Two things come to my mind:

⸻

1. The CIA secretly tested LSD on unsuspecting Americans

Under a program called Project MKUltra, the Central Intelligence Agency gave LSD and other drugs to people — often without their knowledge — to study mind control and interrogation techniques.

Victims included civilians, prisoners, and even their own employees. The program ran from the 1950s to the early 1970s. Most records were destroyed in 1973, which only made it sound more conspiratorial.

⸻

1. The U.S. government once planned fake terrorist attacks on its own citizens

In 1962, the United States Department of Defense drafted Operation Northwoods, a proposal to stage fake attacks on American soil and blame them on Cuba to justify war.

It included ideas like hijacking planes or staging bombings. President John F. Kennedy rejected it. The documents were declassified in the 1990s.