Conspiracy theory with Captain Freedom

“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.

The biggest secret

This is the third season of “Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura”, in which the colorful ex-governor of Minnesota is backed up by his son Tyrel and Oliver Stone's son Sean (who later converted to Shia Islam).

This season is far crazier than season one (I haven't yet seen season two). The Venturas and Sean Stone investigate supposed conspiracies involving death rays, remote mind control, alien invasion attempts, Illuminati hideouts in the Ozarks, and time travel. The first episode features the classical stand-off between Jesse Ventura and David Icke. It seems Icke's reptilian conspiracy was too much even for The Body.

The most interesting episode features entrepreneur Robert Bigelow and retired officer John F Alexander, two “elite” figures who are seriously interested in UFOs and the paranormal. Bigelow is bankrolling MUFON, while Alexander was involved in the First Earth Battalion, a secret project of the U S military to conduct research into New Age-related phenomena. Of course, conspiracy theorists charge the two insiders with knowing The Truth (or Too Much). They may indeed know something – but probably not more than your friendly neighborhood Theosophist, or even Colin Wilson!

While Ventura is clearly “out on a limb” with this one, I will nevertheless give his show three stars. If you take it as entertainment rather than serious investigative journalism, it could be worth some of your spare time…

Conspiracism as entertainment

Jesse Ventura (real name James George Janos) is a former Navy Seal, pro wrestler, actor and state governor of Minnesota. His politics seem to be a vaguely leftist form of populism. “Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura” features this colorful personality as he attempts to track down real or supposed conspiracies in the American heartland. The show (which also features conspiracist doyen Alex Jones) should be taken with a certain grain of salt.

Often, perfectly serious issues are obfuscated by being linked to outlandish scenarios. In “The Worldwide Water Conspiracy”, legitimate criticism of corporate control of U.S. water supplies is turned into Bircher-style paranoid fear-mongering about “poison in bottled water” and a Communist (!) plot to undermine Our Great Nation. In “Gulf Oil Spill”, questions about who stood to gain from the 2010 disaster morphs into the usual bunk about evil Illuminati out to depopulate the world. More poison in bottled water, presumably. Otherwise, season two is mostly known for the episode “Police State”, about FEMA's (supposed) secret concentration camps. The episode was never rerun due to complaints from a politician featured on the show.

Ironically, one episode actually questions an established conspiracist narrative (aliens at Area 51) in favor of a more plausible scenario: the military uses belief in UFOs to cover up secret test flights of perfectly earthly fighter planes over urban areas. The so-called Phoenix Lights, Ventura suggests, could be explained in this manner. The episode also alleges that Area 51 workers have been victims of environmental hazards on the job, and that this too has been covered up. Of course, you will never hear *this* from Bob Lazar or any of the other ufology-conspiracy shills.

In a sense, this is the real conspiracy: that real life problems are forgotten or subsumed under a crazy narrative that makes them impossible to tackle. “Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura” is worth watching, but most of the episodes confuse more than they clarify. But yes, it works if you take it for what it is: scripted entertainment. Three stars.