Infamous American Conspiracy Theorists
The truth will set you free, but lies will enslave you - A list of infamous American conspiracy theorists and their proponents known for using ludicrous and debunked conspiracy theories, falsehoods, half-truths, lies and deception to deceive and exploit the public in service of their self-serving ideological, political, financial, and fame-seeking agendas.
Britannica: Conspiracy Theory.
COMPACT Education Group: Guide to Conspiracy Theories.
Association for Psychological Science: The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories.
European Journal of Social Psychology: Belief in conspiracy theories: Basic principles of an emerging research domain.
LSU.edu: Why We Fall for Conspiracies.
American Psychological Association: Speaking of Psychology: Why people believe in conspiracy theories.
National Geographic: Why people latch on to conspiracy theories, according to science.
Frontiers in Psychology: Beliefs in conspiracy theories and the need for cognitive closure.
Cambridge University Press: The Spanish Journal of Psychology - Are Conspiracy Theories Harmless?
ScienceDirect: Shining a spotlight on the dangerous consequences of conspiracy theories.
European Commission: Identifying conspiracy theories.
The American Journal of Comparative Law: Freedom of Speech and Regulation of Fake News.
Britannica: Conspiracy Theory.
COMPACT Education Group: Guide to Conspiracy Theories.
Association for Psychological Science: The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories.
European Journal of Social Psychology: Belief in conspiracy theories: Basic principles of an emerging research domain.
LSU.edu: Why We Fall for Conspiracies.
American Psychological Association: Speaking of Psychology: Why people believe in conspiracy theories.
National Geographic: Why people latch on to conspiracy theories, according to science.
Frontiers in Psychology: Beliefs in conspiracy theories and the need for cognitive closure.
Cambridge University Press: The Spanish Journal of Psychology - Are Conspiracy Theories Harmless?
ScienceDirect: Shining a spotlight on the dangerous consequences of conspiracy theories.
European Commission: Identifying conspiracy theories.
The American Journal of Comparative Law: Freedom of Speech and Regulation of Fake News.
List activity
1.2K views
• 5 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
154 people
- Jacob Chansley was born in 1987.Wikipedia: Jake Angeli.
Wikipedia: QAnon.
_______
See Also: Conspiracy theories in United States politics & Category: Conspiracy theories in the United States. - Producer
- Director
Mike Adams is known for Biosludged (2018), 5G: Next Gen Health Dangers (2020) and Vaxxed II: The People's Truth (2019).- Producer
- Actress
- Writer
Firebrand Roseanne Barr has long been one of America's funniest and most controversial comedians.
She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Helen (Davis), a cashier and bookkeeper, and Jerome Hershel "Jerry" Barr, a salesman. Her family was Jewish, and had moved to the U.S. from Russia, Lithuania, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She dropped out of high school when she was seventeen, and, after a car accident, was admitted to a mental institution, claiming she was having nightmares and memory loss. She left the institute less than a year later. At seventeen, she gave birth to her first daughter, Brandi Brown, and gave her up for adoption. She began working at a restaurant as a dishwasher and waitress. Her hilarious comments to the customers she waited on led her to doing stand-up comedy at the restaurant. She married Bill Pentland and they had three children together, Jessica, Jennifer, and Jacob Pentland.
Roseanne worked doing stand-up comedy until her August 23, 1985 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) thrust her into the limelight. In 1987, HBO offered her a show of her own, On Location: The Roseanne Barr Show (1987). It was canceled after a short time. In 1989, Roseanne starred opposite Meryl Streep and Ed Begley Jr. in She-Devil (1989). Though her first picture wasn't as successful as she might have hoped, her sitcom, Roseanne (1988), debuted in 1988 and ran for 9 seasons on ABC, co-starring John Goodman. It dealt with real-life issues in a lower middle-class working family. During its first season on ABC, it leaped to #2 in the ratings. After the sitcom's first season, Roseanne gained notoriety when she gave a screeching, crotch-grabbing performance of "The Star Spangled Banner" at a baseball game.
