I’ll go first: r/kitty. One of the hundred grillion cat subs back on Reddit, the culture in this one was you posted a cat picture, and the only word allowed in the title or in any comments or replies was “Kitty.”

Someone is using that subreddit for covert communications, I just know it. Either on the level of “if u/PM_me_your_nostrils posts an orange cat, we attack at dawn!” or there’s some steganography going on with the pictures, but that subreddit was too stupid to be as active as it was.

  • @[email protected]
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    That Absolute, see also here, is something nefarious, possibly used for industrial espionage. My company is a client and using one of its IP addresses, I could see documentation that was quite concerning. In the background, it checks all of your files for anything that looks like a password, a social security number or a credit card number, then uploads these files to some server to protect them… What’s really weird is that I cannot access the same information from an outside IP address, but here’s a review, corroborating parts of it. Make of it what you will!

  • @GoofSchmoofer
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    21 hour ago

    Just posted about this in a different thread:

    The US senators: mitch mcconnell, ted cruz, and lindsey graham used fraud to win their respective seats in 2020. All three were in tight races according to the polls but all three won with bigger margins than was to be expected.

    This idea came from a few articles that were discussing this issue a few days after the election, then those articles all just disappeared.

    Maybe the articles disappeared because there was no fraud

    Maybe the articles disappeared because there was?

  • @[email protected]
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    163 hours ago

    Also related to reddit, since that’s where I was always inundated with this shit, before moving here: the constant stream of Genshin Impact leaks that come out, that the whole obnoxious subculture is built around, are just released by Mihoyo, intentionally, under the guise of all the anonymous leakers that constantly come and go. Seems to me like the only explanation for how CONSTANTLY leaks come out, and how they’re basically never actually damaging to the game or the company, while being REALLY effective at stirring up obsession in the fanbase, and driving people to invest more time and money into the game to be prepped to get the next new character immediately on release.

    Also how so many of the leakers would release extremely accurate stats and numbers, but then drop statements like “if I release any more than this, I’d be risking my safety” or “since everyone’s been asking about it, I’ll go ahead and confirm X, but after this I’m gonna have to go on hiatus for a while, until things cool down”. Seems like nonsense meant to either inflate the leaker’s ego, or rile up the fanbase.

  • @[email protected]
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    32 hours ago

    Mine is most conspiracy Youtubers don’t believe the bullshit they push. Its all about the money.

  • Stern
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    134 hours ago

    Personal reddit conspiracy theory as to why image hosting is on site:

    1. r/fatpeoplehate exists, does its thing (hating fat people)
    2. They get some images removed from imgur, the image host du juor of reddit at the time.
    3. They go on the offensive and start harassing fat imgur workers.
    4. The subreddit gets banned.
    5. Under a year later, reddit puts in image uploading.

    My theory is that 3 resulted in imgur hitting up reddit and threatening to block the site if they didn’t reign in fatpeoplehate. Reddit did, by 4, because the alternative was no images and that would absolutely fuck reddit up. This in turn leads to 5 to prevent that powerplay again.

  • @RegalPotoo
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    63 hours ago

    Not mine, but there is a certain compelling logic to this: https://bruces.medium.com/the-mysterious-visit-of-mr-babbage-by-bruce-sterling-2017-7c941028c4d8

    tl;dr - accepted history is that Charles Babbage designed a series of mechanical computers in the mid 1800s, and the underlying theory behind them would go on to influence work a century later when the technology had caught up to the idea, but they were never built. There are a bunch of coincidences and unexplained meetings that suggest that maybe he sold his plans to Italy who then built one of his designs in secret. This is also supported by modern attempts to build a computer from his plans - there was 1 measurement wrong across tens of thousands of parts, and it worked perfectly. Babbage was a skilled engineer but to get all that correct, on the first go, entirely from theory is maybe a bit much

  • @Thrillhouse
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    My city has a local company that rents storage units and they have entirely too many locations relative to the population of our city such that I believe they’re a criminal enterprise. I believe they construct so many new buildings for money laundering purposes and to facilitate human trafficking and drug running out of them.

    Breaking news, I just googled them and one of the owners was convicted in his 20s of trying to sell poached falcons to Saudi Arabian royalty. The plot thickens.

