Being a truther means ridicule, insults, and polite dismissals from those who grabbed the blue pill

January 24, 2017

By Craig McKee

Being a truther is not for the faint of heart.
Fighting for the truth in a sea of caution, comfortable complacency, and condescension can get to one eventually. It has been getting to me lately. I’ve become cranky and impatient with the childish level of political understanding around me. I think I will scream if I see one more Facebook post about how wonderful and classy Barack Obama and his family are. And watching the freak-out over Trump just makes me feel contempt for those who have not said a peep in eight years but who are now suddenly “political.” Of course, it is fair game to attack Trump for what he does as president. I’m thrilled that he killed the TPP but I’m distressed about his strident pro-Israel and anti-Iran views.
Ultimately, though, I can’t lose sight of the fact that this is all political theater and that the purpose is to distract and divide us so we don’t notice how the whole world is being screwed by a very small and very powerful elite. That same elite is seen as being imaginary by those who want to believe that we the people guide our own destiny.
I think any member of the 9/11 Truth Movement struggles at times with how their activism is affecting their life, their relationships, their careers. I know some who have turned their focus to other things like getting a job they enjoy, spending time with loved ones, and generally being happy. Naturally, I am jealous of these people. Some of the truthers I know were starting to feel some burnout when I was just arriving on the scene back in 2010 (that’s when I started blogging; I woke up to the 9/11 lie in 2007). While I felt empathy for those who needed to step back, I was determined not to follow suit. Not entirely anyway.  Time will tell whether I succeed.
I have lost friends over “conspiracy” discussions over the years. I lost one just this week. But what this person said to me tells me they were never a friend to begin with. I’ve been told I need to pick my battles. Probably true. But I expect that those who share my views about power in this world will always be told to pick their battles while those who unquestioningly regurgitate what they see on the news will be given an infinite amount of slack.
My “friend” had posted a flattering photo of Obama and had gone on to gush about how wonderful he is and how much we will all miss him. Several others had wistfully echoed this sentiment.  I could have skipped over the post and gone on with my day. I probably should have. But I didn’t. I commented that Obama had bombed seven countries and signed legislation allowing the government to arrest and detain anyone they wanted for as long as they wanted with no charge or access to a lawyer. Apparently I wasn’t getting into the spirit of Obama worship.
The “friend” listed some of the “stupid nonsense” I believed and told me I was like an “Internet troll” for dissenting on his post. Following this, let’s just say that he made a series of statements about where my politics had gone in recent years that crossed a line that can’t be uncrossed. As lead singer David St. Hubbins said about guitarist Nigel Tufnel in This is Spinal Tap, “We shan’t work together again.” Of course, they did before the movie was over. But neither of them was as dim-witted and arrogant as my ex-friend.
I think you need a certain toughness and a certain strength to be a truther, to handle snide put-downs and nasty insults from people you thought were friends. You have to have a commitment to the truth and to standing up for what is right even when it seems like you are alone in doing so. You have to care about the suffering of people around the world when they’re having their homes blown apart by bombs sent from the U.S. and its allies (or others), and you have to stand for freedom from tyranny and oppression of all kinds. Most of all, you have to fight to expose the deceptions that allow all of this to go on.
And if you’re like me, you might go through a period where it all seems like it has become a bit much. You wonder if it’s worth it and whether you should just cough up the red pill and go back to eating computer-generated steak.
The thing is that it’s not just ignorant idiots that we have to deal with. It’s our friends and family who are polite and who pay lip service to being respectful but who really think we’ve taken a seriously wrong turn. These people will keep just enough distance from anything you’re saying that they can remain “unsure” about whether you have actually figured something out about how the world really works. To say they think you’re onto something makes them very uncomfortable, and this may be partly because they no longer have an excuse for keeping their mouths shut. But if they remain “unconvinced” (even though they haven’t spent five minutes actually looking at what you’re showing them) they can justify continuing as they always have.
A couple of weeks ago, I had another exchange with someone who was once Canada’s top female vocalist three years running. Canadians are very familiar with her although I don’t think Americans are so much. She is actually a wonderful singer and songwriter who I interviewed twice when I was covering entertainment.
But now I’ve had the rare experience of being attacked and blocked by one of my favorite singers. She freaked over my condemnation of Obama and—because of her Ukrainian heritage—she thinks no one else can be criticized because no matter what they’ve done, PUTIN IS MUCH WORSE!
I am finding it astonishing that taking an anti-war stance gets me attacked by people who actually know me. Or even by those who fancy themselves as progressive. But these people have swallowed the mainstream media Kool-Aid that says we are the good guys in any dispute and those foreigners over there are the bad guys. It’s amazing how enthusiastic people are to blame Russia for all the world’s ills once again. It’s just like putting on a comfortable old pair of slippers that you’d forgotten were sitting in the back of your closet.
We as truthers—or in regular-people language, “conspiracy theorists”—are used to being mocked and ridiculed by the media. In hundreds of trite little cookie-cutter articles in the mainstream press, we hear that those who believe in “conspiracy theories” do so because it makes them feel good, because it helps them to make sense of a world that is full of chaos. Apparently, we invent all sorts of plots so that we don’t have to face just how random the world is.
Of course the truth of the matter is exactly the opposite. Believing that bad things that happen in the world are unrelated and random would be much less of a weight to bear. I don’t worry about getting hit by lightning or getting robbed or getting shot by an actual lunatic. It would suck but I won’t lose a second of sleep over the possibility of any of these arbitrary potential events happening.
But there are events that are indeed part of a bigger picture—and often a bigger picture that involves the public being deceived. Wars are the best examples of this. They are almost always not caused by what we’re told they are caused by. And the true objectives of those in power are never admitted to.
It is these truths that I believe we must face. And it is these that we will be punished for revealing to people.

164 comments

  1. I love this, Craig, and will be sure to share with my skeptical family and friends. You’ve caught our experience and their reactions/non real reactions based on their own knee jerk reflexes rather than honest consideration of what we share with them. lynn b

      1. I think these verses may be applied to those who seek and “know” the truth.
        31And His mother and His brothers arrive, and standing outside, sent to Him, calling Him. 32And a crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers outside are seeking You.”
        33And He answering them says, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” 34And having looked around on those who were sitting around Him in a circle, He says, “Behold, My mother and My brothers! 35For whoever shall do the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

    1. Thanks, Betsy. Of course my bottom line is not that Obama was worse than anyone else, it’s that he was a continuation of Bush when his promises indicated he’d be very different. I don’t have high hopes for Trump, and I expect that I will really hate some of his decisions. But he might get some things right and even shake some truth loose even if by accident or for the wrong reasons. I’m truly afraid that for the next four years the focus will be on Trump as a personality, not on how we’re all getting screwed by those who are really wielding the power.

      1. It kills me how “liberals” worship Obama. He was a huge disappointment to me. I think white people get all warm and fuzzy about their approval of Obama–look how open-minded we are!!–I was actually married to a full-blooded black man, and I thought Obama was a total fraud. My feelings about Trump are similar to yours. Four years of garbage like the Women’s March and millennial attempts at protest, and whining in the press. At least Obama is GONE.

        1. Yes, the worship is truly stomach-turning. I don’t take much comfort in Obama being gone, however, because I really think we’re being conned into thinking that presidents can really make fundamental changes to the direction of the country. I don’t believe they do. As for Trump, I’m not sure whether he will surprise me and make some radical changes, but I suspect it will be more the appearance of radical change. If the bankers don’t want something changed it won’t be changed. Unless Trump wants to risk getting on their bad side the way Kennedy did. He may shake a few people awake, likely inadvertently, but he could also do lots of bad stuff like pushing through pipelines and pushing a hawk-like agenda on Iran and the Middle East.

          1. Trump could turn out to be a disaster, no doubt. For many reasons I had grown to detest HRC, so I am glad she lost the election. We’ll just have to see what happens…I appreciate your objective and informed angle on politics. By the way, how does the building collapse in Tehran affect the WTC story?

          2. You know, I think if the Iranian government staged a 9-11 style attack on its own people and blamed America, the Americans would have no trouble recognizing that it was controlled demolition.

        2. Until recently, I proudly called myself a liberal, until statements like yours implied that I would worship Obama or anyone else. Now, I simply try to stick to the issues and avoid labels. Obama was not a liberal.

      2. Craig, been reading your blog for almost 4 years. I am baffled how anyone, particularly someone as critically thinking as you, can find anything positive about Trump. He is simply a megalomaniac con man who is out only for his own financial and power grabbing interests. I don’t think that is THE message from the MSM, I think it is the message from Trump. I don’t care for Hillarry, but she don’t scare the crap out of me like this dude.

          1. ” I don’t have high hopes for Trump, and I expect that I will really hate some of his decisions. But he might get some things right and even shake some truth loose even if by accident or for the wrong reasons. I’m truly afraid that for the next four years the focus will be on Trump as a personality, not on how we’re all getting screwed by those who are really wielding the power.”
            To me that sounds like you may have a rational acceptance of this monster.

          2. Dale,
            I don’t know what you mean by a “rational acceptance.” I think what I wrote is very clear, and I stand by it. And I think calling him a monster is hyperbole. If you want to scream about every dumb or self-aggrandizing statement we hear from Trump, then be my guest. But so many people are acting as if everything was wonderful until Trump came along. Very far from the truth.

          3. Craig
            Certainly things were not OK prior to Trump. I do maintain he is a monster. He has a fourth grade vocabulary and a third graders temperament. He mocks authority on an unprecedented level, such as the time he joked about how to fake being presidential via tone and body language, then did the exact same thing in his address to congress, only to be praised by the media. He is simply an unmitigated disaster, that as unbelievable as it seems, makes me miss Bush and his special batch of criminals. It is not hyperbole to most of the people I know who appear to be critical thinkers. If that is bubble talk, then so be it. Delve into his actual business history, abuse of employees, complete lack of business success that he lies about and people believe him. He is a total fraud and the most significant threat to the planet from western civilization ever. If that is hyperbole, please explain who was more of a threat.

          4. It’s all a power ploy. The election was nothing more than a high level crap shoot. DNC went down the toilet because they sucked worse at the perception manipulation game. She lost because she’s a known crook thanks to alt. media, people are starting to catch a clue. Trump’s better than a cardboard human cut out, “they don’t have robots quite that believable yet”. We are nothing more than gullible innocents rapidly losing our innocent gullibility. We exist in a mafia’eque paradigm. Trump’s the carny of the upstarts, they were cute playing the populist game. They’ve got to remember, they lost Vietnam, never underestimate a pissed off underclass population.

  2. Though you may not like me, I still think you stand for what you believe in and are heading in the right direction. There is one thing I have learned over the years, if your standing with the crowd your not learning much. It’s the people who are willing to step aside and take a good look, that see what is going on. That’s what your doing and it is inspiring. But don’t expect the crowd to see what you do, they haven’t the time or the guts to check anything.
    “If you agree with the majority, time to step back.” Mark Twain
    So take the “truthers” for example, is you agree with the majority, are you missing something?
    A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. The elite do this and they are doing their best to get in a NWO. War and confusion is how they are doing it and all they have to do is pull the strings.

