"History's greatest conspiracy theories"

Some beauties here.

"Paul is Dead": oops.

NASA faked the moon landings: yeah, sure.

Elvis is alive! Please let me know if you see the King walking around.

Comments

[JorgXMcKie]

I've seen almost all of those. It never ceases to amaze me how much most conspiracy theories depend on assuming human nature doesn't really exist, or at least has been suspended for this instance.

I had a class a couple of years ago spend one class period estimating how many people would have to have direct knowledge [[and thus could possibly 'spill' the beans] of 9/11 to have 'made it happen'. The smallest number they could figure was well into the hundreds.

I then asked how many had 3 friends they believed could keep a 'hot' secret. No one believed they did. I asked then how many believed several hundred non-friends could keep a government secret. Some still believed it.

[Peter K.]

I have listened to a lot of "right-wing talk radio", but I have never heard of the "chem-trail" conspiracy. Does the author just assume that if something is wacky, that the persons who believe it are "right-wing"?

In this article, the "global warming hoax" is unfairly simplified into one data-point, and manifestly the weakest one imaginable. I don't think it's possible to find a single person advocating that climate will not change. What skeptics doubt is that all pieces of the theory can be proven. Those pieces being (1) that something man is doing is causing clamate to change (2) so drastically that what will thereby be caused is harmful to humanity (3) so harmful that it outweighs whatever benefits it may bring to humanity (4) and so harmful that it outweighs the cost and harms of anything we can do to stop it, and (5) there is something we can do to stop it in time to make a difference for the better.