Everyone knows about the conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination. If there is a singular event where conspiracy theories absolutely just were all over the place, it would be the Kennedy assassination. For a while, I was fascinated by these various conspiracy theories, and to some extent, taken in by some of them. Some, on the other hand, were just utterly ridiculous right from the start.
Of course, sometimes it is difficult to take the official account on it’s face value. After all, there are just so many questions. After all, how could one man – supposedly a lone loser – manage to pull off three shots so quickly, two of which managed to hit the president in a moving car? For that matter, how comes Kennedy seems to react as if shot from the front, with seemingly a piece of his head blown off, and with him being jerked back and to the left? Why did Ruby manage to get so close to Oswald that he managed to kill him, thus ending any real chance at answers? Why did a number of people seem to believe that the shots had come from the grassy knoll?
There are a lot of questions, and no real answers to that tragedy. And when the next huge event that changed the country dramatically occurred, there were many questions and conspiracy theories that followed, as well. Did George W. Bush know about the September 11th attacks in advance? How could there be so much video footage of the two planes attacking the Twin Towers in New York, but absolutely no footage of the jet striking the Pentagon, since all the video of it was apparently confiscated? Why were there no marks for the wings when it struck? For that matter, how can we believe that the black boxes simply disintegrated?
There are indeed some questions that remain about both of those events, although for me, I am okay with not knowing. Yes, there seems like a lot of evidence to suggest that Oswald was not alone, yet there are just no concrete leads to prove that he did not, and too many indicators that he was there on that day specifically for that reason, and all of this cannot be ignored. Yes, the Bush administration received advanced warnings of the attack to come and, frankly, should have taken these a lot more seriously, and been able to piece together some idea of what was going to happen.
Now, with the coronavirus, there are, predictably, plenty of conspiracy theories galore. I had a couple of conversations already with people who are quite taken by these. The most persistent among some Americans is that this was some kind of hoax designed to make Donald Trump look bad (as if he needed any help with that). Many who believe this seem to think that the Democrats would be willing to destabilize the entire economy and release a dangerous and unpredictable virus, all just to make sure that Trump does not get a second term. Some Trump fans also quickly point out that there was another pandemic, the swine flu, which took place during the Obama years in office, and which impacted tens of millions of Americans who got infected, with tens of thousands dying from it. They point to the lack of media hype back then, and their clear insinuation is that if Donald Trump was not in the White House, none of what is currently happening would be happening.
However, this whole coronavirus is an airborne virus that, indeed, likely did not originate here in the United States, from what we can tell. It does not help to call this the “Chinese flu,” but there is evidence to suggest that it did come from China, particularly somewhere around Wuhan, which was the epicenter of the whole thing from the earliest days. Some have suggested it started because some human – patient zero – ate a bat that had the disease, and that this was how the whole crisis that has now spread literally around the globe began.
Since there is evidence that Covid-19 began in China, and since China is such an easy and apparently natural scapegoat for many ills in the world according to many Americans, there has been no shortage of people who have jumped on this. Trump himself pounced on it, and wants to make sure that everyone knows he blames China for it all. This opinion is shared by many Trump supporters, who have pounced on this thing.
Over the weekend while at work, I encountered a guy who asked me, out of nowhere, what I thought about this whole coronavirus thing. Admittedly, I was a little leery, because I have learned to hesitate before talking politics with anyone, and this guy had an unusual energy and intensity that was a tad off-putting. It was only too easy to imagine a conversation that would be all over the place, with a stranger who may reveal himself to be less than fully stable mentally, or perhaps even angry. Being at work, an argument was not something that I wanted any part of, either. Yet, the guy insisted.
This guy told me some new conspiracy theories, or rather, specific details of a conspiracy theory that has been floating around. Namely, he said that it was a biological attack on the United States by the Chinese. This kind of belief, like many conspiracy theory, kind of revolves on the periphery on believability, seemingly making just enough sense to be plausible to some people. He backed this up with what he felt were proof and facts that he had at the ready. He asked me if I knew what was going on there, and I admitted that I did not. But he mentioned that China now has zero cases of Covid-19, which was something that I know not to be true, but which seemed hardly worth challenging him on. After all, the virus ravaged numerous Chinese cities and shut down normal life and routines for quite some time in China.
