The $5 bet doesn't belong with the others. The "conspiracy theory" was that the world was round. The world being flat was what was believed by the non-theorizing masses. The world being round is one of many cases of the conspiracy theory eventually becoming accepted fact.

Another "conspiracy theory" becoming accepted fact is the original claim that the USS Maine was sunk by the Spanish. This event was used to sell the Spanish American War to the American public. The "conspiracy theory" at the time was that the Spanish did not sink the ship and that it was an inside job done to sell war to the American public. There were books written promoting this "conspiracy theory" in the years following the war, but the majority of Americans believed the official story until many decades later. In the early 1970s congress finally did a new investigation where they determined that the Spanish were not responsible, and that the "conspiracy theory" was indeed fact. By the time I was in public school in the 1980s, there were already sections in my American History text books on this, and we learned about how this war was sold to the American public and the part William Randolph Hearst and "yellow journalism" played.

As for your $4 example, the official government investigation in the 1970s by the House Select Committee determined that JFK was not assassinated by a lone gunman, and that there was a conspiracy. So yes, I believe that.

Your $1, $2, and $3 examples you would be wrong about. If you want to send me the $6, I'll give you my paypal account.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...