  3. This definitely and clearly describes my experience as well. I’ve lost a few friends over the past short while. But then I’ve always been a bit different so I’m used to being on the periphery. Mostly it’s just frustrating when you know your own intentions are pure that people accuse you of all sorts of idiotic things that seem to be some sort of projection of their fears. But then I think back to when I had my “big awakening,” I was terrified. The world seemed a much scarier place. It was a rough adjustment period, but I had to step into it voluntarily and alone. There was no possibility of going back.
    A lot of celebrity types seem to be coming out more than they used to sharing their opinions in a public way. Most of those opinions seem disappointing because I realize the people I have admired are either not as enlightened or as honest as I had previously believed or even possibly working for the propagandists. The pedestals disappear. This has to be a good thing, though.
    I try to keep in mind that people are responsible for their own choices and they’ll all come around indefinitely, and that it will probably take something pretty monumental to shake off their cement helmets.

    1. I felt the same way once I “woke up.” I knew that there was no going back, no unlearning what I had learned. The hard thing is indeed getting people to see through the deceptions. I think it boils down to two things: you have to be open-minded and you have to be good at pattern recognition. But the second thing is much easier if you have the first. And once you start to see the patterns, you are on your way. Of course, we must be rigorous and not jump to conclusions that are not supported by the evidence.

  4. Great article Craig, and I often feel the same.
    I took a sociology class in college that really impressed upon me how strong the human desire to belong and be liked by their fellow humans is. To achieve this, people will deny the evidence staring them in the face. I saw this in numerous sociology experiments and we see it every time there’s another false flag attack and the population mindlessly swallows the kool-aid, despite the documented evidence that this “attack” could not be what it is claimed to be.
    I decided just a few minutes ago to not comment on a blog post gushing about the Women’s March on Saturday and the horror that has befallen us now that we’ve lost our savior, Obama. I see these kinds of posts from people I once thought highly of, and although I don’t comment, I quietly make note that their opinions will no longer hold any weight with me. Facebook has been wonderfully enlightening in showing me how ignorant and sheep-like most of my “friends” are.
    Someone got millions of women at that march to wear “Pink Pussy” hats. Supposedly the points on the top are meant to be cat ears. But I’ve never seen a pink cat. So why exactly are these pussy hats pink? And if they’re meant to be cat ears, why use the slang term for female genitalia? For that matter, why cats? What do cats have to do with any of the issues they were protesting about?
    These women were tricked in making fools of themselves.

    1. “Facebook has been wonderfully enlightening in showing me how ignorant and sheep-like most of my “friends” are.”
      Just replace Facebook with “journalism” in this quote from Oscar Wilde:
      “By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.”

  5. Thank you Craig!
    I’d like to add “I” to the sentence in the first paragraph, “But then think back to when…” so it says “But then I think back…”
    In the second paragraph where I said, “…people I have admired are either not as enlightened or as honest…” I’d like to append before the period, ” or even possibly working for the propagandists”.

  6. Hey Craig; It’s that old cognitive dissonance thing. Most aren’t ready for the “truth”. Sometimes you get blindsided though by someone that has identified you as a “conspiracy theorist/lunatic fringe type”. They don’t want to debate or listen to what you have to say. They’ve seen it on MSM/real fake news. To them that’s factual, They never question it.
    I heard someone identify the Trump/Putin thing the other night comparing them to the Pinky And The Brain cartoon with his follow up comment. Guess which one is who? Indicating Trump as Pinky and Putin the Brain. I didn’t see any point in enjoining this person in conversation. The only thing I could have possibly said is “one day you may wake up” Lets hope it isn’t in a panic when you realize that you’ve been duped.
    https://youtu.be/MHn0pBePN7I

  7. Thank you Craig for your efforts. Our “friends” are often affected by cognitive dissonance. Here is one tactic I use. I don’t comment personally to avoid flak. Instead, I post links. About Obama I might post:
    Canadian James Corbett on Obama:
    https://youtu.be/oeDZIyGkGNM
    See also: https://youtu.be/cWv9RRe23DA
    During a discussion where everyone is against Trump (myself included) I might say: I think I figured out how that scumbag got elected. Watch these:
    https://youtu.be/0EGBOMvBrZw
    https://youtu.be/PV_PLCC6jeI
    https://youtu.be/7LYRUOd_QoM
    Etc. You have to pick and manage your fights carefully.

    1. Good advice. It’s a tough lesson that I hope I am learning, although slowly. On the other hand, the “friend” I describe clearly was not deserving of my friendship, so clashing with him did achieve something.

  8. Excellent article, Craig. Thanks.
    I can relate. I vowed to step out of the whole 9/11 Truth thing a couple of years ago, but they keep puling me back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPw-3e_pzqU
    However, the pull-back occurs only now and then, of late. And I remain steadfast in my position to participate only when the calling or feelings of responsibility return. For I see no light at the end of the tunnel that is teeming with blind and intoxicated sheep.
    As an older and somewhat wiser cousin of mine (a retired fireman to whom I presented a film of the controlled demolition of Building 7) told me years ago, “You can’t beat these guys.”
    Unlike in the recent past, I now believe that to be true, and so see no point in remaining active. If someone wants to hear my opinion, I will give it. I will also voice my views if it seems worthwhile and appropriate to do so. But those moments of speaking Truth to the benighted are few and far in between nowadays. It’s like talking to a wall.
    Love your articles–the most objective words of 9/11 etc. Truth I have come across. Hoping you will keep up the excellent work, but if you don’t, you’ve already done so much more more than your share.
    Thanks, again.

  9. Some very useful insights and reflection in Craig’s article. I’m in this for the long haul. So I expect it to be a bitter, protracted, uphill struggle; a “slog” through the swamp of cowardice, opportunism, ignorance and mass delusion that has become the very environment we live in.

    1. Very nice Lynn. I must say though things are becoming so obvious now it is hard to ignore for the masses. You think progress is slow now I’ve watched it evolve since the 1950’s and things are actually looking good despite the horror and chaos. I still have to laugh when I hear about the Cuban Crisis in North America and their farcical Civil Defense suggestion of “Duck and Cover!” I was 11 years old and I realized how demented our adults were as I had seen movies of the Atomic bombs like everyone else. It’s been quite fascinating the events that are accepted yet are ludicrous at the time. It is getting so much better now. I’ve wondered over the years why people seem to spend no time to notice how preposterous much of what they believe is without any evidence, proof, facts, historical context and not a second of critical thinking. So much nonsense is simply accepted when the truth is usually in plain sight and will eventually come out in the wash over time. We live in amusing times. It’s only been in the last 5 or so years that I’ve noticed so many other people are now realizing what a fantasy world has been foisted on us since we were born. I personally don’t know anyone who I can have a conversation about with these things I’ve watched over the years yet I file them in my memory if they don’t add up until I get further information and or do research. Apparently, this is not normal I guess. Sometimes I run into trouble when I just assume others have noticed the fallacy yet they will turn on me because they believe and accept the lies they are told for some unknown reason. I’ve come to accept we live on Planet Deception for now while we get ourselves sorted out and find truth. These delusions people think are real will collapse sooner or later, so we need to be patient because we clearly can’t change anyone’s mind. They need to see the bigger picture themselves and experience clarity. Craig does an amazing job of keeping up the logic and critical thinking, asking the right questions. Too bad, if it annoys some who are dreaming they live in a fixed state.

  10. I’ve been somewhat intrigued by this “truther” phenomenon and why certain people dismiss hard facts and evidence in favor of vague conspiracies. I think it has to do with ego and the need to feel they know something the rest of us don’t. It also includes the overblown fear of being deceived and taken advantage of. Pretty sick bunch.

    1. Funny, Steven, I’m not intrigued by you at all. Unless, of course, you can provide some actual examples of people “dismissing hard facts” and believing in “vague conspiracies.” No? Didn’t think so.

      1. Craig. Simple questions even you can answer. Well, maybe. If 757 wreckage and passenger bodies are found and PHOTOGRAPHED GALORE inside a building, what was it that crashed there? Take a wild guess. If ALL controlled demolitions cause a collapse that ALWAYS begins at the bottom of a building, what makes the Twin Towers a controlled demolition since they collapsed beginning at the TOP? Now let’s hear your twoofer “facts.”

        1. GEE! Where was I? I’ve been looking for years now but I missed the 757 bodies inside the building photos, maybe you can provide a link. As for controlled demolition, I think I’d rather go with AE911 Truth. Their pedigree is more unassailable. Your sketitardism isn’t the first one experienced. Maybe you should crawl back under the same rock you leached out from. Are you new?

        2. Answering your simple questions is easy, but this will elicit only silly counter-arguments from you. If you can’t understand something as simple as the Twin Towers’ controlled demolition, start closer to the basics, with Building 7.
          Love,

    2. Steven here is quite typical of the willfully ignorant mob. He chooses to pretend that there is nothing to 9/11 truth and that all our evidence has been debunked. He chooses to be willfully ignorant in order to avoid his personal responsibility to do something about 9/11. He is a coward really but he puts on a mask of bravado and acts like he knows all the facts and we are all just misguided fools etc etc. It is just a facade, he knows deep down somewhere in his twisted soul that the towers were blown up with explosives and he knows what that really means too. Maybe someday he will find the courage to face the truth but until that day he is going to but on this pathetic little show and pretend he is the smartest guy in the room to cover-up his own cowardice with a kind of plausible deniability at least in his own mind.

      1. ruffadam: You didn’t pay very close attention to what Stephen said. You’ve already got it in your head how the buildings were destroyed and your not going to be disuaded. (Kinda like the subject of this thread.) Your with the majority of “truthers” today, ….it was controlled demolition. Just like in the video Adam Syed produced of a four story building being blown apart by explosives on every level. We saw the explosions right down to the main floor. Much the same with that building in Tehran (shown above) where explosions blew out the main supports on each of the floors. You could see the explosions all the way down.
        But……. The Twin Towers came apart at the top, one floor every 1/10th of a second each, …..with NO explosions below as it was coming apart. Considering we are talking about 110 floors and not just 4, why isn’t there any explosions blowing out the 47 supporting I-beams, up to six inch steel on the lower section, in the 10 seconds it took to come apart? And don’t mention those little and to few “squibs” because there isn’t enough power behind it to cut the 47 heavy steel supporting beams.
        Two explosive experts say it wasn’t controlled demolition, and thousands of people (including A&E) with no experience with explosives say it was controlled demolition. Who is more likely to be correct?
        I know you know, there wasn’t any plane hitting the Pentagon and you, Craig and Adam proved it in a number of ways, and one was there isn’t any plane parts in the fifteen foot hole, nor any bodies from the plane.
        We all believed a plane hit each tower because the video was played on every major Media station and everything in between. Must be true…. right?
        But….., how come we don’t see plane parts or bodies from the plane on the street below, with some of the passengers still strapped to their seats, before the buildings came down. With the same intelligent logic you used with the Pentagon, how come you can’t see big parts of the aircraft on the streets? Or do you think it all sliced into the steel building like a hot knife in soft butter at 565 miles per hour and burnt up inside the building? Remember the one journalist speaking and the camera on the upper floors and then the building starts to unravel. Wouldn’t you think if there were people strapped to seats and huge plane parts on the street the media would have their cameras focused on this? They always do in other disasters but never on 9/11 on the streets before the Towers were destroyed. Why? We have all sorts of shots with firemen coming from the street into the Lobby, but no bodies strapped to seats as they do so.
        We all experienced friends looking at us with “funny” eyes as if we are nuts because they wont even consider looking to see if what we are saying, it is a false flag. The “truthers” have the same “maladie”, Can’t go any further because “truthers” got it all figured out.
        No offense intended.

