Conspiracy theory

Conspiracy theories are modelled explanations for an event or situation which assert the existence of a conspiracy by powerful and sinister groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.

Although the label of "conspiracy theory" has been used to de-legitimize the discussion of factual conspiratorial crimes, the term also describes a type of volatile subculture which appeals to hateful extremists and preys on the emotions of vulnerable people. Conspiracy theories commonly arise when societal problems with complicated structural origins are blamed on the hypothetical subversive influence of a particular group. Some stem from a shared oppositional unwillingness to accept particular facts. Others are deliberately constructed to manipulate cultural narratives in service of a political or personal agenda. Even innocuous fringe beliefs born from sincere misunderstanding tend to be absorbed into larger, more political conspiracy movements over time.

High-control institutions, cult leaders, and reactionary movements generally espouse conspiracy theories they designed or adopted with the goal of isolating and controlling people. Individuals who have internalized many conspiracy theories may experience difficulty interacting with normal society, resulting in their further isolation. Outspoken conspiracy theorists often find validation in negative attention.

The term also carries strong pop cultural connotations, and is often disparagingly associated with drug use, cryptozoology, sedition, insurgency, and extraterrestrial theory. Additionally, many conspiracy theories are based directly on popular science fiction and vice-versa, which often leads conspiratorial thinkers to treat pop media as something designed to be "decoded" for geopolitical prophecy, melting the barrier between reality and fiction in their minds.

Various examples exist throughout the setting of individuals or organizations who have espoused conspiracy thought or been accused of doing so. Fallout's world also contains allusions to well-known "gonzo" conspiracy theories in service of the setting's satirical anachronism, themes of Cold War paranoia, and overall surreal pulpy tone.

Examples[]

Lore involving conspiracy thought[]

