{"id":16126,"date":"2021-06-24T08:47:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T12:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=16126"},"modified":"2021-06-24T17:19:06","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T21:19:06","slug":"the-conspiracy-theory-charade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/24\/the-conspiracy-theory-charade\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Conspiracy Theory” Charade"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

January 6 Capitol Clash. Photo by Tyler Merber via Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

American Conservative, June 24, 2021<\/h3>\n

The \u2018Conspiracy Theory\u2019 Chara<\/a>de<\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

How government and media use the phrase to suppress opposition.by<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
by James Bovard <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>Biden\u2019s \u201cNational Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism\u201d<\/a>\u00a0report last week declared that \u201cenhancing faith in American democracy\u201d requires \u201cfinding ways to counter the influence and impact of dangerous conspiracy theories.\u201d In recent decades, conspiracy theories have multiplied almost as fast as government lies and cover-ups<\/strong>. While many allegations have been ludicrously far-fetched, the political establishment and media routinely attach the \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d label to any challenge to their dominance.<\/p>\n

According to Cass Sunstein<\/a>, Harvard Law professor and Obama\u2019s regulatory czar, a conspiracy theory is \u201can effort to explain some event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role.\u201d Reasonable citizens are supposed to presume that government creates trillions of pages of new secrets each year for their own good, not to hide anything from the public.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

In the early 1960s, conspiracy theories were practically a non-issue because 75 percent of Americans trusted the federal government. Such credulity did not survive the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Seven days after Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson created a commission (later known as the Warren Commission) to suppress controversy about the killing. Johnson and FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover browbeat the commission members into speedily issuing a report rubberstamping the \u201ccrazed lone gunman\u201d version of the assassination. House Minority Leader Gerald Ford, a member of the commission, revised the final staff report to change the location of where the bullet entered Kennedy\u2019s body, thereby salvaging Hoover\u2019s so-called \u201cmagic bullet\u201d theory. After the Warren Commission findings were ridiculed as a whitewash, Johnson ordered the FBI to conduct wiretaps on the report\u2019s critics. To protect the official story, the commission sealed key records for 75 years. Truth would out only after all the people involved in any coverup had gotten their pensions and died.<\/p>\n

The controversy surrounding the Warren Commission spurred the CIA to formally attack the notion of conspiracy theories. In a 1967 alert to its overseas stations and bases, the CIA declared that the fact that almost half of Americans did not believe Oswald acted alone \u201cis a matter of concern to the U.S. government, including our organization\u201d and endangers \u201cthe whole reputation of the American government.\u201d The memo instructed recipients to \u201cemploy propaganda assets\u201d and exploit \u201cfriendly elite contacts (especially politicians and editors), pointing out\u2026 parts of the conspiracy talk appear to be deliberately generated by Communist propagandists.\u201d The ultimate proof of the government\u2019s innocence: \u201cConspiracy on the large scale often suggested would be impossible to conceal in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the CIA did conceal a wide range of assassinations and foreign coups it conducted until congressional investigations in the mid-1970s blew the whistle. The New York Times<\/i>, which exposed the CIA memo in 1977<\/a>, noted that the CIA \u201cmustered its propaganda machinery to support an issue of far more concern to Americans, and to the C.I.A. itself, than to citizens of other countries.\u201d According to historian Lance deHaven-Smith, author of Conspiracy Theory in America<\/i><\/a>, \u201cThe CIA\u2019s campaign to popularize the term \u2018conspiracy theory\u2019 and make conspiracy belief a target of ridicule and hostility must be credited\u2026with being one of the most successful propaganda initiatives of all time.\u201d (In 2014, the CIA released a heavily-redacted<\/a>\u00a0report admitting that<\/a> it had been \u201ccomplicit\u201d in a JFK \u201ccover-up\u201d by withholding \u201cincendiary\u201d information from the Warren Commission.)<\/p>\n