  11. I think any member of the 9/11 Truth Movement struggles at times with how their activism is affecting their life, their relationships, their careers. I know some who have turned their focus to other things like getting a job they enjoy, spending time with loved ones, and generally being happy. Naturally, I am jealous of these people. Some of the truthers I know were starting to feel some burnout when I was just arriving on the scene back in 2010 (that’s when I started blogging; I woke up to the 9/11 lie in 2007).

    I could never completely leave the truth movement, though more lately, since my move to Seattle from Ohio, I’ve definitely been putting the professional and personal aspects of life in more sharp focus, with activism blurred in the background.
    The Adam Syed of 2010 would definitely be jealous of the Adam Syed of 2017.
    Making 9/11 truth a part of my life, rather than allowing it to suck my whole life, is probably the best thing I could have done for myself as an activist.
    Just last night, someone on Facebook tried to suck me in to a Pentagon discussion, and when this individual let the mask slip and, in my view, made it clear that he wasn’t genuinely interested in discussion but simply trying to waste my time, I left the 9/11 page he admins and I told him, “Sorry, maybe someone can pick up where I’m leaving off, but this thread and discussion is way too 2010 for me.” (He was slapping down, and hoping I’d take the bait, the Adam Larson Frustrating Fraud disinfo blog titled “THE SOUTH PATH IMPACT: DOCUMENTED” among other worthless links that have been dealt with time and time again.)
    The tide of disinformation is extremely strong. Virtually all genuine activists do what they do for free, with extremely rare exceptions like Richard Gage whose truthing earns him a salary. (I won’t count someone like Alex Jones, who’s gotten filthy rich from what he does, because I don’t consider him a genuine activist.) By contrast, those who are employed in putting out disinformation and maintaining coverups, are employed by a financial propaganda juggernaut that has a virtually unlimited amount of money to pay people.
    So it’s a case of whack-a-mole. You get done burying a few shills on one forum and a few new ones pop up not only on that same forum but others as well.
    One can only hope that level-headed, intelligent people can look at both sides and see who’s on the right side of history and who’s full of shit.
    And I’m sorry to say but the propaganda juggernaut has worked. Many, many people out there in society are under the impression that the mere notion of a controlled demolition has been thoroughly debunked by experts. They believe Chomsky’s BS about AE being a “miniscule number” of people who are trying to bypass the normal “peer review” process. They believe the official story more strongly with every passing year, because it’s another year that a whistleblower doesn’t go to the New York Times and declare: “I was one of the ones involved in wiring the buildings! The truthers have been correct all along!”
    So Craig you woke up in 2007 but didn’t really get active until 2010. So you’ve been at it pretty hard core for 7 years. I woke up in 2005 and became a hard core activist pretty much immediately. I started really feeling the burnout in 2013, late summer after completing my critical review of Kevin Ryan’s book here at T/S (“The Kevin Ryan Paradox”). But I kept chugging along, but only on 1 or 2 thrusters, for 2014 (when I came to Seattle) and 2015. Right now all engines are off and I’m enjoying the glide, and any activism I engage in, like typing this long comment, are actions that can be comfortably achieved within that one glide.
    I’d give you another 2-3 years before you fully “feel the burn [out]” Craig. Ha ha.
    Great article Craig and I look forward to the next one.

  12. Hi Craig, I really enjoyed your post, and can most certainly relate. It has inspired me, so thank you. You write very well. All the best, Dorothy (Glenn Bolder’s sister)
    p.s. Obama sucks! I hate the expression, but it fits. And so does Donald…..but he is not Killary (looking for the bright side).
    On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 1:11 PM, Truth and Shadows wrote:
    > Craig McKee posted: ” By Craig McKee Being a truther is not for the faint > of heart. Fighting for the truth in a sea of caution, comfortable > complacency, and condescension can get to one eventually. It has been > getting to me lately. I’ve become cranky and impatient wi” >

  13. Well said Craig.
    911.
    Your ex-friend ‘picking battles’ missed the point : that the battle picks ‘you’
    or me.
    or I.
    The truth of 911 – the egregious malevolent brutality of the event as it unfolded, disabled my ability to ‘see nothing’ right there and then. Removed my ability to disassociate the reality of that mass murder and its later forensic pathway to demolition/global war and global myth, from my ‘everyday.’
    The ‘Getting on with life/SCAD dichotomy ended that day. A connection was made. The battle picked me, up. sucked me into its vortex..into the hot DUST plume – choked me in the Free Fall! Directed me in a straight evidence based, primary sourced line, to right NOW.
    The importance of its empirical ‘truth,’ the struggle for due diligence and justice, becomes more acute with every day. More necessary with every ‘friend’ that chooses to not look and walk away.
    You don’t cough the pill back up, because you can’t. Its gone. done its ‘inside’ job. dissolved the ability to forget what is learned and understood. you go on into the great halls of Mirror, and, as the death of a friend taught me,
    you go through the Mirror,
    you get cut by the glass.
    So, fuck Obama. Good riddance. And Clinton/Podesta/ too. Today, Donald signaled the pipelines are back ‘on…..’ after all that blood ! Goddam!

  14. I grew up in an evangelical family. My parents believed that when you find “the truth” it is then your duty to convince and convert others – because after all, we’re talking eternal life here! As an adult I adopted my own beliefs on the topic and to be approached by an evangelical today, with their pious, judgmental, forceful attitude now turns my stomach. I’m glad they found the truth, but don’t force it on me. The same must be true with the Truth Movement. I’m glad I know the truth. As a result I can more effectively make decisions for me and my family’s future. But I cannot force others to believe and my beliefs do not depend on others. It just must be that way. As history tells it, our society will finally come to the truth long after we are gone. But we will be remembered as those who tried to say something but were ignored. Go back and read and listen to the folks who were trying to speak up about JFK. It’s quite fascinating and folks will do the same over 9/11. Because it requires a complete change of a person’s world view, it usually takes another generation. I just try to relax, live my life the best I can, protect my family from any brainwashing, lies or thoughts of military service by teaching them how to be accurately informed about the world around us and by the end of the day rest in the full gratitude of the fact that I am better, smarter and prepared because I know the truth – everyone else be damned.

  15. Great article, Craig. Boy, can I relate to the feelings and frustrations you described as one who has become witness to the crime (woke up to the 9/11 Lie) whether or not we wanted to and then felt obligated to speak up and tell others about it … and then be ridiculed and rejected at every turn, especially by the people who we think should really care.

  16. I was surprized when my father of 80 leaped forward on my story about WTC7. He already had figured that the way building 7 fell it never could have dropped down vertically and symetrically as it did. It was like he knew this already for years although preoccupation with global politics and 9/11 are absolutely the last thing I would expect to be on his mind. It is not on his mind I can guarantee all of you.

  17. Craig as per usual this article is unusually excellent and hits home with me on a number of levels. From my perspective of having been a truther since early 2002 I can say with all sincerity that I have gone through all this myself to the point where I am almost numb to it. Like Adam Syed I have gone through a couple burn out phases and now I have pulled back a lot in my activism. I was a truther way back when it was REALLY difficult to be one because the average Joe on the street thought you were a traitor to doubt the official story. People would literally threaten to assault you for talking about the towers being blown up with explosives. Back then most people thought truthers were the scum of the earth. I remember all the snide, arrogant, blowhards from the JREF who would constantly insult, attack, and stalk truthers everywhere they went.
    I watched forums like 911Blogger rise up and go from THE place for truthers to meet and discuss evidence to fall down and become what it is today, a rotted out husk filled to the brim with fake truthers and cointelpro operatives promoting disinformation on a daily basis. I watched the whole movement rise to it’s peak in 2006 and 2007 and slowly decline after that like it was on the agonizingly slow Bataan death march. Today the 9/11 truth movement is a paradox. It has vastly more members that take vastly fewer actions. It is almost like a popular night club now where people hang out, have a few drinks, talk a while, and forget.
    Back when my group (We Are Change Los Angeles) was at it’s apex we were organizing massive actions with hundreds of activists, interrupting live TV programs, confronting elites like Rockefeller on video, hounding congress for a real investigation, doing hunger strikes, making documentary films, and passing out literally hundreds of thousands of DVD copies of those films on the streets of America and around the world. Today so called activists do little more than chit chat on Facebook, blog a little here and there, and MAYBE meet with a few other truthers in their area once a month. Very little actually happens anymore. I suppose it is the natural progression but now I see the truth movement as only a faint shadow of what it once was. Today it is thoroughly infiltrated with operatives and trolls who stifle and smother the real spirit we used to have. Fake truthers abound in every nook and cranny and create endless circle jerk arguments about space beams, mini nukes, hologram planes, and the like to demoralize real truthers. Disinformation operatives pose as truthers now and tour the country spreading their lies. Entire books are written filled with slick propaganda all to discredit the truth movement. It is sad to me to watch what was once an unstoppable juggernaut sputter out like it is running low on gas.
    I lost many friends because of being a 9/11 truther but you know something Craig you are right that these people were not really friends to begin with. It is all water under the bridge for me now. I think all activists go through these stages of hope and despair. I do feel a new spirit welling up in me lately though and despite all the hardships I think I still have some fight left in me. The really incredible thing is that all those setbacks and negative things that happened and are still happening to us truthers made us all stronger. Now we are not naive anymore, we know the other sides playbook, and I think I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think all of those years toiling away at 9/11 truth, getting smacked down, getting ridiculed, and getting back up again have shown me the way to win this battle for truth once and for all. In fact what it has shown me is that we have already won the battle and all that is left now is the slow death march to the gallows for the evil bastards that carried out 9/11. Call them the NWO, the illuminati, the banker elites, the Bilderbergers, whatever you want, but they are going down. You can feel it in the air, things are changing in a big big way and I think the end has come for those evil scum and now it is just a matter of time until they gasp their last breath. I think the 9/11 truth movement with all its flaws is the reason.

    1. Thanks, Adam. Great perspective. Do you (or does anyone here) lose respect for the people who can’t see 9/11 for what it is? How about those same people (some of whom are very close to me) who are so up in arms about Trump and never gave a hoot about 9/11 Truth, rigged voting, or key assassinations–does that bother you? It bothers me, but nowadays I treat it as water under the bridge. Specifically, on a political level, I’ve written them off s dolts, and to get along socially, I simply avoid discussing politics with them as much as I can. Like a very special Zionist friend of mine–they really can’t be reached. Everyone of them seems so locked in to their (idiotic) political positions. If I made real politics (9/11/, rigged voting, key political assassinations) a deal-breaker, I’d have no friends and would be the black sheep of my extended family. All my political friends are on the internet.

