Surprising Realities: 15 Facts That Seem Like Conspiracy Theories

I’ve read and heard a lot of conspiracy theories in my life. Some were more believable than others, but I was never one to believe them. But when I found out these facts were true, I was ready to start making my own tin foil hat! Maybe you’ll understand just how crazier fact can be than fiction, too.

1. The Church of Scientology Infiltrated The Federal Government 

I think many of us can agree that Scientology is kind of crazy. Watching the South Park episode is more than enough proof of that. But outside of their beliefs, there’s also the conspiracy of the church. Enter Operation Snow White, a 1970s criminal conspiracy planned by Scientology to destroy records that showed the church and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, in a negative light.

According to an article from the Los Angeles Times, they went so far as to obtain and use fake IRS credentials to infiltrate government agencies and photocopy documents related to the church!

2. Ernest Hemingway Was Right About The FBI Following Him 

The famous American author is renowned for his many works throughout his life. However, another aspect of his life was a little darker. Nearing the end of his life, Hemingway was seen to be becoming more and more paranoid that he was FBI under surveillance. Whenever he ended his time here on Earth in 1961, there was talk that what was considered a delusion may have been one of the factors in his decision.

Decades later, in the 1980s, a Freedom of Information request was made by Jeffrey Myers that revealed that Hemingway had been under federal surveillance for his connections to Cuba.

3. No One Knows How The Tlatelolco Massacre Started 

Any loss of innocent life is a tragic event, and yet this tragedy was somehow able to get even worse. The 1968 Summer Olympics were held in Mexico. The country’s citizens began to protest in the days leading up to the games' opening due to the rising tensions and desire for reform. October 2, 1968, ten days before the opening ceremony, thousands of students gathered in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas to once again protest, but this would end in violence.

However, we still have no clear answer on what started it.

4. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Chose Not To Have a Second Term Because He Knew He Would Die Young 

There certainly must have been many factors that led to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision not to run for a second term. Of course, his popularity dwindled due to the Vietnam War. However, it turns out that there was something else.

In 1967, the president had secretly launched an actuarial study to determine when he would die. The men in his family had a history of dying young, and Lyndon B. Johnson wanted to see if that was in the cards for him, too. So, the study was done, and it was determined that he would die at 64 years old. Being 59 at the time of the analysis, this would not give him much time if he had run for a second term. What’s even more bizarre is that he did indeed die at the age of 64.

5. Tax Services Don’t Want Filing To Become Easier

Yep, you can thank tax filing services for the agony of tax season in the United States! Tax services have spent millions of dollars lobbying to prevent taxes from being any easier to file. It makes sense; if taxes were easy, no one would need these services anymore. That fact doesn’t make me feel any better about the situation, though.

6. JFK’s Brain Is Missing 

This sounds like a “frozen Walt Disney’s head” joke, and I wish it were, honestly! But, no, it’s true. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, his body was autopsied, and his brain was stored in the archives. The autopsy has been considered the most botched section of the investigation of the president’s death.

But wait, it gets worse! Three years after JFK’s death, his brain disappeared from the National Archives. No one knows where it’s gone to this day. 

7. The Backfire Effect

It's less a conspiracy and more of an interesting fact. The backfire effect happens when a person continues to believe and even digs their heels deeper into their beliefs when presented with contradictory facts and information. So, if you’ve ever been confused as to why a person refused to change their perspective after giving proof that the opposite is true, then this is likely why!

8. Native American Women Were Sterilized 

This event genuinely got my blood boiling. During the 1960s and 1970s, it was revealed that Native American women were forced into being sterilized by the Indian Health Service without their consent. Although there is likely more than that, it happened to 25-50% of Native American women between 1970 and 1976.

The Indian Health Service did so because they believed that Native women weren’t capable of making their own choices when it came to their reproduction, as ridiculous as it sounds. If my blood was boiling before, it’s practically become a lake of lava now.

9. There Was Only One Recorded Homicide in New York on 9/11

This sounds like one of those trick questions, but it’s true! The thousands killed as a result of the attack were not included in New York City’s official crime statistics; it was an outlier. Instead, Henryk Siwiak was the only recorded murder. He was a Polish immigrant, shot just before midnight in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood. His death has never been solved, and there is a conspiracy that it was set on that date because law enforcement was occupied with the attack.

10. There Are Bunkers for American Cheese

This sounds incredibly ridiculous, but it’s 100% true! The U.S. has caves or bunkers filled with hundreds of thousands of pounds of cheese. It started in the 1970s when a dairy shortage and dairy products increased. Government intervention led to farmers having vast amounts of surplus sold to the U.S. government. By the 80s, the government was the proud owner of 500 million pounds of cheese.

11. EMS Gets Little to No Government Funding

Honestly, this one’s just bizarre. In a majority of the states in the U.S., Emergency Medical Services are not seen as essential. Because of this, they get virtually no government funding. It's so strange to have something so important not be considered necessary. However, there is a push for EMS to be categorized as such.

12. Alcohol Poisoning During the Prohibition

Prohibition in the 1920s saw many ideas and plots, not just from those who refused to give up their favorite giggle juice but from the law attempting to control it. Drinking alcohol was illegal, but that didn't mean industrial alcohol was. As the government began to realize that people were willing to drink this to get their fix, it was decided that drastic measures were to be taken.

Industrial alcohol was mandated to contain toxic chemicals. This alcohol would then be used to create bootleg drinking alcohol and poison those who drank it. And before you ask, yes, people did die from this mandate.

13. The Sugar Industry Plot

If you ever had a “fat-free” craze in your house growing up, you can thank the sugar industry. During the 1960s, research had been funded by the sugar industry to point out the hazards of fats to distract and downplay the risks of sugar. This led to people avoiding foods with any fat in them, whether they are good for you or not. Now, don’t go wild, of course! It’s all about balancing things out.

14. The Treatment of Henrietta Lacks

An African-American woman named Henrietta Lacks is the origin of the HeLa cell line. Unfortunately, how those cells came to be is highly unethical. Her cancer cells were taken after her death without her consent, which is a violation of ethics. Her family was given no chance to consent, was never informed about breakthroughs, and continued to suffer financially. Only in August of 2023 was a settlement reached between the family and a science and technology company that used her cells.

15. McDonald’s Is Responsible for What Happened to Stella Liebeck

Many believe that a 79-year-old woman attempted to sue the famous fast food chain because her coffee was just a little too hot. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Stella Liebeck had ordered a coffee at McDonald’s that caused third-degree burns when she accidentally spilled it on her lap. The resulting several-day hospital stay, treatment, and lasting damage led the woman to attempt to settle with the chain to cover her expenses caused by the coffee.

She didn’t want to go to court. However, McDonald’s only wanted to offer Liebeck a minimal sum as compensation for the dangerously hot coffee, leading her to a lawsuit. After lawyers ran a years-long disinformation campaign, the reality of the case became warped, and Stella was painted as the bad guy.