I think you are both right that opinions don't really change, but I have to tell you...mine did.
I was a hardcore believer in a JFK conspiracy for 20 years or so and as the devil's advocate I could still give you my whole laundry list of reasons why one should believe in the potential for conspiracy.
But I *did* change my opinion. For me, my conversion came about owing to three things:
1. An open mind/willingness to re-examine my beliefs/the humility to be "wrong"
2. Visiting Dealey Plaza in person
3. Reading Vincent Bugliosi's "Reclaiming History" in its entirety...twice. (It is no small task).
Unfortunately, the JFK conspiracy theory is predicated on a number of "facts" which are not true, but which have been asserted so many times as to be widely believed. For example, the "three shots in six seconds" - which is based on a deliberate miscalculation. (I.e. it is measured like this: SHOT #1....(time to cycle the bolt and aim)....SHOT #2....(time to cycle the bolt and aim)....SHOT #3)
In fact it should be measured like this: ....(time to cycle the bolt and aim)....SHOT #1....(time to cycle the bolt and aim)....SHOT #2....(time to cycle the bolt and aim)....SHOT #3 - so the actual total time elapsed is in fact well above six seconds. I've been shooting bolt action rifles since I was 12 years old and having been to Dealey plaza I know that if you tell me you can't make those shots at those distances in 10 seconds or so (by the way, contrary to the movie it HAS been done in 6 seconds) then what you're telling me is that you're not a very good shot. Oswald, while alleged to have been a crappy shot in the movie was in fact ranked as a Sharpshooter in 1956 with a score of 212. Conspiracy theorists point to a second test he did a few years later where he performed poorly, without making any mention of the 1956 test.
They also mischaracterize the Carcano Rifle as a "cheap rifle". There are two ways to look at something being "cheap" - there is cheap as in poor quality and cheap as in inexpensive. As military surplus, the Carcano rifle was inexpensive - but that is not to say that it was a poor quality rifle. Another deliberate mischaracterization used in order to bolster the claims of those championing conspiracy.
I could go on and on, but I'll leave it there and just let pro-conspiracy folks tell me what an idiot they think I am.
This case is unique in that there is no absolute, objective standard of proof for any evidence whatsoever. There will never be a generally accepted consensus in support of any detail of the assassination.
True
I think this is partly because of the sheer volume of information,and partly because of human nature. I think it's a common tendency to accept evidence that bolsters ones position,and to reject evidence that does not.
Even more true. I've given a talk, dozens of times to hundreds of people, on the assassination that covers the three most common conspiracy theories, plus the Warren Commission, Not one person changed their preconceived opinion about what "really" happened.
