While generally frowned upon, conspiracy theories can still be intriguing and thought-provoking to discuss. From Microsoft’s hidden agenda to rug cartel takeovers, here are some eccentric beliefs held around campus:
For chemistry teacher Rachel Richards, supernatural forces are a long-standing belief. “When I was between the ages of 13 and 16, I was really interested in supernatural phenomena,” she said. “I was very into calling spirits, using the Ouija board, opening doors, and seeing what happened.”
“I’d wake up in the middle of the night and my bedroom light would be on, and I had this little wind chime thing that started spinning,” Richards said. “It seemed like I kind of invoked it.”
When asked how she reconciles her unconventional beliefs with her strong scientific values, Richards argued that they do not contradict each other. “What I love about science is you can’t prove that something doesn’t exist,” she explained. “So I believe in ghosts. The supernatural world can’t be tested by science, because science is designed to test the natural world.”
Richards also believes in the existence of aliens and abductions. “I feel like it’s pretty naive to think we’re the only planet in the entire universe that has life,” she said.
In the end, Richards admits to finding joy in her beliefs. “I think it’s a choice, and it’s fun.”
Freshman Maxton Tang is suspicious of Menlo Park’s many rug stores. “I think rug stores are drug stores. Nobody’s ever in them, and they’re so huge. There’s no way they make enough money,” he said. “It’s probably like a rug cartel.”
As an avid tech enthusiast, junior Crystal Winikoff believes Microsoft has secret motives. “There’s something going on inside of Microsoft. They are trying to get more money by making technology impossible to understand for the common person. They throw too many terms that make no sense and misuse them intentionally.”
For example, Winikoff noted Microsoft is the only entity that translates 1 gigabyte to 1,024 megabytes, rather than the usual 1,000, for no apparent reason.
Senior Holden Thomson is also suspicious of corporate activity—for him, this suspicion stems from large-scale activism.
“I think there are organizations that were created to make activists sound weak and bad because the press is getting tons of money from these companies to make people sound absolutely crazy,” senior Holden Thomson said.
Thomson describes an example of this phenomenon with the Just Stop Oil campaign, where activists threw soup on the Mona Lisa. “People learn to associate Just Stop Oil with a ton of destructive pink-haired liberals,” he said. “In turn, people are now like, ‘I don’t care about the cause anymore because the people are so bad.’ And that’s how you get this entire demographic of conservatives, and liberals, who are like, ‘I don’t like oil but I would be more friendly to combating it if Just Stop Oil wasn’t such an extreme organization.’”
With a wide variety of beliefs, it’s important to keep an open mind for new evidence. Who knows—maybe we’re all aliens being haunted by the ghosts of rug cartel members!
