Ron Unz Writes the Book on Conspiracy Theories

By Kevin Barrett, for American Free Press

The Unz Review, like American Free Press, is high on the list of the world’s most important alternative media outlets. Several AFP writers, including Paul Craig Roberts, Philip Giraldi, and yours truly, also publish there.

UR publisher Ron Unz, formerly of The American Conservative, has long been considered one of the most moderate and judicious members of what passes for the conservative movement—as well as one of the smartest. Until about 15 years ago, Unz shared the perspective of mainstream critics of “conspiracy theories” who argue that non-mainstream perspectives on the two World Wars, the JFK assassination, 9/11, elite pedophilia, the COVID-19 pandemic, and other ultra-controversial issues are inherently implausible given the difficulty of keeping secrets and the media’s watchdog role and propensity for exposing scandals.

Unz’s belated discovery that some of the biggest “conspiracy theories” are true, or at least probably true given the available evidence, began in the fall of 2008, when he “clicked an ambiguous link on an obscure website and stumbled into a parallel universe.”

The link led to celebrated mainstream journalist Sydney Schanberg’s “McCain and the POW Cover-Up,” which summarized copious evidence that roughly half of the American prisoners-of-war held by Vietnam were never released, and that the US government and mainstream media have been and still are party to a monstrous cover-up. The takeaway: “Whether or not Schanberg is proven correct, the shameful cowardice of our mainstream media is already proven by the wall of silence surrounding his work.”

If mainstream media could suppress a story of such magnitude, supported by so much evidence, assembled and presented by a Pulitzer Prize winning avatar of American investigative journalism, what couldn’t it suppress? Unz’s prior assumption that mainstream media plays a watchdog role and seeks to expose all scandals, the bigger the better, had proven incorrect.

Since the media is capable of hiding the biggest scandals rather than exposing them, Unz naturally wondered if any other “conspiracy theories” might turn out to be true. With a newly-opened mind, he began exploring other red-pill topics. The result was the fascinating intellectual journey documented in his online American Pravda series and several newly published print books growing out of it, including Conspiracy Theories: From the JFK Assassination to the 9/11 Attacks.

Conspiracy Theories, like Unz’s seminal essay “Holocaust Denial,” borrows a weaponized term for its title. The book includes a synopsis of “How the CIA Invented ‘Conspiracy Theories’” recounting the infamous history of CIA document 1035-960 showing that “the CIA was very likely responsible for the widespread introduction of ‘conspiracy theory’ as a term of political abuse.” Unz notes that the perspectives of Karl Popper (conspiracies don’t exist) and Leo Strauss (conspiracies are necessary and must be kept secret at all costs lest the public lose faith in their leaders) have supplanted the once-dominant perspective of Charles Beard, “whose influential writings had heavily focused on the harmful role of various elite conspiracies in shaping American policy for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.”

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the two most prominent American conspiracy theories concerned the JFK assassination and 9/11. In both cases mainstream media blamed dastardly villains motivated by extremist, un-American ideologies, communism and radical Islam respectively, while most “conspiracy theorists” blamed right-wing warmongers pushing for escalation against Vietnam in the case of Kennedy, and against the Islamic world in the case of 9/11. In his essays “The JFK Assassination, Part 1 and Part 2” and “9/11 Conspiracy Theories” Unz offers a different perspective. Building on the work of Michael Collins Piper and Laurent Guyénot, the author argues persuasively that Israel and its American agents of influence are leading suspects in both crimes.

Ron Unz, whose own ethnic background is Jewish, is obviously not afraid to notice that Jews appear to be at least as disproportionately represented among conspirators as they are among Nobel Prize winners. Alongside his essays on JFK and 9/11, Unz implicates powerful Jews in his essays “The ADL in American Society,” “The Power of Organized Crime,” “John McCain, Jeffrey Epstein, and Pizzagate,” “Mossad Assassinations,” and “Remembering the Liberty.”

Unz’s signal contribution to the field of conspiracy studies may be his identification of mainstream media as the primary enemy of anyone seeking truth, justice, and meaningful political change: “In Clausewitzian terms, the media often constitutes the strategic ‘center of gravity’ of the opposing forces...(and) should be regarded as a primary target of any political strategy.” Discrediting mainstream media at its weakest points, he suggests, might eventually collapse its credibility and clear the way for change.

Conspiracy Theories is a critically important contribution to the study of the biggest crimes and cover-ups in recent history. It deserves to be widely read and shared.