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Jul. 11th, 2010 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blahflowersIf you want to be in at the point another conspiracy theory goes overground then check the Hate Mail article about the 'murder' of Doctor David Kelly. The actual belief that he was murdered has been around since he died but this article is interesting because it has the key thing you need for a good theory: 'Proof' that the assassins were incredibly incompetent. What is that 'proof'? That someone who worked with Kelly for a while knew that he couldn't swallow pills or had the strength in his arms to use a knife to cut anything, something which his family has never, to my knowledge, thought worth mentioning. And so, we are supposed to believe that the people, whoever they were or whatever they worked for, managed to spirit an incredibly depressed man facing ruin from his family home perfectly, but had neglected to realise that the two methods they had chosen to use to make his murder look like suicide were precisely the two that wouldn't have worked. What are the odds? The person bringing this up, Mai Pederson, has been pushing this line for almost as long as Kelly has been dead. How likely is it that MP's claiming money for moat renovation is major news and yet the story of the Government murdering one of it's employees remains a fringe topic, even in a period when the media was out to nail the Government for most of the life of it's last term? Evidence doesn't just get ignored, is it perhaps because it has been checked and found to be not true? The above link suggests that this is a story the Mail, amongst others, has printed several times down the years, without apparently ever doing any checking into the truth of it.
So, to believe this, we have to believe that the family have been pressured to keep quiet about the whole wrists/swallowing business.
Looking at the comments on the Mail article are also instructive for how much misinformation, misunderstanding and misremembering can happen in seven years. Gut feelings and imagination always do so well when information is either in short supply or unfortunately points in a different direction. The fact that official papers are locked away is supposedly proof of something, something other than the fact that most documents are stored in such a way for differing amounts of time depending on what they are about. And do people honestly think that in however many years time when these papers see the light of day there will be one which reads 'From the Desk of Tony Blair: How are we doing on "Operation: Kill David Kelly and make it look like suicide"'? The official version of events is a lie because all officials lie about everything all the time (which is odd because most of the commenters that hold this view are often the ones arguing for another enquiry, if no-one in authority can be trusted to run it then who's going to do it? "I hereby reveal the findings of the 'My mate Dave and Dave's bird Raquel's bit of a think about the death of that Kelly bloke by the pool table of 'The Clever Wordplay and Firkin' pub of the afternoon when England was robbed, robbed! of their place in the next round of the World Cup 2010' report. They hereby find that "1. The Government fuckin' lied didn't they? 2. I mean, come on! The End.".").
Anne from North Yorkshire says "I will never ever believe Dr David Kelly took his own life and the sooner the truth is told the better!" So there you have it. Truth is something you believe, lies are anything you don't believe. Mel from London says we all no [sic] deep down he was murdered" which is pretty damning argument I think you'll agree. My favourite though is Matthew who, bless, says "Apparently all inquest findings are secret for 70 years. Does no-one even care about this?" So, only sixty to seventy years to go before we find out what the result of the Hutton Inquiry or the coroner's inquiry was. The echo chamber effect is also useful, anyone who says anything that is anti-Labour Government and pro-Conspiracy theory points is marked positively by other readers, anyone who suggests scepticism (Disclosure: including me, yes for once a comment of mine was passed by the Daily Mail censors!) is marked down into the reds (I've got the sixth lowest score in the whole thread! Only sixth? Bastards!).
Time will tell as to whether the Kelly: Suicide or Murder conspiracy ever becomes a massive sexy money-maker like JFK or the 9-11 'Truther' movement or whether it fades into the background, without the support of Americans who are untethered from reality to back them up these home-grown theories are always fringe and without much support but do help poison the well of general discourse.
So, to believe this, we have to believe that the family have been pressured to keep quiet about the whole wrists/swallowing business.
Looking at the comments on the Mail article are also instructive for how much misinformation, misunderstanding and misremembering can happen in seven years. Gut feelings and imagination always do so well when information is either in short supply or unfortunately points in a different direction. The fact that official papers are locked away is supposedly proof of something, something other than the fact that most documents are stored in such a way for differing amounts of time depending on what they are about. And do people honestly think that in however many years time when these papers see the light of day there will be one which reads 'From the Desk of Tony Blair: How are we doing on "Operation: Kill David Kelly and make it look like suicide"'? The official version of events is a lie because all officials lie about everything all the time (which is odd because most of the commenters that hold this view are often the ones arguing for another enquiry, if no-one in authority can be trusted to run it then who's going to do it? "I hereby reveal the findings of the 'My mate Dave and Dave's bird Raquel's bit of a think about the death of that Kelly bloke by the pool table of 'The Clever Wordplay and Firkin' pub of the afternoon when England was robbed, robbed! of their place in the next round of the World Cup 2010' report. They hereby find that "1. The Government fuckin' lied didn't they? 2. I mean, come on! The End.".").
Anne from North Yorkshire says "I will never ever believe Dr David Kelly took his own life and the sooner the truth is told the better!" So there you have it. Truth is something you believe, lies are anything you don't believe. Mel from London says we all no [sic] deep down he was murdered" which is pretty damning argument I think you'll agree. My favourite though is Matthew who, bless, says "Apparently all inquest findings are secret for 70 years. Does no-one even care about this?" So, only sixty to seventy years to go before we find out what the result of the Hutton Inquiry or the coroner's inquiry was. The echo chamber effect is also useful, anyone who says anything that is anti-Labour Government and pro-Conspiracy theory points is marked positively by other readers, anyone who suggests scepticism (Disclosure: including me, yes for once a comment of mine was passed by the Daily Mail censors!) is marked down into the reds (I've got the sixth lowest score in the whole thread! Only sixth? Bastards!).
Time will tell as to whether the Kelly: Suicide or Murder conspiracy ever becomes a massive sexy money-maker like JFK or the 9-11 'Truther' movement or whether it fades into the background, without the support of Americans who are untethered from reality to back them up these home-grown theories are always fringe and without much support but do help poison the well of general discourse.