Remember when conspiracy theories used to be fun?
Back in the day, the tinfoil hat crowd was busy decoding crop circles, talking about secret alien bases under the Denver Airport, and wondering if the U.S. Navy accidentally teleported a warship in the 1940s. Sure, it was a little kooky, but it was mostly harmless, speculative sci-fi for weirdos with late-night radio and too much time on their hands.
We used The Philadelphia Experiment. Area 51. Roswell. Government time travel, secret Nazi moon bases, reptilian shapeshifters in Buckingham Palace. Were any of them true? Probably not. But they were imaginative. They gave us something strange to chew on–a kind of Cold War campfire mythology. These were conspiracy theories born out of curiosity and skepticism, not hatred or delusion.
Then something changed.
Somewhere in the 2000s, the weird wonder of conspiracy gave way to a much darker, dumber version of itself. Suddenly, conspiracy theories weren’t about aliens and teleportation. They were about vaccines causing autism, school shootings being faked, or a Satanic cabal of pedophiles controlling Hollywood and the Democratic Party. Fun got replaced with fascism.
What the hell happened?
Well, a few things, actually:
The Internet democratized crazy and also monetized it. Back in the analog age, you had to seek out conspiracy theories. Now they’re pumped into your feed by Facebook’s engagement algorithm because rage and fear are profitable. Conspiracies became content and worse, career paths. Grifters realized they could make real money off your uncle’s paranoia.
The right also weaponized conspiracy. We went from wondering if the CIA was hiding aliens to wondering if the Clintons were drinking baby blood. This wasn’t random. The far-right figured out that conspiracy theories could undermine trust in institutions, turn people against science, and rile up an angry base. Enter QAnon, anti-vaxxers, climate denial, and a pile of corpses.
People also got lonelier, dumber, and more desperate. When capitalism gives you no future and every institution fails you, it’s no surprise people start reaching for “alternative truths.” Unfortunately, the ones being served up now are dumb, cruel, and designed to radicalize, not enlighten.
Conspiracies used to be about asking questions. Now they’re about refusing reality.
You can’t joke about the moon landing anymore without someone in the comments section trying to sell you ivermectin or ranting about drag queens. The vibe has shifted from goofy paranoia to militant stupidity.
So yeah. The fun is gone.
But maybe it doesn’t have to be.
Maybe it’s time we reclaim conspiracy culture–not to spread nonsense, but to fight absurdity with absurdity. Let’s bring back the tall tales, the surrealism, the while “what ifs” that made it feel like there was something strange and wondrous just under the surface of the everyday.
The world is already insane. Let’s make it weirder, not dumber.
Sisyphus Shrugged 
The way you write is absolutely delicious! I was smiling all the way through this, as I usually do when I read your gems.
Weirder absolutely works for me! xo
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That means a lot coming from you. Thank you! If we can’t fix the world, we might as well have a damn good time making it weirder.
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Yeah bring back the fun of “The CERN hadron collider is going to make a black hole to destroy the entire world” that was a fun few weeks on the internet.
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I completely missed that one. Tell me more.
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I love all that old conspiracy stuff, it was fun, now its just mental people slowly getting louder, walking towards you and washing your face with flying spittle.
I remember the CERN thing – I think I wrote a blog about it. The psychos said that when the LHC was charged up and working that it would cause a black hole and demons would fly out – a-la “Event Horizon” that movie with Sam Neil. Sadly no end times happened – again, I had to go park my 7 headed beast back at Babylon and put my boobies back under cover.
Interestingly after the second upgrade at the LHC they actually did manage to make micro black holes, which of course evaporate instantly. In roughly untrue but for sake of something similar is how when you do high school science and make hydrogen with electrolyses and burn it causing a pop not a supernova.
I did a summer internship at a synchrotron here in Melbourne when I was at uni, weirdly it’s called “The Australian synchrotron” rad name huh? Its a much smaller version on the LHC – a lot of countries have them, I was scanning samples for mining companies and occasionally doing a medical application. I felt like a proper scientist then.
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See, that’s exactly the vibe I miss! Like, yes—demons from CERN, seven-headed beasts, apocalyptic particle accelerators—it was ridiculous but in a mythic, comic-book kind of way. No one was storming a Capitol over it. We were just nerds with imaginations and too much X-Files in our bloodstream.
And I love that you interned at the synchrotron—‘The Australian Synchrotron’ sounds like the name of a prog-rock album or a secret weapon in a Bond movie.
I say we start a conspiracy renaissance. Less ‘deep state Satanists,’ more ‘the moon is hollow and echoes because it’s a giant alien listening device.’ Let’s get surreal with it again. The world needs less fear and more weird.
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Your hollow moon, is fantastic, I think that’s a go! There’s all sorts of places you could take that! This is the reason it’s tidally locked to the Earth so that the signal stays strongest for longer – the dark side is an inverse radio-telescope made by the aliens who built the pyramids!
It was kind of boring at the Synchrotron, most of the people who booked time were geologists from mining companies and it is in an area of Melbourne which is semi-suburban/semi-industrial not many places to get a coffee. But it beats doing nothing. Still, it was a cool thing to do, every time I tried to open a portal to hell someone would come in though, Cthulhu is probably really pissed at me.
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