this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2025
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Are there any examples of something that was a conspiracy theory being validated by confidential documents later? I can't think of any, even though secret agencies sure did do a lot of crazy stuff.
Sure, the fact the US government spies on every single citizen without warrant or cause. The multiple CIA operations that overthrew various governments were conspiracy theories until they were proven.
Hell the existence of abu graihb and the idea the US military tortures and kills civilians was a conspiracy theory, until it was proven.
You want the real fucked up one... Stalin wasn't crazy nor did he overreact with his actions against 'enemies if the state', the US genuinely did invest practically unlimited resources into trying to destabilize the ussr under Stalin, as supported by now declassified CIA documents, including recruiting from populations that aided nazi occupiers.
Ah, that's true, I totally forgot about Snowden. Technically I don't think I've heard of there being a conspiracy about it before 2013, but it's a good example.
Very questionable phrasing (I have some Soviet ancestors who spent years felling forests for the crime of being too educated and teaching things that didn't quite align with the party line; that's not an 'overreaction' to anything, but just tyranny), but anyway, this doesn't count - it was definitely not considered a conspiracy theory in the Soviet Union to think that foreign states were doing espionage there.
You just proved it's a conspiracy, that it was tyranny and not a logical, well reasoned response to the actions of others.
I'm not sure what you mean. Arresting random intelligentsia is not a "well reasoned response" to foreign interference. And it's also unrelated to the topic - I'm asking about conspiracy theories that were later validated, and "foreign governments are trying to sabotage us", in Stalinist USSR, wasn't a conspiracy theory - if anything it was the party line.