JFK Assassination: A Window Into The Leftist Mind (and the Kooky Right)

I have always wondered why some people believe so passionately in a massive conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy.  The documented facts prove, indisputably, to the fact that Communist Lee Harvey Oswald did it, and that he acted alone.  A pathetic loser and loner, separated from his wife and living alone in a rented room, Oswald craved the attention his evil deed would bring.

Many people, mostly on the left but some on the wacky side of the right, could not accept the results of a thorough and massive investigation by the Warren Commission, which concluded that Oswald did it alone.  Benny Huang sheds some light on why the conspiracy advocates believe what they do.  In his article The JFK Assassination As A Window Into The Leftist Mind, he writes:

For a number of reasons, Oswald’s political orientation has always been very difficult for people on the Left to accept. They have convinced themselves that the so-called communist threat was largely imaginary, that actual communists were mostly do-gooders if only a little zealous, and that anti-communism was a far greater threat to all that is good and right. Consequently, people on the Left engage in a form of group therapy in which they jointly exercise their preferred coping mechanism—denial—by seeking out alternative explanations for what happened that day. The result is the cottage industry of conspiracist books and movies that surround the assassination.

Huang's analysis is spot on. However, reading through the comments to the article, it is obvious that there are many on the Wacky Right (think Alex Jones) that believe in the conspiracy too, but with a variety of named culprits: LBJ, George Bush the elder, the bankers, etc etc. Read it all at the link above.

With thanks to No Pasaran! for first bringing this article to light.