'How Butler Assassination Attempt Conspiracy Theories Became the New Dallas 1963'

[sop]

(TPM) "The conspiracy theories about the shooting started almost as soon as the shooting itself."

"Just days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963, nearly two-thirds of respondents to one poll believed the shooting had been a plot involving multiple people, despite no public evidence. Another poll found that slightly over half of respondents believed 'some group or element' was at work in the assassination attempt. The fact there was no evidence at the time did not deter these theories in the slightest."

"Within months, the first articles and books alleging various conspiracies to kill Kennedy and frame Lee Harvey Oswald were published, with thousands more to follow. They spun out a mind-boggling array of plots, shooters, motives, and conspiracies. All claimed with immediate and unshakable confidence that Oswald couldn’t have acted alone. He didn’t have the training or access to make the shots that killed Kennedy. Something more had to be at work."
...
"Americans have always trended toward suspicion and disbelief when presented with world-shaking events that 'weren’t supposed to happen.' Clearly, presidential assassinations fit the bill perfectly. There is an inherent need to assign meaning and purpose to an act that often turns out to have none."

"But until July 13, 2024, there had never been such a groundswell of paranoid accusations about an attempted assassination of a president."

Continued at link:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/how-butler-assassination-attempt-conspiracy-theories-became-the-new-dallas-1963