Aug 20, 2018
The following blog article was written by friend of the
show Cary Hill as a response to our latest podcast episode, "Top 5
Conspiracy Theories with Expert Brian Dunning." Cary is the writer
and director of Scream
Park, and is currently in pre-production of his latest film, a
sci-fi thriller, "Night Sky."
What To Do With The
Facts?
Written by Cary Hill
Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory. Why shouldn’t
they, after all they make for good entertainment. That’s
probably the reason you turned in to the
latest podcast by
List Rate Rank with
conspiracy expert Brian Dunning. The time was taken to
cavalierly debunk numerous conspiracy theories in the episode, but
it lacked in the discussion of why conspiracy theories exist in the
first place.
One might say conspiracy theories arise out of suspicion,
paranoia, or discontent. In this divided time in our nation,
a Democrat will tell you the Republicans are scheming behind sealed
doors and vice versa. Invisible adversaries are hard at work
to get you to look the other way or buy their choice of breakfast
cereal. The truth is, conspiracy theories are born out of
combination of two elements. The first is vacuum of
information or knowledge. This is why so many conspiracy
theories originate from government action -- redacted documents,
top secret clearances, and suspiciously classified information (Lee
Harvey Oswald’s still-classified 1962 tax return, for example) all
lead to an absence of public knowledge about an event.
Speculation naturally fills this void. The other element, and
to which this blog is dedicated, is evidence-to-the-contrary.
Orphaned bits of fact that run counter to official narratives that
cannot be explained by the official narrative but must be addressed
somehow. These bits of fact act as seeds in the fertile bed
of information vacuum, and conspiracy theory sprouts forth.
The fewer the facts associated with a conspiracy theory, the
easier it is to disprove or, at least, poke holes in. The
‘Flat Earth’ conspiracy was discussed in the podcast, a theory that
seems to be absent much evidence. Admittedly, I struggle to
even comprehend this one. Aristotle made the first arguments
against a flat earth in the 4th century B.C. by noting that the
hulls of ships disappeared first when sailing over the horizon,
that Earth cast a round shadow on the moon during a lunar eclipse,
and that different constellations are visible at different
latitudes. Guest Brian Dunning’s top four pick Amelia
Earhart is another example of a conspiracy theory that lacks
evidence-to-the-contrary, so it’s easy to poke holes or spot flaws.
As pointed out in
List Rate Rank’s conspiracy
theory episode, the Moon Landing Hoax is just that. However,
NASA hasn’t done itself any favors by
erasing
the original moon landing tapes. They also have Buzz
Aldrin to contend with. The elderly astronaut
was
recorded saying “we didn’t go there” in regards to a
little girl’s question about landing on the moon. (In defense
of poor Colonel Adrin, I think he meant we didn’t
go
back after Apollo 17 but you decide)
So, yes, many conspiracy theories can be debunked. But
what of the ones that hold up to stronger scrutiny? That
contain conflicting facts that can’t be ignored? Admittedly,
I winced when hearing Brian Dunning refer to the assassination of
Kennedy as having “nothing interesting to say about it” and
“there’s no true science.” Indeed, Dunning claims “all
evidence shows” that “one guy acted alone.” The evidence, as
such, confirming Oswald acted alone presents the following
scenario: A former Marine known for being a poor shot fired three
shots from a bolt-action rifle in 8.3 seconds (with the scope
mounted for a left-handed person, Oswald was right-handed) six
stories up, through a tree, at a moving target that was driving
away from him. The first shot - which presumably Oswald had
the most time to aim - missed completely and struck the curb,
injuring bystander James Tague in the cheek. The second shot
accounted for
seven different wounds between
Kennedy and Governor Connolly (and stopped in mid-air before
turning direction) before the third shot struck Kennedy in the
head. As it stands, you cannot make the claim that “one guy
did it” without accepting the
magic
bullet theory and what Oswald did that day
has
been impossible to reproduce. Oswald’s M.O. never
checked out either: Why would a self-proclaimed Communist
sympathizer want to assassinate a president known for being “soft
on Communism”?
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had that tree cut down by the
way, as it (literally) got in the way of the official
story.
Bullets defying the laws of physics? Nitrate tests that
showed that Oswald had never fired a rifle on the day of the
assassination? No fingerprints found by
the FBI on the assassination rifle? I have to refute
Dunning’s claim that there’s “nothing interesting to say about
it.” On the contrary, it’s kept researchers and prominent
professionals working hard for 55 years. I think men like Dr.
