The Scariest Conspiracy Theories People Have Ever Heard

We've all heard some of the more common conspiracy theories, like about Big Brother or that the earth is flat.

But there are other, more obscure theories out there, as well.

And some of them are downright creepy.

Redditor OutlandishnessSea258 asked:

"What's the scariest conspiracy theory you've ever heard?"

How Seriously Should We Take These Theories?

"The idea of a 'conspiracy theorist' was invented by the CIA to discredit people who would attempt to expose government wrongdoing."

- TheRealMe54321

"So was the term 'fake news.'"

- redditperson2020

Gotta Keep The Bigs Happy

"That a cure for cancer and near-infinite energy sources have already been found, but are being kept in the dark by Big Pharma and Big Oil because there’s too much money locked up in the system to let it get out."

- hobokobo1028

The Epitome Of The Mandela Effects

"That half the population lived in a different dimension where the only discernible difference was the Fruit of the Loom logo had a cornucopia and Sinbad was in a hit movie called 'Shazam.' Freaky stuff."

- FollowTheLeader550

"Wait, you mean the fruit of the logo DOESN'T have a cornucopia!?"

- Rei_LovesU

"Wait… Sinbad was not in 'Shazam'?"

- WhileNotLurking

"He was, but it wasn't a hit in my timeline."

- EXTRASharpCheddar

Don't Flash Your Lights

"In the 90s, there was one that said gang members in initiation would drive around at night with their headlights off and chase down and kill the occupants of any car that flashed their lights at them."

"Not sure who started that insidious shit but lots of people were scared about that."

- rostov007

"I STILL hesitate to flash my lights at a car because of hearing this when I was 16 in the 2000s."

- kenwsi

A Question To Keep You Up At Night

"So the common time travel question is would you go back and kill baby Hitler?"

"Well, imagine if that was you, to us in the current timeline you would be a hero who killed someone truly evil before they had the chance to corrupt or endanger anyone but to the people of that time you are a monster, a baby killer."

"They couldn’t exactly explain to people, 'I was sent from the future to kill this baby to save hundreds of millions of lives.' No one would believe him and would just assume he was some nutcase, or maybe they’re not allowed to tell anyone as per the agreement with the future government?"

"It makes you wonder about all the people through time who have been called monsters for killing babies, what if they were just heroes from the future saving us all? They couldn’t tell anyone, either?"

- Ok-Rain7644

"The whole premise of the question is stupid. If you have a time machine, why would you kill the baby when you could go a few years further back and just keep his parents from getting together?"

- paraworldblue

So THAT Is Where They All Go

"The parent companies of washer and dryer manufacturers also own the companies that make socks."

- AlexisHoare

"Who knows, maybe washer and dryer companies have been incorporating wormholes into our laundry cleaning appliances to study teleportation, and that’s why one sock always goes missing!"

- Rei_LovesU

"My... god, the genius of it."

- dullship

Knowledge Is Power

"Medical knowledge and technology are more advanced than we think but are kept from the public because they would cut into corporate profits."

"As a bonus, MK Ultra was not an isolated incident, USA (and other governments) continue secret tests on their own citizens, they just got better at hiding it."

- Kopalniok

Dark Forest Theory

"Dark Forest Theory. Any species capable of interstellar travel is capable of planetary obliteration, so it's safest to just eliminate any species that could develop the technology before they do."

"And there's no reason to believe we would be the first to develop interstellar travel."

- notassmartasithinkia

"Dark Forest Theory: we can't find any evidence of extraterrestrial life because the smart ones are hiding, and the dumb ones have been killed by... something else."

- aliasalt

"Wasn't there some sort of short story about this? Saying we received a call from outer space and it said "be quiet, or else they will hear you.'"

- guyhabit725

"'The Killing Star' is loosely related to this. Basically, the idea is that any logical civilization would destroy any other slightly advanced lifeform as soon as it finds them, because otherwise, they will become a threat, eventually."

"So basically Earth is just destroyed one day, out of the blue, by these near-light-speed missiles from galaxies away. They didn't come for our resources, or to enslave us, they just fired unstoppable missiles from lightyears away."

"Then the book is about the survivors from smaller outposts (set in the near future) trying to escape."

- plantmic

Always Listening

"There’s a theory that your phone is secretly listening to you 24/7. I guess that’s why my ads are always about cat food. My cat must be selling my secrets."

- ShyAlbaQ8

"I occasionally speak Spanish at work. I took it for five years in school and can get around it enough to function."

