The late President Abraham Lincoln famously noted that you can always fool some people. Thanks to social media, it is increasingly easy. No day goes by without something truly outlandish and nonsensical being posted. Unfortunately, much of it goes viral, spreads as fact, and is accepted as such.

Such was the case on Monday afternoon, after it was reported that the US Navy’s nuclear-powered supercarrier USS Nimitz was steaming to the Middle East to support her sister carrier, USS Carl Vinson, which had been operating in the region for several weeks. This will be the latest dual flattop deployment to the area this year, but some on social media believed a more nefarious purpose could explain why the USS Nimitz’s scheduled port visit to Vietnam was canceled.

The latest conspiracy theory to make the rounds on the online networks suggested that USS Nimitz will be sunk, and possibly not even by Iran or the Tehran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen. Instead, the supercarrier, which is now likely on her final deployment, could be sunk as part of a carefully coordinated “false flag” operation, the goal of which is to force the United States into a full-blown war with the Islamic Republic.

“If it is true that the USS Nimitz is out in the Middle East right now, I fear the false flag will hit this ship, because it was supposed to be decommissioned this coming year. Watch out for a USS Liberty scenario,” wrote @Maxhedroom23 on X.

Yet, it wasn’t just someone with a fake name (based on a TV show from the 1980s, no less) who perpetrated this theory; seemingly “legitimate” account holders also shared a similar thought.

Independent journalist and documentary filmmaker

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