Likely due to his friendship with Donald Trump, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has recieved increased media attention since the 2016 election cycle. After recently running a list of 10 outrageous conspiracy theories believed by the far right, we felt it only fair to take a look at things from the other side of the political spectrum, as well. Here are 10 conspiracy theories believed by the left…
(Note: following our initial list on this topic, a TopTenz reader asked for a chance to present the opposing view. Neither the views and theories in this list nor our previous list reflect the views of TopTenz.net)
10. Ronald Reagan had Alzheimers during his presidency
Throughout Ronald Reagan’s presidency, left wing journalists consistenly put forward the idea that the president, in fact, had Alzheimers. One notable report was that of CBS News reporter Lesley Stahl, who once wrote, “Reagan didn’t seem to know who I was. He gave me a distant look with those milky eyes and shook my hand weakly. ‘Oh, my, he ís gonzo,’ I thought. I have to go out on the lawn tonight and tell my countrymen that the president of the United States is a doddering space cadet.”
This, of course, was given wide media coverage from the likes of Mother Jones and other left wing publications — despite evidence to the contrary. And the story was revived recently when Reagan’s son, Ron Reagan, released a book in 2010 speaking on the issue. In his book My Father at 100, Ron Reagan expresses his belief that his father was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimers during his presidency.
It is, however, important to note that Ron Reagan is simply a left wing radio host and not a physician. In fact, the physicians who directly attended Ronald Reagan agreed unanimously that he never displayed signs or symptoms of Alzheimers/dementia the whole time he was in office. In fact, all of his presidential aides would note the rarity of Reagan facing any sort of memory loss or lack of coordination throughout his term in office.
Ronald Reagan was eventually diagnosed with the condition five years after leaving office, but all expert opinions point to the fact that the 40th President of the United States did not in fact suffer from Alzheimers while in the Oval Office.
9. The Vast right-wing conspiracy
The term “vast right-wing conspiracy” was first popularized by Chris Lehane, a Clinton political consultant who wrote a memo condemning “Media Conspiracy” against the Clintons. This was, of course, in reference to media coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal in which Lehane attempted to dismiss any concerns as being part of an effort by the Republican Party to delegitimize President Clinton.
The term has re-emerged countless times since then from left wing figures as a method to ironically dismiss criticism as illegitimate. Most recently, Hillary Clinton blamed her difficulties in the 2016 election cycle on a “vast right-wing conspiracy theory… even better funded” than before. What the exact meaning of this term really is may never be known.
8. 9/11 was a false flag attack so George Bush could profit from oil
Ah yes, you’ve probably heard it before. Arbusto Energy was an oil and gas firm started by George W. Bush in 1977, and this is why Bush needed to go to war in Iraq: for oil. The evidence for this theory being that George Bush waited in the classroom after hearing of the September 11 attacks, rather than leave the school for an underground bunker.
This, of course, ignores the reality of the situation: all that was known was that an attack on the United States of America was underway, and the full extent of the situation was not yet understood. Yet still, sites like The Guardian perpetuate the myth that Bush wanted control of Iraqi oil reserves for militaristic and personal gain. Talk about deplorable.
7. The 2016 Democrat Primaries were rigged against Bernie Sanders
In a list like this one, it is only prudent to expose one of the most outrageous, and most recent. Though their voices were ignored, a large contingent of Bernie Sanders supporters warned all throughout the 2016 Democratic primary that the election was being rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton. This conspiracy theory was largely ignored until evidence leaked by Julian Assange and WikiLeaks gave it gave it more credibility.
Leading members of the Democratic Party such as Elizabeth Warren and Donna Brazile have now come out and stated that former DNC chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz almost certainly did rig the election in favor of Hillary Clinton. The leaked emails revealed high ranking members of the DNC advising Clinton on how best to defeat Bernie, as well a possible rigging of the super-delegate system. Truly, the fraudulent election against Bernie Sanders alienated many of his supporters, whose suspicions were quite possibly proven true that day.
6. Institutional Racism is a product of the Republican Party
This entry is best summarized by Joe Biden, who once said that the Republicans, “Will put y’all back in chains.” Because implying your political rivals endorse slavery is perfectly acceptable in debate… said no one ever.
Rather than acknowledge issues of poverty and inner city violence, demagogues on the far left have asserted that Republican support of policemen is inherently antithetical to a thriving black community. This narrative primarily comes from the Black Lives Matter organization that demands reparations for slavery, a policy now detailed in the Democratic Party platform. You see, the idea is that police disproportionately target the African-American community and because Republicans support police, they intend to put African-Americans back in chains.
The evidence that Republicans want to revive slavery? Non-existent, but the conspiracy rages on among those who want to avoid a discussion on poverty.