• Many small groups throughout the setting express conspiratorial thought in service of an influential cult leader of some sort. Some ambitious leaders tap into religious movements such as Atom worship or Christianity to attract and influence devotees.
• Some individuals in the wasteland still enthusiastically consume and endorse pre-War government propaganda, or its post-War extension, Enclave propaganda.^[1] They may align themselves with abstract political figures or blame problems on a non-existent foreign influence.
• In Fallout, Greg at the Boneyard constantly hears voices, which terrifies him. He has access to a medication which dulls the voices, but he distrusts it and refuses to take it. He believes someone is coming to get him, and taking the medication will leave him vulnerable.^[2]
• Established in Fallout 2, the Hubologists are a dynastic cult based on science fiction concepts and social manipulation, parodying the history and structure of Scientology. They utilize an odd, invasive procedure called a "zeta scan" to assess individuals' physiological wellbeing and cleanse their brains of the spirits of the dead.^[3][4]
  • In Nuka-World, they are shown to wear tinfoil suits and possess a single genuine alien blaster.
• The pallid mutant Slags are stated to descend from a secretive pre-War militia.^[5]
  • Given the cultural context of Fallout 2 as a game developed in California in 1998, this may have been inspired by the conspiratorial "American militia movement," which would have been in the news. The game is also set in the region of California and Oregon, where the movement was prevalent.
• Some lore in Point Lookout concerns Turtledove Detention Camp and Executive Order 99066, paralleling the real-world American Japanese internment camps and Executive Order 9066, which imprisoned American citizens of Asian descent during World War II on suspicion of being spies, agents, or infiltrators.^[6]
• In Mothership Zeta, Quaere Verum is a pre-War organization who were targeted by the government due to their research into aliens and plasma weapons. They believed the government was concealing the existence of alien life; they were correct, and were killed off for attempting to reveal this.
• Lone Wolf Radio in Fallout: New Vegas is a trailer where a pre-War conspiratorial radio station was headquartered.
• No-bark Noonan is a raving elderly man who lives alone in a shack in Novac, an extreme depiction of the archetypical "crazy conspiracy theorist." More-or-less every one of No-Bark's lines corresponds to some insight into the lore, but he expresses these truths so cryptically, metaphorically, and obliquely as to be useless.
• Similarly, Harry Collins in Nipton was a paranoiac who believed that Mayor Steyn and other townspeople were attempting to steal his "vital essence." Collins barricaded himself into his house and set up countless traps and defenses to keep people out.^[7]
  • When Caesar's Legion destroyed the town, Collins was killed, but two dead Legionaries can be found on the floor of his home.
• Internal memos within the H&H Tools factory depict Anthony House as highly paranoid, even believing people were attempting to steal his "thought energy." One memo reminded employees that they were forbidden from cohabiting, colluding, or cogitating with any of the following groups: foreigners, Masons, carpenters, Tragic players, illegal aliens, extraterrestrials, and the Flemish.^[8] He was obsessed with a vast and intense global conspiracy, and aggressively inflicted his beliefs on his employees.
  • As of Fallout 76, Zetans are known to harvest thought energy.^[9]
• In Diamond City, Piper Wright publishes a newspaper alleging Mayor McDonough to be an Institute asset. She is written as a somewhat paranoid and obsessive character, but her theory is ultimately proven correct.
  • Piper strongly believed synths had replaced citizens within Diamond City. Her insistent propagation of these theories without evidence could be considered a conspiratorial call for violence.
  • When the Sole Survivor arrived at Diamond City in 2287, they witnessed a man named Kyle accuse his brother Riley of being a synth at gunpoint, reflecting the consequences of widespread conspiratorial belief. If they do not intervene by killing Kyle, he will be shot by a Diamond City security officer.
• Soup Can Harry was a homeless Bostonian man who strongly distrusted the government. He believed the government was misusing taxpayer money to fund secret "Illuminati free mason sex parties." These normally undesirable qualities made Vault-Tec select him to become the overseer of Vault 114,^[10] as it fit the Vault's experiment of having a leader with strong anti-authority bias in a Vault filled with upper-class residents.
• Many Children of Atom view themselves as persecuted by the outside world, and it is not uncommon for them to believe they were individually selected by a higher spiritual authority to be blessed with special powers.^[11]
  • The Children of Atom are an apocalyptic cult, in that they believe the end of reality is imminent. Some endeavor to accelerate this event, which they call the Great Division, through radiation-based acts of violence.
  • If the Sole Survivor offends Mother Isolde, she may disparagingly refer to outsiders as "mortals."^[11]
  • The creator-god Atom evokes the biblical Adam, a figure often emphasized in patriarchal Christian high-control groups.
• In Far Harbor, Sister Gwyneth experienced a traumatizing spiritual revelation, and began to preach that "NOTHING is real."
• Roger Maxson can be heard on holotape in Fallout 76. He uses the fear of "politicians" to argue for the consolidation of his power, though the game presents his ideology as rational given the existence and motives of the Appalachian Enclave.^[12] His charismatic speech pattern and rhetoric evoke a cult leader.
• American propaganda in Fallout 76 claims that the Chinese were building a counterpart to Liberty Prime. The claim is not obviously credible as presented, and the propaganda illustration depicts a very frightening design.
• During the quest Patriotism Training at Camp McClintock Infantry Training Camp, the player must perform an Army training exercise: a simulated search on the bedrooms of three children to determine which is the communal thinker, and therefore communist sympathizer. The player must turn in the boy who plans to encourage his father and his friends' fathers to stay home from work. The damning terminal entry is called "Pop was coughing again". The Army was training soldiers to search the bedrooms of American children to protect coal mining corporations from labor unions.