      1. Dennis,
        I do lose respect for people who refuse (notice I didn’t say can’t) see 9/11 for what it is. From my perspective people who don’t see 9/11 for what it really is are willfully ignorant. To be fully up front with you I consider people like that to be cowards and people that would never cover your back if the chips were down. I don’t usually say that to their face because I am not interested in hearing their fake and exceedingly lame excuses for why they can’t be bothered to spend even a few minutes investigating something of such monumental importance. I know why they avoid those certain subjects and it really disappoints me more than anything else that they are so afraid to learn things that would compel action on their part. See that is really the crux of the matter right there, they don’t want to know the truth about 9/11 or Sandy Hook or the Kennedy assassinations because deep down they are afraid to confront wrongdoing on that kind of level. They don’t want to get personally involved or take action so they pretend to not get it or they pretend to be unsure about the truth. It is a game they play to avoid taking personal responsibility. To me they are just cowards and I really don’t want to be around them so if they vanish from my life I am OK with that. Some have vanished. I am for the most part alone and the vast majority of my friends whom I agree with most of the time are on the internet. I have one good friend who lives close by who I can talk to about anything and that is really about it. With most everyone else including my own wife I avoid those subjects or dumb my discourse down severely so as to not get in too deep to anything. I hate doing that and I am bored to tears by those conversations but sometimes they are unavoidable.
        As to the newly born activists who hate Trump all I can say about them is where were your complaints about Obama bombing 7 countries and never having even one single day of peace during his entire presidency? Where were the complaints when virtually all his promises were broken? Guantanamo is still open. Where were their complaints when the banker bailout was done in spite of over 99% opposition being registered by people who called congress and the white house about it? That was the biggest theft in history by an order of magnitude and it hardly registered on their radar. Where were all the complaints about Obama drone striking wedding parties even killing children? None of those people said shit about any of that stuff and now they want to be taken seriously when they are 100% sure Trump is a dictator on par with Hitler before he has had a single day in political office. The so called anti-war movement disappeared during Obama’s presidency even though he was a worse war monger than Bush which I did not think was even possible. I guess they were not really anti-war were they? From my perspective people like that are a joke right out of a comic book.
        Madonna made herself look like an ignorant ass with her moronic speech at the woman’s march after the inauguration and so did Ashley Judd yet over a million women there cheered every stupid word. I think that the vast majority of the people out there are only barely aware of the outside world and can only see it through a very thick fog that has been pulled over their eyes by the corporate whore media. They are profoundly misinformed and ignorant of what is really going on in the world but simultaneously arrogant enough to think they do know just about everything about just about everything. I cannot tell you how many people there are out there who will argue with Bruce Lee about martial arts or will argue with Chef Ramsay about how to prepare food. It is just appalling really that people who know virtually zero about the real world will fight you tooth and nail over issues they could not possibly misunderstand more than they do.
        It is a tsunami of ignorance out there and nothing can hold it back. I know now what they really meant when they talked about these ignorant masses by calling them the mob. The mob is dangerous and destructive just like a loose canon slamming around on the deck of the ship punching holes in the hull. I honestly don’t know if we can stop the ship from sinking at this point by we have to try.

        1. Thanks Adam for that substantive comment. I never knew where the phrase “loose cannon” came from but I can see that a loose cannon ball on the deck of a ship would be quite a problem.
          I am grateful for my internet and phone friends with whom I can discuss politics. Until recently we had an active 9/11 truth group near me so luckily I have a few friends in the 3d world who are awakened. My dad woke up to 3 things in the last year of his life: 9/11, the JFK assassination and the faked moon landing. But now that he’s gone there is no one in my family willing or interested in looking past the MSM lies.
          Craig says in his article that the two qualities most important for swallowing the red pill are pattern recognition and open-mindedness. I think the other key quality is courage, which could also be called ego strength. It takes healthy ego strength to hold an opinion when thousands oppose you. Children are easy to manipulate and unfortunately many adults in our society are mentally still children and easily swayed by irrational propaganda. It matters little how many facts we put in front of people if they lack the ego strength to form an independent opinion.

          1. It takes healthy ego strength to hold an opinion when thousands oppose you. My read of many people is that they’ve taken neither pill. The blue pill takers, well why waste the time. A clear mind starts with clean foods and a healthy body at any age. By maintaining that, we don’t support Big Pharma, the sick care industry, one of their biggest cash cows right up there with big agra, petroleum and war.
            War doesn’t thin the herd enough, they may as well rob us also while they sicken us.

          2. True that. Nice comments from everybody here.
            And only one propagandist made it in!
            To be a truther you have know what truth actually is. Most people seem to have an ill conception of it: like it’s something that comes from “official sources” or something.
            Science is the highest form of evidence. Both the 9/11 and the JFK assassination official narratives can be proven false with science.
            And the moon landing probably can as well. I think there was something about the time delay that proved that the so-called astronauts could not possibly have been on the moon. I might look into this further. I am almost completely convinced but I have a friend that does not go for this one. He goes for the other ones, but not this one.
            I say just be cool. Let being a “truther” seem cool. No doubt there are millions of scientists and engineers on our side who just don’t connect online or in the the media. Teachers, chemists, engineers, logicians, mathematicians, physicists, et cetera, must all know really. Unless of course, they are discouraged from even looking at the evidence.
            The outright dismissal based on pop culture.
            I was so anti-dismissive that I actually looked at that Flat Earth Bullshit with an open mind. The pictures across Lake Michigan, Cape Cod Bay, and Lake Erie convinced me that the Earth is indeed a ball. This was before I knew about the concept of disinformation.
            But the science strongly points towards the direction of a lying media and a lying government.

          3. Jarrah White has done some pretty good work on the fake moon landings on YouTube. Radiation and the Van Allen belts seem to be the deal breaker of why humans will never be able to survive outside low earth orbit for any significant amount of time.
            Once you realize this, and then go back and watch some videos or analyze the pictures, you can see through the fog.

          4. Greetings from myself and you know who.
            Willy Whitten
            11:41 AM (1 hour ago)
            to me
            Hahahaha!!! From fake moon landers to flat earthers;;;; this one takes the cake for utter lunacy thus far:
            Sherif Shaalan
            January 31, 2017 at 10:08 am
            “The earth is conclusively not a spinning, orbiting ball as we’ve all been indoctrinated to believe from early childhood. It should be easier for those already acquainted with the deception of 9/11 to understand. Look a little deeper, and discover the greatest deception of them all.”
            . . . . . . . .
            I had Shaalan pegged as a screwball the first time he posted .. which was to attack me. Many moons ago now.
            Good to see David Hazan is still alive and engaged…
            Thanks for the tip!

          5. Thanks for that, veritytwo. But who is this Whitten character you speak of? Never heard of the man… ;-/)
            I had gone down this road with Sherif before… I am pretty convinced that the flat earth thing is a psyop to create the perception of a “connection” between the moon landing and other possible conspiracies and this bizarre “theory” that can be easily provenwrong with simple measurements and observations.
            My main interest is not really proving him wrong, or arguing about the scientific merits of claims by Sherif and his deputies, but more an effort to understand their MO, the talking points, and hopefully their motives.
            Because, if you think about it, the core dynamic of the dismissive scorn and abuse these people receive from most of us about their flat earth claims is not very different from the way truthers and conspiracy buffs get treated by the brainwashed masses, a phenomenon that Craig outlines in his heartfelt article above. I feel it is this very parallel they are trying to draw between one conspiracy and another to discredit the legitimate ones. I feel his comment “It should be easier for those already acquainted with the deception of 9/11 to understand.” llustrates this quite well actually.
            So, Sherif… Tell me again please… What year did you come to the realization that the earth is flat? What do you do for a living? Why do you feel tempted to leave flat earth comment on 9/11 related pages? And, what is your best guess as to how many people on this flat earth believe the earth is indeed flat?

          6. The Sherif is probably a bot, so don’t bother asking him any questions to which you might actually want a substantive reply. Instead maybe it can try to answer this question, “is dominoes played better on cheese or pasta?”

          7. ♩Sherif don’t like it.
            ♩It’s a flat earth
            ♩It’s a flat earth
            Bust seriously, the earth is a ball.
            The moon landing was faked, just don’t associate with flat-earthers. They will try to latch-on to you and discredit you like your friend’s dorky little brother.
            Hazan is correct: The Flat-Earth movement is disinformation made to discredit the people who know the Moon Landing was faked.

          8. Flat earth is indeed a psyop. I have removed the comment that introduced it here. From now on, any comment that advocates for the flat earth will be removed. And anyone who equates the questioning of the Moon “landings” with believing in the flat earth will be removed permanently.

    2. Very pertinent comments on the degradation of organized activism about 9/11, thank you. At the risk of writing like a conspiracy theorist, I formulate the possibility of some intelligent design behind it. After all, whoever can stealthily instruct Amnesty International, the OathKeepers, Fidel Castro, the Iranian theocrats, and just about all engineering scholars worldwide to censor 9/11 can certainly stealthily undermine grassroots activism over 9/11.
      Love,

      1. …whoever can stealthily instruct Amnesty International, the OathKeepers, Fidel Castro, the Iranian theocrats, and just about all engineering scholars worldwide to censor 9/11…
        This comes damned near the inflationary limit of conspiracy theories where all 7.5 billion inhabitants of this world are part of it.
        In contrast, I formulate the possibility that grassroots activism over 9/11 is simply mistaken with their ideas of “controlled demolition”, “fake planes” etc.
        Have you noticed, Dan, that there exists no theory alternative to the “official” one that ties together and explains all the events of that fateful day without being laughed out of any court it is presented in immediately by virtue of its inconsistencies and holes?
        If you disagree with this, perhaps you can provide a URL to a site where such a complete and sensible theory is written down.

