A Beginner's Guide to the JFKA Conspiracy Game

[Lance Payette]

I originally created this in 2019. My exchange with Paul Cummings today made me think about it again. I’m surprised at how little my thinking has changed. The original is buried in the bowels of the Ed Forum, so I’m just creating a new thread to preserve it for posterity. I was actually going to write a book because I thought John McAdams’ JFK Assassination Logic: How to Think About Claims of Conspiracy was pretty weak. But then I said the hell with it.

1. In the Conspiracy Game, there are a variety of acceptable approaches to the interpretation of evidence. Say, for example, that three eyewitnesses report, respectively, a “bluish” car, a “reddish” car and a “maroon” car, or that three documents describe a bullet wound in “the right shoulder,” “about 4” down from the neck” and “high up in the back.” In the Conspiracy Game, there are three possible approaches to this evidence:

a. There were three cars and three wounds on the body, if this will further your pet Conspiracy Theory.

b. There was one reddish car and one wound 4” down from the neck, if this will further your pet Conspiracy Theory. (The eyewitnesses and documents that say otherwise may serve as further evidence of the conspiracy if you’re sufficiently creative.)

c. The car was actually black, the wound was actually in the side of the head, all the eyewitnesses are lying and all the documents are bogus, if this will best fit your pet Conspiracy Theory.

d. The choice is made without regard to which eyewitnesses or documents are the most reliable according to the applicable legal standards or which explanation best fits with the other evidence. The choice is made solely on the basis of which one best fits your pet Conspiracy Theory.

2. As your pet Conspiracy Theory – three cars and three wounds, for example – is repeated over and over, it pretty quickly hardens into Conspiracy Gospel. It’s extremely rude of anyone to go back to the original sources to see if this Conspiracy Gospel is supported by, consistent with, or the best explanation of the actual evidence.

3. If some nugget of Conspiracy Gospel is conclusively disproven – for example, photos or videos come to light that show the car was definitely red rather than black – the Conspiracy Theorist has three alternatives:

a. Claim that the new evidence is faked or altered, thereby preserving the black car nugget of Conspiracy Gospel.

b. Move the goal post. Move it as many times as necessary. There was a red car as well as a black one that doesn’t show up in the photos, perhaps. Maybe the car was repainted. Or even if the car was red, this just shows that two of the supposed eyewitness were lying and involved in the conspiracy. Who were they, really, and what were they up to?

c. If your nugget is reduced to rubble beyond all redemption, change the subject. This is the “Oh, yeah, well what about this over here?” gambit, an accepted move in the Conspiracy Game. The nugget that has now gone poof was never really important anyway.

d. Choices “a” and “b” afford a Conspiracy Theorist almost endless opportunities for creativity, which is a big part of the fun of the Conspiracy Game. It thus is utterly futile to attempt to argue or reason with a dedicated Conspiracy Theorist.

4. All gaps in the narrative, whether evidentiary or logical, are filled with sinister speculation and sinister inferences. As your pet Conspiracy Theory expands like Topsy, as it inevitably will, it’s especially important to keep this principle in mind. It’s quite amazing the gaps you can fill with such speculation. In the hands of a Conspiracy Game master, a plausible Conspiracy Theory may be woven from almost nothing else.

5. In the Conspiracy Game, human nature is inoperative.

a. No one ever makes an innocent mistake, is ever simply careless or is ever honestly confused or forgetful. There is no bureaucratic ineptitude. Every inconsistency in the evidence and testimony has a sinister, conspiracy-furthering explanation.

b. The fact that the JFKA was sudden, wholly unanticipated and traumatic is irrelevant. Even in these circumstances, no one ever makes an innocent mistake or becomes honestly confused. There are no excuses.

c. No matter the circumstances, all participants should have made their statements, written their reports and done everything else with one eye on “how it would look” to future generations of historians and (especially) conspiracy enthusiasts. If they didn’t, too bad for them.

