Several governments around the world have hit lists of people they want dead. The lists usually contain names of people that are claimed by the governments to be terrorists or spies. As we are about to find out, this is not always so. Suspected terrorists, human right activists, and journalists have also been targeted.

Not every government will own up to having such a list. For the ones that do, they deny that these are hit lists and call them other names. Even then, they will rarely discuss the topic. Here are 10 governments that currently have hit lists or had them in the past.

10 United States

The US government has a not-so-secret hit list, the “disposition matrix,” that contains the names, locations, and preferred methods of killing people the government considers enemies of the United States.

While the existence of the list is an open secret, the names on it aren’t. At the time that Barack Obama was president, the government decided who got on the list during weekly meetings the press called “Terror Tuesday.” Obama only approved the list. The names were added by US military and intelligence officials and, sometimes, the British government.

Once names were approved, the military and the CIA tracked the suspects and killed them with drone-launched missiles or covert special forces assaults. In rare instances, they arrested and interrogated the targets. Most were suspected jihadists in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.

The disposition matrix has been criticized because it supposedly contains names of people who might not be terrorists. Drone strikes also kill lots of civilians. Between 2001 and 2013, over 400 Pakistanis died due to 330 US drone strikes. Nevertheless, the US government denies that the disposition matrix is a kill list. The government insists that the matrix is merely a form of defense against people threatening the US.^[1]

9 China

Whether China has an active hit list is unconfirmed. But it did in 2010 when its Ministry of State Security killed over 30 CIA spies operating in the country. The killings started in 2010 when the Ministry of State Security (China’s equivalent of the CIA) infiltrated a CIA spy network operating in China.

At the time, the CIA was using some low-key tech for communication. It was unencrypted, and CIA spies were even using regular laptops and desktops for communication. The system was originally intended for Middle Eastern countries with weak counterintelligence capabilities.

Unfortunately for the CIA, China has a strong and active counterintelligence capability. It tracked down CIA spies using the unencrypted communication channels and assassinated these individuals. China clearly knew what it was doing as it only killed real CIA spies. Although 30 were confirmed dead, intelligence officers believe the figures is higher.^[2]

8 Britain

The British government has its own kill list. Interestingly, most of the targets are British citizens. A few years ago, the British intelligence agencies—MI5, MI6, and the Government Communications Headquarters—drafted a list containing the names of 200 British citizens who had joined the Islamic State.

Hundreds of British citizens joined the Islamic State at its height. The actual figure is unknown, but it is believed to be around 700. Britain feared that the radicalized citizens could return to the country to launch terrorist attacks. So it settled on assassinating the top 200, including 12 bomb experts.^[3]

The intelligence agencies passed the list to Special Air Service commandos inserted into Iraq’s territory. The commandos were tasked with finding and killing these jihadists, although they were allowed to capture some targets. The British government also targeted some jihadists with drones.

7 France

France used to have a hit list—at least when Francois Hollande was president. Hollande’s kill list was inspired by the US disposition matrix that we already talked about. The targets were individuals believed by the French government to have taken people as hostages or done things that hurt French interests. Most were in Syria and the Sahel region of Africa.

Like the US leaders, the French government called the killings “neutralization of strategic objectives,” “targeted eliminations,” or “homicide operations” instead of “murders” or “assassinations.” However, unlike the US, the French government used manned airplanes because it did not have attack drones.

At other times, the French government just passed on its information about the target to the US, which killed these individuals with drones. However, we have limited information about France’s kill list because the country is often quiet about so-called targeted assassinations. We do know that the list was compiled by the French army and the Directorate-General for External Security, France’s equivalent of the CIA.^[4]

6 Germany

The German government has a hit list even though it does not handle its own dirty work. That is the responsibility of the United States. Germany passes details about targets to the US, which adds them to the Joint Prioritized Effects List (JPEL), a hit list of 3,000 drug dealers, Taliban, and Al-Qaeda fighters operating in Afghanistan.

Targets listed on the JPEL are hunted by Task Force 373 (now called Task Force 3-10), a secret US team operating in Afghanistan.^[5] Troops on the team are ordered to capture or kill people on the list. However, they will often kill because it can be difficult to capture targets who resist arrest or attempt to escape.

5 Russia

The existence of a kill list maintained by the elusive Russian government is inconclusive. Russia does not admit that it has a hit list. The US and NATO do not make this claim about Russia, either. However, Ukraine does.

In 2018, Ukraine said that Russia had a list of 47 Russian and Ukrainian journalists it was planning to kill. Ukraine revealed this after staging the murder of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko. News agencies reported that Babchenko had been assassinated in his home in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, until Babchenko showed up the next day telling everybody that he was not dead.