    • Dharma Curious (he/him)
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      275 hours ago

      We have a computer repair shop in my town that does not do computer repair. Ask them if they can fix something, the answer is always “we don’t do that.” Even simple shit like screen repair on cell phones, which they have signs on their windows saying they do. “We don’t do that.” My landlord owns the local radio station, he says they’ve tried to get them to do computer repair for them. “we don’t do that.” Factory I worked out tried them. “We don’t do that” Friend needed keyboard repaired on laptop. “We don’t do that” I’m so convinced at this point that whenever I meet a local business owner I ask them who they use for any computer repair, and it’s always the same answer as to why they don’t use this one place, that’s a big store, in the only strip mall in town. They only have one dude in the store, who’s constantly got some right wing radio or YouTuber on. There’s no other employees, no reasonable way they’re affording the outrageous rent for such prime real estate. There aren’t many businesses in this town, and almost all of them use someone from the bigger city 35 minutes away

      On top of all of that, there used to be a Mexican grocery store in town (in the same parking lot, in fact) that never actually sold any food, and would always say they were closed if you walked in. They got shut down because they were apparently part of a group that was bringing in undocumented workers. The dude who owns the computer repair place is the cousin of the guy who owned the Mexican grocery store.

      • @GoofSchmoofer
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        41 hour ago

        What always confuses me is why don’t they hire a few people that actually do repair and take the business? It seems like a simple way to keep the locals from getting suspicious.

      • @[email protected]
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        64 hours ago

        There used to be a very similar shop near me that was actually just a front for selling cannabis.

      • @Today
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        12 hours ago

        I would like to see Tulsa King walk in there with a water bottle and confront that guy.

    • @NeoNachtwaechter
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      65 hours ago

      Look around for donkeys.

      Forgers and tricksters often have mixed the falcon meat with donkey meat (cheaper, because easier to catch), at a ratio 1:1, that is, one falcon, one donkey.

  • @[email protected]
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    305 hours ago

    I think that people being in overly light polluted areas for their entire lives is or at least is a major part of what’s wrong with society these days.

    When you go out at night and look at a sky completely filled with stars it makes you feel a certain way. Full of wonder, small, curious. Conversations always go in the “what if” or “what do you think about” sort of direction. It really puts you in your place in a strangely calm, thoughtful , and healthy way. And the more you can see, the better. If the Milky Way is visible it just puts you in awe.

    People don’t get to experience that very often, if at all, when they live in a populated area.

    I think that is by design.

    If you cannot just go outside and get that huge feeling of idk existential wonder, you’re going to get hard coded into your personal fears and beliefs and all that whatnot. This drives the population apart. Meanwhile, all forms of light pollution measures are either deemed too expensive or just not enforced. At least in my area. And large amounts of the population live somewhat close to an airport. Never really gets dark at night near an airport…

    Anyways that’s my ted talk about how light bulbs are ripping society apart by its very fibers. Next up is how ceilings are a conspiracy to keep the poors underfoot if anyone wants to hear it.

    • @hperrin
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      Cities tend to be more light polluted, but less racially divided than rural areas, though.

      I think it’s more about exposure. If you’re never exposed to a certain kind of people, some people just won’t trust them.

    • @Thrillhouse
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      145 hours ago

      Take it one step further and that sense of wonder is why I feel the powers that be reacted swiftly to squash psychedelics and shut down all research into them, unless the research benefitted the national security cartel, of course.

      It’s difficult for rulers to maintain capitalist control when you can eat a piece of paper and have the wonders of the universe revealed to you and realize that it’s supposed to be about loving other humans. Makes neverending consumption and 9-5 work seem really lame in comparison.

  • NaibofTabr
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    245 hours ago

    Elon Musk is not an idiot. He was hired by other rich people like the Saudis to destroy Twitter, to prevent further incidents of public protest organization like what happened in Egypt and the Occupy movement. The degradation of the platform is intentional, and the amplification of right-wing voices helps to chase left-leaning social activists off of the platform. There is no equivalent platform for in-the-moment organization of protests.

    • @[email protected]
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      12 hours ago

      Okay, my conspiracy is that this is a conspiracy by Elon so people think he’s an evil genius instead of the bumbling, idea-stealing moron with an inflated budget that he really is.

