“Governor” Jesse Ventura is a TV show host with a remarkably colorful background, including Vietnam veteran, wrestler, movie actor and…yes…governor (of Minnesota, to be exact). As a pro wrestler, he was known as “The Body”. In “Running Man”, he was known as Captain Freedom and pitted against Arnold Schwarzenegger's character. It's great fun to note that two of the actors in this dystopian classic went on to become state governors.
“Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura” is a TV show featuring the former
governor as host and lead investigator, peeking into various supposed
conspiracies hatched by the U.S. government, the intelligence services or
global cabals. Veteran conspiracy buff Alex Jones is featured in several
episodes. Topics covered include 9/11, HAARP, 2012 Apocalypse, climate change
denial and “The Culling”. Ventura confronts security guards, FBI agents and
other supposed conspirators, while meeting with whistle blowers at deserted air
strips or obscure taverns...
Most of the drama is obviously scripted, and it's not clear whether The Body
really believes in the conspiracy theories he is promoting. The whole thing
reeks entertainment, and probably should be taken with a grain of salt. As for
the conspiracy theories themselves, a few are outlandish but most are vaguely
plausible, which simply adds to the confusion surrounding the concept. After
all, being plausible is not the same thing as being true!
In a sense, watching “Conspiracy Theory” could be seen as cultural studies. It
may not uncover any dramatic new evidence for conspiracies, but at least it
gives you a good overview of what kind of claims a large portion of the
American public actually believes in. In that sense, I suppose you could say
that Captain Freedom deserves three stars.
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