Babchenko and the Ukrainian authorities explained that the hoax assassination was meant to reveal Russia’s plan to murder Babchenko and several others. Although the Ukrainian government did not say how this helped to uncover Russia’s supposed sinister plot, officials went on to release a list of 47 people whom Russia planned to kill.^[6]

4 Iran

CIA spies operating in Iran used the same flawed communication channel that got them exposed in China. Iran also intercepted their communications and identified several CIA spies whom the government later hunted and killed. Interestingly, Iran discovered the communication channel first and could have informed China.

Iran became aware of the spy network after suspecting that CIA agents were actively spying on its nuclear program. A CIA double agent showed the Iranians a secret website that the agency used to communicate with its operatives in Iran. Of course, Iran knew that this couldn’t be the only site, so they went in search of the rest.

When we say “search,” we mean Iran actually used a search engine (Google) to find secret CIA websites on the Internet. Then the government tracked, captured, and executed CIA spies who visited the site. Only a few managed to escape. Iran shared the information with several other friendly nations, including China. Then China used this information to track, capture, and kill CIA spies operating in its territory.

John Reidy, a former contractor with the CIA, blamed the agency for the botched spy operation. Reidy had discovered the flaw years earlier and warned the CIA about it. The agency responded by firing him.^[7]

3 Philippines

The Philippine government has a not-so-secret hit list of 649 people it considers terrorists. The existence of the list was revealed when the government tried to get the courts to declare the targeted people as terrorists. If that had happened, the court would have unwittingly given the state the power to kill its citizens.

Curiously, the list contained names of several non-terrorists like Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a United Nations human rights advocate in the country. In fact, lots of the targeted people are known activists and not terrorists. In some instances, the government skipped the names altogether and used aliases like “John Doe” or “Jane Doe.” This would allow the government to add the names at a later date.

The Philippine government insisted that the people on the list were members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its military wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). Human Rights Watch condemned the list, which has been described as President Rodrigo Duterte’s way of getting rid of political critics and rivals.^[8]

2 Israel

Israel has never hidden the fact that it has a hit list. In fact, in August 2001, the government released a list of seven Palestinians it was planning to kill. Israel claimed that it added the Palestinians to its kill list because the Palestinian Authority had refused to turn them over after terrorist acts were committed against Israel.

Other agencies suspect that the released hit list was a PR attempt by Israel. The country may have wanted to prove to the world that it only killed Palestinians when they refused to cooperate. The move was also a psychological attempt to force the men to flee and desist from launching further attacks against Israel.

The country uses different ways to neutralize the targets on its list. Two common methods are snipers and helicopter-launched missiles. Less orthodox strategies include strapping bombs to the telephones of the targets. Like almost every other nation, Israel does not call the killings “assassinations.” It calls them “targeted killings.”^[9]

Palestinians are often the victims of Israel’s so-called targeted killings. This is very controversial in Gaza and the West Bank where helicopter-launched missile attacks have slaughtered lots of civilians. This has increased anti-Israeli sentiments in the areas of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinians.

1 Sri Lanka

In 2010, it was revealed that the Sri Lankan government had a secret hit list of 35 journalists and NGO workers. The nation’s intelligence agency supposedly ranked the targets according to their importance. However, the government had not killed anybody before the list was leaked.

One of the targets was J.C. Weliamuna, the Sri Lankan director for Transparency International. Two years earlier, he had escaped a suspected assassination attempt when an unidentified person threw a grenade into his home.

The attack was believed to be sponsored by the Sri Lankan defense ministry, which was furious that Weliamuna was representing some Sri Lankans in human rights abuse cases involving the ministry. The government never investigated the attack.

Another person on the list was Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a Sri Lankan NGO. He received death threats in 2009, a year before the list was leaked. The Sri Lankan government has been implicated in torture, murder, and forced disappearances of 14 journalists since 2006.

The Sri Lankan government denied that it had a hit list, although officals agreed that they had planned to monitor some groups. Amnesty International said that the Sri Lankan government had compiled and deliberately released the list to intimidate NGO workers and journalists in the country.^[10]

It’s no secret that Google is slowly suppressing offbeat content or channels on YouTube that don’t support the political and social views the company is promoting for reasons we’ll leave for conspiracy theory lists. Even our own startup YouTube channel had four of its six videos flagged for demonetization.

10 Most Absurd Things Banned On Politically Correct College Campuses

I pointed out that it was a form of soft censorship but was rebuffed with such responses as “you don’t have to comply: we just won’t pay you”. Nice one Google. As other advertising companies grew in size and we were able to switch away from Google’s ad network, things improved. However, Google owns the biggest search Engine in the world and they are now using that (along with Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter who are censoring like mad) to manipulate content: you can publish what you like, but if Google doesn’t like it, it is hidden from search results. While this behavior doesn’t break the law, it does mean that you can’t survive publishing content that goes against the narrative being promoted by Social Media giants. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that this will lead to the dumbing down and sterilization of online content and push people to such places as the Dark Web for genuine content.

Yesterday’s QANon list by Mary Fetzer inspired me to put this list together. So, here are the ten most popular articles we published, that Google requested we suppress in one way or another.