      The only reason Bluesky isn’t more active is because it isn’t as active, which is becoming less of an issue by the day. And I STILL see activists gathering on twitter.

    • @hperrin
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      195 hours ago

      If Cybertruck weren’t a thing, I might believe you.

    • @Valmond
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      105 hours ago

      People who thinks musk, trump, putin etc are stupid are … stupid I guess.

      They usually have mental problems like narcissism or psycopathy and lack all kind of feelings but stupid? No.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 hours ago

        No, they can be all those things at the same time. Heck, it helps to be all three.

        It was narcissism that made Musk want to buy twitter, but stupidity that made him think it would stop people from mocking him. And he came up with naming it X, so that’s more evidence.

        The only reason the world didn’t realise he was an idiot sooner was because he had enough money to buy the ideas of smarter people.

  • @[email protected]
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    105 hours ago

    Alex Jones is a false flag crisis actor who’s job is to distract people from the real conspiracies.

  • @hperrin
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    115 hours ago

    They build our houses specifically to be inefficient at staying cool, then they sell us AC units and power to cool down our inefficient houses. They must be stopped.

    • Tired and bored
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      43 hours ago

      I’m sure my grandpa who built my house didn’t have a clue on climate efficiency lol. Nowadays in the country I live in, it’s mandatory to build efficient buildings

    • Ben Hur Horse Race
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      12 hours ago

      so your “They” are an organized cabal of architects, construction workers, manufacturers of air conditioners and power plant operators all working in tandem?

  • @[email protected]
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    256 hours ago

    Some US states that keep enacting highly unpopular anti-trans, anti-woke, sexist, racist legislation are doing it in an effort to get left-aligned people to move away and not consider going there, with the goal of skewing elections in their favor.

    • @jeffw
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      306 hours ago

      “We oppress minorities to scare them away” is hardly a novel tactic

      • kamenLady.
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        25 hours ago

        It might be one of the oldest type of conspiracy, that humans created when societies started to be a thing.

    • @Valmond
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      25 hours ago

      That’s why your electoral college is such a mess. IMO.

  • @toe
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    196 hours ago

    Despite being one of the highest earning movies of all time, no body watched James Cameron’s Avatar.

    • Captain AggravatedOP
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      135 hours ago

      I know a lot of people who went to see Avatar, I don’t know a soul who went to see the second one.

    • @FourPacketsOfPeanuts
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      146 hours ago

      I have never seen so much money spent on something so boring and predictable. Don’t get me started on Avatar 2, that was a 3 hour water simulation that still somehow managed to be naff because of annoying cartoony characters.

      My pet (very) silly theory is that both were a cover for military investment in fluid dynamics simulations and they had to hide hours of 3d renders and water simulations in plain sight.

    • @hperrin
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      75 hours ago

      I watched it in theaters six times. I love that movie. Sure, it’s the same story as like 6 other movies, but it’s got big sexy blue aliens.

    • kamenLady.
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      35 hours ago

      I never watched Avatar, because i know how it will be. There’s only a certain amount of special effects that can keep me focused on something that lacks in all other areas.

      • arefx
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        33 hours ago

        I tried watching it like 3 times and gave up after 30-40 minutes it’s so generic.

    • Brewchin
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      13 minutes ago

      I was dragged along to see it at the cinema in the (then) new 3D format (versus the old red/blue glasses).

      Took me 10 minutes to realise the story is Pocahontas, so I’ve always thought of it as Pocahontas Smurfs. And the 3D, while a cool novelty, gave me motion sickness something fierce.

      While clearly no money was spent on the script, it did move animation technology and adoption along quite a bit.

      Gobsmacked a sequel was made.

  • Andrew
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    156 hours ago

    There’s a user here, who was ‘101’ at reddthat, then piefed, then feddit.org, and was 911 at lemmynsfw, and is currently 911 at programming.dev, who posts a bunch of articles over a week or so, then deletes their account and moves on to another instance. They’re up to something, surely. (the only real downside to this behaviour - that I can think of - is that new instances won’t be able to get their posts, because Lemmy doesn’t return posts for deleted users)

  • @JusticeForPorygon
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    206 hours ago

    It might have just been botted, dead internet theory is more dead internet fact these days.