Conspiracy Generator

Build a conspiracy theory from scratch.

The best way to learn to spot a conspiracy theory is to make one yourself.

Pick a real news story. On the next step you'll choose who's behind it and why. Then walk through the four moves real conspiracists use, with a debunk on every step.

▸ Start the exercisetakes 3 minutes!!
Built by Marco Meyer & Maarten Boudry  · Etienne Vermeersch Chair of Critical Thinking, Ghent University
Tonight's exclusive
YOU can be a conspiracist*
*for educational purposes only
The four moves you'll learn:
  1. Hunt anomalies turn coincidence into evidence of a secret plot.
  2. Fabricate connections draw lines between unrelated dots until they look meaningful.
  3. Dismiss counter-evidence if a fact disagrees, make the fact part of the cover-up.
  4. Discredit the critics dismiss people who point out flaws in your theory.
Step 1 of 3Step 1 — Pick a real news story↻ Refresh

Pick the event.

Choose whichever real-feeling headline your imagination will run wildest with. Don't overthink it.

Australia warns of climate disruptions
theguardian.com

Australia warns of climate disruptions

An Australian thinktank, the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, has warned federal politicians that climate change could cause widespread disruption across the Asia‑Pacific by mid‑century. Its briefing sketches scenarios including failed states, large movements of people fleeing uninhabitable areas, and growing competition for scarce resources such as fresh water. The group says these shifts could trigger regional instability, economic shocks and damage to critical infrastructure, underlining the scale of the risk.

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Google Search Update: UI Revamp
xda-developers.com

Google Search Update: UI Revamp

Google is expanding a tool called "Results about you," first introduced last year to help people remove personal information from Search results. The new version will actively scan the public web for instances of a user’s personal data and send alerts so they can request removal. Google says the feature is currently available in the United States in English and will be rolled out to more regions over time.

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Kansas orders deletion of seized files
independent.co.uk

Kansas orders deletion of seized files

A Kansas judge has ordered authorities to delete all electronic copies made from files seized during a police search of the Marion County Record, a small local newspaper. The searches, carried out nearly two weeks earlier, removed computers and cellphones from the paper’s office. The court order requires that digital copies created from those devices be destroyed, limiting how officials may keep and use material gathered in the raid.

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Tools Reveal Hidden Website History
foxnews.com

Tools Reveal Hidden Website History

Online tools now let anyone view past versions of websites, exposing changes that site owners may have made over time. The Wayback Machine at archive.org stores snapshots of millions of pages, while archive.today preserves copies that sometimes survive when other archives don’t. The Memento Project links these services and helps users search by URL and date, making it easier to see how pages, policies, and content evolved.

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Conspiracy Generator — the recipe, written out