[protomyth]

> To be very clear, I don't actually believe this is what happened, but I quite like the idea...

I think that's the basic difference between a conspiracy crackpot[1] and a novelist.

1) sadly, as I read more history, a lot more of the "crackpot" than I am comfortable with was actually the truth. People do some strange things for some very odd reasons with some seriously poor logistic skills.

[wlievens]

Can you list any good examples? I can't think of any right away

[TeMPOraL]

US military spraying SF bay with bacterial agents during Cold War without anyone knowing as a way to test the potential impact of biological attacks. At least one person died of an unlucky post-operation infection with that sprayed bacteria because the doctors couldn't figure out in time that he got sick with something that shouldn't even be there.

My guess is stories like that is what started the whole "chemtrails" thing.

[mirimir]

ECHELON. Parallel construction. XKeyscore. CMU relay early exploit on Tor. Equation Group HDD firmware exploits.

[xyzzy123]

Project MKUltra, Tuskagee, Operation "Green Run", "Igloo White"...

[ethbro]

M28 Davy Crockett, Project 705 / Alfa submarines, Operation Gladio, Duga radar, Project Sanguine / ZEVS, Project Azorian, SOSUS, TACAMO

Notably, most of those are answers to "How can we throw money at something to mitigate the risk of getting nuked?"

[protomyth]

ECHELON is probably the biggest (for tech) of the "oh, that couldn't be true" conspiracy theories that ended up being true. The whole release of information on it constitutes a big jolt to the head on what people will actually do.

[stonemetal]

>I read more history

None of those are in a history book.

[protomyth]

History is not just written in history books.

[stonemetal]

If someone says they are specifically reading about history, then that suggests they are reading history books.

[protomyth]

I guess if you want to limit yourself to one delivery type. Its amazing how many old newspapers, transcripts of speeches & conversations, letters, and reports are available today that weren't in the past. Heck, scroll translations are also out there.

The world is an amazing place and people have written in many forms for a long time.

[mirimir]

There's far better access to primary sources now. Also, books about history have frequently been biased.