What we are
Most places treat conspiracy theories as a punchline or a threat. We treat them as claims (things people believe, for reasons worth understanding), and we hold each one to the same test: what does the checkable evidence actually show?Some theories collapse the moment you examine them. A few, like the CIA's MKUltra program, turn out to be substantially true. Most sit somewhere in between. We tell you which is which, and we show our work.
We are not a debunking site, and we are not a believers' forum. We are a record.
How an entry is built
Every case file follows the same structure:
- The claim, restated precisely and without a strawman.
- The origin: a timeline of where the idea came from and how it spread.
- The case for it, argued at its strongest, so believers see their position represented honestly.
- The evidence against it, laid out just as fully.
- A verdict, when the evidence supports one: Proven or Contradicted, anchored to sources you can check for yourself. Where the evidence does not settle the question, the file carries no verdict rather than a manufactured one.
- Why people believe it: the history and psychology that give the idea its grip.
Our sourcing rules and the exact meaning of each verdict are set out in full on the How we rate page.
Independence and trust
The Conspiratory is independent. We prefer primary and official records over second-hand reporting, we cite our sources on every entry, and we never present a theory as true unless the evidence establishes it. Where we earn money (through advertising, or affiliate links to books and documentaries), it never changes a verdict, an entry, or the order in which anything is presented.
Who edits this
The Conspiratory is a small, independent editorial desk. It was founded in 2026 by Colin Peterson, its editor-in-chief, who is responsible for the sourcing standards, the verdict system, and the corrections policy set out on this site, and is the point of accountability for the editorial line. Entries carry his byline, and every one of them is written and reviewed against the same standards on the How we rate page.
We would rather be small and accountable than anonymous. If an entry falls short of those standards, that is an editorial failure we want reported, and the desk is reachable at editor@theconspiratory.com or through the Contact page.
Corrections
Every entry carries an editorial byline and a date, and every verdict is provisional: it describes where the evidence stands today, and it changes when the evidence does. If you can show us a stronger source or a factual error, we want to know. The evidence leads, and we follow it, up to and including changing a verdict.