6.The actual characters and life histories of the participants and witnesses are irrelevant in the Conspiracy Game except insofar as they further your pet Conspiracy Theory. If a participant or witness whose testimony is damaging to your Conspiracy Theory is a garden-variety housewife and mother who attends church regularly, is active in community affairs and has lots of friends who vouch for her impeccable reputation, the Conspiracy Theorist has three choices:

a. Of course, she is clean as a whistle – this is exactly what you would expect in a truly diabolical conspiracy such as we have here. These conspirators were no fools.

b. Dig, dig, dig for something, anything. Her second cousin twice removed was a secretary for the FBI? Well, there you go! Need we say more?

c. Make something up! Speculate! Everyone is fair game for defamation and character assassination. While these may be illegal or unethical in the real world, they are just part of the fun of the Conspiracy Game.

7. Even though real-world conspiracies tend to be as small, simple and compartmentalized as possible because this greatly enhances the odds of success and non-detection, no Conspiracy Theory can ever be too large or convoluted in the Conspiracy Game.

a. If necessary to preserve your pet Conspiracy Theory, the conspiracy net will be allowed to expand ever-wider until it has captured pretty much everyone involved – unlikely and seemingly unconnected people from all walks of life, unlikely agencies and organizations, whatever it takes. Be sure to keep in mind the rule about sinister speculation and inferences.

b. The fact that the JFKA is “explained” by 15 or more distinct and irreconcilable Conspiracy Theories is irrelevant. With the exception of those who are actually deriving income from the Conspiracy Game (who can be quite defensive of their turf), the players in the Conspiracy Game are a fraternal brotherhood, united against that icky Lone Nut narrative. By Conspiracy Logic, the existence of 15 or more irreconcilable theories merely underscores that by God there had to have been a conspiracy.

c. Similarly, the fact that a Conspiracy Theory requires the conspirators to have been diabolical geniuses at steps 1-3-5-7 and bumbling idiots at steps 2-4-6-8 is irrelevant. It’s rude even to point this out.

8. Those who fail to see the conspiracy are never a problem. They either lack the vast arcane knowledge the Conspiracy Brotherhood possesses, are unwitting stooges of the very forces responsible for the conspiracy, or are disinformation agents bent on disrupting the Conspiracy Game.

a. No matter how sterling the academic and professional qualifications of a naysayer, no matter how exhaustive his research may appear to be, no matter how cogent his arguments may seem, he is dismissed as either a fool or a disinformation agent – usually the latter because paranoia about disinformation agents is an integral part of the Conspiracy Game.

b. As a last resort, the “disinformation agent” label may be applied even to a fellow member of the Conspiracy Brotherhood when the competition gets fierce.

9. A certain naivete about the real world is helpful when playing the Conspiracy Game.

a. Even though law enforcement in the real world is plagued by wannabes, tellers of tall tales, and even those who confess, for no apparent reason, to crimes they didn’t commit, this almost never occurs in the Conspiracy Game. Anyone whose tale will support your pet Conspiracy Theory is accorded instant credibility. Often this continues long after the tale has been exposed as fraudulent. (If the tale is inconvenient for one’s pet Conspiracy Theory, the “disinformation agent” label may be applied to the teller. As you can see, “disinformation agent” is sort of the trump card of the Conspiracy Game.)

b. Even though fast-buck artists and con men abound in every other field of human endeavor, they do not exist in the Conspiracy Game. Every owner of a large website, every active blogger, every speaker at conspiracy conferences, every purveyor of conspiracy books, CDs, DVDs and conspiracy paraphernalia quickly accumulates a cult-like following as a “serious researcher” even if in the real world he is a Safeway cashier who dropped out of school in the seventh grade.