He suggested that China had far more advanced nuclear weapons than we Americans had. This was where I challenged him, but did so without any passion or anger, simply pointing out that I was not so sure about this, since we spend more than the next 11 leading countries in terms of military spending– which includes China – combined. But he insisted, and so I just shrugged, not seeing much point in continuing that particular argument. Again, these days, it seems that facts just do not matter to some people.
Basically, he felt that China did this to hurt the American economy, to undermine American power. He felt that Trump was not doing that bad of a job, despite having clearly made some mistakes, which made him only the second of third black man that I have met who is supportive (more or less) of Trump. According to him, the United States is hurt, with possibly irreparable damage, while China is rising because of this. He insisted that all of “those counties: (that was how he put it) had agents – spies – here in the United States, and they introduced the virus here. How else would it have gotten here, he asked?
I mentioned that China had been hurt by the coronavirus, that it had suffered from tens of thousands of infected and thousands of deaths. The economy was hurt, because businesses throughout China were closed for a period of time, much like they are here in the West right now. Strangely, he seemed to suggest that China was trying to make Trump look bad (differing from some Trump fans who believe that the Democrats are behind this), and he also was suspicious of Russia, claiming that they had no cases, and had closed their borders. In fact, Russia does have hundreds of cases of the coronavirus, and has seen some deaths, although it has not reached anywhere near the numbers that it has in some other countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americans. At least not yet.
When the guy left, I felt a little strange. I cannot say that it is entirely impossible that this whole thing was some kind of biological terrorism, but it seems unlikely to me. Frankly, it feels like the product of minds that watch too many spy movies and television, where evil characters bent on world domination release a virus to further their diabolical schemes. Frankly, it seems to me that there are a lot of cartoonish opinions and versions of “reality” here in the United States that are hard to take seriously. After all, look at who is currently sitting in the Oval Office. It was beginning to feel like this was one man who was betraying his own kind of cartoonish understanding of the world.
So, is it some biological attack by the Chinese. or someone else? The Russians? The Koreans (I think he meant the North Koreans)? The Iranians, perhaps? Again, it is not impossible. But it also does not feel right, or resemble anything that feels much like reality to me. It feels like a dangerous conspiracy theory that further erodes common sense, like the conspiracy that someone shot Kennedy from the sewers, or how Saddam and Iraq were somehow involved with the September 11th attacks, regardless of a total lack of evidence. It sounds like finger-pointing and trying to blame “the other” and increase tensions for no reason whatsoever, adding fuel to an already burning fire.
There is another guy – a very young guy who is likely in his early 20’s - at this same job who has shared some strange theories about Covid-19. He seems a little naïve in a young sort of way, and also shared the previous guy’s belief that it was a biological attack by the Chinese. But he also heard that all of this will just come to an end on April 8th. Yes, that’s right, it is not a misprint. The way that he put it, he heard somewhere, from someone, that just like that, this thing will disappear without a trace on April 8th, vanishing as quickly and mysteriously as it first appeared to begin with.
Okay.
There are other rumors, too. Rumors which have no basis in fact or science, and which could seriously exacerbate the situation. One of these is that chemicals which mix together to make bleach could somehow kill the coronavirus. If it does, it could also clearly prove lethal to anyone who drinks such a concoction, as well.
Rumors persist also that this whole thing is one giant hoax, or at least that the coronavirus really is not all that bad as they say, that the media is hyping it up and ruining the country, and that we should all simply return back to work and our normal, everyday routines, even if it would mean a much wider outbreak of the disease.
Nor are the rumors relegated to just the United States, for that matter. Below is a link to an article which explore how Iran is dealing with harmful rumors which have little to no basis in fact, and which are hurting efforts to combat Covid-19.
The rumors will continue. That seems to be part of the norm whenever there are events that change our lives like this.
But the prevalence of rumors seems to be shifting our frankly immature and less than thoughtful American society more than it has in the past. If we want to get back to trying to do our part to make a better country, we are going to need to return back to a time when at least simple, indisputable things like facts matter again.
Iran confronts coronavirus amid a ‘battle between science and conspiracy theories’ By Richard Stone, Mar. 29, 2020:
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/iran-confronts-coronavirus-amid-battle-between-science-and-conspiracy-theories
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