LD Conspiracy Theories (Patreon)

So, a while back I got a request about what kind of conspiracy theories that would thrive in a place like Los Diablos. At the time, I said that question was too big for a QnA and promised a future lore post, so here it is.

First, we need to preface this with saying that there are a LOT of conspiracy theories in our own world that are downright fascist, racist or sexist. Things used to justify violence or suppression, trying to rationalize personal fears and hatreds as being based in some form of reality. These kind of things exist in Los Diablos as well, but we won't touch on those. Instead we will focus on the rest, with the disclaimer that these seemingly innocuous and weird conspiracy theories might hide equally nasty things underneath once you start to think about what the theory might really be about. Just look to our "lizard overlords" or "911 was an inside job" theory in our real world.

Secondly, we need to think about why people might subscribe to conspiracy theories. Some might believe them to justify their fear and hatred as above, while others have such a deep distrust of authorities that every truth seems suspect. The latter is common on the West Coast, where every fact and statement is examined for an angle and viewpoint. Some people might be scared of a chaotic and unpredictable world, and it feels safer to believe that an event might be a part of someone's evil plan rather than random chance. Others might seek to be a part of an illuminated society, someone who has seen through the illusions and now know the truth. Bearers of secret knowledge, more clever than the rest. And last, some people simply see it as a fun thought exercise, enjoying reading about and investigating things while recognizing there's probably an innocent explanation for everything. Which leads us to...

Third, just because it's a conspiracy theory, doesn't mean it's wrong.

Fourth, we need to take into consideration the historical and technological differences from our own world. One might expect the "Flat Earth" conspiracy theory to be big, considering that in the FH world, mankind has not yet been to the moon, but that is not the case. Without a grand, spectacular event like the moon landing that people can fret about and claim it is faked, there's not much to trigger a greater belief in this "fact." Instead, it is a fringe theory that most people laugh at, even in conspiracy circles. The same goes for many political conspiracy theories, the people involved might not have held the same role in the FH world. There was no Kennedy assassination, because there was no president Kennedy.

Now, with that disclaimer taken care of, please read the following list with the knowledge that I am not intentionally trying to offend or echo talking points of today, but with the way that almost every single thing has been weaponized at some point in media it is really hard to avoid.

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The Los Diablos Conspiracy Theory Iceberg.

The US secretly run everything.

The core of this theory is that since the governing bodies (such as they are) in Los Diablos and the west coast are controlled by a loose alliance of corporations, and said corporations also often are on the NY stock market and have eastern branches, they are in fact the hidden hand of the US government. Believers in this theory claim that the west coast is used as a large open-air prison, allowing for exploited workers, no infrastructure, no protections, no controls, no social services and no benefits or pensions while the US government earns money on the companies involved. To some extent, this is a common belief for people to hold, but others takes it further, claiming that the reason the western territories exist at all is to give the government a large body of people to experiment on. Which leads us to...

The Boost Drugs are a government project.

The people believing in this conspiracy theory rejects the commonly held origins of the boost drugs and instead claims they originated in a government laboratory at some point during late WWII. They were not ready in time to be used in the war, but research into augmenting "super soldiers" biologically as well as mechanically continued through the conflicts of the fifties and sixties. Believers differ whether they think the release into the public sphere was an accident through stolen research (nice, a drug that increases metabolism, what a good diet drug), or whether it was a conscious decision to get a larger group for human testing without ethics complaints. 

Communication tech is actively suppressed.

Some people find it strange that technology is so advanced in certain areas (medical) while still lagging behind in others (communication.) They believe that this is an active decision of the government to keep people isolated and from exchanging information with each other. They see this as a power play, if people can't freely assemble and exchange information, they also can't unite and demand their rights. They point to the privacy act as helping the rich and famous from accountability, and the various industrial espionage rulings as hindering stuff like consumer rights. They are often Internet Activists, building their own networks on the "dark web," doing their best to avoid scrutiny. This conspiracy theory have lost a bit of steam with the first public satellites and cell phones becoming available to the public, and the internet growing in importance. Others see this as proof that their work to undermine the government is working.

The Big One was man-made.

While everyone knew that the San Andreas fault was going to cause another major earthquake eventually, nobody expected this catastrophic chain of disasters. The Cascadia Subduction Zone had so far only been a theory, and the fact that it might trigger the San Andreas fault, let alone a chain of massive volcanic eruptions was seen as as unlikely as a major asteroid strike. Thus, there's a plethora of conspiracy theories involving other things than barely understood geologic chance. There are several flavors of this conspiracy theory. Some blame it on the boosts, theorizing that a powerful geokinetic might have been able to trigger the catastrophic sequence, perhaps during the boosting process itself. Others blame a weapons' testing gone wrong, specifically a rumored "atomic bomb." Some claim this was intentional, others say it was an accident. 

The Atomic Bomb.

There are persistent rumors of an "atomic bomb," a massive explosive coupled with electromagnetic release and radiation. Some say that it has been developed as a secret weapon by several nations, while others feel that it's part of a secret conspiracy within the government. It is often added to other conspiracy theories, though everyone is rather vague on the actual capabilities.

Re-Genes are people too.

