Outback Steakhouse Denies Satanic Cult Conspiracy Theory

It wouldn’t be present-day America without at least one whopper conspiracy theory whirring around social media until it finally vanishes up what must be the voluminous orifice of the internet. The current winner comes from a tweet that suggests the Outback Steakhouse chain may be dabbling in the occult.

It’s ingenious, actually. A Twitter user connected the locations of Outback on the maps of several U.S. cities, and what do you know? They formed pentagrams, the five-sided stars associated with Wicca, Illuminati, Satanism, Freemasonry and the occult in general.

What’s up with that, Twitter user @eatmyesthetics wondered in a tweet that showed the pattern on maps from New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and the Bay Area in San Francisco. Other Twitter users tweeted their own maps of metro areas in New Jersey, Arizona, Indianapolis, Georgia and other states, building a damning circumstantial case against Outback.

Outback and its parent company have not responded to media requests for comment. In a statement to the Daily Dot, which offered a satirical account of what the Outback pentagram-shaped maps might portend, the company didn’t address conspiracy theorists directly but said the chain’s only plan is “to bring bold steaks and Bloomin’ Onions to our guests!”

Plus, one logical explanation for why the maps look like they do is that Outback caters to suburban families and conveniently locates its restaurants around metropolitan areas. But what will likely cause this conspiracy theory to disappear in a cloud of cyberspace dust is the maps just don’t hold up.

Photo by Mike Mozart via Flickr Commons