The official story, when it appears to have holes in it, when crucial details lack credibility, gives rise to speculation about an opaque cover story, something to hide, a cover-up.  This is as true in personal history, where for example one party will be blamed for all conflict, as in the larger history of the world.   In families sides are drawn every day and alliances are sealed with one sided narratives that close all discussion forever.  You can look at allies on multiple sides tomorrow over Thanksgiving dinner, except that the family members accepted as the worst villains won’t even be there any more.

The JFK assassination, an event sixty years old today, was followed by an investigation that reached conclusions many still have trouble accepting.  There are loose strings and troubling details that were poorly, if ever, explained in the Warren Report.   Hence, conspiracy theorists.  

If you have a theory of a vast conspiracy, you are already in questionable terrain.  Such conspiracies are difficult to prove, impossible without hard evidence, and good luck getting your hands on that.  If powerful people all agree on a narrative and the official story officially puts all conspiracies to bed, that’s all she wrote, you fucking conspiracy nuts.

Also, keep in mind that if powerful people have a common goal, such as acquiring and keeping maximum wealth, they need never meet or speak, or coordinate in any way, to work toward that common goal with a variety of well-financed efforts.

I think of the aftermath of September 11th.  Unlike the day Kennedy was shot, and I was seven, I was an adult on September 11th and remember a good deal of detail about that shocking day and its aftermath.  The accepted story is that a full report was issued by an independent commission, after a rigorous investigation, and that the report explained pretty much everything about that atrocious attack.

President Dubya and Dick Cheney fought the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the terrorist masterpiece.  This fight went on for many months.  When a commission was finally put together the president and vice president refused to testify under oath, would only talk to the committee together, on the condition that nothing they said would ever be repeated and that no notes would be taken during their informal conversation.   (Think of Chrump’s meeting with his friend Putin in Helsinki, private, no notes, nothing to hide because, totally secret, as talks between two friends must sometimes be.)  Nothing to see here, yo.   

Unanswered in the exhaustive 9/11 Report:  why the Bush administration took no action in the weeks after getting briefings from their national security heads, hair on fire, even after a briefing paper entitled “Al Queda determined to use commercial jets as bombs against US skyscrapers” was presented to POTUS.   Who exactly traded airline stocks the night of September 10 into September 11, profiting by many billions of dollars?   Why was the US running training exercises in US airspace in the greater NY area on the day of the attack, the first day on the job for the NORAD guy responsible for calling in air defense against attack?  “Is this the training or the real thing?” he kept asking for crucial minutes, as he hesitated to scramble jets and intercept the hijacked planes, until it was too late to prevent the mass murder.   The plane full of wealthy Saudis, including bin Laden relatives, allowed to leave, unquestioned, while American airspace was still locked down.  Many other questions also come to mind, questions that have never been answered.

Erase all these troubling facts and you have an untroubling, even inspiring story.   Our enemies hate our freedom, were determined to strike at our heart, they tried to kill us, we killed them, the end.

This is the reason those who seek power, division and blind obedience to authority ban books and the study of history.   If you do that then American slavery never really had much of an effect on society and Black people are just irrationally angry assholes with nothing to complain about.  Gays are just pansies and whiners, so is anyone in pain about sex or so-called gender.  Rape victims forced to give birth to their rapist’s baby are selfish murderers.  Everything you can imagine is possible, if you remove all context.  

I call into the angry darkness all around:  do not let others remove all context.   Ask questions, discuss, think. Better to wrestle with things that are difficult and painful than to accept hateful lies told to benefit tyrants and make you shut the fuck up.