Field Notes
The patterns behind the case files
Our case files rate one claim at a time. Field Notes step back and look across them: the recurring shapes, the reused playbooks, and the reasons the same ideas keep returning. This is the desk's own analysis, and every piece links back to the sourced files it draws on.
- Field Notes·July 25, 2026
When the conspiracy was real
The government really did dose citizens with LSD, let men die of untreated syphilis to study them, and run a secret war on domestic dissidents. Taking the proven conspiracies seriously is how you learn to spot the false ones.
Read the piece → - Field Notes·July 25, 2026
How to read a death hoax
Some famous people are declared secretly alive; others are declared secretly murdered. Both rumors grow from the same refusal to let a death be ordinary, and telling them apart from the genuinely unresolved cases takes a steady hand.
Read the piece → - Field Notes·July 24, 2026
The anatomy of a dated doomsday
Every few months a precise date for the end of the world goes viral. The dates always pass. The pattern behind them almost never does, and once you can see its parts, the next one stops being frightening.
Read the piece → - Field Notes·July 24, 2026
How to read a false-flag claim
Real governments really have staged attacks to justify what came next. That history is exactly why the accusation is now thrown at almost every tragedy, and why telling the documented cases from the reflexive ones matters more than ever.
Read the piece → - Field Notes·July 24, 2026
Why debunked hate theories keep coming back
The oldest racist and antisemitic hoaxes never really die. They change clothes. Learning to recognise the same accusation under a new name is the whole defence against it.
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