Informant: I believe in conspiracy theories. Okay, um, can I do the conspiracy theory that Louis Tomlinson’s baby doesn’t exist?

Collector: Yes

Informant: Okay, so, Louis Tomlinson was in One Direction, and there’s always been rumors that he is dating Harry Styles. And, um, but they like obviously could not reveal that they were together because they were in One Direction, a controlling boyband. They had to be like single and into girls and all that stuff because that’s their claim, like why would they release that they’re gay? But One Direction just broke up, so now they can, so they needed a reason to break up, so Louis decided he was going to have a baby, so that way he could take some time away from the group to raise it, and the group would break up, and he could be with Harry Styles. So, the reason it does not make sense is because, so, first off, if you look at the dates of like when the girl says she had the baby and when he says she had the baby, it like doesn’t add up, like, they’re days apart. First of all when the girl was introduced to the public, like when they first hung out, she was already posing for pictures with him as if somebody was like, “hey you’re going to be important later on, like pose for these pictures.” And then, like, um, after she gave birth she was already really skinny, which like, people it’s not like that. And there was never really photos of her as she was pregnant. Also the photos from when she was leaving the hospital, she was not in a wheelchair, no nurses escorted her out of the hospital, and it also said that it was private property, which hospitals are not. And then Louis wasn’t there, the pictures he posted weren’t real or something. But also, all the pictures seem like they’re fake because the baby could be a baby doll because it has the same feet position and hand position in every single photo, and also in all the pictures that Louis posted, if you photoshop, like if you use photoshop to look at them, the baby isn’t even touching him, and it honestly could not even be him because some of his tattoos aren’t the same, and other tattoos are like noticeable, which brings me back to the Harry Styles thing. Harry Styles has a tattoo of half a heart, and Louis has a tattoo of half a heart, but in the photos of the baby, his tattoo of half a heart wouldn’t be showing but it’s photoshopped so it is. And also for the girl, all of her photos are literally exactly the same as one of a mom blogger’s photos as if she just took those photos and was like, “this is my baby.” Isn’t it trippy? It’s totally like, the baby doesn’t exist.

My informant is a freshman at the University of Southern California. She is from San Diego, California. We had this conversation in the study room of my sorority house.

This is a really interesting piece because it’s so specific to this year, and continues to grow. The conspiracy that the two people in the boyband were in love with each other secretly dates back to when the band was founded, and many people analyze photos and interviews to point out ways that they could be in love. This conspiracy takes it to an entirely new level with many people claiming they’re aware of how types of metadata in photos work. This illustrates a way that a group of people can become so involved with a piece of folklore that they deceive themselves into thinking that it’s true.