        1. I have noticed that there exists no theory alternative etc., thank you. Who hasn’t?
          More importantly, have you noticed that you commented on the wrong site? Truth and Shadows is addressed to an audience that understands the fundamentals of 9/11. This is why I always comment at an advanced 9/11 level, commensurate with the knowledge of the writers and commenters.
          You write as if even the most basic aspects of 9/11 eluded you. Before coming back to this site, consider acquiring a full understanding of the elementary http://www.911BabyStep.com.
          Love,

          1. I have noticed that there exists no theory alternative etc., thank you. Who hasn’t?
            I appreaciate this reply. I ask this question often – I believe this is the first time a proponent of 9/11 Truth has given me this straight and honest answer. So the answer to “who hasn’t” would be “everybody else I have so far asked”. For example, Tony Szamboti cannot make himself agree with your answer, try as you may.
            Your reply begs the follow-up question: If you so much “understand the fundamentals of 9/11 … at an advanced 9/11 level, commensurate with … knowledge“, why can you not formulate a theory that explains the events of 9/11 consistent with all that knowledge? Why does that knowledge not converge on some comprehensive, positive narrative?
            In your prior post, you blamed unnamed, unfathomed, ungraspable, mysterious forces with manipulating people the world over. entire professions, leaderships of entire countries. An idea that is well on its way to approaching the inflationary limit of conspiracy theories where all 7.5 billion inhabitants of this world are part of it; a remark that you ignored.
            Isn’t it vastly more plausible that grassroots activism over 9/11 is simply mistaken with their ideas of “controlled demolition”, “fake planes” etc? AE911Truth, for example, represents hardly 0.05% of the relevant professions, such as structural and civil engineers. If you ask any 2,000 engineers anything, isn’t it vastly more likely that 1 of them is wrong, rather than 999 manipualted and brainwashed by dark forces?
            Your BabySteps are indeed baby steps – shaky, unreliable. Upon a brief browsing, I quickly stumble over several errors of fact. Such as:
            * “many members of the North tower’s steel frame were expelled away with high momentum
            * “essentially … dropping [its steel frame] into its own footprint
            * “This is the first and only time in history that a steel-framed high-rise has been unintentionally brought down
            * “A controlled demolition is a process in which … Before the next floor hits the foundation, another round of charges cuts its own support columns, and so on.
            * “the model of a controlled demolition matches [the actual video evidence of WTC7] very well
            * “not a single [TV network], anywhere in the world, has [assembled the WTC7 collapse video into a short docu segment]
            I kinda doubt that your knowledge of the events of 9/11 is really so advanced. For example, you have had plenty of time to compare the sound of actual demolitions with the sound of the WTC collapse videos. You could have learned about the vast damage that WTC7 inflicted on buildings far outside its footprint. You could have talked to competent engineers about the dynamic computer model and how well it would be expected to match real world video. You could have done some calculations to learn that explosives could not possibly explain the alleged high-speed ejection of large (multi-ton) steel segments. You might have understood that those wall panels, found a couple hundred of feet away, got there because the twin tower walls simply toppled over in tall segments. You could have learned more than 10 years ago already, from a TV documentary featuring Danny Jowenko, the Dutch demolition expert who AE likes to quote-mine, that explosives don’t need to go all the way down – once you cut out column on one level, gravity will do the rest of the work – a highly educational interview that, strangely, AE911Truth has never shown. The explosions do not go all the way down. Do you know that Jowenko said that the twin towers could not possibly have been controlled demolition?
            One of us still needs to learn the fundamentals of 9/11, but it ain’t me.
            Your fundamentals do not add up to a viable theory. That is the first hint that your fundamentals are no good.

          2. Your latest essay earns you some credit for trying. However and predictably, it mostly confirms your impotence over advanced 9/11 concepts, which you will remain incapable of overcoming as long as the most elementary aspects of 9/11 are too challenging for you.
            Starting at your first statement worthy of analysis within the scope of this web page…”Your BabySteps [contain in my opinion] several errors of fact. Such as: * ‘many members of the North tower’s steel frame were expelled away with high momentum'[…]” You may have collected abundant data about 9/11, but failed to summarily examine the videos and photos of the Twin Towers’ destruction. Try harder.
            If you genuinely want to understand 9/11, keep excoriating the elementary http://www.911babystep.com. Seek the crucial error in observation or logic that undermines it and publish the demonstration thereof. Until you achieve this goal, don’t let any more complex 9/11-related question bother you: you will likely fail to understand it, no matter how hard you try.
            Love,

          3. Sure, I’m responding to what Mr. Noel is saying and he is using what AE911 is using to corroborate their premise that it was Controlled Demolition when the experts say it wasn’t.
            Using all sorts of “jargon” to paint a mental paradigm.
            BTW the truthers, meaning all of us in this Forum, are tripping over what is supposed to be the evidence or facts when much of it is not. The vast majority say it was Controlled Demolition (meaning to say it was explosives of one sort or another) regardless the experts say it wasn’t.

          4. David,
            I responded to Noel, who had responded to ruffadam, who commented onm Craigs blog post.
            ruffadam had related his personal history as a truther and claimed that much of the truth movement has been inundated with disinfo agents; still he feels the TM is “winning” against the “NWO”.
            Dan responded by claiming that these disinfo agents have successfully manipulated international NGO’s, foreign governments and indeed pretty much all engineers in the world.
            I responded to that by remarking that Noel is approaching the inflationary limit of conspiracy theories where all 7.5 billion inhabitants of this world are part of it.
            Dan is ignoring this – seems uncomfortable to face this criticism. So instead he moved the goal posts, an opportunity to spam his “babysteps” mantra.
            I guess I fell for his distraction – too easy a target not to take a shot at.
            Anyway, my point is still that Dan Noel’s personal belief about the reach of the imagined disinfo agents is bizarrely inflated.

          5. Thanks for your reply and summary, emaraite. I appreciate it.
            i believe the three of us had gone down this road before, and I am familiar with Daniel Noel’s exaggerated, and dare I say extremely simplistic “everyone is in on it” arguments and beliefs.
            On the flip side, I find the “7.5 billion” also an exaggerated example, and not a strong enough argument to rule out the fact that “these disinfo agents have successfully manipulated international NGO’s, foreign governments and indeed pretty much all engineers in the world.”
            As we had discussed in that other thread (https://truthandshadows.wordpress.com/2016/11/26/chossudovsky-recalls-castro/)
            Depending on a person’s, and agent’s or a nations strengths and weaknesses, overt and covert goals, their relationships, etc. there are a gazillion different reasons for people staying silent, submissive, delusional, willingly or naturally ignorant, which as a whole, prevents the truth from coming out. And, there are countless extremely well funded social scientists, psychiatrists, behavioral psychology scientists, mathematicians, military scientists, ideologues, think tanks and propaganda experts to make sure that this remains so.
            I feel, as usual, truth lays somewhere in between the two extremes. You would be amazed how huge populations can be controlled, intimidated, scared, coerced, hypnotized, tricked and fooled into submission and denial by a relative few who take full advantage of the simplicity and the predictability of human behavior, which is only marginally more complex than what you see in video below. It’s very revealing what a few critically placed smart dogs can make thousands of sheep do.
            https://youtu.be/tDQw21ntR64

          6. Yes. If you can point to actual, specific dogs and evidence that they are indeed herding sheep.
            ruffadam employs various summary terms for the imagined herding dogs – “Call them the NWO, the illuminati, the banker elites, the Bilderbergers, whatever you want“. This vagueness suggests to me that there really exists no evidence to pin down even one named dog.
            Combine this with the lack of any 9/11 theory alternative to the “official” one, which Dan admitted to without ado.
            Dan has a problem: Most everybody that matters does not believe those theories which don’t exist, and he blames it on dogs that are not actually known to exist.
            A simpler explanation has been proposed – by me: That the 9/11 truth movement is simply mistaken.
            ruffadam explains how he is convinced that many in the TM are mistaken. He suspects some of those are agents. The simpler explanation is that they are indeed only just simply mistaken.
            These mistaken truthers in turn think that ruffadam is wrong, and some may suspect he is an agent.
            The simplest explanation is that you are all only simply just mistaken, and no agents are infiltrating or bothering you.

          7. The people of a village find themselves face to face with a burning question: they want to know where the center of the universe is. When they fail to find an answer, they decide to go up the highest mountain and visit the Wise One.
            They gather in front of the Wise One, and ask ‘O Wise One, please tell us. Where is the center of the universe?”
            Wise One strokes his beard three times, and says “it is right under my left foot!”
            The villagers, in utter disbelief say “But, Wise One, how can that be?”
            Wise one gives the villagers a stern look, and says “If you don’t believe me, then go measure it for your selves!”
            So, emaraite, your whole argument is that, until the villagers manage to measure the universe for themselves, they have to assume that they are “mistaken”, and the wise bullshitter is correct… Is that right??? And you are standing there, going “look, you don’t have anything better, so let’s just say it is under his left foot, what’s the big deal?”
            Wow, what a load of Olympic level, mind bending logical exercise on your part… And the rest of your arguments are very very revealing… I had no idea that it was you who came up with the ‘believe in the official story’ idea… all this time, I thought it was Cheney and Tenet and all the Bush boys. Live and learn, eh?
            Emaraite… With the deep knowledge you claim to have about all things 9/11, if you have not been able hear and identify the “Dogs” yet, either you are a deaf sheep, or you are actually a dog yourself. You know.. The way fish can’t tell they are wet?
            [I had used the wise one story on T&S before… my apologies for the repetition. It just felt suitable for emaraite’s arguments ]

          8. I was just cleaning some trash. Emaraite appears to be a 9/11 fanatic, i.e. an individual who has been so traumatized by 9/11 that (s)he suffers at the mere thought that anyone can dissent from the official fairy tale. Such people are incapable of accepting any rational argument over 9/11. I simply sent her/him to the elementary http://www.911babystep.com. Her/his drive to defend the myth happened to make her/him respond by summarily denying simple empirical data, starting with the high speed projections of structural steel away from the Twin Towers, which are, ironically, a pre-requisite for Building 7’s mythical destruction by an office fire.
            Emaraite’s incapability to grasp elementary concepts of 9/11 demonstrates that exploring more complex concepts with her/him is futile. Hence my admonition to her/him to chew on the 9/11 baby step until (s)he finds the flaw that invalidates it and my refusal to explain my posts to her/him. You’ll note that earlier, I wrote her/him that (s)he was commenting on the wrong web site.
            Had you or some other intelligent participant chafed at my allusion to the censorship of 9/11 by Amnesty International et al., I would have answered your point and done so respectfully.
            Love,

          9. Daniel Noel,
            your passive-aggressive amateur psychologizing of my mind, while avoiding any discussion of the technical/factual claims I made about your “babysteps” speaks volumes – about you, but not a thing about me.
            I wear your sour ridicule as a badge of honor 🙂
            Ken Cabeen at least tried to address my points – and I might rebut all of his replies some other evening.

          10. Emaraite:
            Do not attempt to understand statements that are not specifically directed at you on Truth and Shadows. You are incapable of understanding them, as this web caters to people whose understanding of 9/11 dwarfs yours.
            Your expertise and credibility over 9/11 is just about zero, as you flunk the elementary 9/11 baby step and are proud of it. Therefore, if I treated your factual questions and objections about 9/11–which, incidentally, is easy–you would not understand my answers. Should a 9/11-cognizant reader raise your questions and concerns, I’ll answer, and you’ll predictably excoriate my answers simply because you don’t master 9/11 at the elementary level.
            Readers:
            To my knowledge, nothing beats the 9/11 baby step to expose 9/11 fanatics like emaraite’s failure at basic observation or logic. Even 9/11 skeptics–i.e. people who believe in good faith the official myth but are willing to doubt it if provided a compelling reason to do so–will distinguish between the rationalist and the charlatan with a moderate amount of work.
            Arguing more advanced 9/11 questions with 9/11 fanatics is much more tedious. Moreover, the same 9/11 skeptics will find it more to find that the fanatic is obviously wrong. It will be useful to neither the fanatic nor the skeptics.
            Love,

          11. Daniel,
            emaraite is one of those who wouldn’t believe the truth of 9/11 if it bit him on the ass. I think he should get back over to that den of hardened deniers over at metabunk.org. I’m not wasting any more time on him. He’s obviously a lost cause.