  • This is direct and literal McCarthyism. Organized action to aid the lower class is cast as Communism, which is equivocated to violence. In this way, any humanitarian interest may be framed as theoretical violence of a foreign nature, which may be met with material violence administered by the federal state.
  • One of the three fictional children has a Chinese name, but is innocent of communist sympathy. This detail reads as a red herring which would play on the expected conspiratorial prejudice of some recruits.
• There was a secret chapel beneath the Mothman Museum, where cryptid enthusiasts worshipped the Mothman for an unknown period of time before the War.
  • Jeff Lane was a conspiracy theorist^[13] who worked at the Mothman Museum.^[14][15] It is unclear if Lane had permission to access the hidden chapel.^[15] He was not among the Mothman cultists who fled Point Pleasant on the eve of the War, and lingered in his apartment.^[13] His vague beliefs developed into the notion that he had personally been chosen as the conduit for the will of an intangible higher being.^[13][16] He was inspired to leave Point Pleasant by the words of a mad storyteller, who gave a name to this supposed entity: "the Interloper."^[13] Lane ultimately arrived at the Lucky Hole Mine alone and gave himself to the Interloper after sleeping at the mouth of the cave.^[16]
  • A comic book or pulp novel can usually be found on the lectern at the chapel within the Lucky Hole Mine, suggesting the Cult of the Mothman would discuss popular science fiction here in a religious or historical context. This randomized book was not removed upon the cultists' return in Wastelanders. They now gather in the chapel, apparently holding mass, while the book remains present on the pulpit.
• Fallout 76 lore implies pre-War cryptid enthusiasts postulated a connection between the government and the Mothman, as well as mind-control.
  • There is a large Sugar Grove insignia in a display case at the Mothman Museum. Sugar Grove was a government blacksite where mind-control experiments were performed.
  • Introduced in the Wild Appalachia update, Cryptid Hunter Monthly is a publication local to West Virginia which speculates on conspiracy theories and celebrates paranormal thought, especially cryptozoology. In the January issue, editor Julia H. Park speculates that the government "may be working with the Mothman to hypnotize doctors." Her theory is presented as outrageous and comically contrived. A copy of this issue can be found in Jeff Lane's apartment.
  • KMAX Transmission was the headquarters for a radio station affiliated with Vault-Tec University. In a poorly-typed terminal entry, the host drafted a monologue in which he laments that Professor Angus Dykstra, a Mothman expert, has been denied the opportunity to speak at several colleges throughout the state. The radio host believed the Mothman was of scientific note in the field of biology, and blamed the suppression of this position on "The Conspiracy."^[17]
    • A cultist settlement called Blake's Offering was established mere yards up the road in 2103.
• Michael Blake was an employee of Vault-Tec University who studied the Mysterious Guidestones but offered no confident theory as to their origin. He kept his notes on the matter in offline digital storage out of paranoia.^[18]
• The Truth Seekers were a group of paranormal investigators who formed as early as 2060 and were active up to the time of the Great War.^[19]
  • Calvin van Lowe was a Bysshe Company employee who used his confidential company work to pursue his own interest in the Sheepsquatch. He would go on to change his name, hide his face with a mask, and speak with an affected voice after being grievously wounded by the accidental activation of a Sheepsquatch robot's "mating protocol."
  • Scoot Conroy's ultimate fate was to become a wendigo mutant after eating human flesh, superficially embodying one of the cryptids he once speculated upon.
  • Shelby O'Rourke was the daughter of a cryptozoologist, and continued her father's work. Drawings of UFOs can be found in various places associated with this person.
• Professor Greebley believed he could "punch a hole in the fabric of our reality" to go "skipping across timelines" using a modified monorail pylon, riding the public transit vehicle as his "chariot" to "slipstream through dimensions."^[20]
  • He published (or at least recorded) a press release in which he acknowledges that people have mocked his theories and called him "foolish." His casual mention of "the traditional and often clumsy use of gravity for time travel" conveys that Greebley believes the existence of time travel is commonly accepted.
    • He either declared his intention to use the monorail for time travel before the War, or recorded a press release post-War. There is precedent for a post-War press release: the Speaker Poole interview was a post-War conference conducted by the press of the Charleston Emergency Government.
  • Several people lived at Pylon V-13 for a long period of time in the pre-Plague period.^[21][22] There are six beds and five bodies here.^[22] Four of the skeletons are wearing lab coats, the fifth is dressed as an engineer.
  • The pylon itself could be expediently described as a large, crude, broken portal. It has discharged electricity about four times per minute without interruption since its rediscovery in 2102.
  • In 2103, cultists began gathering at the nearby lake and killing themselves at night.
• In Wastelanders, Munch is a friendly, aging raider who openly treats history with poetic license, and writes down incorrect historical accounts as if they were truth. His stories read as satirical explanations of mysteries within Fallout's lore, steeped in pulp and fringe conspiracy thought.
• The Raider Punk is a unique, fully-developed CAMP ally who is nonetheless only known as Raider Punk.
  • He spends his time communicating with a "Radio Network" of cryptid hunters, and expresses paranoid thoughts, such as the existence of some organized effort to kill cryptid hunters.
  • He also associates with someone known only as the Psychic.
  • He believes in "lights in the sky" which represent communication and "intent."
• Tin foil hats can be found in Fallout 76, as well as tin foil conspiracy suits which increase the wearer's intelligence and perception.
  • A tin foil hat can be found near a radio in the ruins of Allegheny Asylum, in the vicinity of an altar which reads "NOTHING is real."
  • The paranoid refugee introduced in Expeditions: The Pitt wears a tin foil hat.
• Homer Saperstein is an allegedly human recluse who spends his life studying aliens. Only communicating with the player through voice, his script leaves his true nature ambiguous. He could hypothetically be a disguised or hybridized Zetan, a curious visitor from elsewhere, or a very cautious autistic person.

