Conspiracy Clearinghouse

From its humble beginnings, the video game industry has expanded from cabinet arcade games to PCs and home consoles. Two-thirds of adults in the US and three-quarters of children play them. It makes more than the film industry, which got to around $21 bn last year; and music, which made almost $26 billion in 2021. Globally, gaming hit $192 bn in 2021 and is expected to break $200 bn this year. And it should come as no surprise that there have been rumours, urban legends, controversies and even outright conspiracy theories about video games. Games that kill, or carry a curse, or control people's minds, or contain hidden truths that some would prefer remained hidden.

There are some things you just know are true. Like that Finland exists. But it doesn't. Neither does Australia. And New Zealand's looking kind of iffy as well. In fact, there are many things that you think are real, but aren't. Like birds. They aren't real either. SECTIONS 01:42 - Finland Doesn't Exist - The Theory 04:38 - Finland Doesn't Exist - The Point Zero 06:42 - Poe's Law & the Ambiguity of Intent (Postmodern Irony, New Sincerity, Post-Irony, Meta-Irony, Hyper-Irony) 11:20 - Finland Doesn't Exist - Embellishments & Reactions 12:36 - Australia Doesn't Exist 14:53 - Other Geographic Fictions (OGF) - Bielefeld, Germany 18:10 - OGF - Acre, Brazil 18:40 - OGF - Molise, Italy 19:01 - OGF - North Dakota, USA 19:32 - Henri Tajfel's Minimal Group Paradigm, In-Group Favoritism & Out-Group Homogeneity 20:36 - New Zealand Is Being De-Mapped 22:23 - Sandy Island 23:39 - Phantom Islands (Los Buenos Jardines, Emerald Island, Dougherty Island, Terra Nova, et al.) 25:54 - Phantom Settlements, Copyright Traps, Paper Towns, Trap Streets, etc. 26:57 - Jakob Maria Mierscheid - German MP, Naturalist, Great Guy 28:51 - Birds Aren't Real - The Brainchild of Peter McIndoe 33:01 - Culture Jamming & You LAPSUS LINGUAE: At 20:17, I mispronounced the word "homogeneity" NOTE: I do NOT mispronounce the name Henri Tajfel, but most people do (the "j" makes a "y" sound in Polish)

Many see parallels between Putin's invasion of Ukraine and Hitler's of Poland in 1939. Other see echoes of Stalin in today's Russian leader. But maybe we need to go back further, to Napoleon, to see what's up with this guy. Here's a look at "Little Boney", as British satire of Napoleon had it, and "Pootie-Poot", which was George W. Bush's nickname for Putin, as well as what's going on, how it's really all the same playbook, conspiracy theories about the Russo-Ukraine War and more. SECTIONS 02:27 - Little Boney - A quick look at Napoleon Bonaparte 07:13 - Pootie-Poot - Putin as PM, President, President, PM 14:59 - A President's Castle Is HIs Armour - President, President (plus President x2 a-comin') 25:10 - So, What's Up with this Guy? - Contradictory assessments; Communist, Fascist, Ataman 32:48 - Weaponizing Information - The Firehose of Falsehood 36:44 -Wag the dog, anti-Semitism, the Khazars return?, QAnon, the Zorro Squad, Armageddon and more 47:48 - 5 scenarios on how the war in Ukraine might end

It's big, it's unusual and gets folks to thinking. Denver International Airport is more than just the hub for airlines - it's a magnet for just about every conspiracy theory you can think of. SECTIONS 01:46 - That's a Big DEN 04:12 - I Don't Know If It's Art, and I Don't Know If I Like It 09:40 - That's a Big Horse - Blucifer 12:12 - Phallus Fails 13:29 - Infernal Infrastructure 17:21 - NWO at DEN 18:26 - Location, Location, Location! 19:38 - Dumb DUMBs - Humans vs. Aliens and/or Aquarius vs. Comm 12 20:21 - Beach Blanket Babylon 20:48 - No Such Thing As Bad Publicity 23:11 - DEN as Super-Conspiracy LAPSUS LINGUAE: Jack Swigert's exact words were actually, "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here."

