0:00:00.582,0:00:04.800 Hi there, my name’s Kirby Ferguson. I am the creator of This is Not a Conspiracy Theory. 0:00:04.800,0:00:11.305 Stay tuned to the end of this video for further information about how this series works and how you can subscribe. 0:00:11.305,0:00:12.819 Alright. Here were go. 0:00:14.772,0:00:17.130 The people of the internet present 0:00:17.668,0:00:21.383 A documentary feature delivered in episodes 0:00:26.044,0:00:28.119 November 1963. 0:00:28.119,0:00:30.278 An assassination. 0:00:30.278,0:00:33.448 Not the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 0:00:33.448,0:00:37.297 but that of his assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. 0:00:37.297,0:00:42.870 It was this killing that permanently sealed JFK’s murder in mystery. 0:00:45.039,0:00:49.958 The conclusion of the official government investigation was simple yet unsatisfying: 0:00:51.450,0:00:56.738 a disaffected loner with a cheap rifle killed the president... by himself. 0:00:56.738,0:00:58.703 Counter narratives started to appear. 0:00:58.703,0:01:04.521 Amateur sleuths tried to follow the trajectories of the bullets backwards, into the shadows. 0:01:05.613,0:01:10.117 Their methods were a combination of lawyer, detective and outsider. 0:01:13.547,0:01:19.720 This style of reasoning became known as the conspiracy theory. 0:01:21.101,0:01:26.235 Trust in government plummeted during the years of scandal and upheaval that followed. 0:01:26.235,0:01:32.244 Finally, the president himself was implicated in a spying scandal and the fears of conspiracy thinkers seemed confirmed. 0:01:32.244,0:01:34.436 Conspiracies were real. 0:01:35.189,0:01:40.664 But the research into the Kennedy assassination was failing to develop a convincing alternative scenario. 0:01:40.664,0:01:46.616 Instead, it had splintered into countless, conflicting variations. 0:01:47.630,0:01:53.231 And on the outskirts of popular culture, new and more outrageous ideas were developing. 0:01:54.861,0:01:58.277 The flaws of the conspiracy theory were becoming obvious. 0:01:58.277,0:02:01.341 And its logic could lead to preposterous conclusions. 0:02:01.341,0:02:05.206 According to the stories the US government is concealing under top security 0:02:05.206,0:02:07.508 flying saucers from another world 0:02:07.508,0:02:12.161 and alien bodies, cryogenically suspended in huge freezers. 0:02:12.361,0:02:15.170 The term conspiracy was soon an insult. 0:02:15.170,0:02:17.900 Why the fuck does everything have to be a conspiracy, huh? 0:02:17.900,0:02:21.005 And yet the conspiracy theory would continue to grow. 0:02:21.005,0:02:24.185 Its influence absorbed into popular culture. 0:02:24.185,0:02:29.507 It blurred into the realm of science fiction as claims of alien abductions and cover-ups multiplied. 0:02:29.507,0:02:33.303 This happened. If you believe it, that’s alright. 0:02:33.303,0:02:35.760 If you don’t believe it, I don’t care. 0:02:35.760,0:02:39.230 The TV series The X Files channeled all these themes of paranoia 0:02:39.230,0:02:43.304 and beamed them into American living rooms every Sunday evening. 0:02:43.304,0:02:48.098 While Oliver Stone’s film JFK brought the Kennedy conspiracy theory back into the mainstream. 0:02:48.098,0:02:51.689 Now we’re through the looking glass here people. 0:02:51.689,0:02:53.974 White is black. 0:02:53.974,0:02:55.534 And black is white. 0:02:58.394,0:03:01.342 But it was a new form of media, the World Wide Web, 0:03:01.342,0:03:05.456 that brought the conspiracy theory to its widest audience ever. 0:03:05.456,0:03:12.719 And after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the conspiracy theory became an online sensation 0:03:12.719,0:03:18.000 and it’s maintained a conspicuous presence in online culture ever since. 0:03:19.292,0:03:23.799 By 2013, we'd entered a new era of suspicion and paranoia. 0:03:23.799,0:03:28.210 Trust in government hovered at levels even lower than the Nixon era. 0:03:28.210,0:03:32.905 Despite their persistently poor reputation, belief in conspiracy theories flourished. 0:03:32.905,0:03:39.711 “Sixty-three percent of registered voters believe at least one political conspiracy theory...” Conspiracy Theories Prosper, Dan Cassino and Krista Jenkins 0:03:42.017,0:03:47.755 The conspiracy theory is something more than just paranoia from the fringes of society. 0:03:47.755,0:03:51.735 It's a dramatic expression of a uniquely modern anxiety: 0:03:54.766,0:04:01.317 the sensation that you are trapped within the invisible design of a greater power. 0:04:01.317,0:04:03.798 What you know you can’t explain. 0:04:03.798,0:04:04.969 But it's there. 0:04:04.969,0:04:08.385 like a splinter in your mind. 0:04:09.846,0:04:12.769 In the United States in particular these fears have deep roots, 0:04:12.769,0:04:17.041 roots that tangle down into the core of the American identity and beyond. 