The Johnson administration also sought to portray critics of its Vietnam War policies as conspiracy nuts, at least when they were not portraying them as communist stooges. During 1968 Senate hearings on the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara denounced the \u201cmonstrous insinuations\u201d that the U.S. had sought to provoke a North Vietnamese attack and declared that<\/a> it is \u201cinconceivable that anyone even remotely familiar with our society and system of government could suspect the existence of a conspiracy\u201d to take the nation to war on false pretenses. Three years later, the disclosure of the Pentagon Papers demolished the credibility of McNamara and other top Johnson administration officials who indeed dragged America into the Vietnam War on false pretenses.<\/p>\n

Condemnations of conspiracy theories became a hallmark of the Clinton administration. In 1995, President Bill Clinton claimed that people who believed government threatened their constitutional right were deranged ingrates: \u201cIf you say that Government is in a conspiracy to take your freedom away, you are just plain wrong\u2026. How dare you call yourselves patriots and heroes!\u201d The same year, the White House compiled a fevered 331-page report entitled \u201cCommunication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce<\/a>,\u201d attacking magazines, think tanks, and others that had criticized President Clinton. In the following years, many of the organizations condemned in the White House report were targeted for IRS audits, including the Heritage Foundation and the American Spectator<\/i> magazine and almost a dozen individual high-profile Clinton accusers, including Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers. Despite Clinton\u2019s protestations that he posed no threat to freedom, even the ACLU admitted in 1998 that the Clinton administration had \u201cengaged in surreptitious surveillance, such as wiretapping, on a far greater scale than ever before\u2026 The Administration is using scare tactics to acquire vast new powers to spy on all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d allegations comically expose the naivete of official scorekeepers. In April 2016, Chapman University surveyed Americans and announced that \u201cthe most prevalent conspiracy theory in the United States is that the government is concealing information about the 9\/11 attacks with slightly over half of Americans holding that belief.\u201d\u00a0 That survey did not ask whether people believed the World Trade Centers were blown up by an inside job or whether President George W. Bush secretly masterminded the attacks. Instead, folks were simply asked whether \u201cgovernment is concealing information\u201d about the attacks. Only a village idiot, college professor, or editorial writer would presume the government had come clean. Three months after the Chapman University survey was conducted, the Obama administration finally released 28 pages of a 2003 congressional report that revealed that Saudi government officials had directly financed some of the 9\/11 hijackers in America. That disclosure shattered the storyline carefully constructed by the Bush administration, the 9\/11 Commission, and legions of media accomplices. (Lawsuits continue in federal court seeking to force the U.S. government to disclose more information regarding the Saudi government<\/a> role in the attacks.)<\/p>\n

\u201cConspiracy theory\u201d is often a flag of convenience for the media.<\/strong> In 2018, the New York Times <\/i>asserted that Trump\u2019s use of the term \u201cDeep State\u201d and similar rhetoric \u201cfanned fears that he is eroding public trust in institutions, undermining the idea of objective truth and sowing widespread suspicions about the government and news media.\u201d However, after allegations by anonymous government officials spurred Trump\u2019s first impeachment in 2019, New York Times<\/i> columnist James Stewart cheered, \u201cThere is a Deep State, there is a bureaucracy in our country who has pledged to respect the Constitution, respect the rule of law\u2026 They work for the American people.\u201d New York Times <\/i>editorial writer Michelle Cottle proclaimed, \u201cThe deep state is alive and well\u201d and hailed it as \u201ca collection of patriotic public servants.\u201d Almost immediately after its existence was no longer denied, the Deep State became the incarnation of virtue in Washington.<\/p>\n

