Thomas the “Truther”

Conspiracy theorists continue to thrive, in part because a new controversy always seems to bubble to the surface — like the death last year of Jeffrey Epstein. The disciple Thomas has often been maligned because he’s been cast as a doubter. All he wanted was the truth.

Who really shot JFK? Were the moon landings real or staged? Did Elvis really die in 1977, or did he fake his death in order to get some privacy? Was Paul McCartney actually replaced by a look-alike when he allegedly died in 1966? Was 9/11 staged by the U.S. government?

Are all these questions crazy?

Maybe it depends on the thickness of your tinfoil hat.

Americans love a good conspiracy theory, and our weakness for paranoid fantasies is actually embedded in our history from the very beginning.

For example, some historians speculate that the Founding Fathers were moved to write the Declaration of Independence because they believed that Britain was about to enslave American colonists. The idea that there is some shadowy cabal pulling strings behind the scenes in our history has been a constant theme for theorists who believe things are not as they appear. Whether it’s “black helicopters,” “Illuminati,” “Pan Am Flight 103” or...