From flat-Earthers to moon-landing denial, conspiracy theories have by no means been restricted to fringe corners of the web. Lately, even family names appear completely comfy slipping on a tinfoil hat of their downtime.
Most just lately, Kim Kardashian admitted she doesn’t consider the moon touchdown truly occurred — a declare she backed up with an alleged Buzz Aldrin quote. Predictably, the backlash got here quick, with NASA itself chiming in (extra on that later).
And it made me surprise about all the opposite celebrities who’ve wandered into conspiracy territory. From B.o.B. entering into an precise rap beef with Neil deGrasse Tyson over flat-earth theories to Roseanne Barr amplifying QAnon speaking factors, loads of well-known faces have used their platforms to push some actually questionable concepts — lots of which have been publicly debunked.
So, listed here are 16 celebrities who overtly shared their wildest conspiracy theories…and left the remainder of us speechless.
1.
Most just lately, Kim Kardashian stated that the 1969 moon touchdown “did not occur” throughout a current episode of The Kardashians, the place she’s talking to Sarah Paulson. Kim defined that she learn a quote from Buzz Aldrin concerning the scariest second of his journey to the moon. “This woman says, ‘What was the scariest second?’ And he says, ‘There was no scary second as a result of it didn’t occur. It may’ve been scary, however it wasn’t as a result of it didn’t occur,” Kim stated. Elsewhere, she stated that the Apollo 11 mission was “pretend” and that there are “a couple of movies on Buzz Aldrin speaking about the way it didn’t occur.”
2.
Regardless of an awesome quantity of data suggesting in any other case, Kyrie Irving jumped off the porch in 2017 when he claimed to be a flat-earther (spoiler alert: he will not be the one one on this checklist). He later apologized after the dialog sparked uproar, although he admitted that he loved listening to individuals from either side debate.
3.
For “Airplanes” rapper B.o.B., the flat-earth dialog resulted in a rap battle towards…Neil DeGrasse Tyson. B.o.B. went on a spree on X, previously generally known as Twitter, explaining why he believes the Earth is flat and why he feels NASA hasn’t been truthful concerning the world’s edge. Tyson finally responded again on X earlier than B.o.B. took their beef to wax on a music known as “Flatline,” the place he known as Tyson out by identify. In response, Tyson dropped a music known as “Flat To Reality,” written and recorded by his nephew Stephen Tyson.
4.
Ye (fka Kanye West) has made some egregious claims over time, however probably the most insensitive and downright evil conspiracies he is pushed was that Derek Chauvin did not truly kill George Floyd. Throughout a controversial episode of the Drink Champs podcast, Ye spoke about Candace Owens’s documentary on BLM and stated that the previous police officer’s “knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.” He additionally stated that “they hit [George Floyd] with the fentanyl.”
5.
Terrence Howard publicly rejected fundamental arithmetic in favor of his personal system of math that he calls “Terryology.” In an interview with Rolling Stone, Howard defined how he believes 1×1=2. “If one occasions one equals one, that implies that two is of no worth as a result of one occasions itself has no impact. One occasions one equals two as a result of the sq. root of 4 is 2, so what’s the sq. root of two? Needs to be one, however we’re advised it’s two, and that can not be,” he advised the publication in 2015 about an argument he had with a professor when he studied chemical engineering at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He stated he left faculty shortly after. “I imply, you’ll be able to’t conform when you recognize innately that one thing is flawed.”
6.
Jaden Smith has pushed some very odd theories all through his life. In a single occasion, he advised HuffPost that he believed there was a real-life Wakanda the place the know-how was light-years forward of something we’re conscious of. “I’ll hold it actual broad and easy, actual broad and easy. The know-how that we’re presently at isn’t the utmost of the human functionality,” he stated, “and that there are locations on the earth the place their know-how supersedes what we see right here each day. It’s made by people, and it needs to be acknowledged, and it needs to be checked out as a result of it may heal loads of issues.”
7.
We may have an entire standalone checklist of conspiracy theories President Donald Trump has pushed, however just lately, he claimed that using Tylenol in pregnant ladies is linked to autism.
8.
One other member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, Kylie Jenner, additionally pushed a couple of conspiracy theories in her time. A decade in the past, she introduced again a fan-favorite from the ’90s: chemtrails. In a 2015 tweet, she shared a picture that posed a sequence of questions on chemtrails, which Vox describes as “skinny clouds that kind after a response between temperature modifications and water within the environment when jet plane fly round.” However Kylie’s submit instructed that the federal government was spraying chemical compounds into the sky, and it was having a destructive impact on our well being.
9.
Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine was definitely on the forefront of right-wing conspiracy theories earlier than the Trump administration normalized them. In 2012, the musician claimed that the Obama administration staged shootings to push their gun ban legal guidelines. “[Obama]’s attempting to move a gun ban, so he’s staging all of those murders, just like the Quick And Livid factor down on the border; [the massacre in] Aurora, Colorado, all of the those who have been killed there; and now the gorgeous individuals on the Sikh temple,” he stated, per The Hollywood Reporter.
10.
Rosie O’Donnell discovered herself in controversy over time as somebody who has been labeled a “9/11 truther.” She’s overtly said that she does not consider the official story of the tragic incident.
11.
This checklist would not be full with out together with a couple of COVID-19-related conspiracy theories. In 2021, Nicki Minaj shared an anecdote about her cousin’s associates that made her hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine with out additional analysis. “My cousin in Trinidad gained’t get the vaccine cuz his good friend acquired it & turned impotent. His testicles turned swollen. His good friend was weeks away from getting married, now the woman known as off the marriage. So simply pray on it & be sure to’re comfy with ur resolution, not bullied,” she tweeted.
12.
Ted Nugent has been on the forefront of local weather change denial, and has even gone so far as claiming it is a “rip-off.” “You need to have sh*t for brains to consider this international warming bullsh*t,” Nugent stated on his Spirit Campfire podcast. “If you happen to consider it, you might have sh** for brains. Whilst you have been sleeping, somebody opened your cranium and took a dump inside your cranium.” In that very same episode, he stated that individuals “should be mentally unwell to consider in electrical autos.”
13.
Roseanne Barr boldly embraced QAnon conspiracy theories in 2018. “President Trump has freed so many kids held in bondage to pimps throughout this world. A whole lot every month. He has damaged up trafficking rings in excessive locations in every single place. discover that. I disagree on some issues, however give him good thing about doubt-4 now,” she stated in a now-deleted tweet.”
14.
Elon Musk has used X to push numerous conspiracy theories since shopping for the platform. In 2023, Musk co-signed a submit on X that learn, “Jewish communities have been pushing the precise form of dialectical hatred towards whites that they declare to need individuals to cease utilizing towards them. I am deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that these hordes of minorities that assist flooding their nation do not precisely like them an excessive amount of.” In response, Musk wrote, “You may have stated the precise reality.”
15.
Hercules star Kevin Sorbo was amongst those that gave the impression to be in denial about those that stormed the Capitol on January 6. When somebody posted a photograph of among the individuals who swarmed the Capitol with the caption, “Do these seem like Trump supporters? Or Leftist agitators disguised as Trump supporters…” Sorbo, a staunch Trump supporter, wrote in response, “They don’t seem like patriots to me…”