Lore inspired by or resembling conspiracy theories[]

• The Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) was the result of a secret biological weapons program which sought to control evolution itself. The inciting incident of the first game's story was Roger Maxson's discovery of the FEV project at Mariposa Military Base immediately before the bombs fell, which prompted his formal secession from the United States and subsequent creation of the Brotherhood of Steel.
• The Glow was a pre-War underground West Tek research site where scientists conducted top-secret experiments.
  • The site resembles the broad conspiratorial legends of Area 51 and the hypothetical Dulce Base.
  • An alien body can be found behind a computer. The developers placed it there to convey the esoteric nature of this particular facility.^{[Non-game 1]}
  • A Brotherhood of Steel soldier named Camarillo went insane at the Glow for no obvious reason, leading to the deaths of his squadmates.^[23]
• The text of Fallout's UFO crash special encounter clarifies that the UFO was once housed at Area 51.
  • The fuzzy painting found at the crash is a reference to infamous theories in which Elvis was abducted by aliens.
    • Decades prior, Brother Scarberry investigated a light which fell from the sky and found only a fuzzy painting.^[24]
• The Enclave introduced in Fallout 2 are a conspiratorial premise, a "shadow government" within the government who prepared for and accelerated the Great War with disregard for human life, American or otherwise.
  • It has been variously implied that Vault-Tec was a public-facing function of the Enclave. In Fallout 2, Enclave civilians wear Vault suits. The sinister Vault experiment project (also established in Fallout 2) is an audacious depiction of a massive, cruel government conspiracy.
• The Institute is an omnipresent surveillance agency, headquartered in an underground base, which deliberately sows anarchy among outsiders by replacing people with synthetic android doubles. This premise is thoroughly conspiratorial, and resembles real-world fringe theories involving clones or imposters replacing certain people.
  • The synth conflict which drives Fallout 4's worldbuilding superficially evokes McCarthyism, a paranoid and conspiratorial worldview.
• The lore of Robert House is a pulpy, folkloric satirization of the esoteric legacies of Howard Hughes and Walt Disney, critiquing these figures' politics and ambitions while indulging in urban legends pertaining to them.
  • His project of preserving the Strip as an autonomous city-state parallels Disney's vision of EPCOT as a self-sustaining "city of tomorrow." EPCOT ultimately became a very large amusement park.
  • His life support machine parallels the urban legend that Disney's brain was cryogenically frozen.
    • The Nuka-World character John-Caleb Bradberton is based on the same legend.
  • House's portrait resembles both men, and Hughes had a habit of raising his left eyebrow in photographs.
  • His mummy-like appearance in the life support chamber is based on Hughes' radical change in appearance later in life, when he was photographed with long, sharpened index fingernails. Hughes grew a wild beard, which became whispy and white, resembling House's cobweb-like facial hair.
  • House's demise due to "microbes" is an ironic fate in light of Hughes' infamous germophobia.
• Both House brothers satirize libertarianism. The matter of Anthony's all-consuming conspiratorial worldview and abuse of power over his employees is an expression of this theme. Anthony House was a manic conspiracy theorist, as established in the previous section. He was very vocal about his fringe worldview.^[8] He saw the world as a network of foreigners, space aliens, and Masons, who colluded to steal his energy.^[8] He forbid his subordinates from living with foreigners and space aliens, among other groups.^[8] He is unmistakably a caricature of a modern wealthy "deep-end" American conspiracy theorist, unable to extricate his understanding of geopolitics from archetypical legends, highly specific propaganda, urban myths, and personal superstitions.
• Constance Blackhall was a powerful occultist highly influential in the Point Lookout area. Her brother Richard Dunwich managed several properties through his mining corporation with the ulterior motive of digging for mysterious prehistoric artifacts.
  • Ominous art deco sculptures adorn certain pre-War architecture throughout the setting. In Fallout 4, one was excavated from very deep underground at Dunwich Borers. In Fallout 76 and its updates, four more of these "precursor" sites were found at locations pertaining to occultism, psychic disturbance, and anomalous events. A very deteriorated sculpture is displayed behind a velvet rope in Atlantic City.
    • One recreation of these sculptures is displayed very prominently in the lobby of RobCo Research Center. Half-finished recreations can be seen at Watoga and the Ash Heap estates.
  • The Blackhall family are tied to the Krivbeknih, a tome of dark power. An unknown Ranger once attempted to sell the book to the Brotherhood, but their scribes refused to receive it. His son Jaime Palabras later lost his mind and became a ghoul at the altar beneath the Dunwich Building.
  • The Cabot family are also interested in esoteric prehistoric artifacts and buried cities.
