Thesis: 1. A powerful force (PF) acts with impunity inside the U.S. (examples: JFK, RFK, MLK, 9/11, Las Vegas, Covid, J6, Butler, CK) 2. Official investigations (conducted by captured agencies) actively avoid revealing the PF. 3. Cover stories for crimes committed by the PF are reflexively validated and become mainstream narratives. 4. Domain experts are intimidated and punished by the PF for exploring anomalies in official narratives. 5. Domain experts who do respond to these social threats end up fooling themselves in order to resolve their cognitive dissonance, rationalizing official explanations and "debunking" credible hypotheses about the activity of the PF. 6. Dissident, non-conforming experts are ridiculed, leaving them socially and professionally outcast. 7. Because the social and career costs are extreme for those who question official narratives, a market for sophistry emerges--Experts and laypeople alike seek to rationalize their own complacency against the PF.