Kathe Geist: Cover-ups

Carl Doerner’s recent column [“History happening behind the scenes,” Recorder, Nov. 27] along with recent critiques of Henry Kissinger’s reign, recalls the days of what Bill Moyers called “the secret government,” when a coup d’etat, as the Kennedy assassination and CIA’s help assassinating Chilean president Salvador Allende both were, could be carried out and covered up by powerful people, some in organized crime, some in the government itself, some in charge of a willing press.

The digital revolution has made such subterfuge and secrecy impossible today, but the game of undermining public awareness continues. As Rachel Maddow points out, calling every journalistic effort “fake news” calls all news into question and allows lies and disinformation to pose as being as valid as truth — an ongoing cover-up in plain sight.

With neither the government nor the press willing to come clean with regard to the Kennedy assassination, both suspicions and facts about the circumstances were designated a “conspiracy theory,” which became the grandfather of all conspiracy theories: the moon landing was faked and so on down to today’s Q-Anon conspiracies.

As with “fake news,” the proliferation of absurd conspiracy theories undermines the seriousness of the real conspiracies — former president Donald Trump’s attempted coup, for example. No one knows who is behind Q-Anon. Might it be the Russians or some oil baron, someone who will profit from the public confusion it engenders? The effort to keep power in the hands of the wealthy and unscrupulous continues, and the pawns in this game are legion.

Kathe Geist

Charlemont