Sinister interpretations of otherwise normally explainable events: The Umbrella Man

[Poll_Blind]

I just stumbled on this infinitely useful 6-minute mini-doc by Errol Morris and I thought I'd share it.

This documentary is, I suppose, well, you could say it was about The Umbrella Man. The Umbrella Man was a "mysterious" figure holding an open black umbrella, captured in the Zapbruder film of Kennedy's assassination.

But this beautiful little bit of documentary film-making isn't about the Kennedy assassination, The Umbrella Man or conspiracy theories at all: It's about how we research history and how, as we turn up the magnification of the lense (as is so often is possible in the digital age), the stranger and more distorted the picture may become.

PB

[defacto7]

1. Beautiful bit of wisdom. n/t

[Tx4obama]

2. Great story :) n/t

[pmorlan1]

3. Sometimes it IS sinister

A nice film but remember, sometimes it really is the sinister interpretation that's correct. Watergate... Bush torture program.... Spying on Americans without warrants....

[alterfurz]

7. "What do you call someone in possession of all the facts?

--Paranoid." -- William S. Burroughs

No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine. -- William Blum

[Downwinder]

4. Hiram Holliday.

[SheilaT]

5. Can anyone come up with a non-sinister explanation?

I can. I may not be correct, but I can tell you that sometimes people use umbrellas simply to shade themselves from the sun.

I used to live in Tucson, AZ in the 1960's, and I can assure you that pretty much every single day I'd see people using umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun. I have no idea whatsoever if the "umbrella man" being discussed here was doing that, but I can absolutely assure you that there IS a non-sinister explanation for him.

[ReRe]

6. I watch the Documentary Channel allot...

... Abd Errol Morris is one of the best all-time documentarians. I've never seen this before, though. Thanks for sharing this.

[TalkingDog]

8. "Life is complicated" should never be confused with "There are no conspiracies"

That is flawed thinking of the highest (or lowest) order.

[justiceischeap]

9. Though the Umbrella Man was peacefully protesting

one can argue a sinister fact, that umbrella probably gave Oswald a pretty good point of reference.