10. Common sense, logic and critical thinking are anathema in the Conspiracy Game. Conspiracy Logic is more like anti-logic (think Alice In Wonderland).

a. It’s exceedingly rude to ask, either about a Conspiracy Theory as a whole or any aspect if it, questions such as “What would that actually have looked like in the real world?” or “How would that have made any sense at all?” or “Why would the conspirators have done that when they could have easily done this with far fewer participants and far less risk?” You’ll never get any substantive answers anyway.

b. To successfully play the Conspiracy Game, you must become utterly absorbed in, and indeed obsessed with, minutiae. The JFKA must be examined with an electron microscope. The objective is to overwhelm the uninformed with such a mass of detail that they throw up their hands and agree, “Yeah, I guess there must have been some sort of conspiracy” just to shut you up. This will improve poll numbers, thereby causing the Conspiracy Brotherhood to gain credibility. You can scream that “75% of the American public believes in a conspiracy!” as though 75% of the public actually knew or cared what the heck you’re talking about (and would laugh out loud if they knew your pet theory is that Secret Service agent Hickey accidentally shot JFK).

c. The tactic described in item “b” will help avoid inconvenient questions such as those described in item “a.” You want to keep the discussion at the electron microscope level, avoiding like the plague those pesky “What sense would that have made?” questions.

11. The likelihood that you’ll enjoy the Conspiracy Game hinges on a variety of factors.

a. It’s a great advantage if you have a preconceived notion as to how the JFKA “should” be explained. You’ll see that much of the Conspiracy Brotherhood is less concerned with arriving at the historical truth of the JFKA than in fitting it into some ideological meta-narrative they carry in their heads as to how the world “works” and what dark forces are really “in control.” Keep this in mind and you’ll be far less inclined to wonder “How could any sane person actually believe that?” If you are interested in historical truth, arrived at through standard methodologies, the Conspiracy Game may not be for you.

b. It’s likewise beneficial if you fit the profile that is now emerging, through peer-reviewed studies in such fields as psychiatry, psychology and the social sciences, of the type of individual who is prone to conspiratorial explanations even in the face of better non-conspiratorial explanations. This doesn’t mean there is necessarily anything pathologically wrong with you, merely that you’re a natural and could go far in the Conspiracy Game.

c. At the fringes of the Conspiracy Game, of course, it helps if you’re exceedingly credulous and even, well, nuttier than a fruitcake. People who are this way seldom recognize or admit it, but you’ll notice that you quickly feel as though you’ve found a home among kindred spirits.

d. The Conspiracy Brotherhood is essentially a religion. The members worship their respective theories. Many are extreme fundamentalists, others more moderate, others fringe cultists. The various Conspiracy Theories are the equivalent of religious denominations, each with its own priests and deacons, its holy scriptures and sites, and whatnot. This is a useful analogy to keep in mind when the intra-denominational bickering starts to get out of hand. Always remember, the real enemy is that Great Satan, the Lone Nut narrative.

e. Leave your sense of humor at home. Participants in the Conspiracy Game do not regard themselves or their activities as humorous in the slightest. This is deadly serious stuff, being pursued by dedicated seekers of truth for the good of mankind. They have nothing in common - or at least they don't think they do - with those loony UfO enthusiasts, Bigfoot enthusiasts, Flat Earthers and the like. Stifle that urge to titter, chuckle and guffaw at their work or move along.

12. Oh, remember: Do not omit Oswald. This is an amateur mistake. Do not allow your enthusiasm for LBJ, Hoover, the CIA, the FBI, Army Intelligence, the Secret Service, the DPD, Texas oilmen, the Mafia, the Mossad, pro-Castro exiles, anti-Castro exiles, the KGB and/or the French Foreign Legion as the culprits to cause you to completely overlook Oswald. You simply must fit him in there somehow. It is perfectly acceptable - indeed encouraged - to reinvent him as necessary to fit your pet Conspiracy Theory, even if he ends up seeming considerably more interesting than JFK.

a. The same is true of all other principals - LBJ, Dulles, Ruth Paine, Marina, whomever. Don't be shy: Just reinvent them to fit your theory! Since you're really just writing fiction anyway when you play the Conspiracy Game, there is absolutely nothing out-of-bounds about this.

[Tom Graves]

[...]