10 Banned Controversial Album Covers
By Maggot, 291 Comments

Read The List: 10 Banned Controversial Album Covers

A great list by one of our most beloved commenters and readers Maggot. My favorite line from the list: “Today of course, I am older and wiser, and so I can offer a much more mature commentary on the artistry of this photo: Did you see the racks on those babes?!” To answer: yes, Maggot, we saw them. Even if the powers that be really didn’t want us to.

Maggot’s introduction, in part, reads: “What is “art”? Over the years there have been many record albums or CDs released with what was deemed to be controversial or offensive cover artwork. Censorship and attempts to define the limits of free speech is a subject worthy of debating, and of course “offensive” imagery is in the eye of the beholder. As such, some of these might seem rather tame by today’s standards, but nonetheless they originally elicited enough controversy, public outcry, or heavy-handed pressure from major retailers, to cause censoring actions.”

9 Things You Didn’t Know About Pornography
By Jamie Frater, 295 Comments

Read The List: Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Pornography

We should have retitled this one: “Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Pornography And Never Will If Google Gets Their Way”. Here is the introduction: “Erotica has existed since man first was able to think. A once large industry has now burst out as a giant in entertainment due to the Internet. Most people with access to the net has seen pornography either intentionally or accidentally. This list takes a look at some of the more obscure facts surrounding pornography.”

8 Details That Make History’s Worst Tragedies Even Worse
By Mark Oliver, 327 Comments

Read The List: 10 Details That Make History’s Worst Tragedies Even Worse

I’ll leave it up to you to guess which particular entry on this list really bothered Big Brother. Here is Mark’s introduction to this fascinating list: “We like to imagine that we learn from our tragedies—that when the worst moment comes, people change their ways and start working together to make things right. But sometimes, even after the catastrophe is over, the tragedy continues. People get swept up in the havoc and chaos of the moment and do things that make history’s worst moments even worse. And in the aftermath, some of our darkest moments are left with details too bleak to make it into the history books.”

7Spunky Facts About Sperm
By Petros Absalon, 387 Comments

Read The List: 10 Spunky Facts About Sperm

Oh come on! What on earth is wrong with a sciencey list about sperm? Perhaps it needed to be combined with a list about ova for the censors to allow it. Too much “white” male privilege perhaps. The introduction: “Sperm and semen are as common as men in the world. However, aside from knowing that it comes from the male genitals and is important for making babies, there are still a lot of amazing things about it that many of us don’t know. For example, during World War I, British spies had the bright idea to use semen as invisible ink. After one agent decided to store his semen in a bottle, the letters he sent using the invisible ink stank so much that his handlers were forced to send him a letter telling him that a ‘fresh operation is necessary for each letter.’”

6 Incestuous Relationships In the Bible
By Jamie Frater, 387 Comments

Read The List: Top 6 Incestuous Relationships In the Bible

How could this not be controversial? the Bible and sex together on one list! Here is the introduction I wrote for the list before Google slapped a chain on it: “Religious scholars say that God suspended the laws of incest in the early days of man in order to ensure that man spread on the earth. In the words of the commentators of the Douay Rheims Bible: “God [dispensed] with such marriages in the beginning of the world, as mankind could not otherwise be propagated.” Despite that, these tales are not all simply matters of procreation – particularly item 1. So, here is a list of 6 of the more questionable relationships in the Bible.”

10 Beloved Children’s Books Banned For Stupid Reasons

5 Incendiary Facts About Incest
By Eliza Lenz, 438 Comments

Read The List: 10 Incendiary Facts About Incest

It seems that Google really hates incest . . . perhaps it hits a little close to home for someone on their Propaganda and Censorship team. This list certain did leave some rather hot under the collar. Eliza opens thusly: “We all seem to know that incest is wrong, either through cultural conditioning or what appear to be innate evolutionary cues, yet some humans can’t seem to resist the urge to bed their relatives. In fact, since the DNA of every living human is 99.9 percent the same, it may be much more common than we think. Still, that doesn’t mean incest is a good thing. As we will see, breeding with a close relative can result in some dire consequences.”

4 Animals That Practice Homosexuality
By Andrew Blackstone, 446 Comments

Read The List: 10 Animals That Practice Homosexuality

When Hollywood decided they needed to educate us all on nature vs nurture, a number of wildly popular TV shows such as Will and Grace and Parks and Recreation dedicated entire episodes to informing us that animals—particularly penguins—are gay and it’s okay. Thank God for Hollywood saving the gays; where would we be without them? Probably still burning at the stake. Anyway, for some reason Google decided that we shouldn’t publish similar content and our list of ten gay animals was given the chop. Here’s the intro:

“Scientific research is spotting a surprising range of animals that engage in same-sex relationships. In this mind-expanding list, we will look at the “Lesbian Albatrosses” of Hawaii; male dolphins who keep boyfriends; and same-sex seagull couples who adopt young to raise together. In the animal world, big surprises always await us.”

