[Yardstick]

I've read the Posner book and it is excellent. It switched me from the conspiracy camp to the "Oswald did it alone" camp. What's really telling, IMO, is that the conspiracy theories were first promoted by leftists who wanted to confuse the public and deflect blame from a comrade. From there everyone started piling on, rightwingers too, and now it's just a huge jumble, which of course is helpful to the left since their guy did it. Over the years a basic narrative has emerged, shaped by the liberal media, which avoids specifics in terms of identifying the killer or espousing any particular theory, but instead points to a general meanness in the national psyche as the ultimate cause -- i.e. "we all killed Kennedy". The subtext of it is that America wasn't sufficiently enlightened (read: liberal) to be able to handle such an avatar of progress in its midst as JFK.

[The KG9 Kid]

"...What's really telling, IMO, is that the conspiracy theories were first promoted by leftists who wanted to confuse the public and deflect blame from a comrade. From there everyone started piling on, rightwingers too, and now it's just a huge jumble, which of course is helpful to the left since their guy did it."

Precisely.

Thank you.

[sportutegrl]

I visited the Conspiracy Theory Museum when I was in Dallas years ago, before it closed down a few years back. The guy that ran it was real fun to talk to, a true believer. Me and my DH were the only ones in the place, so we chatted up the guy. He saw all the Kennedy deaths as related, along with Chappaquiddick, as one great conspiracy to keep the Kennedys from ever becoming president again. Even the JFK, Jr. plane crash was part of a plot. Never asked him about Patches or RFK Jr., though — you can’t fix stupid.