          12. emaraite,
            “In your prior post, you blamed unnamed, unfathomed, ungraspable, mysterious forces with manipulating people the world over. entire professions, leaderships of entire countries. An idea that is well on its way to approaching the inflationary limit of conspiracy theories where all 7.5 billion inhabitants of this world are part of it; a remark that you ignored.”
            That is nowhere near implying that nearly everyone on Earth are part of it. Figure it out for yourself. Who gained from the constant state of war, the raining down of hell upon and vilification the Muslim world, and the erosion of our civil rights? It sure as hell isn’t Muslims.
            “Isn’t it vastly more plausible that grassroots activism over 9/11 is simply mistaken with their ideas of “controlled demolition”, “fake planes” etc? AE911Truth, for example, represents hardly 0.05% of the relevant professions, such as structural and civil engineers. If you ask any 2,000 engineers anything, isn’t it vastly more likely that 1 of them is wrong, rather than 999 manipualted and brainwashed by dark forces?”
            No, it is not vastly more plausible. If you were aware of what happens to those in just about any profession who question the official conspiracy theory, you’d know why so few do so. Don’t be obtuse.
            “I kinda doubt that your knowledge of the events of 9/11 is really so advanced. For example, you have had plenty of time to compare the sound of actual demolitions with the sound of the WTC collapse videos.”
            Over 20 percent of the roughly 500 first responders who gave oral histories reported hearing explosions throughout the day. There are innumerable videos on Youtube showing them, news people, and regular citizens talking about seeing, hearing, and feeling explosions that simply do not correspond to the two plane strikes. All that footage was never shown on TV again. Gee, I wonder why. The footage of the collapses were mostly taken from quite a distance and wouldn’t record very well anyway. And what makes you think they would sound like conventional, known demolitions?
            “You could have learned about the vast damage that WTC7 inflicted on buildings far outside its footprint.”
            Not true.
            “You could have talked to competent engineers about the dynamic computer model and how well it would be expected to match real world video.”
            NIST’s dynamic computer model? What a joke! Are you serious? Have you played the model next to footage of WTC 7’s collapse? On that note, NIST’s hypothesis for WTC 7’s mechanism of collapse will be having a new asshole torn in it next May, when a study from University of Alaska Fairbanks comes out.
            “You could have done some calculations to learn that explosives could not possibly explain the alleged high-speed ejection of large (multi-ton) steel segments.”
            Oh, do tell! Please share your draft of equations with us! Just like explosives couldn’t possibly explain the 700 or so tiny bone fragments that landed on top of Deutsche Bank.
            “You might have understood that those wall panels, found a couple hundred of feet away, got there because the twin tower walls simply toppled over in tall segments.”
            There were large sections of perimeter columns found up to 600 feet away. Try again. No, they did not topple over in big enough sections to do that. Please show me a video. You sound like you’ve gotten you ridiculous ideas from the website peddling that absolutely ludicrous ROOSD hypothesis for the twins’ collapse.
            “You could have learned more than 10 years ago already, from a TV documentary featuring Danny Jowenko, the Dutch demolition expert who AE likes to quote-mine, that explosives don’t need to go all the way down – once you cut out column on one level, gravity will do the rest of the work – a highly educational interview that, strangely, AE911Truth has never shown.”
            Complete BS. Evidence, please.
            “The explosions do not go all the way down.”
            On the twin towers? Yes, they do go all the way down. Watch a video called “North Tower Exploding” by David Chandler.
            “Do you know that Jowenko said that the twin towers could not possibly have been controlled demolition?”
            Of course he said that! Again, if you knew what happens to professionals who question the official story, you’d know why. But I’ll help you. He said that because he knew the context of what he was looking at — 9/11. This is in stark contrast to his comments about WTC 7’s collapse, which he made not knowing that it was on 9/11.
            “One of us still needs to learn the fundamentals of 9/11, but it ain’t me.”
            Oh, yes, it is you. Your grasp is feeble at best.
            “Your fundamentals do not add up to a viable theory. That is the first hint that your fundamentals are no good.”
            All available evidence and the laughable nature of NIST and 9/11 Commission reports add up to an inside job. Are you one of Cass Sunstein’s flunkies? If so, you ought to be fired.

          13. Ken Cabeen,
            That is nowhere near implying that nearly everyone on Earth are part of it.
            That’s not what I said. I said Dan Noel is well on his way there.
            Who gained from the constant state of war, the raining down of hell upon and vilification the Muslim world, and the erosion of our civil rights? It sure as hell isn’t Muslims.
            Two things to be said on this:
            First, it was a small bunch of radicals confessing to a murderous interpretation of Islam that only a tiny fringe of muslims adhere to. There is no reason to assume that “Muslims” in general would be expected to gain from such terrorist action, no more than “Jews” in general would be expected to benefit from the terror of radical Judaists, or “Catholics” in general would be expected to gain from IRA terrorism, or the cover-up of pedophilia. The small bunch of terrorists that apparantly did 9/11 gained in at least two ways: They believe to have gained rewards from their Gods, and they have very much increased their standing and admiration among a wider community of muslim radicals.
            Secondly, “cui bono” may be an important question to ask in criminal investigations, but not every gain is actually evidence for guilt. Example: Last summer, I fell while inline-skating and suffered several large surface wounds, for which I had buy dressing material at a pharmacy. The pharmacy happened to celebrate its 20th birthday, and as part of that, they invited their customers to participate in a contest of helium-filled balloons. Mine flew the farthest, and I ended up winning a nice new bicycle – just what I needed at the time, because I had wrecked my old bike a short while earlier. Now you could ask “cui bono” and accuse me of intentionally falling while skating so I had an excuse to shop at the pharmacy, and/or you might accuse me of sending my ballon 250 km downwind by dispach to manipulate the win. But the fact of the matter is that this misfortune, by coincidence, turned out to result in some good luck and gain for me.
            No, it is not vastly more plausible [that, if you ask any 2,000 engineers anything, 1 of them is wrong, rather than 999 manipualted and brainwashed by dark forces]
            See, this mindset is exactly why I think you are all perfectly wrong, and very obviously so: You grossly miscalculate plausibilities, let alone probabilities.
            If you were aware of what happens to those in just about any profession who question the official conspiracy theory
            So what does, in fact, happen to them? Can you give me, oh, 3 examples of professionals who
            question the “official” theory, and what happened to them because of it? I am occasionally in correspondence with Tony Szamboti, who is one of AE911Truth’s leading “research” engineers, has been for many years, and he claimes he is performing successfully in his profession. Also, he is clearly still alive. It seems that it really isn’t that dangerous to be very vocal in public as a 9/11 Truther.
            Over 20 percent of the roughly 500 first responders who gave oral histories reported hearing explosions throughout the day.
            Not much of a surprise here. Would you expect such a large fire event with several collapse events to go by without any bangs? It happens often that first responders report “explosions” when buildings or vehicles burn – and no exploSIVES are involved.
            The trouble is, that none of those reports are consistent in timing, loudness, number and brisance with explosive demolition.
            There are innumerable videos on Youtube showing them
            Can you link me to one, please? With time stamp (min:sec) where you believe you hear explosions consistent in timing, loudness, number and brisance with explosive demolition? Thanks!
            news people, and regular citizens talking about seeing, hearing, and feeling explosions that simply do not correspond to the two plane strikes
            See above – not really surprising in such a large fire and collapse event.
            All that footage was never shown on TV again.
            How did it end up on YouTube?
            The footage of the collapses were mostly taken from quite a distance and wouldn’t record very well anyway. And what makes you think they would sound like conventional, known demolitions?
            I am confused now – those two claims sound an awful lot like excuses why there aren’t any sounds of explosions consistent in timing, loudness, number and brisance with explosive demolition in any YouTube videos – a minute after you claimed there are “innumerable videos on Youtube showing them”. Please clarify! Do we have the sounds clearly of explosive demolition charges on video, or do we not, because the sound is different and the video cameras wouldn’t record them well in the first place?

          14. Ken Cabeen,
            I note with interest and some satisfaction your inability, or lack of interest, to provide evidence for your (in part contradictory and apologetic) claims.
            I get that reaction very often when I ask a truther to provide specific evidence for specific claims, or even to simply give a straight answer to a straight question.
            It appears there really doesn’t exist any video that has the sounds of “explosions” consistent with explosive demolition (timing: Just before the collapse commences; loudness: AWESOME!; number: A handful or couple of dozend within not too many seconds; brisance: Very sharp sound, suddenly there, suddenly gone except for echo, not low rumbling).
            It seems you don’t actually know of any 9/11 Truther who got into any actual, serious trouble for being a 9/11 Truther.

          15. Jousting with EMARAITE reminds me of another time on this blog with another of this ilk self titled SENOR EL ONCE, only that entity was brighter. This’ll just be another round and round she goes, where she stops no one knows. There could be many reasons why these types harass on blogs like T&S. The word troll comes readily to mind that progresses through a spectrum of creatures from malicious asshole to earning a paycheck. It reads to me that there are indicators that this one lurks somewhere near the empty mark on this particular gas gauge.

          16. @ veritytwo,
            Hehe very ironic comment on a blog post titled “BEING A TRUTHER MEANS RIDICULE, INSULTS, AND POLITE DISMISSALS FROM THOSE WHO GRABBED THE BLUE PILL”
            Or did you not mean this ridicule, those insults, to be ironic??

          17. Yes, I’ve jousted with those like him over at Metabunk.org and other places, only most there are more talented at defending the indefensible, to their credit I suppose. I got under that Mick West clown’s skin to the point where he used his administrator’s power to make a very unflattering avatar and assign it to me. Anyway, I learned it is just round and round (as you so astutely point out) with these hardened deniers and there’s no use bothering with them at any length. I’ve gotten through to at least 10 people in my circle friends and family, which is time much better spent than trying to convince those who just cannot accept that our government would do such a deed, no matter how much evidence from all facets of that day exists.

          18. I can well imagine. One of their phrase’s to describe those on this side of the shift is “conspiratard”, the reciprocal of course is “skeptitard”, they really don’t like that description, it plays against their assumed cleverness. We see that mentality through this last US election with the lefties going just absolutely overboard in their reaction to Clinton getting dumped. They thought they had it in the bag except the bag got dumped. Ones like our friend here need to catch a clue that we live in a totally rigged system that has been this way for a very long time with all our perceptions engineered with 9/11 the biggest Reichstag fire ever. It takes a modicum of acumen that too many don’t have to discern that WTF moment or any others for that matter. Our friend has missed the boat by an ocean.

          19. veritytwo, great video. It should be required viewing for all Americans. My fear is most would just drop their heads down and continue staring at their phones though.

