RFK Jr.: Crank Conspiracy Theorist (Open Thread)

© Miri WTPOTUS January 15, 2013

The Grassy Knoll, Dallas, TX

In the context of the Sandy Hook  incident, Anderson Cooper recently discussed “conspiracy theorists” with a man who has written about 9/11.

[Emphasis added, and some editing done, to clarify, but not change the gist.]

JONATHAN KAY, AUTHOR [of] “AMONG THE TRUTHERS”: Conspiracy theories are explanations for evil. And generally speaking, people hate the idea of random evil. They [like] the idea that evil is focused in some … [group] of people whether it’s, you know, whether is Jews, or Muslims, or illuminati … or free masons, or the New World Order, they love the idea that there’s one central address for all the evil that is afflicting [us and] causing terrorism, causing mass shootings, and they are strangely attracted to that idea because once they’ve identified … the evil then they believe somehow they can fight it and expose it.

COOPER: And you divide conspiracy theorists into … two camps, cranks and fire brand. What’s the difference?

KAY: Well, the fire brand ten[d]s to be the young folks, I mean, the ones that you see it was sometimes 9/11 on the anniversary you’ll see these people marching, the so-called 9/11 truth movements. They tends [sic] to be young people. You often to see them in university campuses.

[The category of] cranks tends to be older types, people … [in] their 40s or 50s, often are college professor[s], often are computer scientists, often are people with a very technological frame of mind who were drawn to this–very intricate conspiracy theorists. They’re almost always men for reasons that I explained in my book. And often, these are very mild mannered individuals. Our friend thinks one of the leaders of the 9/11 conspiracy was a teacher, professor of California named David Ray Griffin, very mild man, professorial guy who is actually a theologian. And these people drawn [to] the movement, usually they are very intelligent and they love the idea that they are unraveling some huge puzzle … and I’ll get to the source of all the world to keep.

With all of the above in mind, We the Peeps are now honored to welcome to the Club of Cranks one Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who turns 59 this week.

In an interview with Charlie Rose, Kennedy admitted doubts that his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was killed by a “lone gunman”.  Thus, he joins the ranks of JFK assassination conspiracy theorists. From a news story about the interview:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his father spent a year trying to come to grips with his brother’s death, reading the work of Greek philosophers, Catholic scholars, Henry David Thoreau, poets and others “trying to figure out kind of the existential implications of why a just God would allow injustice to happen of the magnitude he was seeing.”

He said his father thought the Warren Commission, which concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the president, was a “shoddy piece of craftsmanship.” He said that he, too, questioned the report.

“The evidence at this point I think is very, very convincing that it was not a lone gunman,” he said, but he didn’t say what he believed may have happened.

Rose asked if he believed his father, the U.S. attorney general at the time of his brother’s death, felt “some sense of guilt because he thought there might have been a link between his very aggressive efforts against organized crime.”

Kennedy replied: “I think that’s true. He talked about that. He publicly supported the Warren Commission report but privately he was dismissive of it.”

He said his father had investigators do research into the assassination and found that phone records of Oswald and nightclub owner Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald two days after the president’s assassination, “were like an inventory” of mafia leaders the government had been investigating.

He said his father, later elected U.S. senator in New York, was “fairly convinced” that others were involved.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — radio host, activist, attorney, progressive, Democrat, “conspiracy theorist”, and “crank”.

Thanks to Anderson Cooper, we can add these adjectives to further describe this particular crank, as well as his late father, Robert F. Kennedy Sr.:  “paranoid” and “idiotic”.

How does it feel, Bob?  Tell us.  How does it feel?

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