2020 has been a heck of a year. There’s the #coronacrapola. Natural disasters. The loss of some well-loved people who left us way too young. And the list goes on and on.
2020 has also been the year of conspiracy theories. Those “beliefs that some covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event” have been happening since at least the Revolutionary times (people thought that Thomas Jefferson, who had many well-known doubts about religion, was going to send people to residents’ homes and burn their bibles). But they’ve really been running rampant in 2020. Recent conspiracy theories have run the gamut this year, from COVID-19 (5G, vaccines, etc.) to Kamala Harris’ citizenship, to the BLM movement. If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it that some people are willing to believe just about anything.
Conspiracy theories aren’t limited to religion, medicine, politicians or even social movements. They can show up in travel, too. There are several travel-related conspiracy theories that have been going on for years, if not decades. Here are a few popular ones:
The Bermuda Triangle
I’m starting with this one because I fell for it, hook, line and sinker, as a kid. Scared the crap out of me back then LOL! Anyway, the Bermuda Triangle is a patch of ocean between Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Miami. Going as far back as the early 1900s, several planes and ships apparently disappeared while in the triangle, never to be seen again.
Conspiracy theorists suggested the reason for the disappearances varied from the paranormal to compass anomalies to being caused by the great Atlantean fire-crystals of the lost city of Atlantis.
In recent years, scientists have suggested rogue waves, methane bubbles and nothing more than, “a perfect mix of human error, bad weather and a high concentration of ships in the area.” But conspiracy theorists are gonna theorize.
Denver Airport is a Post-Apocalyptic Government Capital
When DEN opened in 1995, it happened several years late and $2 million over budget. On top of that, Denver already had an international airport. Plus, it was huge, inconvenient to get to and had a large statue of a cobalt blue mustang with glowing red eyes. And THEN, inside the airport, the artwork includes a mural with what looks like a Nazi in a gas mask, Masonic logos, gargoyle statues, hidden Native American symbolism, etc. These matters combined were enough to start getting conspiracy theorists to have a field day.
They think the airport is the only thing that shows of an otherwise massive underground military base, complete with a structure of tunnels and bunkers that’s meant to house the New World Order (a government for the post-apocalyptic society).
Well, I don’t know about that, but last year DEN had a GREAT bit of gargoyle entertainment that I wish I could have seen!
The Disappearance Of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Was Covered Up
In March 2014, Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER, just disappeared off the face of the earth, never to be found. To this day, conspiracy theorists are convinced it was hijacked and the CIA (and/or Malaysia itself) is involved and covering up damaging information. Others think aliens are involved (because when in doubt, conspiracy theorists bring out the aliens).
You can read more about it in this fascinating article from The Atlantic.
Hopefully someday we’ll find the plane, and its black box. Perhaps then we’ll know what happened to flight MH370.
Chemtrails
When you’ve seen planes in the sky, you’ve probably seen that sometimes they have white streaks that look like they’re trailing from them.
This is why they happen but that answer isn’t good enough for conspiracy theorists. They think that planes are spraying out dangerous biological agents down onto the people below, specifically to hurt them. Some say the trails linger longer now than they used to, and there has to be a sinister reason behind this, because of reasons. Other conspiracy theorists believe these “chemtrails” have to do with the government experimenting with weather manipulation. Oh, and Kylie Jenner certainly didn’t help the situation when she tweeted this.
So yeah…travel conspiracy theories. Good times. Did I miss any?
Feature Photo: Wikimedia
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
