Academic Men Explain Things to Me

I went out with a guy a few months ago who is about a decade older than me, and conversation turned to what I was studying at university, where my degree was in American Studies. Discussing my class on the politics of conspiracy theories, I mentioned the enormous popularity of JFK assassination theories despite having these been debunked several times, when he interjected, “Oh, you don’t really believe that do you?”  I paused, not sure if he was joking, before saying that I had researched the subject and found that the official explanation was the most likely. He shook his head and suggested that I had been hoodwinked, was naive for believing what I was told. I asked him if he had read the Warren Commission report, the Church Committee report, or the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations report, as I had. He laughed, said that I shouldn’t trust anything the American government says, and changed the subject. Over the course of the evening it became very clear that my three years studying the US and nine months living there simply doesn’t measure up to the knowledge you can acquire as a British man who has never been but has seen many movies.