They're Conspiring, Stupid

site • 20.2007 They’re Conspiring, Stupid Jeff Kinkle Two years ago I was waiting for a late friend in the attacks gives credence to the claim that to steel melts, and video clips of controlled demoli- explosives within wtc and faked the voices of front of a Manhattan pizza place and overheard its believers/practitioners, conspiracy theory is tions are shown alongside quotes from “experts”. passengers on the hijacked planes to call their a heated argument between two men in their perhaps frightening in that it supposedly reveals What is interesting about evidence of this kind loved ones, the owner of wtc and then New young twenties. Pointing at a pigeon pecking at the evil manipulating our lives but ultimately is that it is both instantaneously convincing York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, hundreds of a piece of crust a few meters away, the dispute reassuring in that it gives events a meaning and and easily countered. Most people do not have stock traders and the sec that won’t reveal who concerned the animal’s identity. One guy was history a design.4 the slightest idea what it takes to bring down a profited substantially from the attacks, Pentagon convinced that its common name was “duck”. In the conspiracy theories of 9.11 corpus, no skyscraper, what happens when an airliner hits and wtc clean up crews, and even possibly the His friend didn’t agree, arguing that it was in single piece of work positing an alternative to reinforced concrete, or how difficult it is to turn passengers on United 93, which did not crash in fact “a bird”. This is of course technically correct, the official 9.11 account has gained more popu- around a Boeing 757 at 400mph, so having what Pennsylvania but instead landed in Cleveland, but perhaps not as precise as to be the desired larity or courted more controversy than Loose appears to be credible testimony of any kind and Flight 77, which never hit the Pentagon. As answer. A deficit of taxonomic knowledge does Change (2006).5 A feature-length film written can be persuasive. Yet, just by quickly searching such, it is not surprising that more often than not necessarily correlate with historical igno- and directed by Dylan Avery on an inexpensive online, it is possible to find a myriad of experts not Loose Change has been derided by its detrac- rance, but I could not help of think of this when laptop in his home in upstate New York, Avery disputing the testimonies in Loose Change from tors as an archetypal conspiracy theory. The I read the reports of a Washington Post poll con- and the film’s producers, all in their young twen- across the political spectrum. The American response of the filmmakers and many that share ducted around the fifth year anniversary of the ties, estimate that it has been watched by over their views is that the claim that 9.11 was the 9.11 attacks that revealed that thirty percent of 100 million people_primarily via the internet. result of nineteen Arabs armed with box cutters Americans did not remember the year in which The film argues the attacks were an inside job “ The Bush administra- and orchestrated from a cave in Afghanistan is the attacks took place_five percent did not even and considering the aforementioned poll, its the most far fetched conspiracy theory of them know the month and day. Despite not having un- conclusions are hardly marginal. No matter how tion does conduct itself all. Part of the problem here is that there is no realistically high expectations about the popula- one judges Loose Change_whether one sees it as conspiratorially: unanimous definition of what exactly consti- tion’s scientific or historical consciousness, such a courageous, inventive, and commendable tutes “conspiracy theory”. Obviously the term ignorance really is startling. Not that Americans product of the “Google generation” or an inco- constantly acting under cannot simply designate any claim of conspiracy are unique in this regard; similar polls in vari- herent and paranoid fantasy_its impact and a shroud of secrecy.” as the official account of 9.11 is indeed a theory ous countries have recently exposed extreme success makes it worthy of scrutiny. It is not of conspiracy (Zacarias Moussaoui for example levels of ignorance in relation to contemporary only the veracity of its conclusions that should was convicted of conspiracy to commit acts of politics and past horrors like the Holocaust and be thought through but also questions it raises magazine Popular Mechanics has even released terrorism) and stresses that a small cabal of men Gulag. Still, what is so shocking about the 9.11 about the overall relevance of conspiracy theory a book debunking these aspects of the film. were able to drastically change the course of poll is that the attacks were so recent and that to for understanding 9.11 and the “War on Terror”. The film’s concurrent argument looks at the the young twenty first century, provoking wars, this day we are constantly reminded that we are