3 Beautiful Celebrity Brunettes
By Randall, 563 Comments

Read The List: Top 25 Beautiful Celebrity Brunettes

I’m sure most readers will have seen the hit TV show from Netflix (before it lost its mojo) called Stranger Things. Believe it or not the mother from the show (Winona Ryder) was once a beautiful brunette who had men swooning (actually men didn’t swoon like they do these days—they probably grunted instead). Pictured here and number one on the list by our now-missing much loved regular, Randall. Needless to say a large number of the comments were from people disgruntled at the “sexualization” of women. They must have written Google and asked to have us cancelled, judging by the nasty ban letter we got. Here’s part of the rather long intro:

“The brunette, in history, has always been seen as the temptress, the siren; from Lilith of Hebrew mythology to Shakespeare’s ‘dark lady of the sonnets,’ the brunette has been the woman who gives men pause even while we desire her, as though we sense there’s a dangerous cleverness in her that will destroy us.”

2 Ways Pornography Shapes The World
By Chris Jenkins, 599 Comments

Read The List: 10 Ways Pornography Shapes The World

A really interesting list that has some incredibly unexpected entries. If you hated the Brunette list, this one will really drive you crazy. Here’s a bit of the intro: “Pornography is often associated with deviant behavior and sexual violence. Many people at least assume it has a negative effect on those who view it, especially young people. These individuals, then, may be surprised to hear that pornography has helped guard the Constitution, redefine art, and even keep young women safe.” Like I said, “unexpected”.

1 Shocking Cases Of Female Sexual Predators
By Damien B., 698 Comments

Read The List: 10 Shocking Cases Of Female Sexual Predators

This is a very disturbing list and no reason was given by Google for its banning. It covers a number of real life cases of predation against children by women in positions of power over them. Google has not typically had a problem with lists dealing with deviance perpetrated by men or general predatory-type lists. The intro is short. Here it is in its entirety: “When we think of sexual predators, the image that springs to mind is usually a man. However, there are many recorded cases of women committing such vile acts. Below are 10 sexual assaults in which the perpetrator was a woman.”

Top 10 Foods That Are Banned In The US

Over the last ten years we have published 10,000 lists! Below you will find the ten that were the most popular through that decade. I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane as much as I have in compiling this list. Exciting stuff is on the horizon for the next ten years, so enjoy the reading and see you in 2020!

10 2010—Common Faults In Human Thought, by Nikki

Read The List: Top 10 Common Faults In Human Thought

“The human mind is a wonderful thing. Cognition, the act or process of thinking, enables us to process vast amounts of information quickly. For example, every time your eyes are open, you brain is constantly being bombarded with stimuli. You may be consciously thinking about one specific thing, but you brain is processing thousands of subconscious ideas. Unfortunately, our cognition is not perfect, and there are certain judgment errors that we are prone to making, known in the field of psychology as cognitive biases. They happen to everybody regardless of age, gender, education, intelligence, or other factors. Some of them are well known, others not, but all of them are interesting. I am sure everyone will find that one has happened to them, (I myself have been prone to several) and now will recognize when they are making an error in the future.” Continue reading . . .

9 2011—Strange UFO Encounters, by ValleysOfNeptune1

Read The List: Top 10 Strange UFO Encounters

“The human mind is a wonderful thing. Cognition, the act or process of thinking, enables us to process vast amounts of information quickly. For example, every time your eyes are open, you brain is constantly being bombarded with stimuli. You may be consciously thinking about one specific thing, but you brain is processing thousands of subconscious ideas. Unfortunately, our cognition is not perfect, and there are certain judgment errors that we are prone to making, known in the field of psychology as cognitive biases. They happen to everybody regardless of age, gender, education, intelligence, or other factors. Some of them are well known, others not, but all of them are interesting. I am sure everyone will find that one has happened to them, (I myself have been prone to several) and now will recognize when they are making an error in the future.” Continue reading . . .

8 2012—Popular Anime Series, by Miriam

Read The List: Top 10 Popular Anime Series

“Anime has been around for quite some time now. It is, simply put, Japanese animated TV series (and movies). Due to the large variety and quantity of anime, it isn’t possible to make an uncontroversial “best anime” list. Therefore, this is merely a “most popular” list, with the top ten most watched and most well-known anime.” Continue reading . . .

7 2013—Psychology Tricks You Can Use To Influence People, by Gregory Myers

Read The List: 10 Psychology Tricks You Can Use To Influence People

“Before we get started, it’s important to note that none of these methods fall under what we would term the dark arts of influencing people. Anything that might be harmful to someone in any way, especially to their self esteem, is not included here. These are ways to win friends and influence people using psychology without being a jerk or making someone feel bad.” Continue reading . . .

