90% of Americans believe at least one conspiracy theory (1 Viewer)

[Eeyore]

Related

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[Optimus Prime]

On 22 November 2021, a crowd of 100 or so people gathered in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the site of John F Kennedy’s assassination 58 years before.

They were convinced that JFK’s son, John F Kennedy Jr, was about to return, to take his place as vice-president alongside a reinstated Donald Trump, to battle the satanic paedophile cabal that had taken over Washington. Some even waved “Trump-Kennedy 2024” banners.

Never mind that JFK Jr died in a plane crash in 1999: these people were credulous enough to believe the QAnon conspiracy theory.

When JFK Jr failed to materialise, they promised he would appear at the Rolling Stones’ concert in Dallas that night. Some also reckoned JFK Jr would be accompanied by other not-really-dead figures, including Robin Williams, Michael Jackson and a 104-year-old JFK.

Inevitably, none of this came to pass. But if you wanted to trace the origins of our conspiracy-addled times, Dealey Plaza on 22 November 1963 might well be ground zero.

The assassination of JFK was probably the genesis of the post-truth, fake-news, “don’t trust the experts”, “do your own research” brand of media scepticism and alternative information ecosystems.

Of course, conspiracy theories existed before the assassination of JFK. But it was one of the first events to unfold in real time in the age of mass media. The public heard about it as it happened, via live news and radio broadcasts.

They followed its immediate aftermath, from the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby on live television two days later, to the non-stop television coverage of Kennedy’s funeral, to the commemorative magazines.

It wasn’t just the death of a president: JFK’s assassination 60 years ago also represents the death of a whole postwar worldview of security, stability and certainty.

To some, it was a moment that “splintered our sense of reality”, says Clare Birchall, a professor of contemporary culture at King’s College London, who has written extensively on conspiracy culture.

She cites the postmodern theorist Fredric Jameson, who wrote about how the event represented the “coming of age of the whole media culture”, and the novelist Don DeLillo, who once said it had led to “a much more deeply unsettled feeling about our grip on reality”.

Part of the reason the assassination was so different – so disturbing, so conspiracy-theory-friendly – was that, on the face of it, events just didn’t add up.

How could it be possible that Oswald, an apparent nobody with an old sniper rifle, had pulled off such a crime single-handedly? The Warren commission, investigating the assassination, ruled out other possibilities in 1964, but rather than putting the issue to bed it only fuelled more questions.

Why did Oswald claim he was a “patsy”? Why did Ruby really kill Oswald? Who else wanted Kennedy dead? The mafia? The communists? The military-industrial complex? The CIA? Lyndon Johnson, JFK’s vice-president and successor? All of them?

It was the beginning of a move in the US “away from conspiracy theories about the external threats of communist Russia and towards a more inward-looking suspicion about one’s own government”, says Birchall.

As the 1960s and 70s unfolded, there were further reasons to distrust official narratives: the Vietnam war, Watergate and the US’s shady interventions in foreign countries from Chile to Indonesia, not to mention the assassinations of Martin Luther King and JFK’s brother Bobby.

As it happened, many of these did involve conspiracies………

In the 21st century, though, everything began to flip. The internet hastened the rise of a new breed of conspiracist – and of conspiracist enterprise. Chatrooms and social media helped people spread and monetise their content, while rejection by the mainstream media became a badge of honour. There were fresh conspiracies to examine, from 9/11, to renewed claims that the moon landings were faked, to endless speculation about the “murder” of Diana, Princess of Wales.……

‘It splintered our sense of reality’: how JFK’s assassination spawned 60 years of conspiracy theories

The murder of the US president left millions convinced their government lied and covered up. Decades on, it continues to twist the truth about everything from Covid to G5 to Trump’s defeat at the polls

www.theguardian.com

 

[Eeyore]

Americans Who Fervently Believed the World Would End in 1844

Learn the history of the Millerites, a 19th-century religious sect whose members believed the world would end in the early 1840s.

www.thoughtco.com

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Americans Who Fervently Believed the World Would End in 1844

Learn the history of the Millerites, a 19th-century religious sect whose members believed the world would end in the early 1840s.

www.thoughtco.com

This was a running ‘cold open’ theme for some episodes of The Leftovers

 

[saintmdterps]

The medical field in the late 1700's "We have a way to keep you from getting smallpox"

The medical field in the 1950's "We have a vaccine for Polio"

The medical field in 2020 "For the last time, they can't track you through the Covid vaccine. Even if they could, you have nothing to fear if you're not doing anything wrong..."

 

[bigdaddysaints]

The medical field in the late 1700's "We have a way to keep you from getting smallpox"

The medical field in the 1950's "We have a vaccine for Polio"

The medical field in 2020 "For the last time, they can't track you through the Covid vaccine. Even if they could, you have nothing to fear if you're not doing anything wrong..."

but what about all the aliens that have visited Earth that could have possibly put trackers in the original vaccines?

 

[Sailorsaint]

but what about all the aliens that have visited Earth that could have possibly put trackers in the original vaccines?

No, no, no. Aliens are too nebulous. It has to be the gubment so they have something to actually rebel against.

 

[bigdaddysaints]

No, no, no. Aliens are too nebulous. It has to be the gubment so they have something to actually rebel against.

but what IF, the aliens ARE the govt?

 

[bigdaddysaints]

 

[Eeyore]

 

[Optimus Prime]

When you’re known as the crazy guy at the flat earther convention

 

[Sailorsaint]

I watch a lot of flat earth debunking but this is a new one for me!

 

[bigdaddysaints]

can someone screenshot? Work computer won't allow Reddit

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

I watch a lot of flat earth debunking but this is a new one for me!

My favorite Flat Earth tweet was something along the lines of "The Flat Earth society has chapters all over the globe".