Surprisingly slick considering its almost non- likely perpetrators of the attacks. Even if one curtailments on civil liberties, etc. Furthermore, living through their immediate consequences. existent production costs, Loose Change fires off a discounts the counter-explanations based on really existing conspiracies are constantly afoot. Their coverage in the media was and still is so litany of charges so rapidly that each is difficult the physical evidence_if one does accept that To take an example of one of the architects constant and their cultural representation so to ponder for more than an instant. After the a plane hit the Pentagon, the towers collapsed of the “War on Terror”, a cursory look at the ubiquitous that one would suspect that if one barrage, many of the allegations seem dubious due to the impact of the planes and resulting biography of someone like former us Secretary cannot even recall in the year in which they took but one need not believe in the accuracy of inferno_the possibility of a conspiracy involv- of Defense Donald Rumsfeld reveals a life rich place, the chances of knowing anything at all everything presented in order to be convinced ing actors within the us State remains. This in conspiracy: from conspiring against George about their geopolitical history and significance that something is amiss in the conventional nar- second type of evidence is almost completely cir- Bush senior to become President Ford’s Secretary are miniscule. rative of the attacks as told by the 9.11 Commission cumstantial and is meager in comparison to the of Defense and as the ceo of gd Searle & Com- Polls conducted during the same period show Report and propagated by the mass media. The amount of physical evidence given. It attempts pany against scientists and the American public that a similar percentage of Americans, over film presents two types of evidence to make to show that members of the Bush administra- at large to get NutraSweet approved despite thirty percent (other polls suggest even higher its case that members of the Bush administra- tion were not only capable of doing something of evidence suggesting it gave rats brain tumors, to numbers in New York), suspect some form of tion and other elites colluded in a conspiracy. this magnitude, but that if the evidence is looked finally conspiring against pretty much the world government involvement in the planning and/or The first is based on what one could call the at together it suggests that they probably did. A to propagate belief in Saddam’s wmds to justify execution of the 9.11 attacks (the two dominant mechanics or physics of the attacks and how they large portion of this evidence has been gathered invading Iraq.7 There are even documented scenarios being the “inside job” or “let it happen contradict the official story_this characterizes by trawling the mainstream media, the rest com- cases in Western democratic states of criminal on purpose”_lihop_hypotheses).1 Obviously the majority of the evidence presented in the ing from a range of websites of varying reliabil- conspiracies at the highest levels and elements there is no reason to believe that it is the same film, and there are parallels with the “magic ity. The infamous claim by the neo-conservative resorting to false flag terrorism against their own thirty percent: that conspiracy theory is the bullet theory” in relation to the jfk assassination think-tank Project for a New American Century populations so one cannot really reject anything inevitable result of ignorance or that ignorance and the claims that the moon landing was faked. claiming that “a new Pearl Harbor” was needed tout court. How then do we differentiate between leads to deluded conspiracy thinking, even if The second is circumstantial evidence meant to galvanize Americans into supporting military a deluded conspiracy theory and research that this is often implied when the term “conspiracy to attack the character of their main suspects in interventions throughout the Middle East and actually reveals criminal conspiracies other then theory” is employed disparagingly.2 Awash in order to convince a skeptical public that elected past instances of American officials recommend- just saying conspiracy theories are ultimately symbolic misery and bereft of any conceptual ap- officials, bureaucrats, and elites would be capable ing committing terrorist acts and then blaming incorrect theories of conspiracy? paratus to understand the antagonisms, fluctua- of such a malevolent action. them on a convenient enemy (Operation North- Conspiracy theory has a long and rich history, tions, and developments in global society, The evidence based on the physics of the events woods in 1962 involved Cuba) are two of the rela- in the American context stretching back to the conspiracy theory is often depicted as an im- asserts that much of the story presented by the tively few facts cited.6 Circumstantial evidence colonial period.

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