6 2014—Creepypasta That Will Scare You Silly, by Leonius

Read The List: 10 Creepypasta That Will Scare You Silly

“By now, most of you avid fans are aware of the disturbing “Squidward’s Suicide” lost episode. If not, you can read all about it, and then come back to this list. It’s an example of creepypasta, which are short stories found on the Internet that are basically designed to shock and startle the reader. It’s kind of like the Internet’s version of sitting around a campfire and telling creepy stories. And guess what? Here are 10 more for your reading pleasure. Just don’t read this list at night.” 10 Creepypasta That Will Scare You Silly

5 2015—Strange Mysteries From Around The World That Are Still Unsolved, by Estelle

Read The List: 10 Strange Mysteries From Around The World That Are Still Unsolved

“All things that cannot be explained remain an intriguing conversation topic for many people around the globe. Some mysteries, however, are more interesting than the rest simply because of how weird they are.” Continue reading . . .

4 2016—Truly Disgusting Facts About Ancient Roman Life, by Mark Oliver

Read The List: 10 Truly Disgusting Facts About Ancient Roman Life

“Ancient Rome holds a mythic place in our imaginations. It’s the land of historical epics like Ben-Hur and Gladiator, where men in golden armor ride chariots and emperors are fed grapes in reclining chairs. Real life in Rome, though, was quite a bit less glamorous. In a time before modern sanitation and medicine, getting through an average day was a difficult task—and far more disgusting than you could ever imagine.” Continue reading . . .

3 2017—Facts About Charles Manson’s Imprisonment That Will Disgust You, by Adam R. Ramos

Read The List: 10 Facts About Charles Manson’s Imprisonment That Will Disgust You

“Infamous convicted murderer Charles Manson has spent nearly five decades imprisoned since his death sentence in 1971 was commuted to life. Suffice it to say that his peculiar behavior behind bars is far from that of a model prisoner. The following 10 facts take a glimpse into the life of a caged madman as well as the bizarre fan base his lunacy attracts.” Continue reading . . .

2 2018—Curious Humans Exhibited In P.T. Barnum’s Circus, by Oliver Taylor

Read The List: Top 10 Curious Humans Exhibited In P.T. Barnum’s Circus

“Phineas Taylor Barnum, commonly known as P.T. Barnum, entered the circus business in 1841, when he purchased Scudder’s American Museum and renamed it Barnum’s American Museum. In 1875, he brought circus owners Dan Castello and William Cameron Coup on board and renamed the business P.T. Barnum’s Great Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Hippodrome. In 1881, this new business merged with Cooper and Bailey Circus, owned by James Anthony Bailey and James E. Cooper, to become the Barnum & Bailey Circus. P.T. Barnum died in 1891, and the circus came under the control of his partner, James Bailey, who purchased Barnum’s share from his wife. Bailey himself died in 1906, and the Ringling brothers, who already owned the successful Ringling Brothers Circus, bought the Barnum & Bailey Circus and merged it with theirs to create the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus,[1] which remained in business until it shut down in May 2017 due to high operating costs, changing tastes, and animal rights issues.” Continue reading . . .

1 2019—Shocking Scandals To Rock The Royal Family, by Simon Griffin

Read The List: 10 Shocking Scandals To Rock The Royal Family

“When we think of the British royal family, we tend to think about a number of qualities in particular. “Grace,” “poise,” and “decorum” are a few words that could be used to describe the Windsors in almost any situation. The key phrase there was “almost any.” Royals are still people, with all the proclivities of people. To err is human, and as we will see below, just like everyone else, the British royal family is far from perfect.” Continue reading . . .

A few people have started asking for lists of lists so I thought a good one to start us off with would be the most commented on lists. Sometimes they are commented on because they are controversial, but sometimes it is just because they are so damned good! So, here are the lists that you have all contributed the most to.

10. Top 10 Most Depressing Rock Songs

Total Comments: 162

This list was very popular and surprisingly not controversial. Many people added their own choice of top 10 in the comments but there was very little debate. If you want some depressing rock songs – the ten on this list and the thousands mentioned in the comments will certainly keep you busy.

Read the list

9. Top 10 Amazing Facts about Dreams

Total Comments: 165

People are very interested in dreams so this list generated a lot of conversation. There was some debate over the truth of some of the points, but in general people liked the list. This one did very well on Reddit, which brought us a lot of new visitors.

Read the list

8. Top 10 Differences between Europe and America

Total Comments: 168

This list caused so much anger that I had to rewrite large portions of it. Before I had the chance (I went to bed after posting it) to change it, the number of comments soared. Of all the items on this list, this probably got the most comments in the shortest time (second to just one other here).

Read the list

7. Top 10 Common Misconceptions

Total Comments: 173

This one was very controversial – probably because people like to hold on to what they believe even if it is not true. People took issue with the section on Darwin, Hitler, Toilets, and even the chameleons! It is a great list by JT who has submitted many brilliant lists to the site. Oh – and it briefly stirred up a religious debate.

