Debunking The 9/11 Myths
This article is form a few months back but I really think it deserves some additional google juice. It’s pathetic to me how much truck the wildest conspiracy theories have on the internet, and if one more person I haven’t talked to in years forwards me that ridiculous flash animation “proving” that the pentagon was hit by a missle while playing the Fight Club sound track, I’ll probably just lay my head on my keyboard and cry until my computer shorts out. That goes for reading about another European author hitting the best seller’s list with crackpot stories about Mossad too.
Popular Mechanics takes on the 911 conspiracy theories. It’s pithy, well researched and referenced, logical and clearly presented. It should be emailed to as many people as the poorly presented, half-assed, foaming at the mouth, conspiracy theories were, but that would just be asking too much.
Healthy skepticism, it seems, has curdled into paranoia. Wild conspiracy tales are peddled daily on the Internet, talk radio and in other media. Blurry photos, quotes taken out of context and sketchy eyewitness accounts have inspired a slew of elaborate theories: The Pentagon was struck by a missile; the World Trade Center was razed by demolition-style bombs; Flight 93 was shot down by a mysterious white jet. As outlandish as these claims may sound, they are increasingly accepted abroad and among extremists here in the United States.
To investigate 16 of the most prevalent claims made by conspiracy theorists, POPULAR MECHANICS assembled a team of nine researchers and reporters who, together with PM editors, consulted more than 70 professionals in fields that form the core content of this magazine, including aviation, engineering and the military.
In the end, we were able to debunk each of these assertions with hard evidence and a healthy dose of common sense. We learned that a few theories are based on something as innocent as a reporting error on that chaotic day. Others are the byproducts of cynical imaginations that aim to inject suspicion and animosity into public debate. Only by confronting such poisonous claims with irrefutable facts can we understand what really happened on a day that is forever seared into world history.
Please, if you found this post via Googling for conspiracy theories, join us in reality. Also, let me introduce you to my friend Occam.