Anti-fluoride demonstrators (approx 20) displayed banners and handed out pamphlets outside the Dept. of Public Health on Bridge Street, September 14, 1966. Frank Albert Charles Burke/Fairfax Media via Getty Images

There are some conspiracy theories that defy traditional ideological classification, and the anti-fluoride theories are among the oldest that still have currency....

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A United Airlines plane flies by a cellular tower as it takes off from San Francisco International Airport on January 18, 2022 in San Francisco, California. Verizon and AT&T announced that they will proceed with plans to activate 5G cellular service across the nation on Wednesday with the exception of near airports and runways after the Federal Aviation Administration and major airlines warned that the signal could interfere with navigational systems on some planes and cause flight disruptions....

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Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert who has written extensively about the history of inoculations, is often attacked by anti-vaxxers. These conspiracy theorists sometimes claim that because Offit has financial ties to vaccine-makers (which he is open about), he is compromised, and his insistence that vaccines do not cause autism thus suspect. (Tellingly, anti-vaxxers do not apply this same standard to scrutiny of the financial ties to those in their own movement.) Offit,...

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Facebook | QAnon Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images

Facebook announced on Tuesday that it is banning QAnon content across its platforms, an action that it characterizes as part of a larger effort to stop “Militarized Social Movements” from recruiting people through their social media sites.

“Starting today, we will remove any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content,” Facebook explained in a statement....

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Pentagon formally releases 3 Navy videos showing “unidentified aerial phenomena” US Pentagon

The Pentagon announced Thursday that it is creating a task force to investigate UFO sightings. Though the notion that the military is investigating UFOs sounds like a fringe conspiracy theorist’s ultimate redemption, the military’s actions are far from preposterous. ...

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Illuminati triangle on a dollar bill | COVID-19 Getty Images/Salon

Well before the coronavirus pandemic the United States suffered from a misinformation pandemic, thanks to a toxic stew of social media, intelligence agencies, and a “post-truth” presidential administration. It now appears that the coronavirus — and the concomitant social and public health measures required to stem its spread — served as the perfect agar plate to culture a new round of pandemic-related misinformation....

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Bill Gates Salon/PBG/AAD/STAR MAX/IPx/ohns Hopkins University

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who says he warned President Donald Trump about the threat of pandemics in 2016, is the target of conspiracy theories claiming that he played a role in causing the pandemic. Beyond fringe websites and YouTube videos, such theories surrounding Gates’ role in the pandemic have been spouted on cable news networks by prominent anchors....

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Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones walks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2020, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James ordered InfoWars founder Alex Jones to stop selling fake coronavirus treatments Thursday in a strongly worded cease-and-desist letter....

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