Some say conspiracy theorists are paranoid lunatics. That is, unless “they” are really out to get you and sometimes you’re right. Conspiracies stretch back as far as recorded history and when proven true, historians just switch the tale from fiction to fact. The so-called crazies of the day are vindicated, often long after their mortal demise. Here are some things people were considered ridiculous to challenge, but later turned out to truly be conspiracies.

Big Brother

When George Orwell penned his classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, it was received as the toast of the town by conspiracy theorists and mocked by those collecting the intel. Shame, discredit and embarrassment are generally tools used by those who want to pull the collective wool over your eyes.

These days, Big Brother has been unmasked by the likes of Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks. Just about every American understands that government agencies such as the NSA and CIA are mining data that includes ALL of your texts, emails, tweets and phone calls. The massive of expansion of U.S. Big Brother monitoring came under the guise of the Patriot Act signed by Pres. George W. Bush and massively expanded by Pres. Barrack Obama. What many found out later was the U.S. government has been doing this since the notorious “Black Chamber” project during the 1920s and never stopped. Conspiracy theorists were right all along.

The Lincoln Assassination

The commonly held belief of the day was that John Wilkes Booth acted alone. It would be inconceivable and pure lunacy for a group to organize a presidential hit, right? As it turns out, as many as nine individuals worked on the Lincoln plot, including Mary Surrat. She ended up being the first woman executed by the United States government.

JFK Assassination

Conspiracy theorists were summarily heckled claiming a variety of groups conspired to kill Pres. Kennedy. Unfortunately for mainstream thinkers, there are no magic bullets that make U-turns in mid-air and Lee Harvey Oswald wasn’t that good of a shot. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison charged Clay Shaw as a conspirator and took the case all the way to trial. While Garrison didn’t gain a conviction, he raised suspicions about a host of inconsistency and characters that included Perry Russo and David Ferrie. The American public is still waiting for all the assassination documents to be made public. It wasn’t one guy with a rifle.

International Elites Control The World

While no one has proven that a single known or secretive organization is controlling everything, there are a few gatherings with major global pull. For instance, the Bilderberg meetings of monarchs, high-ranking politicians, military generals and influential people started during the 1950s. They discuss how to better run the world at a yearly gathering in the Netherlands and even have a website. Of course, the United Nations and IMF have tremendous influence as well. Many conspiracy theorists point to secret organizations such as Skull and Bones, Illuminati, The Freemasons, and Bohemian Grove as secret societies bent on world domination. Ten or 20 years from now, who knows. They might be right.

Pres. Lyndon Johnson Faked Attack to Start Vietnam War

This is a biggie and many conspiracy theorists have used the reasoning to call 9/11 in “inside job.” Known as the “Gulf of Tonkin Incident,” Navy destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy confronted North Vietnamese vessels that resulted in two of enemy sailors being killed. A few days later, the same destroyers took fire and fired upon more enemy ships. Pres. Johnson went on TV, called for a full military response and got approval. The second incident turned out to be a false alarm.