The Paranoid Style of American Conspiracy History

1. The Paranoid Style of American Conspiracy History History 17B

2. “Official” vs. “Conspiracy” History • Official history is a lie. • American history a tragic tale of conspiracy. • Long tradition of conspiracy history • Freemasons

3. Freemasons Conspiracy

4. Definition: Psychic Crisis • Conspiracy theorists see history as a “vast” or “gigantic” conspiracy. • Good vs. Evil • Our ills can be traced to a single center • World communism, international bankers syndicate, Catholic Church, Jews. • Feelings of persecution and dispossession

5. Mistrust of Authority • Inherent mistrust of government. • Conspiracy theorists seek order and logical explanations in a fast changing world. • Events do not unfold randomly or happen by chance. • Lack of evidence is “proof” of a cover-up. • Some justification for mistrust: • Government has covered-up spying on Americans, drug trafficking through the CIA, nuclear radiation and chemical experiments on U.S. citizens. • 1996 poll showed 75% of public believe in government conspiracies.

6. Three Case Studies

7. UFOs • Old idea of life on other planets. • But UFO sightings increase since 1947 (birth of the Cold War). • For Conspiracy theorists, UFOs do exist. • Conspiracy is their cover-up by the government. • “Men in Black”

8. The Roswell Incident • Sighting of flying disks in New Mexico desert in mid-1947. • Reports of a crash outside Roswell soon follow. • Debris reported as wooden sticks, aluminum foil, and adhesive tape with flowers. • Conflicting reports to the press. • A “flying disk” or a weather balloon. • 1977 two authors report a government cover-up. • Flowers on adhesive tape really alien hieroglyphics.

9. Government Cover-Up? • Other accounts follow: • Multiple crashes • Recovery of alien bodies. • Air-force request for child-size coffins. • Witnesses report seeing aliens dead and/or alive in desert.

10. The “Real” Cover-Up • Witness memories faulty or fabricated. • Sightings reported 30 years later. • There was a government cover-up • Not a weather balloon, but a spying device used against USSR. • Alien bodies were dummies used for parachute tests. • Air-Force accident with crew death. • Other reasons to be skeptical: • Fear of an alien invasion could not be hidden in 1947 from the world. • If true, U.S. would have developed an electronic defense screen in 1947 (rather than 1957 with launch of Sputnik).

11. Right Wing Conspiracies • An outgrowth of Cold War ideological conflict. • New Deal years and changing post-WWII society brings psychic crisis for many. • Conservatives perceive “their” U.S. as being lost to subversives. • Government Centralization would wipe-out individualism (a communist goal!) • John Birch Society Robert Welch

12. New World Order • Bush declares “New World Order” with end of the Cold War in 1990. • Some Conservatives feared this meant centralized world government controlled by United Nations. • Televangelist Pat Robertson • “One world” government is goal of illuminati since 18th century. • Loss of individualism, loyalty to family, patriotism, and religious faith. • New World Order is “demonic.”

13. The Militia Movement • Fear of centralized government – both in U.S. and from United Nations. • Paranoid accusations of UN activities. Timothy McVeigh Oklahoma City, 1995

14. Dallas - November 22, 1963

15. Conspiracy Theories from the Left • People remember November 22, 1963. • Sense of dispossession, of loss about the future. • America’s bright future snuffed out in Dallas.

16. An open and shut case? • Lee Harvey Oswald • Oswald a Marxist and outspoken critic of JFK’s anti-Castro policy. • Rifle found near Book Depository window was registered in his name and had his hand prints. • Warren Commission concludes in 1964 that Oswald was the lone gunman.

17. Warren Commission Inconsistencies • WC concludes 3 shots fired in 5.6 seconds. • But it takes 3 seconds to recycle gun. • Oswald said to be a mediocre marksman. • FBI could not duplicate his deadly accuracy in two sets of tests. • Why not a frontal shot up Houston rather than wait until JFK is on Elm? • Was JFK killed in a triangulation of fire in a conspiracy? • The grassy knoll.

18. The Magic Bullet Theory • Three bullets in 5.6 seconds. • One bullet misses, the third bullet shatters JFK’s skull. • WC had to explain 7 wounds with one bullet.

19. The Magic Bullet vs. Other Bullets

20. Zapruder Film

21. The Conspiracy • Who killed Kennedy? • Mafia, Robert Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, the 3 tramps, KGB, Cubans, CIA, Lyndon Johnson • Strange occurrences surrounding assassination • Witnesses harassed, tragic deaths • Murder of Oswald by Jack Ruby on live television.

22. The Conspiracy • Kennedy’s brain is missing from the National Archives. • Theorists say to hide evidence of bullet’s trajectory. • LBJ asks CIA/FBI to withhold information from WC that might implicate Castro in assassination for fear of war cries. • Such revelations perpetuate theories of larger cover-ups.

23. Hollywood History • Oliver Stone’s “wacky” conspiracy theory. • The Military-Industrial Complex the culprit. • LBJ an accomplice. • Oswald a patsy. • Goal was to get America into Vietnam • A weak assumption that JFK would not have taken us in!

24. Why Most Theories Fail • Though lots of speculation, no conclusive evidence to refute WC’s lone-gunman conclusions. • Conspiracy theorists dismiss simple explanations and develop more complex theories, adding conspirators to the scenario.

25. Explaining the Magic Bullet • Both men were moving about in the car, creating the possibility of 7 wounds with one bullet. • A pristine bullet is also possible according to a standard forensic text. • Fatal shot from the front? (“back and to the left”) • Bodies fall in the direction they were traveling, regardless of where a bullet comes from. • Thus film is not definitive evidence of two gunman.

26. Why do we care? • Liberal Conspiracy Theories • Every wrong in modern America traceable to JFK’s lost presidency. • Kennedy’s assassination a “catastrophe” (especially for Liberals) that can engender a Psychic Crisis. • Attributing his death to a conspiracy makes him a martyr.

27. Final Thoughts • There have been real conspiracies • Watergate and Iran-Contra • But even these limited cover-ups could not be kept secret by just a few players.

28. Consequences

29. “The Truth Is Out There…” …but don’t always assume that there is a master plan behind every occurrence.