          20. Thanks, veritytwo, for NOT posting a video of a WTC collapse that has actually sounds of explosions consistent with explosive demolition. Another hint that indicates there really weren’t any such explosions (and Ken Cabeen obviously lied when he said there are many such videos) – and deep down inside, you all know it!
            I do not doubt that there is stuff wrong with the “system” – that there is corruption, abuse of power, manipulation of public opinion. None of this means that the WTC buildings were demolished by means other than crashing planes.
            It also doesn’t mean that EVERYTING government does is rigged and hostile. That is a most silly stance to live by.

          21. emaraite, since it seems strange that you are on this site I thought I’d add something to your reply. I visit here sometimes and miss many discussions so I have no clue what is happening here. Seems likely this video has been circulated on this site before.
            One of my favourites maybe you have seen it also?
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7toWnLhf9s

          22. @Gayle, that’s a great 5-minute video on the absurdity of the official conspiracy theory. Have you seen the five-hour documentary, “September 11 The New Pearl Harbor.” It’s fantastic. When one takes the totality of evidence that spans all aspects of events that day, it’s just downright insane to deny it was an inside job.
            https://youtu.be/dBMrzibEwZA

          23. @Ken Cabeen,
            Thanks for the suggestion yet I’m not sure I want to invest 5 hours of time, although I’m certain it is interesting. I was convinced on 911 and that day was enough for me while follow up info has only added additional evidence of this massive crime and its intended purpose. I’ve been suspicious of our governments goals since Palestine, JFK, Iran Contra, very long continuing list of deceptions. Very blatant now and quite fascinating how people can ignore the facts, evidence etc.

          24. Yes, I have seen this video. It wasted 15 seconds of my life by playing tacky music. Then the speaker begins speaking. Time to first Lie from there on is 5 seconds. I stopped after 7 s. This is a Gish Gallop. I am not going to again waste a full 5 minutes of my life by listening to the Gish Gallop till the end.
            Maybe you want to pick out one argument in the video that you find to be the strongest to make a case for 9/11 Truth (be specific what claim exactly you think the argument is supporting) and against the commonly accepted narrative of the events, and then we will see if you have evidence to string together a coherent, convincing argument. I am pretty sure you will not succeed with this if you try – your strongest argument will turn out not to prove what you think it proves – either because it isn’t based on true premises, or because the logic is flawed, or because it is irrelevant to what you want to prove, or it doesn’t actually refute the “official” story (e.g.: Reports of witnesses hearing explosions are common both in cases of building demolition and normal fires of buildings with office supplies).

          25. @ emaraite, I know I said “bye bye” to you already, but could not resist one last message to you when I saw your use of the the term “gish gallop.” Busted! So, you are the cognitive infiltrator, Cass Sunstein flunky, AKA Erik Marette, on Facebook. In light of this, I amend my prior characterization of you: You do know the truth of 9/11 but it is your job to help stem the tide of growing awareness of that truth by the general public. Get a life doing something good for your country instead of trying to cover for your treasonous, murderous, and psychopathic government. To your eternal shame, traitor. Bye bye, Erik, or whatever your name is.

  18. For what it’s worth and never to forget after more than 15 years – the criminals who pulled off 9/11 have not been caught and punished. Those mass murderers continued their crime sprees. They are still freely walking and acting on this Earth.

  19. Craig, great article. Getting off the Disney World ride version of life isn’t something that a large number of people are ever going to do. It is a real burden when each day one consciously decides to take the information provided (for free) by others with a grain of salt. When an individual no longer acknowledges trusted public guide posts to decision-making then suddenly they are out there all alone on most of what is happening in the world. Does one quietly ignore the murderous actions of a erudite and soft-spoken national leader because everyone else in the community does? Does a local politician’s efforts to throttle public involvement in public decisions have some deeper meaning? Are national leaders on the left like Bill Moyers and Noam Chomsky really incapable of seeing the problems with the official 9/11 story? Hasn’t anyone else heard of Operation Mockingbird, Altgens’ photo of LBJ in the floorboards, the 17 bullets in Sirhan’s 14-bullet weapon, and on and on.
    Life is complicated enough so all of us look for shortcuts, ways to leverage what others know to make our own lives simpler. I saw Altgens’ photo in a newspaper article in the ’70s along with quotes from motorcycle cops who were riding shotgun on the Vice President’s car. The writer quoted the officers as saying, “He was in the floorboards 30 seconds before the first shot was fired.” I knew then that LBJ was behind Kennedy’s assassination. However, I asked myself what I could do about it and answered quietly and finally, “nothing.”
    At that point I left it to others to sort it out. That was a mistake, but one I can only see easily from 40 years later. So, thank you for your courage, but understanding (without the benefit of 40 years of perspective) that most of the world is never going to be as questioning as you are and shouldering on in spite of it is just one more way that you understand the truth.

    1. Thank you, Phillip. It’s a dilemma so many of us face. But I’m just too stubborn to be dissuaded, sometimes to my own detriment. Finding peace of mind while championing the truth is a very difficult balance. And I have not achieved it yet.

  20. I was watching a copy of David Hooper’s documentary, The Anatomy of a Great Deception recently. One comment describes this video as “a great introduction to 911 for the emotionally weak”. This particular version has a 2-minute addendum at the beginning featuring Donald Trump.
    https://youtu.be/Pcw-kxTVg1o

    1. Trump has just reaffirmed his position that Chelsea Manning is a “traitor.” Manning exposed evil acts the military was committing in America’s name. Forgive me for not having the rose-colored glasses some of my colleagues do about him reopening 9/11. I’ll believe it only WHEN I see it.

      1. I personally do not believe for a moment that Trump will reopen the case for the simple reason that he already knows who did it.

  21. An excellent read, Craig. Appreciate your astute discernment skills. Don’t get me wrong, Obama is a decent individual I’m sure, but like the rest in Washington sold his soul for personal gain. Hope & Change was nothing more than MUCH ado about nothing. Trump has more than a few people buffaloed as well. Wonder who the Establishment has waiting in the wings to take the baton hand off from Trump? Same old game just different players to pacify the masses.. From JFK, RFK, MLK, Jr., John Lennon, Oklahoma City to 9/11, etc. *They think they are playing us, when in reality all they are doing is insulting our intelligence. Happy New Year to you. May the truth prevail.

  22. In a recent conversation about Trump not being a career politician but a business man. My retort, businessmen lie different than politicians. For the most part, he’s there to stroke his maniacal ego with the next goal being to line the bottom of his bird cage with wealth. Same old game different face to move the BS further towards the drain. I’ve been at this since “06”, I’m considered a crank by many but keep coming up with these news snippets about world politics/geopolitics that I’ve discovered in my ongoing research that eventually gets sheepishly back page revealed by MSM.
    This last election has been a ball, in a conversation when replying to someone that asked me who I would vote for, my reply was neither. When asked why, my answer was Clinton is an indictable criminal and Trump is a mob backed shyster. Knowing where this was going this person came back with where do you get your information from? my reply was where do you get yours from? The usual reply CNN, Fox News, BBC, etc. My reply,” And you believe that?” From there the conversation ramped up to ugly because I was able to counter his argument with fact. Got called outside, cooled the situation with informing this person that I could have them arrested for uttering a threat. Got them to thinking and delving into it deeper, a few weeks later after the election I encountered this person again, same venue, they apologized to me having to concede that I was right.
    As I know Craig’s site’s foundation is 9/11 truth. I believe all truths tie into the ghastly lie we’ve been assumed to buy into. I’ve been blindsided on more than one occasion especially from people I’ve held dear, what you thought you had is stripped away from you and leaves a hole, it’s never the same relationship afterwards
    My findings are that when I regained my composure, I came back stronger.
    My first WTF moment was created during a ten minute conversation with a complete stranger about money and the creation of it. It spurred me to research that I’ve spent thousands of hours since doing. Knowledge really is power than strengthens resolve. As the saying goes, Money is the root of all evil today. Understanding that well makes understanding the matrix much easier.
    https://youtu.be/-c-zxdi3U6Y

    1. I like Pink Floyd. Have you heard Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Animals?
      Pink Floyd was certainly the most popular band that critiqued the Status Quo. They were political, especially during The Wall and Animals.
      Good Stuff!!!

  23. Craig, I feel your pain. But all is not lost, just keep it up. I have recently converted at least one law enforcement analyst by presenting facts, having a good reputation and a degree in physics, and not insulting anyone.

  24. First of all, 9/11 Truth aside, Trump is a sadistic psycho in whom I have no faith. While he is in charge I will keep my head down, keep listening to Jimmy Dore and hoping a semblance of political sanity returns and another Bernie Sanders, maybe Tulsi Gabbard, will run the show in four years.
    Re the truth of 9/11, I’d like to see it reported forthrightly in the New York Times someday but I am not hopeful. You know, at a minimum all I’d like to see our side’s views faithfully reported. Instead of a snarky, “Conspiracy theorists believe in lizard people,” for once a real thing we believe should be reported like, “Among other things they believe that building 7 was brought down with explosives,” and then show the building falling. Let viewers decide. (And now some snark of my own: Fat chance.)
    Furthering my burden of getting the truth out are the plethora of other “conspiracies,” with everything from Sandy Hook to Boston to Ottawa to Burbank. The truthers field is ridden with rabbit holes. My newest hole is the Clinton Foundation scam.
    Another problem is whom the muggles see as our spokesmen and women. Alex Jones, my god, what an asshole, and a font of dis and misinformation. Craig, your level approach is wonderful. Oh, if only Robert Parry would come to our side!
    Odd how it is solely online where I find other truthers. And who knows how long they will tolerate our outlandish notions?
    Anyway, just checking in. Be well everyone.

  25. “But now I’ve had the rare experience of being attacked and blocked by one of my favorite singers. She freaked over my condemnation of Obama and—because of her Ukrainian heritage—she thinks no one else can be criticized because no matter what they’ve done, PUTIN IS MUCH WORSE!”
    I know who you’re talking about. As Beavis and Butthead eloquently put it “Just because one thing sucks doesn’t mean something else doesn’t.”
    I sympathize with the difficult road you face. The worst part is not the everyday brain-dead sheep who believe what they’re told, it’s the intelligent people who should know better.
    Keep up the great work. I would definitely recommend your website to longtime truthers or anyone just getting their feet wet.

