I'm a teacher - here are the conspiracy theories my 6th graders believe in

A language arts teacher has shared the bizarre conspiracy theories her sixth grade students believe in and what fostered that beliefs.

The teacher, who goes by the name Ms Alexanderr, said was amazed by her students' ideas and wanted to compile a list of the top five most she felt were the most bizarre. 

While the teacher said she wasn't surprised by one conspiracy theory that birds aren't real, she was shocked and couldn't understand others.

Among them was the theory that Bill Nye the science guy is a Russian spy while another claimed Michael Jackson was still alive.

The pop-star conspiracy was particularly perplexing, because her students were born after he died in 2009.

Studies have shown that there is a link between the rise of social media and the increase in younger generations belief in conspiracy theories and misinformation.

Last year, researchers are the University of Louisville in Kentucky published a study that revealed 60 percent of teens ages 13 to 17 agreed with at least four conspiracy theories compared to 49 percent of adults.

Younger people are now preferring to rely on social media to access news, giving them a bigger window to absorb misinformation and this is showing in videos like the one posted by Ms Alexanderr.

Ioana Literat, an associate professor of communication at Teachers College, Columbia University told The Guardian: 'We're just starting to see the beginnings of the intersection AI and fake news, and conspiracy theories on social media will play a really big role in that.

'With the rise of AI, and how easy it is to create manipulated media using generative AI, I really worry that the statistics will increase.'

Bill Nye is a Russian spy

Among one of the top conspiracy theories the sixth graders believed in was that Bill Nye the science guy is a Russian spy.

Nye is an acclaimed scientists, known for hosting his PBS television show which ran from 1993 to 1998 and educated kids about science.

When Ms Alexanderr asked her students to elaborate on why they believed Nye is a Russian spy, she said they couldn't provide a reason.

However, stories surrounding Nye's 'covert identity' have cropped up on sites like Urban Dictionary and Story.com, which details his life before, during and after the undercover operations.

In one story, titled 'The Double Life Of Bill Nye,' he works with a Russian operative Natasha to steal a classified scientific breakthrough from the US government.

The story describes his efforts to 'infiltrate a high-security lab' and successfully 'retrieve classified information.' 

After the mission, he decided  to forego his work as a spy and carry his supposed secret double life to the grave.

'So the next time you watch a Bill Nye science show, remember the man behind the bow tie. A scientist, an educator, and once, a Russian spy,' the story concluded.

Urban Dictionary - a popular site that describes slang words or expressions - weaves a tale of Nye who was born in Russia under the name Bogdan Nikolaev.

It claims that when he graduated from school in 1975, it was decided that he would be re-christened Bill Nye and sent to the US to 'turn the American youth against their leaders.'

His foray into television was nothing more than a ruse to 'reach the lazy American youth' and he was 'trained in the subtle art of backwards speaking and subliminal messaging' which was conveyed in his show, Urban Dictionary claimed.

It said there were hidden messages when played backwards like 'Communism rules' and 'failure is a property of capitalism' and was allegedly uncovered when a CIA training class was rewinding an episode in 1997.

According to Urban Dictionary, Nye threatened to reveal then-First Lady Hillary Clinton was bi-sexual and so the CIA agreed not to arrest him if he ended the show in 1998.

There is no evidence that either of these conspiracy theories are true, and Nye has frequently spoken out against conspiracy theories - although he has never addressed the lesser-known one claiming he's a spy.

Most recently, he called out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Georgia) for suggesting hurricanes are controlled by the government, saying this type of claim 'plays on people's grievances and frustrations.'

Birds are not real 

Perhaps least surprising to Ms Alexanderr was the student's claims that birds aren't real and are actually FBI drones.

'I've heard this one before, so it makes sense to me,' she said.

This conspiracy theory has been popular for years and have even popped up on large billboards in Pittsburgh, Memphis and Los Angeles.

The theory has claimed that what appear to be birds are drone replicas created by the US government to spy on Americans.

Rallies have been hosted by hundreds of thousands of young people across the country and videos posted about it on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have gone viral.

