Conspiracy theories are everywhere, ranging from politics, to aliens, to deep sea creatures. But where did they come from? Why were they made? So many questions, but so few answers.

To answer these predicaments, let’s zero in on the trajectory of alien conspiracies. The majority of alien sightings center around unidentified flying objects, also known as UFOs. However, one alien conspiracy theory’s widespread acclaim sets it apart from the rest: Area 51. Officially, Area 51 is a top-secret Air Force base in Nevada, but to many, Area 51 is where the US government keeps aliens and conducts experiments on them. 

But how did the Area 51 craze start? On June 14th, 1947, a father and his son were driving around their ranch, located approximately 80 miles outside of Roswell, New Mexico, when they discovered something strange. There was a large area covered with bits of rubber, tin foil, tough paper, and sticks. Obviously this was a bit bewildering—imagine what you’d do if a bunch of rubble magically appeared on your property. Well, if you think like them, you’d drop off the rubble with the town sheriff—George Wilcox.

Wilcox was also taken aback, so he turned to Colonel Blanchard, who passed it to one of his superiors, General Roger W. Ramey. The general sent an intelligence officer to visit the ranch and collect the remains of the wreckage to do some research. While there, the officer released a public statement claiming that they’d discovered a crashed alien saucer. In reality, the wreckage was a crashed balloon from Project Mogul, a top secret project run by the US Air Force where high altitude weather balloons were set up with microphones in an attempt to spy on Soviet atomic bomb testing. After the statement, mass panic and hysteria set in, resulting in over 300 claims of UFO sightings during the latter half of 1947 alone.

1947 marked the start of a major event that kept the United States government busy and silent: the Cold War! As tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States continued to rise, the US didn’t have time to address the concerns of its citizens about aliens, and they couldn’t reveal Project Mogul to the public. This prolonged silence backfired in the long run; people grew suspicious that the government was purposely staying silent because the claims of aliens had some truth behind them. By the 1980s–1990s, the conspiracy had spread to mainstream media, where there was an explosion of books, shows, and movies about aliens.

As a result, aliens seeped into the minds of Americans and before anyone knew it, people turned on the United States government, suspicious that they were experimenting on and hiding aliens. Thus, the conspiracy theory that we know as Area 51 was invented. It started gaining traction after June 27, 2019, when a man named Matty Roberts posted the Facebook event, “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us.” Over a million people said they were interested in joining the raid on Area 51 to free the aliens from their cruel prison. A spokesperson for the Air Force warned people against the attempted raid, which worked out in the end as no one actually tried to enter the military base. While the majority of participants were aspiring internet stars, some genuinely believed that the government was forcibly keeping aliens. 

This brings us to our final question, how did one crash lead into an attempted raid on the United States government? The answer is simple: misinformation. Unlike what most people think, most misinformation is not always spread maliciously. Especially with regard to misinformation that leads to conspiracy theories, they can arise because people do not trust their government, and they want an explanation for the unexplainable. Similar to how religions are born, people saw something that they didn’t understand and looked for an answer. In Roswell’s case, the ranchers assumed extraterrestrial forces were behind the rubble because they didn’t know how else it would happen. While it may seem strange, people were more willing to accept the existence of aliens than face the fact that something may genuinely be unexplainable (while it wasn’t truly unexplainable, the US government wasn’t about to release classified information in the middle of the Cold War). 

Just as rumors spread like wildfire at HSMSE, these conspiracy theories spread all over the country. Eventually they evolved into more politically focused conspiracies, such as the idea that John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA and that 9/11 was staged by the government. In rare cases, political conspiracies have been true. One famous example is Watergate, when Richard Nixon and his administration were exposed for attempting to break into the Democratic National Committee offices and put recording devices everywhere (keep in mind this happened right before the presidential election).

While a lot of misinformation may not be spread with bad intentions, many people still believe it. Popular alien conspiracy theories can serve as warnings to think twice before saying or posting anything online: Something that may be a joke to you could fuel fear and chaos in our society.