Vaccines Obviously Cause Autism

• Height of Conspiracy: 1980s to Present

We have probably discussed this issue countless times over the past few years on Science Sensei, yet here we are again. Perhaps the most vocal person on this topic has been the celebrity, Jenny McCarthy. Her son is autistic, and she seemed to notice the signs of autism after his earlier vaccinations. Yet autism is not exactly something vaccines actually cause. While they can cause some mild symptoms that usually go away within a few days to a few weeks, this is usually the extent of it. In fact, if they do cause something more problematic it is usually due to an allergic reaction to something in the vaccine. Doctors can trace the substance the child is allergic to and even help with their symptoms.

In spite of literally no evidence, McCarthy and so many others believe autism can be caused by vaccines. They often cite a paper from the 1990s where the team involved found a link between vaccines and autism. This paper has now been debunked with nearly every single person involved actually coming out against it. McCarthy and most who push this conspiracy usually do not have any scientific background. Especially something in chemistry or biology, not even pharmacology. Thus, it is pretty odd that we still see people without these backgrounds being the most vocal about the whole thing. You’d think that if every expert has told you this is not true, it would be good to believe those who ACTUALLY know what they are talking about. Guess not for these people.

The Moon Landing Never Happened

• Height of Conspiracy: 1969 to Present

The Moon landing in 1969 was an incredible thing. We actually have more technology in our cell phones today than they had on the entire shuttle. We really need to give NASA more credit for being able to send astronauts into space in spite of their limitations. Today, you can still view our flag on the moon, though, it’s probably white by now thanks to space debris. On top of that, NASA also left its mark on the moon beyond putting an American Flag on it. This is why they left reflectors that you can see through a telescope if you look at the Moon close enough, in the spot the team landed on. Why are we even seeing so many just disbelieving we ever went there?

That is probably thanks to the book “We Never Went to the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle” by Bill Kaysing, which he self-published in 1976. The former U.S. Navy Officer did not have any knowledge of rockets or even technical writing but managed to get a technical writer job with Rocketdyne in 1956. They were the ones who built the F-1 engines for the Saturn V rocket. This is why some seemed to buy into what he was saying as he had inside knowledge of the engines. However, would it not be completely nonsensical for America to pay billions just to swindle the American public? Of course, it would! On top of that, Russia, our Space Race foe, still says to this day that America beat them to the Moon. Rocketdyne has also come out against Kaysing’s book too.

The Medical Community Has The Cure For Diseases But Doesn’t Want You To Know About Them

• Height of Conspiracy: 1920s to Present

Sure, the medical community would probably make less money if they just gave cures to people for every ailment. However, that does not mean cures exist. In fact, some illnesses cannot be cured at all. Of course, we do have things that can help people, but it does not always work as simply as people assume. For example, if you have an infection, your body has to fight it off. Antibiotics are used to help with the symptoms that infections can cause. Those antibiotics are not going to get rid of the infection, however, as it’s the body that must do this. If it cannot, then antibiotics are not going to do the person any good. In these cases, they may have to be hospitalized. Most who believe in scientific conspiracy theories like this are from the United States.

Those that are from places with free healthcare do not believe the government would just screw itself over by charging an arm and a leg. In the United States, we can assume that doctors and pharmaceutical companies do not want a cure because they are trying to get rich. Yet many major pharmaceutical companies are not in the U.S. such as Roche, Novartis, Merck, GSK plc, Sanofi, and AstraZeneca. Thus, if this was only ever about American drug companies screwing people over, surely one of these companies would have come up with a cure to a common illness that would make them billions. Yet no one has for pretty much every disease, but they have come up with vaccines to prevent many viruses…which conspiracy theorists often dislike.

The Illuminati And New World Order Are Controlling All Science & Technology

• Height of Conspiracy: 1770s to Present

The New World Order has been used as a major conspiracy theory for years. It was such a popular theory in the 1990s that the pro-writing company, WCW, used the name for a faction or team. The “NWO” moniker then became more synonymous with that than its original meaning. The idea behind this is that there is a secret world government that’s truly calling the shots. The same exact concept is connected to the Illuminati group. This was actually a real group founded back during the Enlightenment era in May of 1776 in Bavaria. This was a secret society that opposed superstition, obscurantism, and religious influence over the lives of others…especially in state power. Along with the Freemasons (who they comingled with), an edict was passed by Charles Theodore that outlawed secret societies.

Of course, this was mostly encouraged by the Catholic Church of the time. The Illuminati continued their goals, this time underground, and even played a major part in starting the French Revolution. Several major figures claimed to be members of the group as time went on, likely due to how crucial they were to the European region. Due to all of this, many believe there is a new Illuminati that is controlling the world in some form or another. In fact, one of the biggest scientific conspiracy theories of our time is that the Illuminati and NWO are controlling science and technology. Meaning, they only let us see what they want us to see. Yet this seems quite unlikely, and it would even go against the principles the original Illuminati was founded on.

Birds Aren’t Real

• Height of Conspiracy: 2017 to Present

In response to conspiracy theories, a 23-year-old man named Peter McIndoe decided to spread a rumor that “Birds Aren’t Real” back in 2017. McIndoe remained in character when selling this conspiracy for years. Even when he did a December 2021 interview with the New York Times about it. He claimed that birds are not real but rather, all are just surveillance drones made by the United States Government. The Birds Aren’t Real campaign actually has a real-life staff, organizes real protests, and even bought real billboards. They even put their claim on the side of vans over the years.

McIndoe later claimed that this was all a parody of misinformation that Gen-Z finds itself coming across a lot. He says that “Birds Aren’t Real is not a shallow satire of conspiracies from the outside. It is from the deep inside. A lot of people in our generation feel the lunacy in all this, and Birds Aren’t Real has been a way for people to process that.” This campaign was started not only to call attention to bad conspiracies but also to how they are covered too. Local media have reported on this conspiracy as if young people really believed it. This only helps to sell the message organizers are trying to get people to see, that we need to be better about stopping this stuff. McIndoe says that this is “about holding up a mirror to America in the internet age.” Well done, BAR, well done!

Where Do We Find This Stuff? Here Are Our Sources:

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

World Health Organization (WHO)

United Nations (UN)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA)

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA)

American Cancer Society (ACS)

Queensland Government

Harvard University

Ohio State University

Portland State University

Scientific American