9/11 falsity - Let this be a warning to all of you
20090919 at 22:01 UPDATE: FriendFeed conversation embedded at bottom.
Dear reader: if you have “concerns” about the events of 9/11 eight years ago, I ask you to weigh your concerns against events that took place in the last few months. What I am seeing on the Right and on the Left is polarized ideology, misinformation, poor communication, feelings of betrayal, and some real desire for change. Unfortunately, “birthers” “deathers” and “9/11 truthers” are in no position to help anyone effect positive change.
Apparently the “9/11 truth” movement is still getting some traction. Its most recent attempt at legitimacy is a little fictional scenario cooked up by Alex Jones and Charlie Sheen, where Sheen requests a 20 minute meeting with President Obama… and either asks questions, or just sinisterly intones “we have many questions, Mr. President. Lots and lots of questions.”
Charlie Sheen asserts that he “wants his country back.” How unfortunate that he’s living in an entirely different country than I am — one that plots horrible attacks against its own population, using thousands upon thousands of criminal participants — none of whom have come forward, not even anonymously. I’m certain that something shocking and conclusive would have shown up at wikileaks.org in the last 8 years were there any truth at all to this tired, offensive theory.
I’ve heard that there are several people on the right who are seduced by the “9/11 truth” movement. I’m sure Alex Jones doesn’t have any party affiliation at all. His profitable media empire and entire reason to exist is predicated on our government being an evil, sinister, corrupt enterprise focused solely on oppressing its citizens. I wonder does he have children, and at what age does he tell them they are living in a prison?
The Sheen statements start at 4:12. Leading up to that is the same old tired mash of “unexplained 9/11 facts” some of which are legitimate curiosities, most of which are pathetically laughable.
Now I will cut the crap and give you 3 videos where National Geographic takes these “9/11 truth” people seriously, and tests the theories for possibility, not plausibility. The Purdue simulation took two years to complete. I will henceforth regard people clinging to these theories as willfully delusional, and real burdens to a democratic society. Democracy doesn’t operate on autopilot.
Matt Taibbi also refutes the possibility of such a huge conspiracy.
I’ll let Noam Chomsky have the last word. He’s very succinct and to the point. He is my type of thinker — especially in his pin-pointing of what I call the “conspiracy profiteers” of whom Alex Jones is a prime example.
FriendFeed conversation:
conversation, editorial tagged commentary, conspiracy theory, junk science, politics, terrorism