Unmasking Lies: Conspiracy Theorists Exposed

NOTE: You can still watch Conspiracy Theorists Lie on Amazon. The following post about the film being free on YouTube is no longer valid.

In August of 2015, I put out a feature documentary, Conspiracy Theorists Lie, which I believe has only become more and more timely. The film explores the assassination of President Kennedy and some of the ways in which people on both the right and the left have distorted our understanding of history. I made it on a shoestring budget, but I strongly believe that it offers a more accurate and informative account of the past than most other works on the subject. I’ve had the film for sale or rent on Amazon since I first released it and for a few years it was also on Amazon Prime.

This November 22, 2023, will mark 60 years since President Kennedy was murdered in Dealey Plaza, and to commemorate this tragic event, I posted Conspiracy Theorists Lie for free on YouTube, starting on August 1. November will be the last month you can still watch the entire 2-hour and 25-minute documentary for free. After that, Amazon will become the only viewing option, again. I would love to see the film find its audience and help more people better understand the dangers of the conspiracy theorist mentality, so I ask for your help to spread the word by any means you are able.

I first became interested in the Kennedy assassination when I was a kid growing up in the 70s. I watched a movie, Executive Action (1973), on late night television and then started reading conspiracy-related books from the library. By the time that Oliver Stone’s, well made, but incredibly dishonest film, JFK (1991) came out, I was out of high school and had taken it for granted that there was a conspiracy. Suddenly it seemed like everybody else was also having doubts that Oswald acted alone. It wasn’t until the mid 90s that I first visited Dallas and went to Dealey Plaza. Standing on the spot where Abraham Zapruder filmed his infamous home movie, I realized I actually knew very little about what happened. Everything I had looked at for all these years was from conspiracy theorists and it did not match up with what I now saw in front of my own eyes. The so-called grassy knoll, with its little wooden fence, where many believed the “real” shooter fired from, is extremely close to the concrete block upon which Zapruder stood, with his secretary behind him and several other witnesses near by. I found it completely absurd that a gunman could have been so exposed on the knoll, with no place to run after the deed was done. There was just an open field of railroad tracks back there. I later learned that escaped prisoners from the nearby jail sometimes ran into the railroad yard, thinking they could hide among the train cars, but they never succeeded. It was way too easy to find them.

Getting your information from conspiracy theorists is like serving on a jury and asking the most dishonest, unscrupulous defense attorney to present the case for both the prosecution and the defense. You can never really understand what happened or why, nor can you draw any reasonable conclusions based on such an unreasonable presentation. After coming to this realization, I finally started to look at the actual evidence, all of which pointed to Lee Harvey Oswald and only Lee Harvey Oswald, and reading books about the Kennedy Years from serious historians and other credible sources. All this significantly altered my perspective and eventually fueled my commitment to uncovering and sharing the truth, regardless of where it might lead.

The top critical review of my film on Amazon is entitled, “Ad Hominem context reveals the Producer’s weakness,” and claims:

The caustic heavy-handed human disrespect in clumping all “conspiracy theorists” into a repugnant group is lazy. The fact is that most people who research and publish in search of evidence or proof of conspiracy are doing the job of a good citizen as described by our founding forbears who warned us that (eventually) all governments become abusive and the people should not kowtow to the increasing power of government but should hold the government accountable. In large part “Conspiracy Theorists” are LIE DETECTORS.

Then he proceeds to recycle lies, saying, “Oswald was getting $200/month from the FBI,” and, “the ballistic evidence [was not] honestly dealt with.” Obviously, conspiracy theorists (CTers) do not want to see themself in a negative light, who does, but these kinds of rationalizations do not hold up to the slightest examination. Identifying CTers for what they are is not an “ad hominem” attack, anymore than identifying racists for what they are is an ad hominem attack; it’s not name calling. CTers do not research evidence or detect lies; as the name implies, they set out to find conspiracies. That is not how anyone who cares about the truth should approach history. You cannot assume an outcome and then fairly evaluate the evidence, just as you cannot assume there are different human races (which is scientifically untenable) and pretend you are fairly evaluating your fellow human beings.

Furthermore, as imperfect as institutions often are, government agencies, major news organizations, scientific societies, and academic associations have checks and balances that keep individuals from being able to repeatedly get away with lies or go off the deep end in crazy directions. CTers have none of this. They can “find” or make up and misinterpret anything they like with no one to stand in their way. At most, one CTer may say, “I think that other CTer is wrong about X, but we’re both still right about the fact it was a conspiracy,” even if their alleged evidence contradicts each other. None of them has any incentive to expose the actual truth, that conspiracy theorizing, by its very nature, is a lie. Such actions would only get them shunned from the CTer community.

It is my hope that the more people who watch Conspiracy Theorists Lie and see how our understanding of JFK’s assassination was distorted, the better they can defend themselves from falling for other lies, like those told by 9/11 “truthers,” Holocaust deniers, and QAnon cult believers. As part of this ongoing effort, I am currently working on a nonfiction book titled, The Fake History of America: before and after the assassination. If you’re interested, you can download a PDF copy of the introductory chapter and share your thoughts with me. The book will get into a great deal more of American History, for those who want a deeper dive, but I digress.

For now, I ask that you check out Conspiracy Theorists Lie for yourself and share, share, share, with everyone you know and everyone you meet.