.

2020

5G Causes Harmful Health Effects
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.

2021

QAnon & January 6
While QAnon had already existed for a few years before 2021, President Trump’s 2020 election loss and refusal to concede to President Biden ushered in a new era of Q. 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.

2022

Mpox & Lockdowns
Just when it seemed as though the COVID-19 pandemic was under control and things could return to normal, the 2022 mpox outbreak showed up to scare the wits out of everybody. Just under a year after it had initially declared a public health emergency of international concern, the World Health Organization cut it short, sharing that it had sufficiently curtailed new and existing cases. However, the interim provided plenty of time for conspiracy theorists to claim that COVID was a dry run for mpox, and that world governments had intentionally leaked the virus as a bio-weapon, or as a way to justify more lockdowns.

2023

!5-Minute Cities
On the face of it, a “15-minute city” may not sound all that bad; in fact, it may sound downright innocuous. The concept is pretty straightforward and mostly self-explanatory, as an urban planning concept that would limit all of a city dweller’s basic needs to a short walk, bike ride, or public transit journey away. The idea has become wildly controversial in the United Kingdom, with even elected officials in its minority government harshly criticizing it as a way to restrict personal freedoms. Former Transport Secretary Mark Harper expressed concern that the government could “decide how often you go to the shops and that they ration who uses the roads and when.”

2024

Taylor Swift Is Colluding With the United States Government
For those of you who may live under a rock, pop megastar Swift makes up one half of a power couple with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. But, as certain conservative media personalities will tell you, things aren’t quite so wholesome. No, according to Fox News host Jesse Watters and failed presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy: Swift and Kelce were hired by President Biden’s reelection campaign as a mass psyop to sway public opinion. Said right-wing political activist Laura Loomer, “It’s not a coincidence that current and former Biden admin officials are propping up Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. They are going to use Taylor Swift as the poster child for their pro-abortion GOTV Campaign.”


Which conspiracy theory shocked you the most? Are there any we missed? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!