Conspiracy theories are a stupidly easy target for comedy, since they're mostly spread by those who screech about lizard people on websites with a design aesthetic that was already dated in the 1990s. It's just that every once in a while, what may look like a stupid conspiracy theory turns out to be something that very much happened ...

5 The World's Most Rich And Powerful Meet To Perform Weird Secret Rituals

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The Conspiracy Theory:

All conspiracy theories stem from the idea that a cabal of rich and powerful men control the world. This is true, in a way, but it's really nothing but a bunch of entrepreneurs and investors fighting each other for market shares. Can you imagine if the rich and powerful actually donned robes and got together to perform ridiculous rituals, like in that Simpsons episode?

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The Reality:

The truth is much weirder. Sure, there are famous public gatherings of wealthy types like the Bilderberg Group, but they mostly shoot the shit over drinks and big dinners instead of sacrificing goats in the name of the Illuminati. What we're talking about are the Bohemian Grove gatherings, in which members -- which have included U.S. presidents -- gather to perform rituals before a 30-foot-tall idol shaped like an owl. We're absolutely not making this up. You can go visit the site if you want.

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You can play everyone's favorite party game, "Which Bush spewed all over the owl's dick?"

Founded in 1872, the Bohemian Grove club started out as a social occasion for relatively harmless newspapermen and artists, like Mark Twain. However, many of their members were ambitious, and grew mighty. The club's gatherings went on, their power increased, and by the 1930s, Bohemian Grove had become an exclusive haunt of the rich and famous. By the 1980s, the club had 2,300 members, including influential senators, businessmen, and highly-placed U.S. government officials. Its waiting list for membership was 33 years long.

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While business-making is discouraged -- the club straight-up tells its members that "Weaving Spiders Come Not Here" -- it happens all the time, because of course it does. Some of the most influential deals in history have been made in Bohemian Grove encampments. Such as, oh, the initial planning for the Manhattan Project. Yeah, you have the 1942 Bohemian Grove meeting to thank for the freaking nuclear bomb.