Dear Fancy Pants Rants,

It seems as though you deny all conspiracies because you refuse to accept the biggest conspiracy of them all: that for sixty-five years (it started in late 1961 when Gribanov sent Dmitry Polyakov to the FBI's NYC field office to "volunteer" to spy for it at the UN) the KGB* has been waging disinformation, "active measures," and mole-based strategic deception counterintelligence operations against us and our NATO allies and thereby zombified and made apathetic such a large part of our body politic that "former" KGB* counterintelligence officer Vladimir Putin was able to install your beloved "useful idiot" (or worse) Traitorous Orange Bird (rhymes with "Xxxx") as our "president" on 20 January 2017 and January 20 2025.

*Today's SVR and FSB


-- Tom

[Michael T. Griffith]

This is just comical.

In the "real world," 2/3 to 3/4 of the Western world rejects Lance Payette's pathological devotion to the lone-gunman theory and his blind rejection of all evidence of conspiracy.

In the "real world," the last official U.S. Government investigation into the JFK case, i.e., the House Select Committee on Assassinations from 1977-1979, concluded that JFK was killed by a conspiracy, that there were two gunmen, that one of the gunmen fired from the grassy knoll, that Jack Ruby lied about why he shot Oswald and how he entered the police basement to shoot Oswald, that the first shot was fired at a time when the sixth-floor sniper's view of JFK would have been obstructed by the oak tree, that there are at least four strong blur episodes in the Zapruder, that four shots were fired, that Oswald associated with the rabid right-winger David Ferrie, that Silvia Odio's account is credible, etc., etc., etc.

In the "real world," the percentage of people who agree with Lance Payette about the JFK case is not very much larger than the percentage of people who believe that 9/11 was an inside job masterminded or allowed by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

[Tom Graves]

In the "real world," the percentage of people who agree with Lance Payette about the JFK case is not very much larger than the percentage of people who believe that 9/11 was an inside job masterminded or allowed by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Dear Comrade Griffith,

That's because the KGB* has been working the latter disinfo op only since 9/11/2001, whereas it's been working the JFKA disinfo op since around midnight 11/22/63, Moscow time, when word came in that LHO had been arrested in Dallas.

The JFKA disinfo op has done very well, indeed, with gullible and/ or paranoiac people like you -- largely due to Comrade Oliver Stone's self-described mythological ("to counter the myth of the Warren Report") movie, "JFK," which hit the silver screen in 1991, ten years before 9/11.

D'oh!

-- Tom

*Today's SVR and FSB

[Lance Payette]

See how clever I am? I knew if I posted that, TG and MTG would proceed to illustrate my points! Well done, gentlemen. Posterity thanks you.

[Tom Graves]

See how clever I am? I knew if I posted that, TG and MTG would proceed to illustrate my points! Well done, gentlemen. Posterity thanks you.

Dear Fancy Pants Rants,

You seem to be blissfully unaware of the fact that the "points" you all-too-often make show the rest of us not only how extremely intelligent, but how profoundly ignorant, you really are.

-- Tom

[Lance Payette]

To be fair, I have attempted at various times a corresponding LN Game version of my outline. The problem is, it's just never very interesting or witty.

The outline I posted here is a refinement of what I posted at the Ed Forum in 2019. I found that old thread: https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/25995-a-beginners-guide-to-the-conspiracy-game/.

Mama mia, what a hoot! Me at my absolute best - or worst, as the case may be. It went on for nine pages, with pretty much everyone having their ad hominem fun at my expense, and me doing my best to parry their thrusts.

I was characterized as delusional, a troll, an LN fanatic, a paid disinformation agent (by W. Niedernut, of course) and all the rest. Some of it is quite humorous. One guy accused me of cribbing the entire thing from some "old Seligman Sunbeam paper and a deity they called Delamer Duverus" (WHAT?). Others highlighted my one-and-only UFO experience and my inclusion in a very successful book about afterlife experiences involving animals - as proof that I'm just flat-out nuts, you see. My wholly undeserved (truly, I assure you) award as the Arizona Prosecutor of the Year was duly noted, as was my family's association with the United Fruit Company - all highly suspicious, you see. It was suggested that I might be Mormon or affiliated with the Knights of Malta (WHAT?). I was referred to as Lance Peyote, which is at least mildly wittier than Fancy Pants Rants.

