# 12. Secrecy ## 12.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 12.5.2. Conspiracy invention A manipulator can use the existence of one or more secrets about a particular issue to create and communicate credible alternative scripts to a victim or group. These alternative stories deliver a deceptive and manipulative payload. However, they rely entirely on the existence of an environment of secrecy to be effective. When some agency or institution is being secretive on an issue of topical interest, it is relatively easy for a manipulator to "sell" a properly fabricated conspiracy theory to the victim or public, provided that the theory is both credible and contains some real facts. Even if a conspiracy theory is incomplete, a manipulator can still deliver powerful innuendos about "the secrets they are not telling us". The innuendos may or may not be true, but they can be designed to serve the interests of the manipulator at the expense of gullible victims. Here is just a very small selection of currently popular conspiracy theories, some plainly far fetched, some quite plausible: > - The US government is collaborating with extra-terrestrials to abduct and indoctrinate citizens > - The British royal family and Bush family, amongst others, are actually alien reptiles who require periodic supplies of human blood to exist. > - Fluoridation was pioneered by a German chemical company to make people submissive to those in power > - HIV was created by the CIA. It is thought to have been created as a tool of genocide and/or population control > - Pharmaceutical companies are in league with some medical practitioners to "invent" new diseases, such as HSV, HPV and even HIV to maintain their income stream > - Venezuelan state-run TV station has claimed that the 2010 Haiti earthquake was caused by US government weapons testing, and a government cover-up took place > - Electric car technology has been largely suppressed by big oil and gas firms. > - A global community of agricultural and biological scientists has conspired to fabricate scientific evidence supporting the safety and benefit of genetically modified food crops, whilst suppressing evidence suggesting the dangers of these crops. All of the above conspiracy theories, however whacko, do point at some real facts, despite their often extreme conclusions. Some conspiracy theories are totally nonsense, some are more fact than fantasy and some are actually almost certainly completely true but have not yet been accepted as such.