Read the list

6. Top 10 Worst Living Dictators

Total Comments: 177

Firstly, George Bush is not on the list. That, however, did not stop a large number of people from throwing him in and debating – this list became very heated. In fact, US civil liberties became the focus of the majority of comments.

Read the list

5. Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries

Total Comments: 179

Instead of political debate, this list ended up with a bit of religious debate due to my inclusion of the Holy Shroud of Turin. As with most of our posts here, though, the comments were all intelligent (especially mine!) and given in a good spirit. This list spawned two more lists due to its popularity and the number of great unsolved mysteries in the world.

Read the list

4. Top 10 Incredible Recordings

Total Comments: 182

This list hit the site two weeks after we launched. It was one of my favorite lists to write and it hit the front page of Digg and Reddit. The looking back over our graphs of traffic, the digg effect gave us a massive boost and the numbers never dropped. The most popular items on the list are the exorcism, the Jim Jones suicide tape, and the castrato. I have yet to produce a second list of incredible recordings, but you can be sure I will do so. If you know of any eerie or amazing recordings, let me know.

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3. Top 10 Most Evil Women

Total Comments: 184

This list was a very popular one – but my inclusion of two Nazi women caused one poster (Sakul) to put forward the revisionist idea that the holocaust never happened. In response, Loose Cannon defended the traditional view. Even I got heated in the comments and that is rare. The comments here are very entertaining. The photo above is of Irma Grese – otherwise known as the Bitch of Belsen.

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2. Top 15 Beatles Songs

Total Comments: 220

This was the list in which Randall (our resident novel-writing commenter) first drew a lot of attention to himself. He has since gone on to write many other intelligent comments that we all appreciate and has submitted a highly popular list. When people weren’t arguing about which of their favorite songs were missing, they were arguing about whether Led Zeppelin were better than the Beatles. I enjoyed the comments on this list immensely.

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1. Top 10 Stephen King Books

Total Comments: 240

I would say that most people visiting this site have at one time or another read a book or seen a film by Stephen King. His popularity ensured that this would be a popular list. Throw in to the mix a competition in which you can win a book by being the 100th and the 160th commenter and you have a recipe for the most comments on the site. It certainly worked.

Read the list

Not so long ago we did a list on the Top 10 Most Commented On Lists. It was a moderately popular list (as all our meta lists are) which starred as its top item the Top 10 Stephen King Books at 240 comments. I am pleased to say that that list is now only 9th on our list of the most commented. It seemed appropriate to revisit this topic after Christmas – especially as we move in to our second 6 months of existence as a site! So, here are our overall top 10 most commented on lists to date.

10. Top 10 Most Evil Men

Total Comments: 239

This is an interesting one – on the previous list of most popular comments, the Top 10 Most Evil Women ranked as number 3 with 184 comments. Now it is no where to be seen while the evil men have made an appearance. As you can probably imagine, George Bush Junior made an appearance in the comments and that is always guaranteed to incite a riot. And a riot we had! Loose_Cannon, Bucslim, and Frank had a rather excited debate about 9/11, Bush, and someone called Dick Cheney (I don’t know who he is). Fun reading – be sure to check it out! Oh – and whether you like it or not, Josef Stalin is still number 1 on the list!

View the list

9. Your View: What is the Most Influential Movie?

Total Comments: 239

So far we have only had 7 Your View posts and this one is number 5. It sparked a great deal of interest in our readers (probably because they all seem to be film experts in one way or another). I am not sure that we really came to a conclusion on which was the best, but I think Citizen Kane came close (luckily it was my pick!) If you are sitting at home and wondering what movies to download, check out the comments on this list. I am pretty sure ThePirateBay can accommodate everyone!

View the list

8. Top 15 Stephen King Books

Total Comments: 256

This is the only list which has made both the original and this list of top commented lists. Clearly Stephen King is an author with a large following on the List Universe. In fact, not only was this list on the first list of most commented, it was the number one list! No doubt it was helped along a little by the competition which awarded a book to every 100 commenters, but the quality of the list and the love of a good scare helped it along.

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7. Top 10 Discontinued Sodas

Total Comments: 258

How could this list not do well? Who doesn’t like a good soda on a hot summer day? Fortunately we have a lot of readers who remember the 80s – and many of these defunct sodas were a big feature of that flamboyant era. Our only mistake? Leaving off Pepsi Blue. Thanks to StewWriter for this list which ultimately turned out to be his swan song!

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6. Top 20 Beers

Total Comments: 274

I don’t like beer. I have not made any effort to conceal the fact. If I want to stuff my face with bitter tasting drinks/food, I will eat dandelions. Beer is inferior to Cocktails so I will restrict myself to cocktail lists (as I have done so far). Having said that, beer is a very popular drink and this list really incited some rage. This was the first time I had to turn instant comments off and put everyone in to the moderation queue – just to keep the site up. This list hit the front page of Fark which meant we got an immense amount of traffic in a very short time. I love people’s comments so I was very sad to have to disable commenting – but at least all of your views were aired the next morning when the worst of it was over.

