Conspiracy Theory

"The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one." ~ Adolf Hitler

A few weeks ago, A Commenter on my blog placed a link to a film in his comment. I linked to it, and found a well done professional quality film that enumerates several reasons why the filmmakers believe the 9/11 attacks were an elaborate government conspiracy.

If one were given to believe every crackpot theory that spreads like wildfire over the internet, this one would seem to be legitimate. At least of the surface. It depends on the fact that the average gullible American doesn't really know very much at all about the events that transpired on that fateful day in 2001.

In fact, at least one blogger that I read often linked to the same video over at his place. I don't necessarily believe that particular blogger believes the film is factual. In fact, since I respect the bloggers intelligence and honesty, I believe he was just linking to it to stir up some controversy.

But this is how these things grow legs, in my opinion. I don't think he really believes it. He is much too intelligent to buy a theory without doing extensive research. In fact, he usually does much more research than I do.

I brought that up so I could bring this up. AOL news this morning has reported on this very same video, which could bring the filmmakers a modicum of credibility. If you don't read the whole story. I have found that often people in general more or less skim the news sometimes and miss some very important information.

I, myself admit to skimming sometimes. I did it just the other day over at ER's place and missed part of the story he published that was a tip off to the fact that it was a satire and not a legitimate story. I did discover the deception, but later in the story then others did.

Read the story from AOL.

The article at first appears to promote the veracity of the video until 15 paragraphs into the story when we are told:

"Most of what the film alleges is refuted by the evidence at hand. Anything not answered definitively by the government is interpreted by the film as proof of a coverup.

Among the assertions in Loose Change is that a missile hit the Pentagon even though eyewitnesses saw the jet, numerous pieces of wreckage were found including the flight recorder, and those on the flight and in its path at the Pentagon are dead.

There is also the claim that because jet fuel burns at up to 1,500 degrees and steel melts at 2,750 degrees, the World Trade Center's infrastructure could not have been brought down by the airliners. However, as reported by the Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, steel loses 50% of its strength at 1,200 degrees, enough for a failure.

"The only thing they (the filmmakers) seem to have gotten right about the Sept. 11 attacks is the date when they occurred," says Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot of American Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon.

"They aren't truth-tellers looking to save the world," she says. "They're con artists hoping to sucker conspiracy-theory paranoids or anti-government malcontents into shelling out their hard-earned dollars."

Then the article goes back to indicating that there is a legitimacy to the story.

This is how these crackpot conspiracy theories get the publicity they shouldn't. They rely on the ignorance and willingness of the rank and file Americans to confuse and cause division in this country.

And many gullible, uneducated people fall for it, hook, line, and sinker.