As the age of technology continues to link up similar minded people in new and more efficient ways, conspiracy theories are able to spread like they had not been able to before. Which brings up the question-are they worth exploring? Whenever major life altering events have occurred throughout history, conspiracy theories have not been far behind.
Whether someone believes the extreme, such as the Holocaust never happening, or the the more realistic, like cover up of the John F. Kennedy assassination, they have been led astray from the truth or have they? Is there any way to figure out what is true and what is not? Some say it should not demand your time and energy. If this is the case, then what would be the point of looking into it? Conspiracy theories are often leave people skeptical and dismissive because they are not supported by nclusive evidence and contrast with established analysis. People often use the term facetiously in an attempt to portray whichever belief as absurdly false, which is unfair unless they can fully disprove it as well.
Conspiracy theories continue to thrive because when a tragedy happens, people become blinded to the apparent reasons and think in their minds that there has to be more to it than that. Psychologically, however, it may seem that we need them. Jeffrey Bale, a writer who studies conspiracies, says: “giving misery and injustice an identity makes life more bearable. Conspiracy theories account for current crises and upheavals and explain why bad things are happening to good people or vice versa” (BBC News).
While the government can—and should be a force for good, it may also be a source of harm. A general theme of many conspiracy theories is the idea that the government is responsible for the terrible tragedies that occur in the world, and that they are deceiving their citizens by covering up the truth of what actually happened behind those incidents. For example, some believe the United States disregarded advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attacks—or may have even carried it out themselves—and now use altered videos and media manipulation in order to cover it up.
Many people ask: Why would anyone bother to make these elaborate plans? If human nature is studied, one would eventually come to understand that some groups are absolutely willing to commit concealed crimes to hide their true agendas in order to gain advantage, acquire wealth, or increase power. While complete disregard for anything the government says may be slightly irrational, it would be foolish to place complete trust in everything that they may tell you. After all, there have been instances that give reasons to place doubt.
For example, there are documents out there that have proved that people in charge of the United States military crafted and approved plans to create terrorism acts on American soil so that they would be able to sway citizens into supporting a war versus Cuba. If President John F. Kennedy had not successfully rejected the plan, and it had gone accordingly, then a series of violent terrorism attacks would have hit Washington, D. C. , Miami, and elsewhere leaving innocent Americans getting shot dead on the streets. The plan also included people being framed for bombings that they did not commit; and planes being hijacked.
Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer had even planned to stage a tragedy where a “Cuban” aircraft would shoot down a plane full of college students. The military officials intended to plant false evidence that would point to Fidel Castro and Cuban refugees to being behind the attacks. In 1972, five men were arrested for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office complex in Washington, D. C. , which became infamously known as The Watergate Scandal. The FBI launched an investigation, as did the Senate Watergate Committee and House Judiciary Committee later on.
The press eventually revealed that this burglary was one of many illegal activities authorized and performed by President Nixon’s staff. They had discovered that Nixon and his staff had conspired to cover up the event, and especially its connection with the White House. After two years of mounting evidence against the President and his staff, it was uncovered, with the help of former staff members, that Nixon had a tape recording system in his offices where he had recorded many of his conversations. Recordings from these tapes revealed proof of his wrong doing and attempt to cover everything up.
They also publicized the “vast amount of crimes and abuses of power, which included campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, tax evasions, and illegal wiretapping on a massive scale” (Hornick). A secret money fund in Mexico was also found that was used as pay and to buy the silence of the seven men who were indicted for the break-in. With fear of definite impeachment in the House of Representatives and with a high chance of a conviction in the Senate, Nixon resigned as a result, and became the only president in the United States to have quit from office.
Another example is a CIA launch of a top secret project called “Operation Mockingbird. ” Their goal was to buy influence and control among the major media outlets. Their plan was to hire journalists and reporters to be on the CIA payroll so that they could write propaganda. They had chosen journalists from major outlets such as ABC, NBC, CBS, Time, Newsweek, and Associated Press. By the 1950s, the CIA had infiltrated the nation’s businesses, media, and universities with thousands of people working for them.
Who is to say that our media agencies today are not still tempted by the government to and corporations to spew propaganda to further their agendas? For years, theorists who feared that society was controlled by corporations were told they were just being paranoid. The end result? They ended up being not so paranoid. In 2013, WikiLeaks infamously made public the secretly negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. It publicized a top secret regional free trade agreement which was being negotiated by many countries, including the United States.
We will always be capable of jumping to conclusions, particularly when dealing with the government, corporations, and the media. And conspiracies, unlike many of the monsters within our nightmares and fairy tales, do exist sometimes, so we won’t always be wrong to fear them. As long as human beings are around, so will paranoia, particularly political paranoia. People have a tendency for not only discovering patterns amongst chaos but for structuring stories to make sense of those events, principally the ones that frighten us.
And a conspiracy theory is particularly appealing because it imagines that there is something, an intelligence, behind the pattern. However, conspiracy theories, such as that the United States government faked the moon landing, evoke such fascination that they can lead to the exploration of new and old information. As a result of curiosity generated by conspiracy theories, each new generation of students may discuss and debate the supposed secret film set and the ripples of the flag from the moon landing, and thus encouraging learning about our history.
By provoking an enduring public fascination with John F. Kennedy, conspiracy theorists have also helped create a fascination for the extraordinary political history of the Vietnam, Civil Rights movement, and Cuban missile crisis that made up the 1960’s. The curiosity of not knowing has led people that may have not been interested otherwise, to learn about America’s colorful history. People do tend to get carried away with certain ideas. While some people like to know that everything is okay, other people do not have that blind trust.
There is not anything wrong with being skeptical sometimes. There’s a saying that goes “history repeats itself. ” The point of students learning about history is so that we can learn from our mistakes, and hopefully not repeat them in the future. Often people in the past went along with whatever everybody else was doing or thinking, simply so that they would fit in and not appear “crazy” because it’s human nature to want to feel accepted by others.
At some point in time in America when there were slaves, it was rarely if ever spoken out against because it was the “norm” so many people did not actually know better or that it was wrong. Today, we know that it was a cruel act and still deeply regret it. That is one of the reasons why everything should be questioned, no matter how it is told. Things have been considered true by the masses and those who did not buy the official stories were labeled conspiracy theorists. But time has proven the official reports to be blatant lies. History has shown that. Everything should be questioned—but with logic and facts.