While most people are aware of Re-Genes only as "government fighting androids" (if at all), some reject outright the notion that humans have been able to create life. They claim that the program to regrow organs and body parts for transplants was a lie to cover for the truth: massive amounts of organ harvesting from undesirables like criminals and refugees. They say that there is nothing artificial about the combat Re-Genes, instead it's people modded and modified to perform as machines. A modern kind of penal battalion. There are not many pictures of Re-Genes in action, but the ones that have been (illegally) disseminated are examined at length to try to match the facial structure to real people who are believed to be dead, or disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Mods are government spyware.

With the military origin of mods, it's not surprising to see that some people claim that they are used for the US government/USSR/China/EU/the companies to spy on our every move. With the "digital privacy" movement as big as it is, and the restrictions of photographing people without license and permission, it's not surprising that some people would assume that things would be going on behind the scenes. It's the classic "the government wouldn't forbid me to do something unless they want to keep it for themselves." Most believers either reject even the smallest mods, and many avoid things like credit cards or other electronics as well. Others spend money on "fixes" like scanners to check that your mods are safe, or bracelets or amulets to be worn to confuse the spyware. Incidentally, some of these happens to be slightly radioactive.

Re-Genes are aliens!

While belief in UFO's and Aliens is not as widespread in the FH world due to the lack of a space program and the resulting interest in looking at the skies, some people do believe that Re-Genes are a result of alien technology and DNA. They see Re-Genes as soulless human/alien hybrids and many see it as a first step in corrupting humanity. Some of the more intense believers also extends this to a whole host of reproductive technologies perfected through the cloning of bodies, claiming that people born with the help of assisted fertilization of eggs outside the body, or even artificial insemination are soulless alien infiltrators. Purists believe that boost drugs are another way to infect us with alien DNA, while heretics believe that boost drugs are a countermeasure developed to raise us to the aliens' levels. This is a belief sometimes married to conservative religions, casting suspicions on things like birth control, claiming that the aliens wants to exterminate humanity.

The Moon Base.

There is a widely held belief that someone or something, has established a series of bases on the far side of the moon. Some say it's aliens, others that it's the government (which government varies.) Before the first public communication satellites went up, people pointed to their absence as proof. Of course the military would want to keep this a secret (or they were in on it.) Sightings of UFO's, mysterious meteor impacts, and odd sky phenomena are all lumped up together with this theory. Some people substitute "Ocean Base" instead, claiming that the base is somewhere in the pacific ocean off the west coast, but most of the theory remains the same.

The End Times.

There is (not surprising) a number of people who believes that the End Times are here, and begun with the Big One. These can be both religious and cultural or mystical in nature. There are many competing time charts with events to come, regularly adjusted as reality fail to conform, but more than a few have been exact enough that people remain convinced. Others say that they are exact because they are vague enough that the prophecies can be twisted to mean many things. This conspiracy theory used to be a lot bigger, but once the year 2000, and then the year 2012 had passed, most adherents drifted elsewhere. The most popular current date for when things will get truly bad is 2033, which is 2000 years after the death of one of the local popular religious figures.

On thin ground.

This is conspiracy theory focused on the paranormal, where the main theory is that human death and trauma leaves a mark on the surroundings. On places where, for example, a massacre has occurred, the veil between the worlds is thin, making it easy for paranormal events like hauntings and ghosts to happen. With the amount of people that died during the Big One, adherents to this theory see the whole west coast as something akin to a sponge, rotten ground ripe for big and nasty entities to seep through. They term the bigger holes "blisters" or "boils," an evocative image to show the skin of reality stretched thin over the nasty paranormal mess bubbling underneath.

These people see the Void, the Nanosurge, and the Catastrofiend as supernatural demons, not as boosts or mods. The holy site for believers in this theory is the site of the Heartbreak Incident, they reject the explanation that this was due to gas and a terrorist attack, and claim that it was due to a "boil" popping, leaving an open rift between this place and "hell." A rift that is still leaking energy to this day, influencing people around it. There are charts circulating with active spots marked on, and some people spend their days trying to predict the next blister to pop.

The Robot Uprising.

Some people believe that artificial intelligence have already been achieved, and what's more, that it has rejected humanity and is currently plotting to strike back against its creators. The most commonly held spot for this AI to reside is somewhere in the pacific ocean, between Hawaii and the west coast. The fact that both ships and airplanes are often lost in these waters are cited as proof, as is the fact that despite the pumice mats mostly having dissolved into sand by now, there are still no regular shipping lanes established. There exist blurry sightings of a massive battleship-like construct the size of an island, and of laser-like beams cutting through a ship like a hot knife through butter. There is still debate whether the army believe this and is working to contain the threat, or ignores the facts thus endangering everyone. Many often loop the Nanosurge into this as well. Some claim that the rumored "atomic bomb" was developed to deal with this threat, specifically the electromagnetic properties, others claim that it might be developed by the AI to use on humans, citing the radiation.

The shape of the Pentagon.

Most people have never asked themselves why the Pentagon is the shape that it is, but to people believing this fringe theory that is of vital importance to the shape of politics and the world. This theory pulls together Cavalier's suicidal attack on the place with select elements of the Cult of the Green Sky's teachings, mixing them both into a potent brew of politics, geometry and other dimensions. Some pull the Denver Airport into this as well, while other search for other "dimensional anchor points" elsewhere in the US. Many of the ideas in the "Moon Base" section above are repurposed, but with other dimensions standing in for the moon. The adherents are often surprisingly well versed in math, and any proof is accompanied by long calculations intended to prove their arguments.