Erin Antoch | Staff Writer

In recent years, it has become increasingly normal to question the government’s transparency and motivations. Pair that with human beings’ natural instinct of paranoia, an insatiable desire to explain away the universe with a dash of creativity, and you get some crazy stories (and no sleep, because you’re up all night on Google like some sort of Sherlock Holmes).

AREA 51

By far one of the most famous conspiracy theories, Area 51 is a government facility detached from the Edwards Air Force Base in Nevada, wherein only “Top Secret” information is dealt with. The primary purpose of the base is unknown to the public; however, based on its history, theorists conclude that it is used to hold UFOs and information regarding alien encounters. What keeps this conspiracy alive? Probably a combination of poor government cover-ups (calling UFO sightings “weather balloons”) and the fact that the US government didn’t even acknowledge the existence of the facility until 2013, when Freedom of Information Act forced its hand.

THE ILLUMINATI

From Former US Presidents (including the Bush family) to worldwide celebrity families (Beyoncé and Jay-Z), many theorists have accused high-ranking elites of being part of a New World Order comprised of secret societies like the Illuminati and the Freemasons. The general idea, which took root in the 20th century, is that this small group will take over control of the world’s political regimes and economic systems to establish a totalitarian globalism. Symbols such as the pyramid and the eye on the American one-dollar bill are purported to be creations of the NWO, who are supposedly scheming to take over the world.

TRUMP: A CLINTON CHESS PIECE?

Political affairs are not immune to conspiracy theories either. In this current election, Donald Trump is said to be a decoy established by the Democratic Party to ensure the presidency goes to Hillary Clinton. Theorists believe that the long-standing relationship between Trump and the Clintons, along with his historically leftist voting record, point toward the possibility that he ran on the Republican ballot as an offensive, loud-mouthed character to turn the primaries into a reality show, steal the nomination against all odds, and draw moderate votes away from the conservative side.

TED CRUZ AS THE ZODIAC KILLER

In the 1960s and 70s, an unidentified serial killer known only by the nickname ‘Zodiac Killer’ claimed the murders of 37 people throughout Northern California via cryptic letters he sent to local Bay Area press. Investigators, however, only confirmed seven alleged victims, two of whom actually survived. The Internet blew up when someone likened Senator Ted Cruz to the serial killer, causing many paranoid citizens to reconsider their position on the one-time Republican frontrunner. According to Public Policy Polling back in February, 38 percent of voters in Florida expressed a belief that it could be possible, and the Internet has been very vocal about the theory since 2013, despite the fact that Cruz was born in 1970—two years after the murders began.