Jacob hadn’t left the house in weeks. It was too dangerous. They knew that he knew too much.

It had all started several months ago, when a friend had sent him an article stating that global warming was a hoax. Of course he didn’t read it at first. This bullshit was on the same level as the people blaming vaccines for autism. Stupid conspiracy theories, how could anyone believe those?

But then he got bored and opened the link anyway. What could go wrong? He wouldn’t suddenly forget all the scientific facts that he knew about this topic. Reading it would not make him dumber. On the contrary, this was his chance to see how these people were thinking. It could be quite amusing!

The more he read, the more uneasy the article made him feel. He didn’t really believe what they wrote. After all, it went against everything he knew. But the article explained, that the government didn’t want the normal citizen to know the real facts, so lies were published everywhere. How could he be sure that he hadn’t been fed lies the whole time?

People always said one should keep an open mind, question things. Shouldn’t he question his own beliefs? Wouldn’t it be wrong to condemn this theory only because he thought he was right? That would be very unscientific.

So he kept reading. And when he finished, a popup lead him to a different article. And then another one. And another. Before Jacob even noticed, he had read through the whole night and the sun was already rising over the horizon.

He had to force himself to go to work that day. Too many facts were buzzing in his head.

As he was standing at a red light, he looked up to the sky and a cold shudder shook his body. He could see the trails left behind by an airplane in the sky.

”Chemtrails”, a voice in his head whispered. ”They control you with these. Keep you calm and obedient. You should really minimize exposure. Go back home.”

The light turned green and Jacob kept walking, but it was even harder than before. He was tired and slightly scared. Nervously, he kept an eye on the sky. He expected to see a black helicopter hovering over the city any minute now, but the sky was clear and blue, aside from the chemtrails he had noticed earlier.

The day at work took forever. There was not enough work to do, so Jacob’s thoughts ran wild. Whenever he felt like nobody was watching, he read a few more paragraphs on the webpage his friend had sent him.

The fluoride in our drinking water keeps us from becoming too intelligent. Why would our government want smart and healthy people? We would just overthrow them. They don’t want that.

Jacob couldn’t help but nod. The most dangerous thing to a government where the people, it was only logical to keep them dumb and happy. Bread and Games for the Romans, fluoride and chemtrails for the Americans. He made a mental note to pick up some bottled water on the way home. Then he looked up which brands of bottled water were safe.

The next days, Jacob’s health, physical and mental, steadily declined. He was too afraid to leave the house, so he called in sick at work. Then he disconnected his phone, put a piece of tape across the camera of his laptop and set up a VPN to access the only site that mattered safely.

With every article he read, everything seemed to make more and more sense. He hadn’t realized it before, but every conspiracy theory combined added up to one single one that didn’t seem as crazy anymore. Sure, every conspiracy for itself might seem not really believable, but the big picture? It made so much sense.

Behind everything, there were the Illuminati. They had been founded many centuries ago and pulled the strings of humanity since. The members were part of every government, every big company, and every bank. And they knew exactly how to hide in plain sight.

The modern Illuminati, as Jacob liked to call them, had come to power in the 1960’s and were the ones who staged the moon landing. What better way to keep people distracted from the results of the Vietnam War?

And then, in the ‘70s, a lab created the virus responsible for AIDS to stop the extreme population growth. It worked, for a while. It then went on to the terrorist attack of 9/11 to justify the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and never stopped.
After reading all this, Jacob knew that he was in deadly danger. The Illuminati definitely knew that he was researching them and it was only a matter of time until they would come for him and … kill him? Probably not. They would torture him first and the use it for one of their plans. Maybe he would turn up as a suicide bomber in some big city.

He couldn’t let them do that. That was why he had ordered something from the online black-market. Cyanide pills. They had promised him that it would be a painless death, a fast death. Better than what would expect him if he was apprehended by the government.

Jacob hesitated with the pills in his hands. Did he really want to do this?

The ringing of his doorbell sped up his decision. With one fluid movement, he dropped the pills in his mouth.

When the police found him, days later, they just shook their heads.

“Another one of these conspiracy theorists it seems”, said one of them. “Second one this month. Do you see all these prints of articles around him? How can any person believe this crap?”

“I don’t know”, said the other one. “It must seem obvious that all of this is bullshit.”

Disclaimer: I don’t believe in any of these theories. This story is just meant to capture how a person can get drawn into this kind of thing and that it doesn’t need to be someone who is absolutely unintelligent.

_{Picture taken from pixabay.com}

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