What happened to the dinosaurs? Did a meteor wipe them out? Was it volcanoes? Maybe their eggs just sucked. Or they farted themselves to death. Or they never existed at all. Or maybe they never died. Or maaaybe they helped build the pyramids. SECTIONS 01:38 - Some Background on Dinosaurs - Richard Owen, Early Fossils and the Bone Wars 04:28 - What We Think We Know - Two Types of Dinosaurs 05:43 - Size Matters, Kinda 06:52 - After a While, Crocodile - the K–Pg Event 08:26 - Where'd They Go? Eggy Weggs, Glands, Survival of the Fittest, "Who Are You?", Boom (but Far Away), Peek-a-boo, COVID 63 Million BCE, Sausage Party; He Who Smelt It, Dealt It; Multiple Impacts, Volcanoes 16:35 - We Have a Winnah! The Alvarez Hypothesis 17:55 - Alt.Extinct Theories - Non-Science Edition: Gravity Sucks, the X-Files 21:19 - Dinosaurs Aren't Real - PETA, CGI & Social Media 23:09 - The Bible or Dragons 25:35 - Another Brick in the (Masonic) Wall, Darwin's a Liar 26:41 - I Don't Even Need a Reason 27:42 - Oiled & Ready 28:41 - They Live 31:16 - The Dinosaurs Built the Pyramids

Mass hysteria, collective delusions or just people freaking out - whatever you call it, you can't deny that history is filled with reports of people losing it en masse. We'll look at nuns that bite and meow, fainting and twitching schoolchildren, uncontrollable dancing, large scale paranoia, mysterious attacks on windshields and a worldwide epidemic of creepy clown sightings. SECTIONS 02:14 - Hysteria: Not Just a "Female Problem" 03:41 - Nunsense: Mass Hysteria in Convents - Biting Nuns, Meowing Nuns 05:59 - The Devils of Loudon 09:08 - School Daze: Seizures in Switzerland & Canada, the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic, Louisiana; Blackburn, England; Twitching in Vinton, Virginia; Portugal's Strawberries with Sugar Outbreak 14:10 - More School Stuff, Conversion Disorder, Somatic Countertransference, Hysterical Contagion 16:01 - Hysterical Contagion: The 1962 June Bug Epidemic 17:11 - Folie à Deux/Trois/Famille/Plusieurs, Folie Imposée/Simultanée, Physical Repercussions of Hysteria 19:27 - Cut a Rug: The Dancing Plague of 1518 & Other Dancing Outbreaks 23:50 - Possible Causes of Uncontrolled Dancing 24:22 - Crowd Control: The Milan Poisoning Scare 28:12 - The Irish Fright 31:04 - Collective Delusions: The Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic 33:54 - Mass Hysteria: The Hollinwell Incident 35:49 - Collective Delusion Meets Social Media: The 2016 Clown Sightings

The story of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter starts fine, but then takes a turn into comedy, then tragedy before veering into corporate malfeasance, corruption, far-right ultranationalism, secret agents, a modern kamikaze attack, a finance giant and a bag lady, MK-ULTRA Manchurian Candidates and South American state-sponsored terror. SECTIONS 02:18 - The Widowmaker - Nice plane, but... 03:32 - Bug, fixes & features 07:08 - Pay to Play - Lockheed bribes Germany 08:55 - Lockheed eyes Japan, taps ultranationalist criminal Yoshio Kodama 14:42 - I Vant to Suck Your Bank Account - Nicholas Deak (the James Bond of Money) hires a bagman, the scheme comes out 17:47 - Soft porn actor Mitsuyasu Maeno flies a plane 21:50 - Tanaka holds on, Nakasone sparks the Second Lockheed Election 23:20 - You've Got Yours! - Lois Lang shoots Deak, Kuhlmann has suspicions 25:40 - Lang's long path to NYC, Dr. Melges, SRI and MK-ULTRA 29:06 - 21 Years of the Condor - The Monroe Doctrine, the School of the Americas combats coup fever 32:11 - Pinochet starts Operation Condor, Argentina's Dirty War, assassinations & disappearances, Martín Almada & the Archives of Terror, Kissinger was a pig 37:57 - Europe considers their own Condor 38:50 - Manchurian Candidates, final thoughts

