“Don’t believe them,” reads one Google review for HAARP—the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, where researchers study the relationship between radio waves and Earth’s ionosphere. “This facility is used to control the weather.” Kaitlyn Tiffany travels to Gakona, Alaska, to tour the HAARP facility and speak with research scientists about how dealing with conspiratorial beliefs is now a part of their work life. Asked to speculate about the persistence of HAARP conspiracy theories, an engineer tells Tiffany, “Well, one thing is it’s in the middle of nowhere and it’s got a fence around it.”
Still, the calls to the lab continue. The Facebook posts go viral. The university has held open houses, posted public information pages, and produced irreverent merch, but nothing seems to tamp down suspicion. Jessica Matthews, HAARP’s director, is an Air Force veteran, and her first instinct was to deal with conspiracy theories in the style of the military: “If left to myself, I wouldn’t say anything,” she told me. “But that’s not the right answer.”
More picks about conspiracy theories
One Vigilante, 22 Cell Tower Fires, and a World of Conspiracies
“Inside the mind of the most prolific anti-5G arsonist in the world—and the incoherent, very online political violence of our era.”
What Is The Internet Doing To Boomers’ Brains?
“Social media platforms are sucking a generation into a misinformation rabbit hole.”
The Curse of the Bahia Emerald, a Giant Green Rock That Ruins Lives
Meet the schemers, investors, and dreamers who were bewitched by a big green rock that might not actually be worth anything.