When Roseanne divorced her first husband, Bill Pentland, after 16 years of marriage in 1990 and married Roseanne (1988) co-star Tom Arnold only four days later, her sitcom was already beginning its downward spiral. In 1991, she started to be billed as Roseanne Arnold. Around this time, she began to claim that she, as well as her siblings, had been physically and sexually abused as a child. Both her siblings and parents denied the charges, and lie detector tests used on Roseanne's parents came back negative. The court battles led to ten years of estrangement with her parents and siblings. Her marriage with Arnold lasted four years before she filed for divorce from him for physical abuse and domestic violence. It is still not known if the accusations were true. Although she insisted that he hit her, she admits that he never abused her three children from her previous marriage:
In 1996, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won, but she was not there to accept it. Luckily, Tom Arnold's exit from "Roseanne" happened towards the end of the sixth season, allowing the show to have an almost smooth ending. However, after the sixth season of Roseanne (1988), the plots started to run dry and ratings began to drop. During the season following her divorce, she insisted on being billed as simply "Roseanne." After Roseanne (1988) was canceled, she went on Broadway to play "The Wicked Witch of the West" in "The Wizard of Oz" to rave reviews.
On Valentine's Day 1995, Roseanne married former bodyguard Ben Thomas. With Thomas, she had her tubal ligation surgery reversed in order to become pregnant with her fifth child, Buck Thomas. In 1997, she slowly began being billed as "Roseanne Thomas", as in the last 11 episodes of Roseanne, as executive producer (she was still "Roseanne" in the cast credits). She guest-starred in The Nanny (1993) as Roseanne Thomas in late 1997. In 2002, she filed for divorce against Thomas for the second time (the first time, in 1998, she dropped the suit), accusing him of being disturbed and claiming that he threatened to run off with their son.
After the divorce, she began to study the Kabballah, a form of Jewish mysticism, and those around her said she became amazingly centered and stable. In the 2000s, she ended the feud with her parents and siblings and went back to being billed as Roseanne Barr. Today, Roseanne Barr Pentland Arnold Thomas spends her time with her family in her home in El Segundo, California.
Always outspoken, Roseanne began commenting on politics in earnest in the 2000s, and unsuccessfully ran for the Green Party's presidential nomination in 2012. She was subsequently chosen as the Peace and Freedom Party's candidate for President of the United States in '12, receiving 61,971 votes in the general election, and placing sixth. Her run is depicted in the documentary Roseanne for President! (2015).
Initially a left-leaning liberal, she became considerably more right-wing throughout the 2010s. Her show Roseanne returned for a tenth season in 2018, to blockbuster ratings, but was canceled after Roseanne sent a racially-offensive tweet that capped off a longer run of incendiary comments.- Joe Arpaio was born on 14 June 1932 in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor, known for The Mis-Adventures of Catboy, The War on Drugs (2007) and 2020: The Dumpster Fire (2021). He was previously married to Ava Arpaio.Wikipedia: Joe Arpaio.
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Alex Jones was born on 11 February 1974 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He is a producer and director, known for A Scanner Darkly (2006), Waking Life (2001) and Police State 2000 (1999). He is married to Erika Wulff. He was previously married to Violet Nichols.- Wikipedia: James H. Fetzer.
Wikipedia: Sandy Hook Elementary School conspiracy theories.
Wikipedia: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. - Shiva Ayyadurai was born on 2 December 1963 in Bombay, India. He is an actor, known for The World's Mayor Experience "The Future of Media Is Here" (2023), Poisoning Paradise (2017) and Absolute Proof (2021). He was previously married to Fran Drescher.
- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Glenn Beck has built his rising media company "Mercury Radio Arts" from the ground up. The former Top 40 DJ entered the talk format in 2001 and already his show is broadcast nearly 200 stations nationwide. Millions of listeners are drawn to this modern-day story teller who is armed with a quick wit, an informed opinion, and a unique ability to inspire others to experience their full potential with an open heart. His on-air presence is both commanding and inviting - a trait he has been refining for the last 27 years.
Glenn Lee Beck was born in Everett, Washington, to Mary Clara (Janssen) and William A. Beck. His father was of German and English descent, and his mother was of German ancestry. He started in radio when he was only thirteen years old, by winning a local radio contest to be a DJ for an hour. Soon after that day, Glenn had three jobs - one at a Christian station, a Rock station, and a Country station - all of which his parents had to schlep him to in their home state of Washington. He was fired from all three jobs - on the same day when he was 14 years old!
