Why won't my VGA Adapter work with my MacBook Air?

I recently purchased a VGA adapter to use with my MacBook Air, but it adapted to lightning, so it did not work with my computer. (The adapter successfully worked on my phone, but again, I got it for my laptop.) So I purchased the lightning to USB-C adapter, but it doesn't work with my laptop at all. When I unplugged the adapter and tried with my phone it immediately worked, so I know it's not a question of whether it's the VGA adapter that's broken. At this point I've spent close to $100 on adapters and I still cannot successfully connect my laptop to the VGA input which is majorly annoying because I need it for work.

I saw some people had similar issues with using the SD card to lightning with the lightning to USB-C adapter. Is this a problem that's happening in general or do I just have a bad adapter?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]