The US midterms are coming up and there's lots of chatter about fraud. Are they legit? Has there been fraud and interference in the past? Yes, but not every time foul has been cried. A look at claims and scandals 1792-1982, plus a thumbnail history of American political parties. SECTIONS 03:18 - Hail to the Thief - intro 05:14 - 1792 New York Governor's Race 07:47 - 1824 Presidential Election ("Corrupt Bargain") 10:33 - Nullifiers & Anti-Masons in the 1820s & 30s 13:50 - 1838 – The New Jersey Broad Seal War & Cooping (plus Edgar Allen Poe) 18:17 - 1855 – Bleeding Kansas 24:57 - 1860 Presidential Election - A Nation Divides 27:38 - White League, Red Shirts and the Compromise of 1877 36:18 - 1888 Presidential Election (Packs of Five, the Murchison Letter & the Lodge Bill) 42:12 - 1948 Senate Elections in Texas 44:20 - 1960 Presidential Election 47:15 - Unpledged & faithless electors 49:20 - Illinois in 1982

We are accustomed to thinking of time as a fourth dimension, though Einstein says space and time are really, when you get down to it, the same thing. As he once said, “The distinction between the past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” This makes us wonder – will it one day be possible to travel in time the same way we do in space? If so, one can only assume that, if time travel exists at some future date, there must be some people from our future walking around today, in our present. There have certainly been plenty of claims to that effect. SECTIONS 02:21 - Across the Track Blues - The Zanetti Ghost Train 07:01 - August in Versailles - The Moberly–Jourdain Incident, stone tape theory, retrocognition, time slips 12:06 - Air Marshal Victor Goddard 14:41 - As Time Goes By - Mr. Squirrel, the Simpson-Grisby Incident, Bold Street, in Brugges, Regency theatre, Twidders 20:38 - Let’s Do the Time Warp Again - The Aryayek Time Travelling Machine, Madman Marcum, spam in Woburn 27:08 - Let the Bells Ring - The Time Traveling Hipster & other photos, the Expected One, Chaplin's "The Circus" 30:34 - Die Glocke - a Nazi Wuderwaffe 32:39 - The Chronovisor & the Vatican 36:05 - Traveler in Time - John Titor 42:32 - Andrew Carlssin & "Noah" LAPSUS LINGUAE: In the Victor Goddard story, I say he flew over Diem Airfield, but it was, in fact, Diem Airfield. Perhaps I wasn't wearing my glasses, or perhaps I mistyped it.

Sometimes the fabric of our world thins out, and people slip through - either from another dimension or into one. So some people think, while others claim it happened to them. Come along on a trip through different times and places, visiting 12th century England, 19th century Germany, Spain, Japan, Mormon mythology and, of course, the United States, including Ong's Hat, New Jersey - site of the very first internet conspiracy theory. SECTIONS 01:42 - It's Not Easy Being Green - The Green Children of Woolpit 05:57 - There is No Map, and a Compass Wouldn't Help at All - Jophar Vorin from Laxaria 09:33 - The Man from Taured & John Zegrus from Negus-Habessian 16:16 - I Wanna be Your Boyfriend - Breaking up is hard to do for Lerina Garcia Gordo 20:43 - Baby, You Can Drive My Car - The "Gadianton" Canyon Incident 25:23 - Pedro Oliva Ramirez tries to get to Alcalá de Guadaír 27:01 - Carol Chase McElheney visits a Bedford Falls version of Riverside 31:03 - "James Richards" mixes Everyday Chemistry 32:13 - You Can Leave Your Hat On - Joseph Matheny, Ong's Hat and Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) 43:51 - Travelling in other dimensions

Balkan genius inventor Nikola Tesla shows up all over the place in the conspirasphere, and the stories about him are legion. He was really the father of electricity but his rival Thomas Edison screwed him out of his due, he was assassinated, he never died, his clones live on, he built a death day, and an earthquake machine and oh, so many more. Tesla is one of the Big 'Uns. SECTIONS 02:01 - Wonderful Electric - Tesla has a lot of ups and down, works on AC, competes with Edison, invents remote control & the Tesla Coil 06:59 - Shake, Rattle & Roll - the earthquake machine & tectonic weapons 09:45 - Wireless electricity, competes with Marconi, Wardenclyffe, receives off-world signals, the Titanic sinks his funding 13:00 - The Tesla Turbine, ozone gel, intelligence enhancement, foundations of radar, VTOL, and a strange end 15:21 - Excitable Boy, They All Said - Tesla's legacy, the Death Ray (or Peace Ray), conspiracy rumours about Tesla 18:18 - Pigeons & pearls - deeply eccentric, probably had OCD, the number 3, maybe had ESP, his death was faked, Elon Musk is a Tesla clone 22:37 - Thunderstruck - AC vs DC, the War of the Currents, Brown electrocutes animals, the Electric Wire Panic, William Kemmler & the first electric chair 27:39 - Topsy the "bad" elephant 29:17 - I Know You Are but What Am I? - The Edison Tech Center really doesn't like Tesla 33:01 - Point Zero for Zero Point - Zero point energy, perpetual motion, Free Energy Supression, Wainscoting, UFOs, Tesla becomes the darling of the conspirasphere 38:37 - Quack medicine and zero point energy - Amega's zero point water, ENAGI's zero point crystals, ZPEnergy and bad website design 41:55 - Tesla was assassinated, like John Kanzius, Eugene Mallove and Stanley Meyer