After high school graduation, Glenn pursued his career as a Top 40 DJ at stations all over the country. Eventually, he landed an opportunity in Corpus Christi, Texas, as the youngest morning guy in the U.S. at 18 years old. His career was soaring and took him to Top 40 morning shows in Baltimore, Houston, Phoenix, Washington, and New Haven, Conn. He rode the wave of professional success into the 1990s when things began to change. Today, Glenn points out, "When you have that kind of success that early in life, it's easy for you to turn into a monster. And I did! I was not a good guy."
At the age of 30, Glenn lost his passion for radio - and everything else - as alcoholism and drug addiction took him over. He was faced with a divorce from his first wife and separation from his two daughters - the oldest with Cerebral Palsy. He was emotionally and financially decimated and relegated to one of the smallest radio markets. The shooting radio star had fallen to earth.
Finally, he turned to a program of recovery.
Coming to terms with his past and staying sober shifted his life direction. He found a new love (his second wife, Tania), faith in Jesus (he was baptized Mormon in 2000), and a new vision of his career - he would pursue talk radio.
Soon after his baptism, Glenn received a call from an agent who was interested in representing him. Days later, he had an offer to host his own talk radio show on WFLA-AM in Tampa, Florida, forcing him to move away from his daughters in New Haven. He and Tania decided to live in Tampa for two years and then, whether Glenn succeeded or failed, they would move closer to his girls.
He inherited the 18th placed position at WFLA-AM and took it to the #1 position in his first year, giving the station its highest ratings ever. Within 18 months, Premiere Radio Networks, the leading radio syndication company in the country, offered Glenn the opportunity to go national. In January 2002, The Glenn Beck Program launched on 47 stations.
He also kept his promise to his daughters and moved the national show to Philadelphia.
Running from 2006-2008, Beck launched "The Glenn Beck Program", an hour long television program, on CNN's Headline News. From 2009-2011, the show aired on the Fox News Channel. After changing his approach and wanting to play a different role in the media, Beck left Fox, and launched an independent network called "TheBlaze". TheBlaze, available on Dish Network and on over 90 other television providers across the nation, with eleven of those being in the national top 25, is a news and entertainment network which airs both Beck's radio and television program, as well as 16 other original programs. TheBlaze also has a radio network that broadcasts 15 programs.
In November 2014, Glenn revealed on his program that he had gone through a "pivot point" in his life and revealed that for five years he'd been suffering from an illness that would've made his body shut down within the span of 5-10 years. Glenn, after being tested for traumatic brain injury, was told by doctors in New York that he was functioning in the bottom tenth percentile. After doctors failed to diagnose exactly what was wrong with him, Glenn sought the help of the Carrick Brain Centers in Texas.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Baked Alaska was born on 16 November 1987 in Anchorage, Alaska, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Louis Theroux: Forbidden America (2022), Baked Alaska: Yang Gang Anthem and Baked Alaska: Singin' in the Rain (Rare Piano Acoustic Version).Wikipedia: Baked Alaska (livestreamer).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Owen Benjamin was born in 1980 in Oswego, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for The House Bunny (2008), Gaytown (2008) and Jack and Jill (2011).- Philip Berg is known for Deadheart (2014), Zero: An Investigation Into 9/11 (2007) and Democracy Now! (2001).Wikipedia: Philip J. Berg.
- Rashid Buttar was a producer, known for Silenced as mercury rises (2021), Informed Consent (2020) and The Big Reset (2022). He died on 18 May 2023 in Mooresville, North Carolina, USA.
- Director
- Producer
Ty Bollinger is known for The Truth About Cancer (2014), Covidland (2021) and Silenced as mercury rises (2021).- Lauren Boebert was born on 19 December 1986 in Altamonte Springs, Florida, USA. She has been married to Jayson Boebert since 9 June 2005. They have four children.Wikipedia: Lauren Boebert.
- Jack Burkman is known for Predator DC (2021), After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News (2020) and Barbershop Punk (2010).Wikipedia: Jack Burkman.
- Writer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Editor
Patrick Byrne was born on 29 November 1962 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. He is a writer and editor, known for A Whiter Shade of Pale (2017), Forget About Us (2017) and Chernobyl: Minute by Minute (2024).- Producer
- Writer
Mike Cernovich was born on 17 November 1977 in Kewanee, Illinois, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for The Red Pill (2016), Mike Cernovich Livestreams (2016) and Hoaxed (2019).Wikipedia: Mike Cernovich.
Wikipedia: Gamergate (harassment campaign).
Wikipedia: Promotion of conspiracy theories.- Wikipedia: Jack Cashill.