5. Patriarchy is a product of the Republican Party
You’ve likely heard some variation of this conspiracy theory in the form of “Republicans want to outlaw abortion” or “Republicans want to outlaw contraception” — all of which is patently untrue. Left wing conspiracy theorists argue that an anti-woman agenda exists within the Republican Party to ensure that women remain subservient to men for as long as possible.
Evidence for this theory includes Republican disdain for abortions and that the majority of leading figures in the Republican Party are male. This, of course, ignores the fact that the first woman in American history to successfully manage a presidential campaign was Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Keyllyanne Conway. It also ignores that President Trump hired the first female CIA director and gave his daughter a leading role as a diplomat and adviser to the Trump administration. And of course, it ignores that upwards of $450,000,000 is still allocated to Planned Parenthood, a leading provider in third trimester abortions — which are outlawed all across the globe except in the United States; but somehow, Republicans still hate women.
4. Republicans stopped marijuana due to lobbying from the lumber industry
Marijuana has a variety of possible uses, such as in the form of paper and fabric, so it seems strange that the United States hasn’t grown marijuana as an alternative to lumber. The solution, as proposed by the left? It must have been the Republican Party that caused this trouble; after all, Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions has come out in strong opposition to the legalization of marijuana, so Republicans must have stopped its legalization.
This conspiracy theory, however, ignores the countless movements by parents and other concerned citizens against marijuana throughout the late 20th century. Specifically, many believed that the proliferation of the marijuana industry would correlate with an increase in adolescent marijuana use — which some studies indicate is damaging for overall mental health. Proposed solutions included outlawing marijuana for anyone under the age of 21, but the concern still remained that legal marijuana would make it easier for teens and children to aquire it. But of course, concerned parents don’t exist; it’s simply the Republican Party to blame for the world’s ills, right?
3. Republicans are plotting mass deportations and isolationism
Considering President Trump‘s role in bringing diplomats from North and South Korea together, this theory seems to fall flat on its head. The idea was that Trump would order mass deportations after ending the DACA program, leading to an economic crisis due to labor shortage. Did this come true?
When Trump took office the DOW Jones industrial average hit record highs. Trump also proposed a possible reform to the immigration system, valuing educated immigrants and bringing an end to the unreasonable “Visa Lottery” System. And Trump offered Democrats a deal that if they voted in favor of securing the border, he would expand DACA into permanent law, covering over 1.8 million illegal immigrants, tripling the amount Obama’s DACA plan allowed. Considering the leak of a Democrat memo stating that the DACA recipients are critical to a Democrat electoral victory, one would think the Democrats would jump at the opportunity to legalize 1.8 million people. But alas, they did not.
2. The Parsons Green Bombing was a false flag attack using crisis actors
On September 15, 2017, an Iraqi refugee bombed an underground train station in London, injuring 30 people. In response to this attack, left wing activists on Facebook claimed that victims from the attack were crisis actors meant to stir up anti-Muslim sentiment.
This was similar to the 2005 London Bombings where multiple bloggers — again — spread the conspiracy theory that the attacks were faked for the sake of creating anti-Muslim attitudes across London
These far left activists — without a shred of evidence — consistently dismiss all terror attacks in London as simply fabrications by nationalistic anti-Muslim sources. Honestly, it truly is the ultimate disappointment to see lives lost met with a dismissal based on political grounds.
1. The Russia Investigation
During the 2016 Presidential Campaign, FBI director James Comey became a hated figure on both sides of the aisle due to his handling of the Clinton email Investigation. Once Trump won the election, Comey was fired after refusing to exonerate Trump regarding allegations of collusion with Russia.
To be clear — Comey did not state that Trump was guilty of the act, yet he did not wish to report it to Congress until the investigation was fully concluded. So, Trump fired him. This led to massive scrutiny, with Trump appointing Robert Mueller to investigate any connections Trump had with Russia. Mueller appointed a team that’s mostly Democrats.
After being fired, Comey leaked government memos containing classified material. Fifteen pages of conversations he had with Donald Trump, with bits of information including Trump saying he expected loyalty from Comey. Plus, Trump totally and completed denied any allegations of Golden Showers — a term in reference to a report released by BuzzFeed alleging that Trump was peed on by hookers.
Summary so far — everyone hates Comey, Comey refuses to publicly say Trump is innocent, Trump fires Comey, Comey leaks memos where Trump denies ever being peed on by hookers. There was a lot of media attention on Trump, so he appoints Robert Mueller to launch a special investigation. With us still?
During this investigation, Trump learns of a FISA warrant against him, specifically that the FBI gained a FISA warrant and was tapping Trump’s phones in Trump Tower. Trump is furious — first the Steele Dossier, and now this? You see, someone said Trump was peed on Russian hookers — his name is Christopher Steele. He worked for a company called Fusion GPS. So some people call it the Fusion GPS dossier; others call it the Steele Dossier. Not important.