The media elite can fabricate \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d designations almost with the flip of a headline. <\/strong>A week after Election Day 2020, the New York Times<\/i> ran a banner headline across the top of the front page: \u201cElection Officials Nationwide Find No Fraud.\u201d How did the Times<\/i> know? Their reporters effectively called each state and asked, \u201cDid y\u2019all see any fraud?\u201d Election officials answered \u201cno,\u201d thus proving that anyone who subsequently questioned Biden\u2019s victory was promoting a groundless conspiracy. While top liberal politicians denounced electronic voting companies as unaccountable and dishonest in 2019, any doubts about such companies became \u201cconspiracies\u201d after that headline in the Times<\/i>.<\/i> The Times <\/i>helped spur a media cacophony drowning out anyone complaining about ballot harvesting, illegal mass mailing of absentee ballots, or widespread failures to verify voter identification.<\/p>\n

Actually, \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d accusations helped Biden win the 2020 presidential election<\/strong>. As Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) recently noted, if Americans believed that the COVID-19 virus was created in a Chinese government lab, Trump would have likely won the election because voters would have sought a leader who could be tough on China. But the lab origin explanation was quickly labeled a pro-Trump heresy. The Washington Post<\/i> denounced Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR,) for suggesting the virus originated in the lab, which supposedly was a \u201cconspiracy theory that was already debunked.\u201d Twenty-seven prominent scientists signed a letter<\/a> in the Lancet:<\/i> \u201cWe stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin\u2026 Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumours, and prejudice that jeopardise our global collaboration in the fight against this virus.\u201d The Lancet<\/i> did not reveal until last week that one of the signers<\/a> and the person who organized the letter signing campaign ran<\/a> an organization that received U.S. government subsidies for its work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab. President Biden has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to take another look to seek to determine the origin of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Will \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d charges provide a \u201cget out of jail free\u201d card for the FBI and other federal agencies regarding the January 6 clash at the Capitol?<\/strong> After Fox News\u2019s Tucker Carlson featured allegations that FBI informants or agents may have instigated the ruckus, the Washington Post <\/i>speedily denounced his \u201cwild, baseless theory\u201d while Huffington Post denounced his \u201claughable conspiracy theory.\u201d It doesn\u2019t matter how often the FBI instigated terrorist plots or political violence in the past 60 years (including the plot to kidnap the Michigan\u2019s Governor Gretchen Whitmer last November). Instead, decent people must do nothing to endanger the official narrative of Jan. 6 as a horrific private terrorist event on par with the War of 1812, Pearl Harbor, and the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cConspiracy theory\u201d is a magic phrase that expunges all previous federal abuses.<\/strong> Many liberals who invoke the phrase also ritually quote a 1965 book by former communist Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics<\/i>. Hofstadter portrayed distrust of government as a proxy for mental illness, a paradigm that makes the character of critics more important than the conduct of government agencies. For Hofstadter, it was a self-evident truth that government was trustworthy because American politics had \u201ca kind of professional code\u2026 embodying the practical wisdom of generations of politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Much of the establishment rage at \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d has been driven by the notion that rulers are entitled intellectual passive obedience. The same lese-majeste<\/i> mindset has been widely adopted to make a muddle of American histor<\/strong>y. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., the court historian for President John F. Kennedy and a revered liberal intellectual, declared in a 2004 article in Playboy<\/i>, \u201cHistorians today conclude that the colonists were driven to revolt in 1776 because of a false conviction that they faced a British conspiracy to destroy their freedom.\u201d Was the British imposition of martial law, confiscation of firearms, military blockades, suspension of habeas corpus, and censorship simply a deranged fantasy of Thomas Jefferson? The notion that the British would never conspire to destroy freedom would play poorly in Dublin. Why would anyone trust academics who were blind to British threats in the 1770s to accurately judge contemporary perils to liberty?<\/p>\n

