Think plausible conspiracy theories are easy to invent? Give it a try

October 7, 2010

By Craig McKee

So you think there’s a case for the official 9/11 story, eh? The conspiracy theorists are the kooks, and all the evidence supports what Bush and the media have been telling us all along.
If you think there is a case to be made for the government’s version of a “conspiracy theory” then I invite you to make it. Tell us how you know it happened just as the 9/11 Commission says. How do you know, other than because TV said so?
I can make this challenge very confidently because I know what’ll happen. If you’re open-minded, you’ll realize there is precious little to back up the official story. Each element of it can be dismantled relatively easily. If you’re not, you’ll just brush off anything that challenges you.
I’ve heard the sceptics say that you can take any event and make it seem like a conspiracy if you want. All you have to do is to twist a few facts and suppositions around and you can make it seem like a conspiracy took place.
Okay, try an experiment: pick any political or historical event where a general consensus exists as to what happened. Then try to manipulate the facts to cast doubt on the official story. Create your own conspiracy theory. It could be a fun activity for the whole family.
Do you know what you’ll find? It’s much harder to support a non-existent conspiracy theory than you think it is. That’s because you need actual, verifiable facts to support your conspiracy. The problem is that facts are much more likely to support the truth – that’s why they’re facts. A fantasy will have little to support it.
You think Jimmy Hoffa was killed by the KGB or Elvis is still alive? Okay, prove it. Make your case using actual documented facts. Not so easy, eh? You can have a “theory” that these things happened, but you can’t make a credible case.
This brings us back to 9/11.
There are not just a few odd facts that seem to cast some doubt on the official story – there are hundreds. Many of these facts, documented and verifiable, CANNOT be compatible with what we’ve been told. And they’re not at all compatible with common sense either. It’s not just one area of the event (just the Pentagon crash or just Building 7, for example) that is questionable; they ALL are.
Either this is a very lucky situation for all those kooky conspiracy guys, or they’re on to something. At the very least, they’ve succeeded in pointing to areas that cry for a REAL official investigation.
If Bush and Cheney had truth on their side, they wouldn’t have been afraid of the original investigation. They’d have testified under oath and separately before the 9/11 Commission. And they wouldn’t have fought the creation of this Commission tooth and nail.
Did you know that roughly four times more money was spent investigating Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky than was spent on investigating 9/11? Something wrong with this picture?
Do you remember George W. Bush saying on TV in 2002 that he wasn’t really concerned where Osama bin Laden was?

“Well, as I say, we haven’t heard much from him. And I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don’t know where he is. I – I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.”

NOT THAT CONCERNED? Does this sound like someone who is vowing to bring one of the most infamous mass murderers in American history to justice?
So have you thought of any do-it-yourself conspiracy theories yet? If you do, I’d love to hear about them. You may instead prefer to take shots at my facts, and I’m totally fine with that. Facts are tough to overcome. One thing I’ve learned is that the truth can be covered up, but it does tend to come out eventually. This is especially the case when there are enough people who won’t stop fighting for it.
Maybe it’s time for all of us to drop the “they’d never do that” defence of the official story. I used to think that too, but frankly it’s just not good enough anymore.

4 comments

  1. Great post! There certainly is much more evidence to back up the 9/11 “truthers” than the official government story. I can’t remember who said this, but I love it: “I’m not interested in conspiracy theories. I’m interested in the facts of conspiracies.”

    1. Thanks a lot. I love the quote. It says in a few words what I’ve taken thousands to say. The term “conspiracy theory” is unfortunately synonymous in our society with “wacko paranoid ramblings.” And this approach is pretty effective in marginalizing people who are willing to evaluate the FACTS and try to get to the truth. Even journalists who have spent their careers digging beyond the obvious fall into this trap – or willingly step into it. As I wrote in my second post on Aug. 30, “The official theory is the craziest conspiracy theory of all.” I agree with you, the facts will give us all the answers we need. Thanks for writing.

  2. Yes except there are “facts” and evidence that the Holocaust was a conspiracy. No chemical residue on gas chambers, Anne Frank’s ballpoint pen. Again–ANYTHING can be made a conspiracy.

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