    • Lorenzo's Hero Card in Fallout Shelter Online depicts him releasing a wave of energy from his art deco crown in front of one of the art deco sculptures mentioned above.
      • Further Fallout Shelter Online lore establishes Dunwich Borers as the cause of Pickman's madness, depicts Lorenzo as being directly interested in Dunwich Borers, and invites a connection between Dunwich and Kingsport Lighthouse, a nearby Atomite location also named for the Lovecraft mythos.
    • Jack Cabot may leave the Commonwealth in search of an alien ruin beneath the Mojave.
    • The Cabots are based on the real-world historic Cabot family of the area, who are tied to occultism and the town of Salem.
  • In Winter of Atom, a prophet declaring himself the Last Son of Atom gained access to an ancient psychic city miles beneath Boston, through a sprawling government facility hidden within a Catholic church. The facility was once overseen by the prophet's direct ancestor, the occultist General Whately. The Last Son radicalized Children throughout the Glowing Sea and the Commonwealth. He was probably killed when the City of Atom collapsed in the Winter of 2286.
  • This lore broadly expresses "ancient aliens" theories through cosmic horror tropes and allusions to the Lovecraft mythos.
• Zetan lore generally resembles real-world theories pertaining to "grey" aliens, an extension of the alien lore from the original Fallout.
  • Giles Wolstencroft was a powerful man overseeing the construction of Vault 76. According to a tape found in Mothership Zeta, he was abducted by aliens before the War and never heard from again.^[25]
  • The National Radio Astronomy Research Center is a location where employees disappeared after discussing apparent alien transmissions they were receiving from deep space.^[26]
  • An apparent Zetan character named Cynnoc appears in the pre-War franchise The Atomic Chronicles of K.D. Inkwell, implying some kind of connection between aliens and pre-War media so bluntly as to be comedic.
  • The Emissary is based on the urban legend of the Men in Black.
• The Mysterious Guidestones introduced in Fallout 76: Wastelanders constitute a monument of potential alien origin, inscribed with strange symbols. It parallels conspiracy theories related to aliens building ancient monuments such as Stonehenge, which it closely resembles. It also resembles the real-world Georgia Guidestones, a very large modern sculpture which was associated with Satanic and New World Order conspiracy theories. The sculpture was demolished in 2022.
  • Fans variously deciphered the inscriptions as a sort of pictographic language or map.
    • It was believed to communicate the message "WE HAVE TRAVELLED FAR" and "LISTEN FOR OUR SIGNAL" among other similarly vague notions.
    • Its faces were compiled into a single formation, which was compared to the layout of Cranberry Bog, with a symbol at the center possibly representing Watoga.
  • The site is widely considered foreshadowing for the Invasion from Beyond update. Steel Dawn directly foreshadowed the update by including hidden zetan corpses at Enclave Research Site J.
  • Fallout 76 also contains Carhenge, another unexplained site resembling Stonehenge.
• The Somnus Initiative at the government blacksite Sugar Grove is an MKUltra parallel. While MKUltra is a matter of historical fact, it is also very commonly tied to fringe conspiracy beliefs.
  • Mysterious agents tainted the water supply of nearby Huntersville with FEV, transforming the inhabitants into super mutants. This evokes stories pertaining to MKUltra's Operation Midnight Climax, in which civilians were dosed with experimental hallucinogens without their knowledge. Apocryphal stories related to Operation Midnight Climax are very common in conspiratorial thought.
  • In Fallout 76 lore, the pre-War cryptid enthusiasts who operated the Mothman Museum were interested in Sugar Grove.^[27] This is reflective of real-world conspiracy theories connecting Mothman and MKUltra, but does not reflect the contents and beliefs of the actual Mothman Museum.
• The conspiratorial connotations of the Mothman arise elsewhere in the lore;
  • Black Mountain Ordnance Works appears to be based on the famous federally-controlled "TNT Area" near Point Pleasant, West Virginia (officially the McClintic Wildlife Management Area) where Mothman and UFOs were commonly spotted in 1967. The site is famous for its subterranean metal domes, used in the testing of explosives. Mothman conspiracy theorists are known to speculate on a connection between government activity at McClintock and the 1967 UFO flap. In Fallout 76 lore, the sealed domes of Black Mountain contain alien materials.
  • The Smiling Man is Indrid Cold.
• The Mama Dolce's canned food company was a front for Chinese intelligence in D.C., and the Mama Dolce's Food Processing factory in the middle of Morgantown, West Virginia hides a very large pre-War Chinese secret base. This invokes the common conspiracy concept of a secret urban deep-underground military base, and resembles American propaganda related to implausibly vast and "sneaky" Communist plots. Subterfuge on this scale is unheard of in real life, and some of the lore seems logistically impossible as presented, somewhat satirizing the scenario in its audacity.
  • The Enclave continued to produce Liberators after capturing the production facility in order to manipulate the automated DEFCON and maintain the illusion of an ongoing Chinese invasion.

