Why are people still talking about or believing alternative theories about the JFK assassination?

[Archiebald]

29. Magical thinking regarding 1963

Most Americans were not alive or else lack any mature understanding of the Kennedy era. They look at 1963 through the lens of the 21st century when there is really not a great deal of similarity. They watch CSI or other police procedural TV programs and incorrectly project backwards. Modern skills and forensic technology were not available back then. Police and policing standards were not what they are today. Police officer training and qualifications were not what we would expect today. Officer Tippit, shot by Oswald on the street, left high school after tenth grade. He was typical. The chaos that we see in the old films and the uncertain chain of events were pretty much a product of the times. It all looks suspicious if you lose track of the timeframe.

Those were different times, chaotic and clumsy times by our standards. The last KKK lynching was in 1981. There were commies hiding in the bushes or in government, or so some thought, in 1963. The CIA was trying to kill Fidel Castro with exploding cigars. We may not have lynchings today, but we have George Floyds. We seem to be in the golden age of conspiracy theories because it is a slippery slope from rational and critical thinking to the dark depths of political suspicion and conspiracy. If you fall for one thing it is easier to fall for the next.