From Our Archives, Conspiracy Watch!

Test Ticker

THE FIRST $500,000

This is a big one: the first time we’re asking for the donations Mother Jones relies on since joining forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting. So in “Less Dreading, More Doing,” we lay it all out for you—why we merged, how we’re stronger together, and why we’re more optimistic than normal about the work ahead. It still won’t be easy. Please help us raise the First $500,000 we need by June 22.

This is big. Mother Jones just merged with the Center for Investigative Reporting, and this is the first time we’re asking for the donations we rely on. So we lay it all out for you in “Less Dreading, More Doing,” and we need to raise the First $500,000 in online donations by June 22. It won’t be easy. Please help if you can.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Each Friday, we bring you an article from our archives to propel you into the weekend.

For some time, there was a short, lively feature in this magazine called Conspiracy Watch. It did not have an exclamation point, but I read it as such: Conspiracy Watch!

Sometimes mimicking the zeal and verve of the conspiracy writers themselves, staff members would break down why a Lady Gaga music video was probably not an Illuminati plot or why it didn’t sound quite right that infamous superdollars (counterfeit bills traced back to North Korea) were, in fact, produced by the CIA. Each is affixed with a “kookiness rating”: “1=maybe they’re on to something, 5=break out the tinfoil hat!” CIA superdollars got a 3; Lady Gaga droning you into submission got a 5.

There are others to enjoy. Rumors of Operation Couch Potato, a plan to give us better TVs so we can sit on our butts and watch in high definition instead of overturning the government. And the idea that all the gold in Fort Knox is gone. A classic? The idea that the Mafia caused the stock market crash.