Behind the scenes[]

• Munch repeatedly mythologizes the crashed space station in which he lives, which is based on B.O.M.B.-001 from Van Buren.^{[Non-game 2][Non-game 3]}
• Pylon V-13 shares its initials with Project V13, a cancelled game which would have been called Fallout Online (or FOOL) on release. Its promotional materials repeatedly mentioned a character named Greeble. The word "greeble" is a design term, and it is pronounced like "Greebly."

Cut or unrealized lore based in conspiracy theory[]

• Avellone entertained the possibility of an Area 51 location for Fallout 2 consisting of nothing but the set for a fake moon landing.^{[Non-game 4]}
• In one of the first versions of Fallout 2, Lynette's talking head was supposed to be used for a spokesperson for a group of scientists living in the ruins of Area 51.
• The Van Buren character Diana Stone was a government-affiliated occultist.
• During the development of Fallout: New Vegas, it was suggested that there should be a conspiracy radio station, and that Art Bell should voice it.^{[citation needed]} Art Bell hosted Coast to Coast A.M., a long-running conspiracy-adjacent program.
  • This idea may have been related to the Lone Wolf Radio concept.
• The Great Division is an Atomite scripture cut from Fallout 4.
  • It would have condemned pre-War civilization for serving false gods and conspiring to wrap Atom's mortal gifts in the coils of a great copper wyrm.
  • It claims that Atom's bonds were broken through "his prophets," "and his trumpets soundeth as the breaking of the world."
  • The scripture ultimately calls for the division of the heretics who hid from the Eye of Atom, trapped in their ignorance.
    • "Trapped in their ignorance" is a phrase associated with Plato's Allegory of the Cave, a premise popular in conspiratorial rhetoric. This line directly conflates Vaults with Plato's metaphorical cave.
  • It frames Vault Dwellers on the surface as having been driven forth from their pits by Atom for judgement.

See also[]

• Auditory hallucinations
• Cryptids
• Themes in the Fallout series

References[]

Non-game