Vankin, Jonathan. Conspiracies, Cover-ups, and Crimes. New York: Paragon
House, 1991. 319 pages.
Reporter Jonathan Vankin gives concrete meaning to the slippery term
"conspiracy theorist," which (surprisingly) isn't yet in the dictionary.
With an engaging mixture of sympathetic interest and skepticism, Vankin
interviews a passel of contemporary anti-conspirators and attempts to weigh
their theories. These range from what we might charitably call the highly
speculative (UFOs intervening in human history), through the tantalizingly
possible (various JFK conspiracies), to the unhappily certain (CIA drug
programs, FBI plots against black political leaders). Vankin ranges
across the political spectrum as well (from rightist Lyndon LaRouche to
the left-leaning Christic Institute), and even finds space for popular
villains of yesteryear like the Bavarian Illuminati and the Freemasons.
Vankin turns up plenty of evidence for the establishment view of
conspiracy theorists as so many paranoid losers. But he also argues that
by rejecting a media-manipulated consensus, such people can serve truth
and democracy. And as Vankin also says, there's plenty out there to look
into. His own publisher, for instance, exists to buy respectability for
its owners, Rev. Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church.
-- Steve Badrich
ISBN 1-55778-384-5
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