Photos The weirdest American conspiracy theories Cheapism

In the 1950s, the U.S. government conspired with the tobacco industry to conceal the connection between smoking and cancer from the American public. The CIA and similar organizations conspired to conduct ghastly experiments on unwitting American citizens in programs like Project MK-Ultra and the Tuskegee experiments. Many conspiracies are real and they’re often quite scary — a fact that compels some people to look for them where none actually exist. Conspiracy theorists were once relegated to the sidelines as eccentrics in tin-foil hats. Thanks to the Internet, however, today’s top conspiracy theorists enjoy huge followings and sometimes even the presumption of credibility all the way up to the highest levels of government and the media. Here’s a look at the conspiracy theories that — like Elvis and Tupac — refuse to die.

Related: 27 Times Companies Tried to Trick Consumers

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from msnNOW can be found here ***