coverups, conspiracies, hoaxes, and the evidence that sorts them out.
Some of the wildest government stories are true. Plenty aren't. We open the files, check where every claim came from, and learn when the honest answer is ‘we don't know.’ Watergate, MKUltra, COINTELPRO, UFOs, hoaxes—the fun is figuring out which box each one belongs in.
make the first call. then test it.
A secret file contradicts the official story. What earns your belief first?
current case
unit 01 / 06
01
now investigating
The Official Story vs. The Rumor
Roswell, Area 51, and the foundations of evidence. Habit of mind: QUESTION.
the case files
01 The Official Story vs. The Rumor (current)
02 Follow the Evidence
03 Reading the Record
04 Trust and Verify
05 Watching the Watchers
06 The Verdict
the daily desk.
a claim, a file, and one way your brain may be messing with you.
verdict of the day
Claim: the CIA secretly dosed unwitting Americans with LSD. Confirmed — Project MKUltra, exposed by the Church Committee in 1975. The CIA director had most of the files destroyed in 1973, which is why we know less than we should.
verdict: confirmed
declassified file of the day
The Ghost Army: a WWII unit of artists and engineers who impersonated entire divisions with inflatable tanks, sound trucks, and fake radio traffic. Classified for fifty years; Congressional Gold Medal in 2022.
declassified 1996
trick of the week
Cherry-picking: building a case from the three facts that fit while ignoring the thirty that don’t. The tell: real evidence survives you looking at the rest of the pile.
watch for it
argue this
Should everything the government classifies eventually be declassified? Pick your number of years and defend it.
what do you think?
units
01
The Official Story vs. The Rumor
current
Roswell, Area 51, and the foundations of evidence. Habit of mind: QUESTION.
what's inside +what's inside −
·The 1947 Roswell headline — what the paper said, what the military said, and what changed
·Area 51: what’s actually documented vs. what’s inferred from a fence and a rumor
·What counts as evidence: documents, testimony, physical proof, and the gaps between them
·The Four Verdicts — confirmed, debunked, misleading, unproven — and how to earn one
·Your first fact-check: run a claim to ground before the internet does it for you (badly)
02
Follow the Evidence
Watergate and the "Paul is dead" rumor. Habit of mind: RESEARCH.
what's inside +what's inside −
·A third-rate burglary: how two reporters pulled a thread and found a presidency
·Deep Throat, anonymous sources, and the rules that keep them honest
·The tapes: what corroboration looks like when it finally shows up
·"Paul is dead" — the same era, the same media, and a rumor made entirely of clues that weren’t
·Why one story ended in a resignation and the other in a shrug: the evidence did that
03
Reading the Record
The Pentagon Papers and the Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge claims. Habit of mind: ANALYZE.
what's inside +what's inside −
·The Pentagon Papers: 7,000 pages of what the government knew while saying otherwise
·Daniel Ellsberg, the New York Times, and the fight over publishing secrets
·Pearl Harbor "advance knowledge" claims — testing hindsight against the actual record
·How to read a declassified document: redactions, dates, distribution lists, and what’s missing
·Cherry-picking: how true documents get assembled into false stories
04
Trust and Verify
MKUltra and the mind-control myths; fact-checking in the social media age. Habit of mind: EVALUATE.
what's inside +what's inside −
·MKUltra: the program that sounds fake and is thoroughly documented
·What the destroyed files mean — and what they don’t let you claim
·From MKUltra to mind-control myths: where the documented ends and the invented begins
·The myth stations: three claims, three tables, your verdict and your evidence
·Fact-checking at feed speed: lateral reading, reverse image search, and the moon-hoax cards
05
Watching the Watchers
COINTELPRO and shadow-government myths; the surveillance debate. Habit of mind: DEBATE.
what's inside +what's inside −
·COINTELPRO: the FBI program exposed by a burglary in 1971
·Who got watched — civil rights leaders, journalists, and ordinary people
·Shadow-government myths vs. documented surveillance: telling the two apart matters
·The Church Committee: what oversight looked like when it finally arrived
·The structured debate: surveillance vs. civil liberties
06
The Verdict
Iran-Contra, the JFK files, the moon-landing autopsy, and your Case File capstone. Habit of mind: THINK CRITICALLY.
what's inside +what's inside −
·Iran-Contra: arms, hostages, and a paper trail that survived the shredder
·The declassified JFK files: what a document release proves — and what it can’t settle
·The moon-landing hoax autopsy: a debunked claim, dissected clue by clue
·The Case File capstone: pick an approved claim, investigate it, and defend your verdict
·Presenting like an investigator: confirmed first, debunked second, unproven last
everything for this class
class hub.
slides, course links, source collections, and whatever we need next.