The MAGA Crowd Gets the JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theory They Need

[Fred Litwin]

https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/the-maga-crowd-gets-the-jfk-assassination-conspiracy-they-need

The MAGA Crowd Gets the JFK Assassination Conspiracy They Need

They are desperate to prove the malignancy of the deep state and so have embraced a JFK assassination conspiracy. Recent comments by Tucker Carlson, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, and Roger Stone are just off-the-charts stupid.

[Royell Storing]

  So exactly when did Josiah Thompson or David Lifton join the MAGA Movement?

[Fred Litwin]

They didn't and if you read the article, you would know that.

[Michael T. Griffith]

https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/post/the-maga-crowd-gets-the-jfk-assassination-conspiracy-they-need

The MAGA Crowd Gets the JFK Assassination Conspiracy They Need

They are desperate to prove the malignancy of the deep state and so have embraced a JFK assassination conspiracy. Recent comments by Tucker Carlson, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, and Roger Stone are just off-the-charts stupid.

Fred, am I to infer from this that you are anti-Trump? I always had you pegged as a conservative. Are you a conservative Never Trumper? Is that it?

[Royell Storing]

 Yeah I read it. It is nothing more than another MAGA smear attempt. Attempting to tie the JFK Assassination to the MAGA movement is where we are at. The Left with nothing left but smear campaigns. And the Dem Party now below 20% Approval? It is stuff like this that continues driving them off of the National Map. This is why they know with certainty that they need to eliminate the Electoral College. Under 20% just don't come close to cutting the mustard on a National Level.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

The conspiracist Vincent Salandria remarked that when he gave a talk on the assassination that he would often get a more receptive response from a conservative audience than a liberal one. This was roughly the 1970s era. That's pretty anecdotal - there's a Yiddish saying, "For example is not proof" - but I do think it reflects the idea that there's always been a populist Right that was more open to believing in a conspiracy than the Establishment Right. It's not new. But that's true across the board. It's more of an Establishment vs. Outsider split than a Right vs. Left. Historically, it's been Left conspiracists who grabbed the headlines - Mark Lane et al. - but now we see the populist/anti-Establishment Right figures like Carlson (he is literally nuts, right? what's the explanation?) promoting it.

Still I think this is a more recent change on the Right. An uptick. Obviously it comes mostly from the "Russian collusion" controversy where they view the "Deep State" as getting JFK just like "they" tried to get Trump. Meanwhile there's been a decrease among Democrats.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Conspiracy horseshoes. Who said this? Who does it sound like? Especially the last part.

"It was obvious, it was blatantly obvious that it was a conspiracy.....The forces that killed Kennedy wanted the message clear: 'We are in control and no one -- not the President, not Congress, nor any elected official -- no one can do anything about it.' It was a message to the people that their Government was powerless (sic). And the people eventually got the message. Consider what happened since the Kennedy assassination. People see government today as unresponsive to their needs, yet the budget and power of the military and intelligence establishment have increased tremendously."

A major populist/MAGA Rightist? Tucker Carlson? Glenn Beck? Steve Bannon?

Answer: Vincent Salandria.

Just to add this about Salandria's history: After JFK's assassination we saw the greatest expansion of programs for the people in American history, even surpassing FDR's New Deal. Viz., LBJ's "Great Society" initiatives and more. From Medicaid and Medicare, poverty programs, education programs...a massive investment in people. Salandria's history is just wrong from top to bottom and the middle too. But he does sound like Carlson, doesn't he?

[Jon Banks]

Vincent Salandria remarked that when he gave a talk on the assassination that he would often get a more receptive response from a conservative audience than a liberal one. This was roughly the 1970s era. That's pretty anecdotal but I do think it reflects the idea that there's always been a populist Right that was more open to believing in a conspiracy than the Establishment Right. It's not new. But that's true across the board. It's more of an Establishment vs. Outside split than a Right vs. Left. Historically, it's been Left conspiracists who grabbed the headlines - Mark Lane et al. - but now we see the populist Right figures like Carlson (he is literally nuts, right? what's the explanation?) promoting it.

Still I think this is a more recent change on the Right.

It's all about Trump.

Pre-Trump: The Boomer/1960s New Left generation tended to be more conspiratorial and skeptical of institutions like the FBI and the military. People like Oliver Stone and Michael Moore were highly regarded in Liberal pop culture.

Trump's arrival into national politics has scrambled things a bit. He has made it acceptable for Conservatives to question US foreign policies, institutions like the FBI and CIA, and the military industrial complex.

And due to political partisanship, many Boomer, MSNBC watching Dems (even those who were part of the New Left in the 60s and 70s), have grown more fond of the national security institutions and foreign policies that Trump is perceived as a threat to. Conspiratorial views have also been shunned more in Democratic circles under Trump. There's not as much space on the Left today for anti-Establishment politics (but that may be changing soon depending on what happens with the NYC mayor's race).

How this ties into the Kennedy assassination is, regardless of who Americans hold responsible for Kennedy's assassination the universal view among those who believe there was a conspiracy is that our government lied to us about the facts of Kennedy's murder. To accept that our government would lie about the murder of a US President requires some level of anti-Establishment political beliefs. And as I said earlier, at least in the Trump era, the anti-Establishment politics seems to be more prominent on the Right today.

During the recent JFK assassination hearings in the House, as a Progressive, I was saddened to see Congressional Dems express indifference towards the new JFK assassination files while most Republicans at the hearings expressed genuine interest in the new information. Still, I don't think members of Congress accurately represent the views of their constituents. There are still many Democratic voters who believe there was a conspiracy in JFK's assassination. But among the Democratic and Liberal establishment, anti-establishment views and conspiratorial stuff are mostly shunned.