Three Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out To Be Real
Our favorite conspiracy theories were all true in the end.
On this episode of KTB, we’re talking conspiracy theories. We check out the word on the street in Bed Stuy about flight MH370, how sexism led to Phil Jackson coming to NY, and much more. Plus, music from local Brooklyn artist Prince PremeO and OG Graciano.
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Conspiracy Theories
What are conspiracy theories other than just a scary way of saying “alternative agenda”?
Conspiracy theory is a term that originally was a neutral descriptor for any claim of civil, criminal, or political conspiracy. However, it has come almost exclusively to refer to any fringe theory which explains a historical or current event as the result of a secret plot by conspirators of almost superhuman power and cunning. To conspire means “to join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful or wrongful act or to use such means to accomplish a lawful end”. The term “conspiracy theory” is frequently used by scholars and in popular culture to identify secret military, banking, or political actions aimed at stealing power, money, or freedom from “the people”.
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Here are some of our favorite conspiracy theories that turned out to be true:
The Mafia:
This secret crime society was virtually unknown until the 1960s when member, Joe Valachi, first revealed the society’s secrets to law enforcement officials. What was known was that organized crime existed, but not that the extent of their control included working with the CIA, politicians, and the biggest businesses in the world.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The United States Public Health Service carried out this clinical study on 400 poor, African-American men with syphilis from 1932 to 1972. During the study, the men were given false and sometimes dangerous treatments, and adequate treatment was intentionally withheld so the agency could learn more about the disease. While the study was initially supposed to last just six months, it continued for 40 years. Close to 200 of the men died from syphilis or related complications by the end of the study.
Counter Intelligence Programs Against Activists in the 60s
COINTELPRO (an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert, and often illegal projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. The FBI used covert operations from its inception, however formal COINTELPRO operations took place between 1956 and 1971. The FBI’s stated motivation at the time was “protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order.” According to FBI records, 85% of COINTELPRO resources were expended on infiltrating, disrupting, marginalizing, and/or subverting groups suspected of being subversive.
 
What groups were suspected of being subversive threats to national security and social order? Groups such as: communist and socialist organizations, the women’s rights movement, militant black nationalist groups, and the non-violent civil rights movement (including individuals such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and others associated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Congress of Racial Equality, the American Indian Movement, and other civil rights groups), a broad range of organizations labeled “New Left” (including Students for a Democratic Society, the National Lawyers Guild, the Weathermen), almost all groups protesting the Vietnam War (and even individual student demonstrators with no group affiliation), and nationalist groups such as those “seeking independence for Puerto Rico.” The other 15% of COINTELPRO resources were expended to marginalize and subvert “white hate groups,” including the Ku Klux Klan and National States’ Rights Party. The directives governing COINTELPRO were issued by FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, who ordered FBI agents to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” the activities of these movements and their leaders.
(courtesy of www.infowars.com)
