The CIA Conspiracy Against "Conspiracy Theory"

“Conspiracy Theory” — A Negative ‘Meme” used to Prevent the Discovery of Truth

The term “conspiracy theory” became a negative, pejorative “meme” thru the hidden machinations of the Central Intelligence Agency immediately after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  This is not supposition, but rather historical fact.  Prior to the Kennedy assassination, the term “conspiracy theory” was not considered a negative or pejorative, but simply a method of connecting the dots of history to reveal certain patterns of evidence which isolated inquiry of events often overlooked.

After November 22, 1963, the term “conspiracy theory” became a negative “meme.”   From “The Unz Review” of September 5th, 2016, written by Ron Unz, we find a very thorough examination of just how and why the CIA decided to morph the term “conspiracy theory” into the negative connotation this term carries with it today:

Wrote Unz:  The “….use of that highly loaded phrase is reserved for those theories, whether plausible or fanciful, that do not possess the endorsement stamp of establishmentarian approval…. If ownership and control of our television stations and other major media outlets suddenly changed, the new information regime would require only a few weeks of concerted effort to totally invert all of our most famous ‘conspiracy theories’ in the minds of the gullible American public.”

As Mr. Unz points out, by the simple expedient of associating images and imagery with story lines, a subconscious “link” can be easily manufactured in the minds of an uncritical populace.  “In the initial weeks and months following the 2001 attacks, every American media organ was enlisted to denounce and vilify Osama Bin Laden, the purported Islamicist master-mind, as our greatest national enemy, with his bearded visage endlessly appearing on television and in print, soon becoming one of the most recognizable faces in the world. But as the Bush Administration and its key media allies prepared a war against Iraq, the images of the Burning Towers were instead regularly juxtaposed with mustachioed photos of dictator Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden’s arch-enemy. As a consequence, by the time we attacked Iraq in 2003, polls revealed that some 70% of the American public believed that Saddam was personally involved in the destruction of our World Trade Center.

By that date I don’t doubt that many millions of patriotic but low-information Americans would have angrily denounced and vilified as a ‘crazy conspiracy theorist’ anyone with the temerity to suggest that Saddam had not been behind 9/11, despite almost no one in authority having ever explicitly made such a fallacious claim.”

Prof. Lance deHaven-Smith, former president of the Florida Political Science Association, was the author of Conspiracy Theory in America. According to Unz, thru the expedient of a timely FOIA disclosure, Professor deHaven-Smith’s book supported the unsurprising revelation that “…the CIA was very likely responsible for the widespread introduction of ‘conspiracy theory’ as a term of political abuse, having orchestrated that development as a deliberate means of influencing public opinion.”

As the 60’s drew to a close, more and more people began to question the conclusions of The Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald, the “lone gunman,” was actually responsible for the killing of President Kennedy.  Further, there was increasing speculation that some of America’s foremost leaders had actually been involved in the planning and execution of Kennedy’s assassination.   So “…as a means of damage control, the CIA distributed a secret memo to all its field offices requesting that they enlist their media assets in efforts to ridicule and attack such critics as irrational supporters of ‘conspiracy theories.’

Soon afterward, there suddenly appeared statements in the media making those exact points, with some of the wording, arguments, and patterns of usage closely matching those CIA guidelines. The result was a huge spike in the pejorative use of the phrase, which spread throughout the American media, with the residual impact continuing right down to the present day. Thus, there is considerable evidence in support of this particular ‘conspiracy theory’ explaining the widespread appearance of attacks on ‘conspiracy theories’ in the public media.”  Concludes Unz:  “….the traditional American tendency to regard elite conspiracies as a real but harmful aspect of our society was gradually stigmatized as either paranoid or politically dangerous, laying the conditions for its exclusion from respectable discourse.”

I am in agreement with Unz in describing the genesis of how our present perception of the term, “conspiracy theory” was purposely developed into a pejorative dismissal by minions of the CIA working thru their toadies in the mass media to constantly impart a negative spin to anyone who questioned the official government story of John F. Kennedy’s assassination.  

The curious question remains just why it behooved the CIA to take it upon themselves to turn the phrase “conspiracy theory” into a pejorative “meme” — unless, of course, they had something to hide and needed to create a psychological crutch that would deter serious researchers by painting a societal target on their backs as being “out of the mainstream” or “out in left field” or worse, lunatics.  Apparently, The Agency felt the hot breath of investigators like Attorney Jim Garrison of New Orleans breathing down their collective necks and this was their psychological insurance policy to stop them in their tracks.

Of course,  I do not suggest that all conspiracies are “true.”  That would be ludicrous. Genuine conspiracy theorists are always willing to change their theory should new evidence be revealed.     As Unz clarifies: “Not even the most conspiratorially minded individual suggests that all conspiracies are true, merely that some of them might be.”

What I do posit is that when evidence can be presented linking people, events, causes, monetary interests and intellectual philosophies in obvious patterns of benefit, it is absurd NOT to consider the possibility or the validity of a hidden agenda.

A quote by the late (assassinated?) former director of The CIA clarifies The Agency’s contempt for the American Public as well as their tacit admission to use the meme  “conspiracy theory” to drive their favored narrative du jour:    “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”  –  William Casey, CIA Director, from a first staff meeting in 1981

Remember:  Something that might be considered to be a “conspiracy theory” does not exclude it from being a conspiracy fact!  The ability to discern hidden truths by connecting the dots to seemingly disparate elements of historical reality can sometimes lead to even deeper revelations.  What many researchers have concluded, sometimes barely above a whisper, is that History, rather than being a seemingly random series of events, is far more often a landscape of intrigues, plots and… conspiracies.   

I would hazard to say that rather than being the exception, conspiracies are the rule; that is, conspiracies are the actual operational model of History, based upon multiple conspiracies, sometimes acting in concert, sometimes opposed to one another, but always revealing far more than initially meets the eye when one bothers to dig beneath the apparent “random” surface reality that hides their significance.

Please remember the true genesis of “conspiracy theory” or “conspiracy theorist” the next time you hear or read of someone being marginalized because what they hypothesize has not been pre-approved and pre-packaged by The Establishment to promote their point-of-view.  Not only do conspiracies exist, but if Truth is to account for any explanation of events, conspiracies are the rule rather than the exception in the unfolding events on our planet.

LCVincent

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