Anyway, the usual stuff and all kind of fun in its own way.

Genial Kirk Galloway recognized the validity of my little effort, although he misunderstood its thrust. He also congratulated the forum, as I have congratulated TG and MTG here, for illustrating my very points:

If he wasn't taunting people here specifically about their belief in a JFK conspiracy, and just wrote it about people who are prone to conspiracy, a lot of points he brings up are valid. I think I've been here about 6 years, and have followed this forum off and on for much longer. And at one time or another, I've experienced every CT device he's mentioned. There's not a reasonable person who couldn't find truth in some of it. It's not that profound. It's just that he characterized it as depicting everyone on this forum all the time. So people took offense. It really wasn't the stuff that anyone here would feel like debating. It wasn't like others of Lance's posts about concrete things that can be debated yay or nay. Well, then don't debate!
 
I've seen no specific addressing to Lance' treatise or whateverTF it is. The forum was not prepared to take Lance on for his generalities, which is OK, but you let his prissy attitude lure you into food fight, and then it got wacko, which played a bit into Lance's theories. Nice going, forum!

I'll end with a couple of my old posts that I think are relevant, first my clarification for Kirk:

I would hate for “my” thread to end on Kirk’s note of misunderstanding.  I made very clear in my follow-up posts that I was not saying that everyone who investigates the assassination of JFK as a possible conspiracy or holds to a conspiracy theory is playing the Conspiracy Game. I don’t think Larry Hancock and others I could name are playing the Conspiracy Game. You identify the Conspiracy Game when you observe it being played – when what is posturing itself as legitimate historical research is actually the Conspiracy Game as described in my original post. Yes, I do believe that the forum in its present state of decay pretty much epitomizes the Conspiracy Game.


No one could argue against the existence of conspiracies. The Lincoln assassination was a conspiracy, solved in short order. Nevertheless, even with the Lincoln assassination there are STILL those who are playing the Conspiracy Game (I'm not quite up to speed, but I think Roy Truly and Ruth Paine may have been involved in the Lincoln assassination as well).

You highly intelligent but reading-comprehension-challenged folks are COMPLETELY MISSING THE POINT.  Are you really this dense, or are you so blinded by rage that you can't think clearly?

When one examines an event in a rational manner, "conspiracy" may well be the true explanation.  Those who live in the real world and those who are prone to see conspiracies everywhere may well agree on this explanation.  What identifies the Conspiracy Game is when you see the event being "analyzed" and "explained" IN THE MANNER THAT I OUTLINED IN MY ORIGINAL POST.

The Lincoln assassination is a near-perfect example. It actually was a conspiracy. The conspiracy was solved, it is part of the historical record, and those of us who live in the real world are in agreement. Yet even here there are still those who insist on playing the Conspiracy Game, precisely as I have described it.


My point is that the Conspiracy Game, which to one degree or another characterizes almost every thread I've seen on this site, is a cartoon caricature, a pathetic imitation, of genuine historical research.  The Conspiracy Game is simply the wrong methodology for arriving at the truth of the JFK assassination. I stand completely behind the description of the Conspiracy Game as set forth in my original post. What I should have made clearer is that the "Conspiracy Game" does not mean "everyone who thinks there was or may have been a conspiracy." The Conspiracy Game describes the methodology of those who "analyze" and "explain" historical events in the way I describe - and that includes a very large percentage of what takes place here.

What this thread has demonstrated once again - no breaking news here, folks - is that Conspiracy Game enthusiasts are utterly unwilling to look at themselves in the mirror even for an instant and immediately resort to the lowest form of ad hominem attacks when an infidel appears in their midst - because ad hominem attacks are all they really have.  I have at least now been inspired to post exactly the same thing on a couple of non-JFKA conspiracy enthusiast sites and confirm that the response will be essentially identical.