Cyril Wecht, Lawyer Mark Lane, Air Force Colonel Fletcher
Prouty, Hollywood director Oliver Stone (who’s 1991
film JFK would lead Congress to pass the JKF
Records Act, which led to the recent 2017 declassification of
thousands of government documents) and my own father (a JFK
researcher for 50 plus years) would take offense to the claim
“there’s no true science.”
Back to the point, these facts can’t be ignored. You
cannot pick and choose which facts to use to support the claim of
an official story (“Oswald acted alone” or “terrorists brought down
the Twin Towers”) and disregard the facts that create doubt or
question the same story. Another perfect example of
inconvenient facts meeting a vacuum of information was Joe’s top
conspiracy theory of Hitler surviving the war. The Red Army
reached the
fuhrerbunker before the western
Allies, and quickly blanketed the fate of Hitler in secrecy.
The Soviets would actually create a campaign of disinformation
about Hitler’s death, spreading the claim that Hitler had
escaped. Stalin himself would declare to President Harry
Truman at the Potsdam Conference that Hitler was alive -- likely
the origin of the ‘Hitler escaped’ conspiracy theory. British
agent Hugh Trevor-Roper would ultimately be tasked to investigate
what really happened. Trevor-Roper interviewed survivors of
the bunker and concluded that Hitler and Eva Braun indeed committed
suicide on April 30, 1945. The Soviets later claimed they had
skull and jaw fragments (found at the bunker) belonging to Hitler
-- in 2007 an archaeologist and bone specialist named Nick
Bellantoni from the University of Connecticut tested the skull
fragment...
it
was found to belong to a woman under 40 years of age.
American intelligence agencies also continued their hunt for Hitler
during the cold war, as
recently
declassified FBI documents show, and CIA memo HVCA-2592 records
a confidential source claimed in 1955 that Hitler was still alive,
and
even
contains a photo!
Adding to the speculation are mockups done by an American
artist on orders from the OSS in the event Hitler tried to escape
Germany after D-Day.
This information is not to perpetuate a conspiracy theory, but
to give an example as to the why behind them and their
longevity. The vacuum of information (in the case of Hitler,
thanks to Soviet disinformation campaigns and secrecy) led to
speculation and theory designed to explain these orphaned
facts. This informational void is also responsible for
conspiracy theories related to the Illuminati (as David mentioned
in his list) and other secret societies (Freemasonry,
Rosicrucianism, Knights Templar, Knights of Malta, Bilderbergers,
Club of Rome). These exclusive clubs are often tied with
mysticism and eccentricity (Google ‘Rothschild Party Invitation’
for further illustration) and are shrouded with mystery. When
you combine this with the fact that prominent politicians and
bankers are members...well then, they must be up
to something.
So what to do with these facts? If debunking fifty
conspiracies can be done all in one book by Brian Dunning, are
these troublesome ‘inconvenient truths’ just discarded or swatted
away? I think our current zeitgeist is only going to breed
more conspiracy theories. Claims of fake news immediately
cull the idea of a conspiracy to mislead the public or spread
untruths. Now information gets lost in the shuffle and a void
forms -- ripe for a new conspiracy theory to grow. I have to
point out it was (again) the Central Intelligence Agency that
institutionalized the phrase ‘conspiracy theory.’ It was born
out of the growing rejection of the Warren Commission’s finding
that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Anyone who disagreed with
the official report would be chastised and
ridiculed.
CIA
document 1035-960 lays out countermeasures to critics and
‘conspiracy theorists.’ Some facts can be explained away,
some facts debunkers
need to explain away.
But there are some facts that can’t be just ignored. In the
end, it’s really just entertainment; the job of guessing and
reverse-engineering mysteries is all great exercises in thought
(and fodder for endless History Channel specials and Hollywood
movies). Remember, the truth is out there.
Big thanks to David Fedor and List Rate
Rank. Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t include my own
top 5 (for various reasons) conspiracy theories:
5. Howard Hughes
4. RFK Assassination
3. Watergate
2. 9/11
1. JFK Assassination
Honorable Mentions: “Bill Hicks is Alex Jones”; Roswell;
the Kursk submarine disaster; Denver airport;
AIDS was created in a lab