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5. Your View: What is the Best Rock Album

Total Comments: 291

I must confess – I planned this “Your View” knowing how sensitive people were on the site to rock music. I just knew it would cause a stir – and it did! On our first list of top commented lists, the Beatles list featured prominently (position 2 in fact) – because of a fight regarding the Beatles versus Led Zeppelin – I knew that this might occur again and I was not disappointed! Your View has now taken two top spots on this list – it is not going to go away!

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4. Top 16 Awesome Fast Food Restaurants

Total Comments: 328

Okay – so we are all spending a lot of time on the net. For many of us that means no time for cooking. The solution? Fast Food! It can not come as a surprise to any of us that a list about fast food joints is going to be popular. Even those of us that have never heard of many of these places loved the list because this is food that sums up our innermost desires – quick, easy, cheap, and tasty! Fortunately we balance things out with real food lists but frankly, you can not beat a Big Mac. Congrats to BrotherMan for such a popular list!

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3. Your View: What is the Best Movie?

Total Comments: 390

This was the first of our new “Your View” series – where we ask the readers (that means you!) to tell us what you think, instead of you simply taking our word. Obviously this was a popular choice of topic because we have so many intelligent film buffs that really know their stuff who read our lists. As I mentioned earlier, it is very hard to make a final decision on which film won out, but I will do so anyway! The best movie, according to you is The Godfather. Good choice – it was my pick too!

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2. Top 20 Geek Movies of All Time

Total Comments: 574

So – frankly most of us are geeks – if we weren’t we wouldn’t be glued to our monitors every day reading the latest comment on the List Universe. This list had to be a winner, and, indeed, it was. These are the films that inspired us and ultimately led us to jobs in the “geek” industries – whether it be regular geek (read IT developers) or artistic geek (read designers). Granted, the list awarded a prize to every 100th commenter, but this is a topic that means so much to all of us that this list would have featured here regardless.

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1. Top 10 Bizarre Biblical Tales

Total Comments: 1,165

You did not read that wrong – this list has reached over one thousand one hundred comments! This is virtually a miracle – not even Digg, Fark, and Reddit get that many comments on their posts! And believe it or not, despite the controversial nature of the topic, most of the comments were fair and polite. We had barely any personal attacks and I am certain that every person reading this list learnt at least one thing from the “opposing” team. Congratulations to the List Universe readers for being so open minded and generous with their comments! I am truly impressed (yet again).

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Afterword

This site has done well in the popularity stakes, not because of my writing, but because of your well reasoned and intelligent comments. The 10 lists above represent 4,014 (four thousand and fourteen) comments. That is an astounding number of well thought out comments. To celebrate, I have made a new tee–shirt for the site which you can see above. If you want to buy one of these shirts, visit the List Universe Online Store. If you think you might prefer something else, we have heaps of great gear in the store so check it out anyway! All proceeds go to the upkeep of the site. Thank you all for your great comments and brilliant attitude!

We like to believe we live in an idealized version of democracy with a government that values our privacy. Well, I think it’s pretty clear by now that that’s not the case. The United States government actually runs the biggest data collection program on planet Earth, and you can bet your bippy that you’re an indexed individual. 

Some of this indexing isn’t that insidious, more like business as usual. The federal government has over 24 agencies such as the IRS, Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Social Security Administration, etc., that keep records on U.S. citizens. 

But for more clandestine endeavors, our government engages in advanced spying techniques and surveillance to keep tabs on us. This means they keep lists upon lists of notable individuals. And any one of us can land on these lists for a myriad of reasons. Of course, the U.S. government must abide by the law regarding collecting information, meaning, in many cases, they have to get a court order.

But there’s a convenient workaround.

If the government hires private contractors and doesn’t use government employees to gather information, they don’t need court orders. Pretty creative. So you might as well just accept you are on any number of government lists, some that you’re aware of and maybe a few you’re not.

Related: 10 Things You Won’t Believe Can Spy On You (But Do)

10 Terrorist Watch List

If you type certain terms into Google, you may end up on our government’s watch list. For instance, if you type in “how to make a bomb,” the possibility exists that you might be placed on a domestic terrorist watch list. Don’t be surprised. It’s Google. You kind of painted the target on your butt for that one. 

If you are known or suspected of being a terrorist, it’s probably a certainty that you have been placed on the Consolidated Terrorist Watch List of the United States government. Again, don’t be surprised (dummy).

9 Sex Offenders Registry

I’m prefacing this section by saying that if you’re caught peeing or doing the nasty in public, you’re, technically, by law, a sex offender. So you could end up on this list for hilarious reasons. Mostly, though, people are rapists, pedophiles, and sexual assaulters. 