0:04:17.041,0:04:20.219 Back through the centuries, past America’s formation 0:04:20.219,0:04:24.494 and right down to the bedrock psychology of the conspiracy theory: 0:04:24.494,0:04:30.118 the projection of human intentions upon complex events. 0:04:32.164,0:04:37.133 The ancient Greeks once saw lightning bolts and imagined the fury of Zeus. 0:04:37.133,0:04:40.380 But we later developed better understanding of the forces of nature, 0:04:40.380,0:04:45.440 and we are now beginning to understand the complexity behind our own society. 0:04:45.440,0:04:48.871 We are confronting powers more daunting than a shadowy elite, 0:04:48.871,0:04:52.846 powers that we struggle to comprehend with the minds we’ve evolved. 0:04:52.846,0:04:54.210 You don’t get it. 0:04:54.210,0:04:57.727 Then help me. Please, I need to know. 0:04:57.727,0:05:01.501 This may be hard for you to understand, but there is no conspiracy. 0:05:01.501,0:05:04.190 Nobody is in charge. 0:05:04.590,0:05:08.550 What we are now realizing is that we are guided, constrained, 0:05:08.550,0:05:11.272 and even controlled by the systems we have made, 0:05:11.272,0:05:16.823 by the rules, institutions and technologies we ourselves created. 0:05:16.823,0:05:19.046 And these systems have no ideology, 0:05:19.046,0:05:21.990 they have no ambition, they are not greedy, 0:05:21.990,0:05:24.647 they are not good and they are not evil. 0:05:24.647,0:05:29.894 They are simply not like us. 0:05:32.248,0:05:36.552 This is Not a Conspiracy Theory 0:05:44.522,0:05:47.316 A serial documentary about the forces that shape us 0:05:47.316,0:05:48.941 From the creator of “Everything is a Remix” 0:05:48.941,0:05:51.789 Written & Directed by Kirby Ferguson. Original Score by John Woods. Fonts by The Font Bureau 0:05:51.789,0:05:54.551 No DRM, No Regional Limitations, Multiple Subtitles 0:05:56.967,0:05:58.485 And welcome back. 0:05:58.485,0:06:01.131 There you have it, there’s the premise of This is Not a Conspiracy Theory. 0:06:01.131,0:06:06.133 That is the theme I’m going to explore and whether you would like to subscribe or not, you should base it on that. 0:06:06.133,0:06:09.051 Do you want to see more or not -- it’s up to you. 0:06:09.051,0:06:14.602 Okay, so the format of This is Not a Conspiracy Theory is a little unusual but it is basically simple. 0:06:14.602,0:06:19.523 It is a documentary feature broken up into installments and delivered on the net. 0:06:19.523,0:06:25.177 That’s the basics of it. It’s a nonfiction movie, in parts, on the web. That’s the fundamentals. 0:06:25.177,0:06:28.171 So you just saw Part 1, that is free for everyone to watch. 0:06:28.171,0:06:31.770 If you’d like to see the rest of the series, you have to subscribe, you have to purchase them. 0:06:31.770,0:06:35.769 The total running time for the feature will be at least 80 minutes, it will be at least 80 minutes long. 0:06:35.769,0:06:40.249 However, there will be no set number of installments and there will be no schedule to their release. 0:06:40.249,0:06:45.766 They do take a lot of time to make, so they’ll come out when they’re done and it will be slow. 0:06:45.766,0:06:46.963 You should know that. 0:06:46.963,0:06:48.845 But the installments of the film aren’t the whole story. 0:06:48.845,0:06:54.633 They’ll be accompanied by a series of video updates and these will be the more interactive realm of the project. 0:06:54.633,0:06:57.525 This series will keep you up-to-date with what’s going on behind the scenes 0:06:57.525,0:07:04.887 and they’ll also be a platform in which you can participate, you can offer feedback, you can potentially influence the course of the series. 0:07:04.887,0:07:08.064 Or you can just sit back and watch it all unfold, Whatever you’d like. 0:07:08.064,0:07:10.722 And real fast, three more features worth mentioning. 0:07:10.722,0:07:15.959 The series has no DRM. 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It will later, become $15. 0:07:41.500,0:07:45.256 You can also get a second subscription for half off by choo sing the gift option. 0:07:45.256,0:07:52.184 So you can get a gift subscription for a friend, a family member, an enemy -- hey, why not? -- for a mere six bucks. 0:07:52.184,0:07:53.654 And there you have it. 0:07:53.654,0:07:57.243 That’s This is Not a Conspiracy Theory. I hope you will consider purchasing the videos. 0:07:57.243,0:07:59.837 I think it will be a special and unique experience for you. 0:07:59.837,0:08:05.963 And by doing so you are supporting ambitious and 100% independent filmmaking. 0:08:05.963,0:08:12.048 Thank you so much for your attention, I really do value it highly and I hope it shows in that videos that I make. 0:08:12.048,0:08:16.272 I really do not take your time for granted. I try to make the most of the time that we have together. 0:08:16.272,0:08:19.835 Thank you so much for watching. See ya next time.