Opinion: Why conspiracy theories are hurting America

Jersey Journal Guest Columnist By Jersey Journal Guest Columnist The Jersey Journal
on November 22, 2013 at 5:55 AM


As we observe the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, we are reflecting on one of the most remarkable figures in American political history. Kennedy was perhaps the most popular president of the 20th century, the embodiment of youthful energy and vision, of idealism and a commitment to service. But in death, JFK will forever be linked to a seemingly endless plethora of conspiracy theories. A man who spoke of optimism and hope has inspired a belief system fixated on pessimism and distrust of not only all major American institutions, but of any kind of consensus reality.

But a distrust of institutions of power and influence is a good thing, right? As a college professor, I often get that question from my students. Shouldn’t we question big government and big business? Shouldn’t we question what the media tell us? What can we criticize about conspiracy theories in the age of the Patriot Act, Wall Street malfeasance and the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping.

Actually, plenty!

Today’s conspiracy culture is not about verifiable empirical facts. Conspiracy theorists no longer go to work when they think a few details of a major event appear to be unaccounted for. Conspiratorial speculation now floods cyberspace before any investigation even takes place. A day after the Colorado theater shootings, conspiracy theories about CIA mind-control techniques invaded the Internet. Theories of a government-run “false flag operation” were going viral on the day of the Boston Marathon bombing, before the Tsarnaev brothers were even suspected by authorities. Professional conspiracy theorists, comprising a multimillion dollar paranoia industry of books -- both self-published and released by some of the biggest publishing companies in the world -- web sites, and independently produced documentaries, invent their theories about any new calamity, then cherry-pick and distort facts to bolster those theories.

Furthermore, conspiracy theories are now an article of faith among an ever growing segment of America. Conspiracism has become a new religion. It certainly functions much the same way religions always have. Just like traditional religions, conspiracy theories seek to find a hidden, intelligent design, a pattern underneath the seemingly random, unrelated events of the world.

For conspiracists, a lack of evidence of their object of faith hardly deters their devotion. Over the past five decades, after all, the lynchpin arguments of JFK conspiratoriology have handily been debunked. It has been proven that Lee Harvey Oswald was very adept with a rifle, that the fatal shot could easily have been made from the School Book Depository, that the bullet cutting through JFK and Texas governor John Connally did not need to zig-zag in any “magical” path, and that the bullet left Oswald’s rifle, not that of any shadowy second gunman. But none of this has come even close to shaking the faith of the true believers. Likewise, for many, no tangible proof is required that the CIA was behind the Sandy Hook massacre or the claim that government weather-control satellites caused Hurricane Sandy. The grand global cabal manipulating the world would, after all, be able to hide all evidence of its existence. Just like the adherents of any religion, devoted conspiracists need no more than their faith.

But herein lies the danger of today’s conspiracy culture. If we are willing to believe hidden cabals this powerful exist, that they can orchestrate any catastrophe – since these cabals are always up to no good, orchestrating nothing positive in the world at all – then why should any of us be motivated to ever change anything, to become socially and politically active. Many young people avidly following every new conspiracy theory trending on the Internet will tell you as much. They tell me whenever the issue comes up in any of my classes. There is no reason to be socially active, to vote even, they say with an indifferent shrug, because “they,” the “forces out there,” the “hidden powers” will always do whatever they want.

John F. Kennedy would, no doubt, be dismayed to hear this.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Barna W. Donovan is the author of "Conspiracy Films: A Tour of Dark Places in the American Conscious" and a professor of communication at Saint Peter’s University where he teaches a course on the history of conspiracy theories in entertainment.