A boy with a rash, a concerned mother, the internet and a lack of medical knowledge combine to create the phenomenon known as Morgellons Disease. It's a nefarious condition where coloured fibers appear under your skin, causing fatigue and pain, possibly placed there by evil forces. Or it might be a mental delusion transmitted from person to person by reading about it on the internet. SECTIONS 02:01 - Mary Leitao coins a phrase, gains a following 07:12 - Doctors take a look, Morgellons spreads 13:28 - Factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA) or Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP), conspiracy folks especially vunerable 19:51 - Munchausen by internet & cybermuchers 22:03 - Steve Leary lies Down Under, Steve Kirsch lies for profit 24:32 - Delusional parasitosis (DP), dopamine, matchbox signs, folie à deux, folie à internet, quack cures, memes are viruses 31:03 - More doctors take a closer look, mental or not - sufferers really do suffer 33:45 - Polly Murray & Lyme Disease 38:20 - Quck alt-medicine, chronic Lyme disease, illness for political gain, a Plum Island plot, Jeff Rense & the NWO 43:35 - GMOs, chemtrails, nanobots, aliens, mind control, depopulation, paranoia, "mutated arthropods" & e-fibers, parasite Hulda Clark hates parasites 47:15 - Probably a suite of issues, somatic symptom disorder, Better Call Saul, mind and body are one, morgies deserve empathy

The law is complicated, or maybe it isn't. Maybe there are secrets that the clever can tease out to their advantage. Did you know the government opens a secret bank account for you when you're born? Or using ALL CAPS when writing documents absolves you from legal responsibilities? That juries are illegal? And the highest law in the land is the local sheriff, or the Navy or maybe the post office. Welcome to the convoluted world of pseudolaw, where nonsense is packaged as the real deal, which some people fall for and others make a tidy profit from. SECTIONS 02:32 - A House Made of Straw...Men - Gurus, Canadian Detaxers. the Redemption Movement, the Strawman Argument 09:43 - Dead Dead Redemption Movement - Posse Comitatus, Chrisitan Identity, white supremicists, anti-Semites, armed conflict, more Redemption fun, Family Farm Preservation, Montana Freeman & "Justus Township" 18:12 - Stillness Becomes a Radiance - Freemen on the Land (FOTL) in Canada and the Commonwealth 22:22 - Nine classes of FOTLers, legal loopholes, the Guardians of the Free Republics in Texas 26:32 - Confidence Born of Ignorance, the Cycle Cannot Be Broken - the Sovereign Citizen Movement, Admiralty law, traveling insead of driving, negative averment, red ink, sui juris 32:52 - David Wynn Miller's truth/syntax/quantum language, the Universal Postal Authority 38:38 - 1099-OID, UCC-1 40:41 - A Race to the Bottom - racism, Moorish Sovereigns, QAnon & anti-vaxxers, violent incidents, Sovereign Kingdom of Gaia, Embassy of Heaven, One Nation, German Trumpers, Austrian problems, the Union of Slavic Forces of Russia 45:48 - Not always so harmless

A loose framework for thinking about how America's racist roots permeate many social, legal and political systems has become a flashpoint for the far right. And so a war on ideas has started in the country that holds itself up as the beacon of freedom in the world, led by white, heteronormative cis people, mainly men. SECTIONS 02:15 - What is Critical Race Theory? - Background and some basics 05:44 - Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow - Natural hair as an example of systemic problems, with a detour to tattoos, and the CROWN Act 16:51 - Historical Baggage: The Tignon Law, the Pigtail Ordinance 19:47 - Scanning CRT - 10 main points of CRT, and some criticisms, with a detour to money 29:53 - Tempest in a Teacup - As the US minority population grows, white people react badly, accelerated in 2020 by Chris Rufo, the Trump administration and Fox 42:30 - No more changes - the GOP is becoming a White Power party 43:16 - There's more to talk about