Mark Crispin-Miller News From the
Underground July 9, 2023
Recently the New York Times enhanced its daily dump on
RFK, Jr. with a new hit-piece by Times columnist Farhad
Manjoo: Its Not Possible to Win an Argument With Kennedy. That
title is, of course, no compliment. It means that no one can best
Kennedy in a debatenot because the latter knows his stuff,
has all the pertinent data at his fingertips, and argues with
extraordinary clarity (and civility): on the contrary. According to
Manjoo, Bobby does not win debates for real, through such
forensic skill and intellectual ability, but only seems to
win them (or, as the headline puts it, win them) by fogging
everybodys minds with sophistry, intermingled craftily with bits of
truth. This is good enough for him, because he doesnt really care
about the issues, claims Manjoo: Conspiracy theorists dont care
about facts, just attention.
That crack about the facts is pure projectionas Ill show here,
by telling the whole story of Manjoos attacks on Bobby in
the summer of 2006; but lets begin with Manjoos version of that
story. Here Im going to paraphrase, and gloss, his absolutely
right, andwhat matters morebecause it perfectly exemplifies the
propaganda thats been used to smear the candidate since he declared
his run, and thats been used against him (and others) for
many years. In other words, this op ed perfectly exemplifies the
gaslighting technique thats been deployed relentlesslyand
catastrophicallyby the free press throughout the West since 1967,
when the CIA first weaponized the phrase conspiracy theory (and
coined the phrase conspiracy theorist), urging journalists to use
that mocking language to discredit critics of the Warren
Report.
Since then, that dismissive tactic has been used to maintain one
Official Story after another, from the assassinations of Martin
Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy in 1968 (both, like JFK, killed
by lone gunmen), to Ronald Reagans landslide victory in 1980
(not enabled by a secret deal with Irans Revolutionary
Guards, to keep the hostages locked up through the election), to
Iran/contra (not overseen by George H.W. Bush), to the
Oklahoma City bombing (carried out by two angry amateurs, using a
truckload of fertilizer), to the 2000 election (not
stolen), to 9/11 (the staggeringly lucky work of nineteen Saudi
jihadists), to the 2004 election (not stolen), to Ukraines
Maidan Revolution in 2014 (not another coup run by the
CIA), to Bashar Assads two gas attacks on his own people in 2017
and 2018 (the first not perpetrated by the rebels, the
second not accidentally caused by the explosion of a rebel
arsenal); and so ona history far richer even than this parag...