But what Ms Alexanderr's students may not realize, is the Birds Aren't Real movement, which started in 2017, was meant to be a satirical approach to the sheer amount of misinformation and conspiracy theories that have run rampant throughout the country. 

'Birds Aren't Real is not a shallow satire of conspiracies from the outside. It is from the deep inside,' Peter McIndoe, the conspiracy theory's founder told The New York Times in 2021.

'A lot of people in our generation feel the lunacy in all this, and Birds Aren't Real has been a way for people to process that.'

He spoke up out of fear that people would begin to think that birds really are drones, but unfortunately, the message doesn't seem to have sunk in to the younger generations.

Michael Jackson is still alive

Michael Jackson died from cardiac arrest in 2009, but that isn't stopping sixth graders from believing that the King of Pop is still alive. 

'For reference, these students were born after 2009, so that was interesting,' Ms Alexanderr said in the video.

This may stem from videos posted as recently as October 9, claiming they can prove Jackson is alive and well.

In one TikTok video, the person referenced Jackson's funeral where his family seemed calm and had a closed casket ceremony, leading people to believe he faked his own death.

The video also claimed a hidden tunnel was found under P Diddy's house during his arrest which they claimed leads to an old building that only Jackson knew about.

They said the building had been discussed for years, but no one could find it.

The video claimed that 'the FBI recently found clues suggesting Michael could be alive and hiding in that building.'

They also claimed that in drone footage captured during Diddy's arrest, a man who looks similar to Jackson was seen leaving the rapper's home.

Reuters reported that images of a tunnel found in Diddy's home that appeared to be posted on CNN were fabricated.

CNN representative Emily Kuhn told the outlet: 'That is a manipulated image and not something CNN reported.'

Mr Beast scams people to get subscribers 

The final theory among Ms Alexanderr's sixth grade class was that the YouTube influencer, Mr Beast, is scamming people for subscribers.

The teacher was confused as she shared this theory and the students didn't appear to expand on why this is the case.

James Stephen 'Jimmy' Donaldson, 26, created the YouTube platform Mr Beast in 2012, when he was just 13 years old.

He posts videos of stunts and challenges or offering major giveaways, cash prizes. It is not the most-subscribed YouTube channel ever.

The most likely possibility behind this theory is that the YouTuber has offered subscribers the opportunity to be on his show by entering sweepstakes and competitions that require people to subscribe to his channel to enter.

Some headlines claim you get get $10,000 for signing up published in what appears to be The New York Times, but is actually 'imposter content,' meaning creators spread misinformation by 'disguising themselves as recognizable sources.'

Many scammers have tried to profit off Mr Beast's popularity by creating deepfake videos of the YouTuber offering sweepstakes like 'the world's largest iPhone 15 giveaway.' 

Thanksgiving Day

Ms Alexanderr admitted that her students might be onto something with this next conspiracy theory. 

The student said that Thanksgiving Day 'was only made so America could have a holiday in each month. 

'When asked to elaborate they said that the story between the pilgrims and the Native Americans were fabricated.'

This theory centers around historical evidence that shows the two groups had a hostile relationship and there is no proof that the pilgrims invited the Native Americans to a meal.

There is the belief that the narrative is skewed based on the colonizer's perspective to ignore the impact of them fatally spreading Smallpox and seizing the Wampanoag tribe's land.

Instead, a positive and happy Thanksgiving story of the Native Americans and colonizers breaking bread was fabricated to gloss over the violence and exploitation that occurred.

This is a theory shared by the Potawatomi tribe who said that Thanksgiving when President Abraham Lincoln officially established the holiday during the Civil War in 1863, it was really meant as a way to improve relations between the northern and southern states and tribal nations.

 'It was propaganda,' Dr Kelli Mosteller, Citizen Potawatomi Nation's Cultural Heritage Center's director explained on the tribe's site in 2020. 

'It was to try and build this event so that you could have a deeper narrative about community building and coming together in shared brotherhood and unity.'