That’s the claim in a recent New York Times Article. It’s not true.
by European Bureau Chief, David Stone
One interesting thing about living in Europe is the perspective it gives you about life in the U.S. Perspectives planted in U.S. newspapers can be insightful, but they are also often disconnected from reality and history.
The Times wants you to believe that a long run of television series – like the X Files – trained Americans to be paranoid conspiracy theorists. We’d have to have been idiots first. And if the Times theory holds, why didn’t Ricky and Lucy turn us into families with smart, patient husbands and idiot wives? That was comedy, not training. And the X Files had something in common: it was entertainment, just like Lucy, Beaver, etc.
What Made Americans Conspiracy Theorists?
If you have memory left or access to any library, digital or otherwise, the answer is easy. Those of us alive then will never forget that nightmare November, 1963, afternoon when all our trust in was blown away. Who among us thought assassination was in the American playbook?
What made matters worse was the convoluted cover-up that followed with something like religious conviction. Then, the war years, the humanitarian violations by Nixon and Kissinger from which they walked free. The murder of unarmed kids by Ohio National Guardsmen that brought a freeze to antiwar protest – also without any consequence.
Sure, we might have been influenced by the X Files et al, but we were already there. Our governments have little to do with the rest of us. They just do their self-serving thing, Hovering up cash and power, but it’s been a lot of travel since the last time we fully trusted those we elected.
David Stone
“I Can Ask”
Chair Fay Christian opened the Operations Advisory Committee on February 12th, reading out member names from a prepared sheet that omitted Melissa Wade. It didn’t feel intentional, but it struck me as odd precisely because it came from something prepared. Lydia Tang gently corrected her, noting that Wade was, in fact, a member of the committee. Wade met the moment with grace, or perhaps she simply wasn’t bothered by it.
