Conspiracy Theories Abound 40 Years After Assassination of John F. Kennedy
DALLAS Nov. 21 - Forty years after John F. Kennedy's assassination, an overwhelming majority of Americans do not believe the official conclusion that a loser named Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, killed the president with a cheap mail-order rifle fired from the Texas School Book Depository.
Thousands of books, movies and Internet chatrooms have fueled dozens of conspiracy theories that it was a plot by the Mafia, the Cubans, the KGB, the CIA, even Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, and that other shots came from the grassy knoll or other spots around Dealey Plaza.
Since then, the list of rumored or suspected government conspiracies, cover-ups, and misdeeds has grown like, well, the output of a rumor mill. FDR planned Pearl Harbor. The CIA had an assassination program and spied on the American people. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was staged. The Moon landing was staged. The FBI helped assassinate Martin Luther King. Nixon's plumbers were burgling private offices. The New Coke fiasco was a planned marketing ploy from the beginning. The Air Force had alien bodies in Nevada. The design of baseballs were altered so that records could be broken. The Kennedys stole the 1960 election. The Bushes stole the 2000 election. Paranoia has reached the point hat the Two Towers had barely cooled before some were muttering dark speculations about the role of our own government in the attacks.
Some blame the Republican Party and its relentlessly anti-government screeds for worsening this trend. Some blame the left, with its chronic distrust of businesses, the media, and law enforcement. Some blame the Masons, for introducing fluoridation into the water supply in order to foster a suggestible and pliable populace. The real answer, is of course, that all of these had contributing roles, along with the presence of CIA mind-control drugs in school lunches.
Far be it from this reporter to suggest that the proliferation of paranoia and decline in trust of authority figures is somehow part of an overarching plan. Who would benefit from a fragmented, suspicious, and hyper-skeptical populace? Who would be powerful enough to manipulate events across decades and continents? Would we be foolish enough to tell you if we knew? Maybe. If you keep reading. Not that we and the rest of the media whip these fantasies up just to sell papers. God, no. it must be the Illuminati. Or maybe the Jews. Or the Moon Men.
Remember, Kids, the part in bold is actual 100% news-flavored media product.
The rest is the fakey part.
Home Previous Lines of the Day
