Skepticism, Science & Pseudoscience

It's the kind of event that inspires conspiracy theories. It's the President of the United States. Who wants to believe our existence is so fragile and our society so vulnerable? No one. At least give us a target so we can understand, so we can have some illusion of control over the randomness of the universe's power over us.

Even this statement of who's to blame for the CTs is evidence of that. Someone must be responsible! What the KGB did, it did, yes. Not denying that. But without the soil being ready for those kinds of seeds, the conspiracy theories could never have taken root.

So the McCarthy hearings have just as much culpability in my mind. Reds in the midst of us! Communists in the State Department! They tilled the fertile soil within which the JFK conspiracy theories grew.

And Lyndon Baines Johnson bears responsibility for being the first JFK conspiracy theorist. He didn't want people digging too closely into Oswald's background because he was sure they'd find out Castro commissioned it. And that meant World War III. So it became paramount to find Oswald to be a lone nut. As I see it, it turns out he was a lone nut. So lucky for everyone involved, right?

And Jack Ruby, he deserves a lot of credit for the conspiracy theories. They were his main defense in the years after he killed Oswald. Funny how no one tried to assassinate him even though he could have given up the JFK conspiracy just as easily as Oswald could have. And funny how, if he'd been hired to kill Oswald to keep him quiet, he didn't take the shot Friday night when he first had the chance, but waited two more days (and thus let Oswald be interrogated further) to do the deed. But after it was over, well, intimations about conspiracy would be his bread and butter. And no trial for Oswald meant no way for society to work through the evidence. So he's got his share of the blame, too.

People want big answers to big questions. As Jackie put it, Oswald was a "silly little Communist." Someone like that, all alone, has the power to instigate such a massive event like the assassination of one of the world's most powerful leaders? It's chilling to even think of it. And conspiracy theories give us all the reason in the world to not think of it. If the American public was not buying conspiracy theories, the KGB could have sold them all day long and gotten nowhere.