By Stanley Isaacs
Who do you believe, what do you believe, why should you believe it?
As we approach 2026 something unsettling is taking place. Could it be I somehow stumbled into an algorithm of conspiracies… because suddenly I find myself in a circle within a circle, a web within a web, an illusion within an illusion, where almost every other story that pops up on my social media is about a new conspiracy theory revolving around either Covid, The 911 Attacks on the Pentagon and the Twin Towers, The Moon Landing, Flat Earth, JFK’s assassination, the October 7th attacks in Isreal, or Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Is it just me… or are you feeling it as well?
The proliferation of online stories raising questions and doubts, pointing out one “what if” idea after another has gotten me to wonder. I mean, after all some of the proponents of these theories make a very compelling case for their cause… and now with A.I., like never before, the lines have become blurred…it has become easier than ever to manipulate truth, fantasy and reality.
I’m old enough to recall a time when truth, or what we believed to be the truth, was supported by verifiable facts, while fantasy or conspiracy was almost always built on suspicion or unsubstantiated claims not supported by proven evidence. That is not the case anymore. Anyone with the right “tools” can create any image, fabricate any story and give it an aura of authenticity which allows the story to gain traction so much so that regardless of whether it is true or not, it gets reposted over and over and is seen by countless numbers of unsuspecting viewers.
Sadly, this isn’t a new phenomenon; there is an often-misquoted line from the great John Ford’s western masterpiece !962 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance… “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”.
I can remember back to a period in recent history when we were all living in a time of more legends and less facts in fractured consciousness that was dividing our country.
Long before the internet and social media, the 1970’s, was also a complex mixture of skepticism, disillusionment and an introspective reflection of who we were as a people especially after Vietnam, numerous political assassinations, landing on the moon, and the scandal of Watergate.
Who better to bring these conspiracies to the world than Hollywood! So, Hollywood being Hollywood seized on the nation’s atmosphere of distrust and anger and produced numerous films about conspiracies, which not only entertained us, but served to fuel the flames of mistrust and raised more questions than they answered.
If you want more wild theories and “what if” possibilities that will boggle your mind and have you questioning everything you see, read or hear, check out these 1970’s films that offer us a peak into 2026 and beyond…
1970’s Colossus: The Forbin Project, a look into the future of what would become A. I. and a world controlled by a supercomputer.
1973’s Executive Action, a fictionalized “alternative account” of the JFK assassination.
1974’s The Parallax View, a paranoid thriller about the assassination of a US Senator and the witnesses to the event that all turn up dead and the investigative journalist out to uncover the “truth”.
1977 ‘s Capricorn One, a nail-biting thriller revolving around a government conspiracy at the highest levels to fake a manned mission to Mars and its deadly consequences.
Each conspiracy, regardless of the way it is being told or spun… Movies or Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, real or imagined, proven or disputed, adds another thread to the web, another loop in the circle. And here we are spinning within it.
STANLEY ISAACS, Writer, Producer, Director
Stanley Isaacs is a consultant and can be contacted at: sisaacs100@icloud.com