And last, but not least ...

What I perhaps have not emphasized sufficiently is the extent to which I was a gee-whiz conspiracy theorist myself.  I joined this forum in 2015, when I was 65. Since I entered law school in 1979, by 2015 I had been engaged in heavy-duty legal analysis and argument (because this was the nature of my practice) for some 36 years. Yet if you look at the first 50-100 of my posts here, you will see a gee-whiz conspiracy theorist. At that time, I would have (and did) laugh in the face of anyone who suggested the Lone Nut explanation was the answer.

How can this be?

I would never have taken any particular interest in the JFKA at all except for the fact that, for many years starting at about the age of 25 (when I was a writer of advertising copy and humor), I subscribed to the huge monthly newspaper-like catalog of Edward R. Hamilton Bookseller. Every catalog had a large selection of leftover JFK conspiracy books that had failed to sell. I thus picked up brand new hardcover editions of Rush to Judgment, Best Evidence, High Treason and many others for a mere $1.99 or $2.99.

All this conspiracy literature put the JFKA squarely into the category of the sort of “weirdness” in which I am interested.  For the next 40 years, the JFKA thus was one of my interests. Not an obsession, but a definite interest. I was steeped in conspiracy literature – but nothing else.

By 2015 my wound-down legal career consisted of little more than writing one 50-page appellate brief a month for other lawyers who valued my skills.  I had lots of time and dived into things like Walt Brown’s massive chronology, on which I spent an entire year. As I dived more deeply into the conspiracy literature, I had a dawning realization that “something is wrong with this type of thinking and this sort of approach to the evidence.”

But still I was a gee-whiz conspiracy theorist. I never really applied the research and analytical skills I had honed as a lawyer to the assassination, although I had begun to do this with other areas of weirdness and revised my positions extensively.  In many areas, I became less interested in the substance than the epistemology, which is the branch of philosophy dealing with how we know (or think we know) things and whether what we think we know is rational and justified.

I joined here, still a gee-whiz conspiracy theorist, expecting to be wowed by the vast knowledge of those who lived and breathed the assassination. For the first time I applied my legal skills in the areas of research and analysis to a handful of issues and discovered the emperor had no clothes. Conspiracy nuggets from supposedly knowledgeable contributors didn’t withstand even the mildest scrutiny.

I decided that I owed it to myself to step back and at least consider the Lone Nut literature, which I had never done to the slightest degree. I dived into everything I could find about Oswald and his life, the Warren Commission testimony, Bugliosi and Posner, as well numerous other researchers and sites. Even good old DVP (with whom I have never exchanged one private word, despite your suspicions and accusations) was an influence.

Gradually but decisively, the scales fell from my eyes. I realized to my amazement that the Lone Nut explanation was the one that actually made the most sense and best fit the evidence. As I have continued my growth, my position as a Lone Nutter has hardened to the point that only a genuine evidentiary bombshell would shake it.

I would bet large sums of money that most people here do not have my foundation of knowledge about the assassination.  I would bet even larger sums of money that no one here has research and analytical abilities, or experience in applying them, exceeding mine. You can dismiss me as some delusional Lone Nutter if that’s the best you can do, but you’re just making fools of yourselves.

I’m the Conspiracy Game’s worst nightmare: An enthusiastic former player who, when he actually applied his considerable research and analytical skills, recognized how silly and flawed the game actually was and, when he stopped playing it and started doing his own investigation and thinking, pretty quickly changed his position 178 degrees (the missing 2 degrees leaving space for the evidentiary bombshell that I eagerly await).

Most of you people are playing the Conspiracy Game. Most of your gurus are playing the Conspiracy Game – and playing you like cheap violins. My epiphany was that you don’t even care. You will never do what I did – step back, take a self-critical look and reconsider your positions. This is the nature of a mindless fundamentalist, which I have never been in any area of my life.