Welcome to the Penn and Teller bulletin board, a great place to keep in touch with
fellow Penn & Teller fans or ask questions about the guys. We welcome your thoughts!
Some conspiracy theories are nuts, to be sure. But real conspiracies do happen. There was a conspiracy to kill Lincoln. The Gunpowder Plot. There are many others that no one disputes. The mistake the many non-conspiracy theorists make is to say that because one theory is crazy, or just plain wrong, that no theory is true, or that there isn't anything worth questioning in a given situation.
There were insiders that helped Pearl Harbor happen and the possibility that FDR sat back and allowed the attack to happen to get us into the war (which he is on record as having wanted very badly) is by no means implausable to me. But to say that he caused Pearl Harbor is something different altogether.
As far and P&T and their thoughts on the JFK conspiracy...well...I can only go by what they say on Bullshit and that is they think Oswald acted alone. Maybe he did. Even if that's true, there is WAY too much weird about Oswald's life to think there's not something going on there.
I think conspiracy theorists of all stripes get a really raw deal, and most unfairly from the science minded. Science always begins with questioning, so what's wrong with looking at a situation logically and not buying the party line? More questioning and more knowledge are ALWAYS a good thing.