The Day the Conspiracy Theory was Born and Why it Seems Sane Now

Something is wrong with us. Something is very, very wrong with us.

Bill Murray as John Winger in the movie, "Stripes."

It is easy to remember what the weather was like in Oklahoma City on Friday, November 22, 1963. Practically everything about that day is. When it comes to November 24th of the same year things are a bit fuzzier.

Despite not remembering how cold, calm, gray, or clear it was, it had to have been pretty decent out, because I do remember walking the block and a half from my parent's house to the Methodist Church I attended without an overcoat. I also remember the gist of the minister's sermon. He said, like everyone else in the nation, his immediate reaction to the murder of President John F. Kennedy was to execute the perpetrator at once. However, he went on to say, no matter how shocked and angry we might be, as Americans, we should remember the accused man, Lee Harvey Oswald had not been convicted of anything yet and was therefore innocent, no matter how damning the evidence. He also told the congregation, that as Christians we should forgive and pray for him.

The church was packed that morning. The silence of the crowd was as stony as their demeanor.

Before I got home, my eight year old brother Ed--who would grow up to be a print journalist--met me half way there and told me Oswald had himself been shot. His eyes were wide, "We saw it on TV," he said.

I didn't know it then, but it was at that moment America jumped into the deep end of the conspiracy pool. It is a body of darkness which has grown to breathtaking proportions. So much so it has become a vital resource for politicians and media outlets, while it has swallowed the common sense of millions like a Grouper does a Sardine.

There were conspiracies before the death of JFK of course. We know at least one was true. John Wilkes Booth really did plot with associates to not only assassinate Abraham Lincoln, but also William Seward, Andrew Johnson, and a couple of others. Lincoln was killed, Seward was severely wounded, and every one else escaped because the remaining members of the cabal either chickened out, or got drunk.

When it came to Kennedy the circumstances and the aftermath were just too tempting to believe something else wasn't going on.. There is no way, many reasoned, a goof like Oswald could pull off the shooting by himself. In fact he was such a loser another thread went, he had to have been framed.

Now, over half a century later, depending on who you read, or what TV special, or movie you see, John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination was carried out by--pick one, or more--disgruntled CIA operatives, the mob, Cubans (either flavor), or, even Lyndon Baines Johnson. 

Little did we know any of those possibilities would seem absolutely sane compared to the shit we've come to deal with in the first two decades of the 21st century.

Indeed, from missing airliners being held at remote naval bases in the Indian Ocean, to vast pedophile rings headquartered in the basements of pizza parlors millions have gone around the proverbial bend.

It would be easy to blame a lot of this insanity on the rise of the internet and social media, so I will.

Let's face it, there has always been be loons who will believe anything, but they were isolated, off in corners jabbering to themselves. Thanks to the internet they're now all connected, feeding off each other, affirming their most cracked assertions among each other. Person A says this. Person B repeats it. Person C not only tells person D, but cites person B as his, or her source, who in turn cites person A.

Along with the internet has come cable TV networks and politicians more than willing to exploit the worst fears and alternate realities out there. Suddenly supporting and intensifying any outlandish nonsense became profitable and politically advantageous.

Just ask the outgoing President of the United States.

Yes, Donald Trump not only plays to the conspiracies, he is more than willing to create his own. A recent poll shows over 75% of republicans believe the 2020 presidential election was rigged. This despite a number of swing states being controlled by fellow republicans. To Trump and his cult that doesn't matter. According to El Don, who has sown these seeds for years, hundreds of thousands of devious individuals participated in a nationwide effort to thwart democracy by hacking voting machines, sending in fake ballots, and forging signatures on others.

In addition none of those involved in the criminal enterprise are talking. Not a single one will break this left wing code of omerta. And they are all aided and abetted by the media, including the treasonously complicit Fox News.

It would be nice to say this national hysteria will end once Trump is gone. We know that won't be the case though. We, as a republic, have reached the conspiracy theory tipping point. 

Think not? As these words are being written there are huge numbers of progressives on social media who claim the only way Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham won their senate races was, you guessed it, the results in their states were rigged.

Yeah, that's what we've become. It makes you wish someone had taped Oswald pulling the trigger. Or at least he lived long enough to either admit, or deny it.

11-24-20