The predictions of APOCALYPSE and Doomsday started in 1999 and continued into 2022.
Some conspiracy theorists use ancient texts such as the Mayan calendar or predictions by 16th-century French astrologer Nostradamus to support their wild theories.
What are the doomsday conspiracy theories?
Conspiracy theorists believed the world would end on September 24, 2022, which started with comments made by German politician Friedrich Merz.
Merz said in a TikTok video: “Dear colleagues…September 24, 2022 will be remembered by all of us as a day when we will say: ‘I remember exactly where I was…’”
It was later revealed that the video that surfaced was faked, with Merz correcting himself and saying he meant February 24, when the war in Ukraine started.
Despite the clarification, the idea of the end of the world had already become popular on social media.
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Conspiracy theorists believed that September 24th referred to an episode from season nine, episode 24 of The Simpsons, in which the world comes to an end.
This is not the first time that judgment day, or the end of the world, has been predicted; the last one took place in 2012 and the previous one took place in 1999, as the new millennium approached.
The alleged doomsday in 2012 was predicted due to the Mayan calendar ending on December 12, 2012.
Many believed that the end of the Mayan calendar meant that this would be the date the world would end.
At the time, NASA wrote on his site: “Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists around the world know of no threats associated with 2012.”
The site was updated in 2017 and Dr. John Carlson, director of the Center for Archaeoastronomy, said the Mayan connection “was a misconception from the very beginning.”
He continued, “The Mayan calendar did not end on December 21, 2012, and there were no Mayan prophecies predicting the end of the world on that date.”
A computer error in 1999 led many to believe that the world would end on December 31, 2000.
When computers were first created and technology dates were written into the systems in the 1970s and 1980s, engineers would set the dates to the last two digits to save storage space.
As the year 2000 approached, they realized that by omitting the first two digits of the year, leaving only 00, the computer would interpret it as the year 1900.
This caused widespread anxiety and business and government leaders believed that computer systems would crash on New Year’s Eve, causing civilization to crumble.
Vanity fair set out the prospect in January 1999: “It is a moment after midnight, January 1, 2000… The power in some cities is not working… Bank vaults and prison gates have been swung open… Hospitals are closed… so many countries are degenerating into riots and revolution…
“No one will know the extent of its consequences before they occur. The only thing that is certain is that the wonderful machines that rule and illuminate our lives will not know what to do.”
Because this year marked the second millennium since the birth of Christ, many believed that the Book of Revelation suggested that a millennium marked the beginning of the end.
Rev. Jerry Falwell told it The Washington Post at the time: “Y2K is God’s instrument to shake this nation, to humble this nation,” to “start a revival that is spreading [over] the face of the earth before the Rapture of the Church.”
Falwell added: “[God] may be preparing to confuse our language, disrupt our communications, scatter our efforts, and condemn us for our sin and rebellion for going against His rule.
Books titled Y2K=666? and mental survival during the Y2K crisis was becoming increasingly popular at the time, and a company in Massachusetts marketed a Y2K survival kit for $89.
However, Bill Gates, then chairman of Microsoft, said he expected a period “where people are distracted from getting their stuff ready.
“But… in terms of the problems that will arise, the panic will be below the midpoint of the panic that some people have suggested.”
What did Nostradamus predict about the Apocalypse?
It is believed that Nostradamus predicted the future with his book Les Propheties, written in 1555.
His poetic text predicts devastation caused by asteroids, global warming and even a technological takeover.
These things haven’t caused Doomsday yet, so they’re often used by conspiracy theorists as evidence of impending doom.
Nostradamus wrote:
“The moon in the full night above the high mountain
The new sage with a lonely brain sees it.
Invited by his disciples to be immortal,
Eyes to the south,
Hands in the bosom, bodies in the fire.”
Some people think that this reference to immortal beings could refer to robots that we build ourselves.
With Elon Musk’s Tesla Bots launching this year, some people are drawing parallels between this Doomsday prediction and AI humanoid bots.
A conspiracy theorist recently shared a link to a Tesla Bot article and tweeted: “Looks like some of Nostradamus’ predictions might come true.”
How does the Mayan calendar influence doomsday conspiracy theories?
When it comes to Doomsday conspiracy theories, the Mayan calendar played a crucial role.
Every year around December 21st, the end of the world seems to occur, because the Mayan calendar ends on that date.
After claims that the world would end on December 21, 2012 – when the Mayan calendar was running – fell flat, conspiracy theorists said the date had been miscalculated.
The year 2020 was filled with claims that the Mayans actually believed the world would end on December 21, eight years later.
When that didn’t happen, it was suggested that the Mayans may have made a mistake in noting the end of the world.
Which predictions of Nostradamus have come true?
The following five predictions by Nostradamus have come true:
The Great London Fire of 1666
Nostradamus’ prediction:
“The blood of the righteous will fail in London,
Burned in the fire of ’66.
The old Lady will fall from her high place,
Many of the same sect will be killed.”
A fire at Thomas Farriner’s bakery in London caused a three-day fire that devoured the city on September 2, 1666.
Historians have speculated that Nostradamus’ reference to the “blood of the righteous” referred to the deaths of millions of rats carrying the plague, which became extinct shortly after the fire.
The French Revolution
Nostradamus‘ prediction:
“Songs, chants and demands will come from the slaves
Held captive by the nobility in their prisons
At a later date, you mindless idiots
I will regard these as divine pronouncements.”
The French Revolution took over the Bastille, a fortress in Paris that was used as a prison.
At the height of the French Revolution, peasants revolted against the Bastille in 1789, capturing and in some cases beheading royals.
Hitler’s government
Nostradamus’ prediction:
“From the depths of Western Europe,
Of poor people a young child will be born,
He who shall deceive a great multitude with his tongue;
His fame will increase towards the empire of the East.”
And …
“Beasts fierce with hunger will cross the rivers,
Most of the battlefield will be against Hister.
Into a cage of iron the great one will be drawn,
If the child of Germany perceives nothing.”
Nostradamus often used anagrams in his predictions, the main example being that of Hister.
Adolf Hitler came to power in Western Europe in 1889 when he mobilized the Nazi Party.
Hister is an old name for the Danube River, from which Hitler was born just a few kilometers away.
The Atomic Bomb
Nostradamus’ prediction:
“The heavenly arrow stretches its course
Death while speaking: a great achievement
The proud nation humbled by the stone in the tree
Rumors of a monstrous man bring purification and then penance.”
The US dropped two atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945 in their efforts to end World War II.
Those who escaped the bombs suffered severe radiation poisoning from the pungent rain that poured around them.
Nostradamus’ prediction of the ‘stone in the tree’ could refer to the plume of poisonous clouds that covered the cities or to a land-based object such as a bomb or a grave.
9/11
Nostradamus’ prediction:
‘The air will burn at a temperature of forty-five degrees.
Fire approaches the great new city.
He will destroy their city with fire,
A cold and cruel heart, blood will flow.
Mercy for no one.”
Planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001, sparking a fire in “the great new city.”
Historians believe the 45 degree reference refers to the city’s proximity to the 45th parallel or the trajectory toward the ground when the buildings fell.