How does the Biden administration<\/a> intend to fight \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d? The Biden terrorism report called for \u201cenhancing faith in government\u201d by \u201caccelerating work to contend with an information environment that challenges healthy democratic discourse.\u201d Will Biden\u2019s team rely on the \u201csolution\u201d suggested by Cass Sunstein: \u201ccognitive infiltration of extremist groups<\/strong>\u201d by government agents and informants to \u201cundermine\u201d them from within? A 1976 Senate report on the FBI COINTELPRO program demanded assurances<\/a> that a federal agency would never again \u201cbe permitted to conduct a secret war against those citizens it considers threats to the established order.\u201d Actually, the FBI and other agencies have continued secretly warring against \u201cthreats\u201d and legions of informants are likely busy \u201ccognitively infiltrating\u201d at this moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cConspiracy theory\u201d will remain a favorite sneer of the political-media elite. There is no substitute for Americans developing better B.S radars for government claims as well as wild-eyed pri<\/strong>vate balderdash. In the meantime, there\u2019s always the remedy a Washington Post<\/i> health article<\/a> touted late last year: \u201cTry guided imagery. Visualizing positive outcomes can help clamp down on the intense emotions that might make you more vulnerable to harmful conspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Bovard<\/i><\/b>\u00a0is the author of\u00a0<\/i>Lost Rights<\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>Attention Deficit Democracy<\/a>, and\u00a0<\/i>Public Policy Hooligan<\/a>. He is also a\u00a0<\/i>USA Today\u00a0columnist. Follow him on Twitter\u00a0<\/i>@JimBovard<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Conservative, June 24, 2021 The \u2018Conspiracy Theory\u2019 Charade How government and media use the phrase to suppress opposition.by by James Bovard Biden\u2019s \u201cNational Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism\u201d\u00a0report last week declared that \u201cenhancing faith in American democracy\u201d requires \u201cfinding ways to counter the influence and impact of dangerous conspiracy theories.\u201d In recent decades, conspiracy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2901,416,904,2905,62,2124,426,2653,382,347,253,945,2349,2316,987,47,2902,2353,1980,2652,488,2899,1256,381,2900,2892,1879,26,2906,2904,2903,288,2898,833,2874],"class_list":["post-16126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-9-11-attack","tag-911-commission","tag-aclu","tag-arthur-schlesinger","tag-assassination","tag-biden","tag-bill-clinton","tag-capitol","tag-cass-sunstein","tag-cia","tag-cointelpro","tag-conspiracy","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-deep-state","tag-fbi","tag-george-w-buh","tag-gretchen-whitmer","tag-gulf-of-tonkin","tag-january-6","tag-john-f-kennedy","tag-lance-dehaven-smith","tag-new-york-times","tag-paranoia","tag-paula-jones","tag-richard-hofstadter","tag-robert-mcnamara","tag-terrorism","tag-thomas-jefferon","tag-tom-cotton","tag-tucker-carlson","tag-vietnam-war","tag-warren-commission","tag-washington-post","tag-wuhan-laboratory"],"yoast_head":"\nThe "Conspiracy Theory" Charade - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The political-media elite use the "conspiracy theory" label to suppress criticism & cover up their abuses of power\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/24\/the-conspiracy-theory-charade\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The "Conspiracy Theory" Charade - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The political-media elite use the "conspiracy theory" label to suppress criticism & cover up their abuses of power\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/24\/the-conspiracy-theory-charade\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-24T12:47:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-24T21:19:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1024px-Tear_Gas_outside_United_States_Capitol_20210106.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"528\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/24\\\/the-conspiracy-theory-charade\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/24\\\/the-conspiracy-theory-charade\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"The “Conspiracy Theory” Charade\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-24T12:47:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-24T21:19:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/24\\\/the-conspiracy-theory-charade\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":2136,\"commentCount\":47,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/24\\\/the-conspiracy-theory-charade\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/1024px-Tear_Gas_outside_United_States_Capitol_20210106.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"9\\\/11 attack\",\"9\\\/11 commission\",\"ACLU\",\"Arthur Schlesinger\",\"assassination\",\"Biden\",\"Bill Clinton\",\"Capitol\",\"cass sunstein\",\"CIA\",\"cointelpro\",\"conspiracy\",\"COVID\",\"COVID-19\",\"Deep State\",\"FBI\",\"George W. 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Photo by Tyler Merber via Wikipedia\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/24\\\/the-conspiracy-theory-charade\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The “Conspiracy Theory” Charade\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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