Mind Control Conspiracy

There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

Life sucks sometimes, doesn't it? You got fired from your job, your girlfriend broke up with you, and you're about to be evicted. Things have really taken a downward turn. But don't worry! It certainly isn't your fault.

See, there's these people. Bad people. They don't like you. They don't like much of anyone. And they oppress you. They have satellites that can beam pictures into your head, that's why you kept seeing all that stuff, lost concentration at work. They plant radios in your teeth so that you think you're Hearing Voices. They shoot these weird rays into your brain so that you have those... urges... it's not you. It's them. It's all their fault. They're the ones doing this to you! It's all them. All them, all them, all them, all-

What, you don't believe me? Well, you have to. Because otherwise, it would be you. It'd be all your fault. And that can't be right.

That's crazy.

After all, It's not my fault you're hearing voices in your head now, is it? Maybe you should try wearing a Tin Foil Hat to make them go away.

Examples of Mind Control Conspiracy include:

Anime and Manga

• Welcome to The NHK: Sato and his senpai blame all of the troubles in their lives on conspiracy theories. Sato even believes the titular NHK is actually an organization which exists only to turn civilians into Hikikomori like himself.

Literature

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Chief Bromden's belief in the Combine is probably the most famous example, and later inspired the name of the Combine.
• In Iain Banks' novel Walking On Glass, Steven Grout believes that he is being influenced by orbital mind control lasers.
• VALIS's Horselover Fat is a victim of the three-eyed Soviet space aliens' orbital mind control lasers. Said lasers are pink.
• In The Manchurian Candidate, Communist brainwashers turn a soldier into an assassin through some sort of mind-controlling hypnosis.

Live Action TV

• In the Lone Gunmen origin-story episode of The X-Files Suzanne Modeski found a tracking device the Conspiracy had put in her tooth. Which she removed with pliers, somehow managing to avoid passing out from the pain.
  • Mulder's water was spiked with LSD in "Anasazi" in order to elicit violent behavior.
  • In "Wetwired", the television was sending subliminal messages through red/green wavelengths, again eliciting violent, homicidal behavior. Scully almost succumbs, nearly shooting Mulder in the process. Mulder is unaffected, as it is revealed he is red/green colorblind.
  • The appliances in "Blood" were commanding normal citizens to kill by catching them when their intense phobias were exploited. As in "Anasazi", an LSD derivative was used to incite the behavior.
• Starsky and Hutch: in one of the episodes, a serial killer turns out to be a seriously deranged man who believes he's being mind-controlled. He wears tinfoil under his clothes to shield himself from radiowaves and his house has tinfoil wallpaper.

Tabletop Games

• In the Illuminati card game, the Orbital Mind Control Lasers are very valuable minions for any Ancient Conspiracy.

Video Game

• Syndicate: You (Eurocorp) and all the other Syndicates are trying to Take Over the World though this and Cyborg-manned force. Civilians all have a chip in their heads that does all the functions of a phone or computer, and makes the world look far more pleasant. In Syndicate Wars, Eurocorp has been maintaining the mind control conspiracy for years.
• Call To Power gives you the option of doing this to your citizens if you're so inclined.

Western Animation

• An episode of Stroker and Hoop involved a case where a client thinks Ron Howard is reading his thoughts and controlling his actions via satilies. He was right, by the way.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender does not have one, no matter what anarchist propaganda the Gaang may preach about the honourable guardians of justice, the Dai Li. But why are we bothering you with all of this distressing talk? The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai- and you are, of course, pleased to serve him. And do remember- there is no war in Ba Sing Se. There is no war in Ba Sing Se. There is no war in Ba Sing Se.....

Real Life

• There are plenty of people out there who think they're being influenced by Orbital Mind Control Lasers or that the CIA has implanted radio receivers in their molars. Seriously.
• Aileen Wuornos was quite a firm believer that the prison was beaming signals into her head to stop her from revealing the big conspiracy, that the police knew she was going to be a serial killer and were just trying to earn money through movie deals. Yes, she was insane.
• One disturbed person sued the State of New Jersey for this, in Searight v. New Jersey, 412 F.Supp. 413 (D.N.J. 1976). The complaint was dismissed mainly on grounds of jurisdiction, but the court's opinion noted, even if the facts were as pleaded, "Searight might have pinned to the back of a trouser leg a short chain of paper clips so that the end would touch the ground and prevent anyone from talking to him inside his brain." Not quite a Tin Foil Hat, but close.