That said, if the courts have legally found you to be a sex offender, your name will be listed on the National Sex Offender Registry in coordination with the Department of Justice. This registry lists every person designated as a sex offender in all fifty states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and also Native American tribal lands. This information is public, and anyone can search the database.

8 The IRS

Have you ever filed a tax return? If yes, then you are listed in the IRS database.

Any law enforcement agency that conducts an investigation must ask the IRS for information on your tax returns. To receive this information, they must first get a court order. However, the IRS itself uses surveillance techniques if you’ve been deemed worthy of an investigation for some reason. They even use what are called Stingrays, which can simulate or impersonate cell phone towers. When someone uses a stingray, it can grab information from any cell phone within its range, such as text messages, data downloads, and calls.

In addition, the IRS can expand on its data about you by contacting your state’s department of revenue and asking them to share their information about your income tax forms and history. For example, suppose your state has fined you at some point for not reporting your income accurately, supplying false information, or not paying your taxes. In that case, the IRS can use that information to build a profile and case against you for their own internal investigation. 

Filing online with the IRS is convenient once you have set up an online account with them. But to do this, the IRS uses the opportunity to gather more information about you for their list. When you set up an online account with them, the IRS requires that you submit the account number of your home mortgage company. Using this, they can confirm your identity and request and acquire more financial information about you regarding your payment history and other details.

However, to access your mortgage information, the IRS must use one of the major credit reporting agencies. If your mortgage company isn’t affiliated with the reporting agency the IRS uses, the IRS will ask you for your credit card number. The card number permits them to study your payment history and your purchases there instead.

Sneaky and convoluted.

7 National Gun Background Check System

Even though we don’t have a national gun registry, I find it very hard to believe that when someone has a background check done on them to purchase a gun, the buyer’s data isn’t stored somewhere. It’s a known fact the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) does keep some databases related to guns. Some of the data include the owner’s name and address on sales reports with specific types of firearms, especially guns the ATF suspects of having been used in a crime (or any gun reported to the ATF as being stolen).

6 Regional Passport Office (RPO)

If you’ve ever applied for a passport, especially if you’ve traveled internationally, you are listed in the database. You see it all the time in suspense-action movies. A traveler gets off a plane and must clear customs. The agent at the window looks at the picture in the passport and then studies the traveler’s face. The agent types into his computer and sees the traveler’s passport has been flagged. In other words, his name is on a list for whatever reason. Next, the poor guy is being led into an interrogation room.

Let’s be honest. We all get a little nervous when it’s our turn to get our passports stamped.

5 Military

The NPRC (National Military Personal Records Center) is located in St. Louis, Missouri, and holds all service records starting with World War I to the present. The National Archives (called the archives for a reason) in Washington D.C. holds all service records from the Revolutionary War to 1912. The military is meticulous about its record-keeping.

And let’s not forget our local draft boards. Even though we have an all-volunteer military, teenage boys still have to register for the draft with their local draft board when they turn 18.

4 Department of Transportation (DOT)

If you have a driver’s license, you are listed in a database. If you’ve had driver’s infractions, in other words, you’ve been pulled over and ticketed. There’s a record of it in the police department database. 

You can not escape it. Unless you “disappear” from the system. Then all they have is your last known whereabouts and car make and model. Heck, unless you do anything that requires a credit card, hooking up to city utilities, or registering your identity through the DMV, you could be living in a cabin in the woods as a survivalist for all we know.

Those databases (well, any database!) can be searched using keywords. If the police are looking for a crime suspect and have a description of the car, they can search their databases for that car’s make and/or model.

3 Social Security Administration

There’s a song by Jefferson Airplane called “A Child is Coming.” In it, our singer expresses his concern over Uncle Sam coming around asking for the kid’s name and assigning him numbers. It’s the original off-the-grid campaign—except in a super hippie way. Anyway, those numbers refer to the child’s social security number.

If you have a social security number, you are in the system, and there’s really nothing legal you can do about it. There’s a reason kids are encouraged to get a social security card. For a teenager, it’s a sort of right of passage. For the government, it’s a way to keep track of every one of us. That number we are so innocently assigned will be with us throughout our lives. It is a way for the government to monitor us when they deem there’s a logical reason to do so.

2 Credit Reporting Agencies

These agencies may not be government agencies, but they are overseen by the government’s FTC (Federal Trade Commission). This is the same commission that administers the Telemarketing Sales Rule, Identity Theft Act, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. If you have a credit card, if you’ve applied for credit, taken out a student loan or a car loan, or purchased a home, you are in the system, and the government can access your records for whatever reason.

1 Banking

If you have a checking or savings account, once again, you are in a database that lists your personal information. The government, with a court order, can access bank accounts to survey your financial activity. Quite often, however, it’s not the banks we have to blame for people accessing these databases. Security breaches can result in leaked lists on the Deep Web. These secondary lists mean people can attempt to infiltrate your accounts, hack into your social media, and attempt identity theft.