Watergate and Iran-Contra: Two conspiracies that help disprove conspiracies theories

Watergate and Iran-Contra. They were perhaps two of the biggest conspiracies to come out of the later half of the 20th century, and because they are so well known many conspiracy theorists often times cite these two proven conspiracies in an attempt to prove that the government conspiracy theories that they believe in are real, or at the very least show that the government is capable of covering up a conspiracy.

While Watergate and Iran-Contra are in fact two very good examples that shows that high ranking officials in the government are capable of criminal conspiracies, the reality is that it does not prove that the government is capable of covering up a conspiracy so well that no one knows about and/or no one can find any evidence that actually proves that the conspiracy is real. If anything, it proves the exact opposite, because of:

1. These two conspiracies have been proven in courts of law.

2. People went to prison because of their involvement in these conspiracies, and one presidency ended, while another was tarnished (in fact 70 people were convicted as a result of the Watergate scandal).

3. These two conspiracies involved a lot less people then many of the unproven and/or disproved (and much larger) government conspiracy theories that are being floated around, and still got found out.

4. The evidence of these conspiracies were exposed by people who were apart of the conspiracy, or worked for the government and managed to get a hold of documents proving the existence of these conspiracies.

Now there are some real and proven conspiracies that are often also cited by conspiracy theorists that are a little bit better examples to cite in terms of government cover-ups, such as MKULTRA and COINTELPRO, but even then these two conspiracies got exposed, and they involved a lot more people then then Watergate and Iran-Contra. Plus, these conspiracies were all exposed before the age of the internet, and back then you actually had to investigate claims rather then go to some website that may or may not have accurate information.

If anything I would say that Watergate and Iran-Contra are two of the worst examples that conspiracy theorists can use in an attempt to prove that the government can cover something up.

Unlike with MKULTRA and COINTELPRO, Watergate and Iran-Contra got exposed relativity quickly, and people did go prison as a result of their involvement. The fact that people did go to prison in both of those cases actually proves that no one in the government is above the law and/or has absolute power.

Even MKULTRA and COINTELPRO are not very good examples either, as both not only were exposed, but both were actually shut down by the government after they were exposed and there was a public outcry over these two programs.

In my opinion using proven conspiracies are really bad examples of trying to prove that the really big government conspiracy theories exist, and the reason for that is that it actually shows that the government is not as good at covering up stuff as many conspiracy theorists believe the government is capable of, and that even with a small amount of people involved, a conspiracy can still be exposed, even without the internet.