Trump discovers a FISA warrant against him is in effect. His phones are tapped. From there, the Republicans release a memo that states the Steele Dossier was both entirely fabricated and paid for by the Clinton campaign, and the primary evidence used against Trump in obtaining the FISA Warrant.
If that’s all true, it means the FBI got permission to spy on Trump based on a story created by the Clinton Campaign. Meaning Trump was never peed on by Russian prostitutes, and there is officially no connection between Donald Trump and Russia. In fact, within 48 hours of Trump’s election, both Russia and Syria announced their desire for peace with the US. Yet in spite of this, as of May 2018, tensions between the United States and Russia are high as Russia warns that there will be consequences if the US leads an air strike against Syria (over the chemical weapons attack). So Trump is controlled by Russia… as he actively takes action to piss off Russia.
Yet left wing conspiracy theorists still say things are heating up, and The Donald is guilty of treason, in spite of the fact that, right now, nothing has been proven to directly tie Donald Trump to Russia.
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11 Comments
Reagan was most definately suffering from conspiracy theories and alzheimers, a nasty duo while his wife was left to make the decisions who was an alcoholic….
Regarding Sanders…I never liked the batty Bolshevik, but he was screwed. It just made Hillary’s humiliation all the better.
I’m confused. The DNC was actively trying to swing the election in Hillary’s favor, and you even stated evidence that supports it. Democrats even admit it. I don’t think it qualifies as an outrageous conspiracy theory.
This much is very true. At the very least, high-ups in the DNC were trying to ensure Hillary’s victory. That’s really not a conspiracy when it was admitted as such as part of the released emails in 2016.
Not that it’s surprising. If you were the DNC, who would you rather have as your candidate? The wife of one of the most popular Democrat presidents in recent memory who, on her own, had served as a Senator and Secretary of State, who had actually won the popular vote in the 2008 nomination process, and had been a registered Democrat at least since the McGovern run in 1972? Or a Senator with no experience and little name recognition who wasn’t even a registered Democrat?
To be sure: Bernie ran a very good campaign. But, as I’ve said many times: he’s the Ron Paul of the Democrat Party. He’s going to appeal to a very vocal minority and will get a lot of attention, but in the long run, he’s too weak of a candidate to take it through to victory for the Dems.
A couple I was going to include:
October Surprise: the idea that Reagan stole the 1980 election by making a deal with the Iranians to hold off on releasing American hostages until after his inauguration.
Bush’s Cocaine Use: he was accused of having cocaine parties with the author of the book Fortunate Son (a James Hatfield, not to be confused with Metallica lead singer James Hetfield). The author was a known crook who’d previously committed fraud and had been imprisoned, but the left didn’t care because it “proved” the worst about GWB.
Trump: Just about anything in regards to Trump is a conspiracy theory. Other than he irritates me.
Half of which are prob true.
i am thanking you for this great list. Yes, it is a refreshing change from the regular Toptenz lists. However, we still need to include Environment and the Republicans in the list.
It has all been proven by teachers, psychiatrists, Dr.s and trumps own mother that the man has mental deficiencies! Just because money can buy whatever he wants like the election, it can also eliminate whatever he wants. This entite article, at least 95% was fabricated by the author. Trump is hazardous to this country, was and is the main person behind 99% of the conspiracy stories out there, as I’ve watched and listened to him conjure up conspiracies for the past 50 years to hide his crimes against the people in the U.S., so anyone believing this rubbish you wrote is in denial and also lacks the energy, or know how to find their own truths!
Great list. I’d been working on one that was pretty similar, but my workload over the past few weeks just wouldn’t let me finish it. I’m glad someone else was able to step up!
Reagan was likely having early issues of Alzheimer’s while he was still président. He couldn’t recognize one of his own chairman of the joint chiefs of staff that he worked with for three years. And that was barely a year after his presidency ended. During his testimony before congress he couldn’t remember startling amounts of information.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-02-23/news/9001160156_1_iran-contra-testimony-recall
Here are the stages of Alzheimer’s and the second stage states that friends and family can’t recognize the symptoms of Alzheimer’s at that stage.
https://m.alz.org/stages-of-alzheimers.asp
It’s not something people are making up just to discredit Reagan and it’s likely his son was made aware by Reagan’s doctors that he likely was developing Alzheimer’s during his presidency as family members usually have knowledge others are not privy to. To dismiss this out of hand simply because his son is not a doctor sounds a little ridiculous to me. I’m no left wing nut (I voted for Reagan twice and was a registered Republican until 5 years ago) nor do I believe in conspiracy theories but this is just a highly likely scenario. It doesn’t lessen what he did as président nor does it delegitimize him it’s just a good likelihood.
Agreed. Reagan’s final year was a tad dodgy. However, he was still very much on-game, so if there was any sort of dementia going on, it was probably very mild at this point in his life.