[Dean's World] Dean: Loose Change Part 3

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Posted by Dean:
Loose Change Part 3
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1146484814.shtml


   Closing out my series on the 9/11 conspiracy theory movie "Loose
   Change," here is part 3 of the film:

   [EMBED]

   I've got to admit that this third part of the film finally made me
   angry. I tried not to be angry during the first two parts. Now with
   this last part I'm genuinely angry. At the producers of this film,
   that is.

   They claim there was insider trading at the WTC. [1]Snopes debunks
   this, just as they [2]debunked the claims about there being no plane
   to hit the Pentagon. But worse, showing recordings and transcripts of
   people who were on those flights, and imply those people didn't really
   die and, indeed, didn't even make those calls. We don't know where
   they are, they've just disappeared.

   And as I've noted before, we can see now that they made it through
   this entire movie without doing one single interview of their own with
   any person of significance--only a WTC janitor and a flight school
   instructor. Everything else comes from materials cribbed from other
   documentaries and news footage. They couldn't make some phone calls?
   They couldn't ask some of these people they quote if they would
   support the way their words are being used?

   We're to believe that thousands of ultra-competent people in the U.S.
   government and the media establishment conspired to lie, murdering
   thousands of people to get the insurance money and as an excuse to
   launch wars. They even want us to believe Bin Laden was innocent and
   did nothing.

   And once again we see what the point of a movie like this really is.
   To repeat what I said in the first piece, here are the hallmarks of a
   Conspiracy Theory:

   1) Conspiracy Theorists rely on evidence that they themselves have
   carefully put together, even though none of them are experts in the
   subject. They then ask you to draw your own conclusions, even though
   you're not an expert either.

   2) In events with huge numbers of eyewitnesses, it is entirely normal
   for there be people who are confused, misremember things, contradict
   themselves, or contradict each other. You see it every day: people
   don't even agree with each other on what they just saw on the news
   last night, let alone some big scary event where things are blowing up
   and people are screaming and running for their lives. But such normal
   contradictions are used by Conspiracy Theorists as evidence that
   something is very deeply wrong.

   3) Conspiracy Theorists require that very large numbers of
   people--hundreds, even thousands--are involved in carefully plotted
   and carefully timed events, and then all (or mostly all) keep their
   mouths shut, and continue to hide the "real truth."

   4) Conspiracy Theorists tend to have an explanation for everything.
   Or, they expect you to. In real life there are often ambiguities and
   things people don't quite understand. This is normal, but the
   Conspiracy Theorist uses it as evidence that something is very deeply
   wrong.

   5) Conspiracy Theorists have an overpowering narrative to explain the
   whole thing which involves something very sinister, such as world
   domination, spreading an Empire, swinging an election, exterminating
   Jews, blacks, white Christians, or whatever.

   ---

   I invite people in the comments to tell me where I'm wrong, or where
   these people make a good point. Mostly I think this is just
   hatemongering trash, but I have to admit I can't answer everything. I
   don't understand the cell phone angle, for example. But isn't that the
   point of all this? Throw enough sh** against the wall and some if it
   will stick?

   Has anyone got a good answer for the cell phone argument? I otherwise
   think pretty much everything in this film that's important is either
   transparently contrived, or was effectively refuted by [3]this Popular
   Mechanics analysis. Although I have to admit, they were pretty ballsy
   to reference the article right in their documentary. Too bad they
   didn't feel the need to answer it.

References

   1. http://www.snopes.com/rumors/putcall.asp
   2. http://www.snopes.com/rumors/pentagon.htm
   3. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html?page=1&c=y