"After any time I speak Spanish at work, I start getting YouTube ads in Spanish for a few days."

- MrLanesLament

Netflix, Are You Listening?!

"The one about Bitcoin being invented by an AI, which is now accumulating a huge amount of computer power by greedy humans building big Bitcoin mining centers to make money, but all they are doing is building an ultra-resilient network for the AI to run on."

"The AI also has a huge amount of wealth to now pay anonymously to humans to do its dirty work in the physical world."

"A superintelligence at some point wants more computation and robot arms, given robot arms aren't all that great, money is the next best thing, as humans will do anything for bigger numbers on their bank account."

"For me, it's truly terrifying."

- icecoldpoker2

"Yo, this would be a sick movie to watch. The irony is that pretty soon, I'm sure an AI will be able to create it in seconds."

- LookAtMeImAName

Uncanny, Indeed

"I love/hate the idea that the existence of the uncanny valley implies the existence of something that looks human but wasn't quite human and we needed to fear it."

- MaximumSeats

"I've heard it had something to do with dead bodies, forget the details but yeah, the idea that there was some sort of vaguely human-looking creature that was dangerous/a predator is more fun."

- Jumpy-Author-4985

"My theory is that it comes from a time when multiple humanoid species roamed the earth, and distinguishing your tribe/species was very important to our survival. They looked like us but not fully- so being able to pick that up was key."

- Evening-Gap-978

Forming Workers, Not Thinkers

"That the public school system sucks because it was deliberately designed to fail the kids, forcing them to shuffle off to the factories once their dreams are crushed at graduation."

- LovelyLuminanceOK

"Actually, the school system is quite literally based on a German/Prussian educational theory to create obedient humans that will work in factories. Hence the name 'kindergarten' for the start of the program."

"The system emphasizes sitting at your station (desk) quietly and waiting for work to be assigned to you. You complete the task, are told you did good, and you wait for the next task without talking to your neighbor or leaving your station."

"There’s a bell (just like in a factory) that rings to tell you when your break is, and there’s designated eating and playing areas that you all shuffle off to. The day is as close as they can get to a typical eight-hour shift, as well."

"By making this seem 'normal,' you indoctrinate children into a system that they don’t understand, and aren’t yet in a mental state to defend themselves against."

"Watch the bell ring at the end of recess: the children will drop their toys and run like dogs back to their classroom."

- IrregularLogic

Strange Sightings

"It's not particularly scary but go read a bit of Commander David Fravors' statement about his F/18 crew that were called to check on an object they had been tracking on the USS Nimitz for weeks in the early 2000s."

"It was dropping from 80,000' to 20,000' in mere seconds. When they managed to begin tracking it (the radar had trouble picking it up) there was no infrared heat signature for the propulsion of the craft as it hovered over the ocean and it was pulling G's no pilot could make without a full blackout."

"It disappeared from view of both planes and popped back onto the radar 60 miles away, in less than a minute."

"His crew also took a different video years later of a similar object. Really makes you wonder, there's a full statement of the hearing online."

- Jim_Laheny10

"Then later a whole bunch of fighter pilots came out and said strange cubes in a see-through globe were flying very close to their planes."

"In general UFO conspiracy theories are kind of strange. At first, you think it is all BS (and most of it really is), but there are also loads of stories out there that are true head-scratchers where groups of credible observers spotted objects that could not possibly be swamp gas, human or the planet Venus."

- thisnamewasnottaken1

If Not For Money, Why Money-Shaped?

"The mattress mafia."

- muffin_rhubarb

"Mattress money laundering is the only insane conspiracy I fully believe in. Why are there so many stores?!"

- vromantic

"For me, it’s the sports memorabilia stores in malls. Always empty, never out of business, and in every mall."

- Inquirious

...Obviously

"NASA was behind the moon landings."

- SweetSeraphh

"NASA tried to fake the moon landings. They even hired Stanley Kubrick to direct it, and smuggled him into the studio in secret. But he was problematic. He was such a perfectionist and was so unsatisfied with the footage they were getting that he insisted they shoot it on site."

- StillWater215

"My favorite thing about the Stanley Kubrick theory is that in order to reproduce the images gotten from the Moon with the technology available to NASA it ends up being cheaper just to fly to the Moon."

- nachtspectre

There are some real head-scratchers mixed into this conversation and some genuinely concerning, if not scary, theories, as well.

It's a great reminder that it's impossible for us to know literally everything, no matter how much we study, and there's a strong chance there will always be something that's rendered unexplainable.