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Be prepared for more conspiracy theories

September 18, 2020

In the Sept. 11 Cape Gazette, a letter writer strung together some supposedly strange occurrences that took place on 9/11.

It reminded me of what was touted as a breakthrough in the invesigation into who killed President John F. Kennedy.

In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations was getting ready to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone when new evidence emerged.

According to two acoustics analysts, a Dictabelt recording made by a Dallas motorcycle cop indicated “with a probability of 95 percent of better” that a fourth shot had been fired from the Grassy Knoll.

That would place a second, unknown gunman at the scene of one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century.

Later investigations revealed the Dictabelt recordings came from a police officer who was two miles away at the time of the assassination. The Dictabelt hadn’t recorded any gunshots, much less a fourth gunshot.

So much for 95 percent certainty!

(For a thorough debunking of Kennedy conspiracy theories - and they are numerous - read Gerald Posner’s “Case Closed,” a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize.)

That’s part of why I’m skeptical of the letter writer’s conclusions.

“It is not credible,” he said, “that Bin Laden was responsible for these anomalies, nor that they were sheer coincidences.”

Look, if the pandemic has left you with too much time on your hands, by all means, dive into the 9/11 “rabbit hole.” 

Just remember, it’s child’s play to cherry pick facts and “alternative facts” and weave a compelling tale of conspiracy.

The writer mentions a journal that contains a whole slew of 9/11 articles with which to while away the hours.

One paper, for example, examines whether it was an airplane that struck the Pentagon on 9/11. (Yes, it was a plane!)

The article also raises the question of whether that particular section of the Pentagon was targeted because there “were auditors in the damaged section who were investigating the loss of trillions of military dollars.”

So Saudi terrorists spent their last moments making sure they were hitting the section of the Pentagon that housed the auditing department? And why would the Saudis care? And … oh, never mind.

I could, with little effort, pull together an account of facts and coincidences and witness testimony that that seemed to “prove” there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. All you have to do is leave out the conflicting evidence.

I wouldn’t bother with this except that we are living in a time when the president himself supports conspiracy theorists, including those of QAnon, a group whose origins spring from the belief that Democratic leaders, such as Hillary Clinton, are part of an international child sex-trafficking ring that operated out of the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza shop. (Sadly, that’s not a joke.)

We have a president who regularly touts quack cures and takes medical advice from a washed-up game show host and a doctor who believes endometriosis is caused by people having sex with demons in their dreams. (Also not a joke.) And we have a president who declares that the only way he can lose this November is if the election is “rigged.”

Voters are being set up for the most dangerous conspiracy theory in American history.

This means that - despite the cynicism, despite the pandemic - we have to get out the vote.  We have to make the election results too lopsided for even the conspiracy-minded to deny.

Don Flood
Lewes
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