  26. Very sobering tittle, thank you. It evokes a calling to people who understand 9/11 to find ways to teach it without being summarily dismissed as conspiracy theorists. Easier said than done!
    Love,

  27. Hello Craig, I empathise totally with your sentiments.
    I am a parent with adult offspring and I have found I have to keep my mouth shut or face alienation from them.
    Personally what I find really scary is noticing how (due to decades of declining English standards taught at school) people have no ability to apply logic and reasoning.
    Then , if you add in long work hours, hectic lifestyles, plus their “smartphones” -which they can’t keep their faces out of for long, you can see how people’s minds today have been splintered into multiple distractions , with short attention spans, and no capacity for independent thinking.
    In the absence of reason, only insanity will remain. Mob Rule. Following orders.
    In George Orwell’s 1984, children snitch on their parents.This will eventually become fact.
    I’ve found it very important to find a spiritual philosophy to embrace, as a kind of buffer to the enormous stress. I’m quite sensitive. (I used to drink too much to help me cope, but not now)
    Best wishes to you,
    Tula

  28. We live in mass societies in which order is maintained through an unfathomably complex arrangement of hierarchies predicated on myths and superstitions. The 9/11 events are a manifestation of that system of myths, superstitions and hierarchies, but hardly represent a radical departure from methods used in that system. As such it seems very unlikely to me that a wide-spread understanding among the population of what occurred during those events will ever develop. No comprehensive change in the understanding of the conquest of the New World by Europeans ever took place. No reckoning for the capitalist system ever took place. People still accept absolutely fantastic stories about what took place in the USSR under Stalin, and likewise people are more than happy to accept a ridiculous story about the origins and conduct of the Second World War. We have people on this site, which makes some attempt to give clarity to the miasma of programmed insanity in which we live, talking about whether Trump might make a difference, or Tulsi Gabbard. Better to look to the potential of Scooby Doo and the gang to get to the bottom of things.

  29. Nice work Craig. I’ve been away from here for a while and away from 9/11 as well. The world makes a lot more sense if you assume that there are no “goodies” – if they have money/power then they are bad, the only difference is their ability to be bad. We in the West are layered with such a weight of propaganda that it isn’t easy to see through it all. The media will scream that black is white and for every person who can see through it, there are 10 who can’t. Because it isn’t easy and it makes you unpopular.
    So just because the West hopelessly misrepresents Russia, it doesn’t actually mean that Russia are the goodies – and I’m sure their media is heavy with the propaganda in the other direction. The truth lies somewhere between ….
    I’ve been wondering about Trump and what it means for the programme of working towards a full scale war in the Middle East. As it is pretty clear that it has been on the agenda since before 9/11 and 9/11 was the accelerant to start the blaze. My belief is that Trump is a powerful weapon because basically, he can shift policy on a whim – the ones who hate him will still hate him – and we can be about to live in unpredictable times. My fear is that an incident (false flag of course) will launch us into this war within hours of it happening. And it won’t matter how well we document the inconsistencies and blatant lies, social media will have set the myth instantly with hashtags at the ready and the Eiffel Tower will already be lit up.
    And a large number of Americans will be cheering and having parties as the first bombs drop ……..

    1. What does a “full-scale war” mean? There is no one in the Middle East that can challenge the United States in a total war, as that would immediately involve a nuclear exchange. There has been war in the MIddle-east on behalf of Anglo-US-Israeli interests for seventy years. There are bombs dropping all the time, from western Africa to Afghanistan. We are living in the era of hybrid war, and that is what you will continue to see.

      1. Bobo the bigger Nations are dependent on the oil of smaller Nations in the Middle east. Take the oil of Saudi Arabia that goes through the Hormuz Strait, suppose someone sunk a supper tanker blocking the flow of oil. Germany has a standing army of 200,000 men ready to roll to get that oil flowing again. Don’t touch Iran because the Russians will be drawn into the picture.
        Oil is the lubricant that keeps the economy going and the United States, though being the most powerful, can’t take everybody on. China is right on the side lines as well and everybody is aware we are past peak oil,
        Everybody is jockying for position. Just take a look at who is fighting in Syria.

        1. Your post is a non sequitur, and worse, makes no sense. Are you trying to say that Germany is ready to dispatch 200 000 men to pull a “supper tanker” out of the Strait of Hormuz, that by some miraculous property is able to “block the flow of oil” in a thirty-mile-wide body of water? Get your head weighed and stick to speaking in tongues.

          1. Bobo maybe you don’t keep up with whats going on, Germany has already put in air strips all over the Mediterranean countries. Countries are in dire financial crisis and Germany being so rich is able to work a deal for airstrips. As for the Strait of Hormuz all oil traffic from Saudi Arabia to Europe goes through this Strait.
            Your response is silly because if anyone does sink a tanker to try and block the flow of oil, it is an act of war. Those 200,000 men aren’t going to be pulling out the tanker but instead attack the country responsible.
            Also, what other country do you know that has an army of that size ready to move?
            As for speaking in tongues I speak more then just English. I do study languages. Is that a problem? It seems you have your head stuck where the sun don’t shine, straighten up.

          2. Roger, you have had two comments not approved because they were continuations of the off-topic discussion about Jewish history and related subjects. I ask again that you stick closer to the topic of this post.

        1. Fair play for that one. The Great Game is definitely the first manifestation of the Empire’s foray into exploiting the region.

      2. > What does a “full-scale war” mean?
        By full-scale, I don’t mean the weapons involved. I mean a widespread war featuring many nations and resulting in regime changes and territory remapping.

        1. Oh, something like the Sykes-Picot agreement, the creation of Israel, the expansion of Israel, the conflicts between Turkey, Germany, England, France, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the United States, the Soviet Union and Russia, Armenia, Qatar, the creation of de facto Kurdish territories, and the overthrow of perhaps fifty governments in the region in the last hundred years? That kind of full-scale war?

          1. So I raise the issue that we could be heading to a widespread war very soon and you present a summary of the last 100 years. Thanks!

          2. The summary of the last hundred years indicates that we are not heading to a widespread war. There has been one ongoing for one hundred years.

          3. Sockpuppet2012: I agree. Everyone is dependent on oil and everyone knows we are past “Peak Oil” so the pushing and shoving is all maneuvering so they can have access at it. In the meantime the average human being is caught in the crossfire and it is causing a lot of death and starvation.
            The US is doing everything it can to keep the US dollar as the currency to buy oil with in OPEC. But China, Iran, Brazil and Russia would like to see it change, which would be the demise of the USA since it is flat ass broke. That would leave more oil for the others.
            So the continual unrest is to the advantage of the US. In fact they are instigating it by doing things like 9/11 and supplying weapons to anyone that is willing to fight.
            Now that Trump has told Germany to spend more on weaponry as their share for protection, the upper echelon is (the old Nazi mentality) rubbing their hands with glee. Germany is a sleeping GIANT with an army of 200,000 men and they already have airstrips all around the Mediterranean Sea.

  30. YOU.ARE.SO.RIGHT.CRAIG ! And consequently, your fate is to suffer from those who are much less enlightened. Thank you for your work. Stay strong. The Force be with you. (IS with you!) In gratitude for your fortitude, BC.

  31. I feel the below example is a strong indication that soon we might be in a position to remember these days as “the good old days when being a truther meant ridicule, insults and polite dismissals”
    (Craig, please feel free to remove this post if you feel this is unrelated or too tangential)
    On Jan 20th of this year, while we were all busy with the inauguration circus, pussy protests and Madonna and all that, there was a staged terror attack that took place in Melbourne Australia.
    In a nutshell, the official story goes something like this:
    Demitrios Gargasoulos, a convicted criminal and a drug addict Australian citizen of Greek origin stabs his brother (cuz he was mad at him for being gay) and is on the loose. He materializes an hour and a half later, driving a red car, in front of the central station in downtown Melbourne. He does “doughnuts” (spinning in very tight circles with screeching tires) in front of the Friday afternoon crowd while screaming obscenities (one witness claims he also screamed Allahuakbar) out the window. He then leaves the intersection, driving erratically down a street in front of four police cars in pursuit. After a couple of blocks, he starts driving on the footpath, mowing down over 20 people, killing 6. He gets caught arrested a couple blocks later.
    It has all of the familiar elements of typical drill-attack scripts, which I will not go into. There are many videos online that dissect the incident much better than I can verbalize here. But, I will mention that this was the worst production of a staged event I have ever seen, and it does not take much skill to see this “terror event” for the hoax that it is, which, at best, looks like the first dress rehearsal of an action movie.
    The real point I am trying to get to is what happened after the event.
    You might have heard of the Melbourne YouTuber who goes by the name of PeekayTruth, who is quite well known for the videos he makes exposing these staged events, wherever they may take place.
    So, as you can imagine, when just such an event takes place in his backyard, he is all over it like a hawk, and quickly releases two videos where he points out all of the idiotic errors that the novice Aussie false flaggers commit. He then starts calling the hospital(s) where the victims are meant to be staying, and asks to speak to them, an records his conversations where he is stonewalled at every turn.
    Subsequently, he receives a phone call from a Homicide Detective, who tells him (or rather orders him) to take down the videos and stop making any new videos. Peekay complies and takes down his videos, but releases a very short video to notify his followers of what is happening, and that he is taking them down.
    That same day, police land on his house and arrest him and take him in. After being subjected to the classic police intimidation and scare tactics, he spends the night in a cell. The next day, he gets taken to have a psychological assesment done on him, and ultimately released, and told that he’d need to come back after the weekend to have another assessment performed. If I am not mistaken, the whole ordeal takes about six days, and I believe there are still pending legal procedures (and perhaps a court hearing) to follow.
    In the meantime, the big irony is that, while they were trying to silence Peekay who was exposing the hoax, the news of his arrest prompted otherwise uninterested people (like myself) who were distracted by the Trump show at the time, to look deep into this “attack” and his subsequent arrest.
    What I find most interesting is the fact that the “authorities” have actually chosen to actively and openly intimidate and scare this man into submission. I believe this sets a precedent for such a move, which may indicate that the “arresting+scaring+intimidation+psychological assessment” is soon to become the standard action towards anyone who exposes any kind of truth, once they have the “fake news filters” and supporting laws in place. From this angle, I felt it was noteworthy, and deserved sharing on this thread.
    I do not know how brave he will be in fighting this thing, but if he does not recoil under pressure and receives some support from the public, this might very well be the best thing that has everhappened to Peekay and his, as well as others’ efforts to expose false flag bullcrap. If he does go to court, the prosecution might need to present proof that the event was real, or be forced to release more footage, or at last have to explain why they can’t or won’t release any footage of anyone actually getting run over or hit by this greek muslim stuntman. I am not holding my breath that this will lead to a full exposé, but it will be interesting to observe.
    For those who are curious about the doughnut terrorist, I will not provide video links, since a quick search for “Peekay Melbourne Attack” brings them all up.
    But I will include a link to the video Peekay had released before his arrest, which someone (I assume a non-australian) has posted online. The video is 2nd or 3rd generation and is of low quality. In order to see a clearer picture of what Pekay and others are pointing out, please look up the videos by a youtuber called Russiavid. In any case, most of the footage the youtubers use (witness and CCTV) are available on Liveleak in high quality and without commentary.
    https://youtu.be/_Rm25qCGSjA

    1. That’s interesting stuff. Although I am in NZ, I paid very little attention to this story even though it grabbed the headlines for a day or so here. There are some odd actions taking place in a very famous spot in Melbourne and all of it well covered from multiple angles ….
      However, over the years, I have become increasingly sceptical about some of the makers of the videos exposing the false flags. Specifically, they love to make their videos 5 times as long as is required to get their point across (and most people have a short attention span so can immediately dismiss it), they spout lots of reasons as to why these things happen (unnecessary) and then they insult the eye witnesses who they claim are all in on the staged event (fucking lying fat prick or whatever).
      So what did your post say? You conflated the event with the person making the videos – which means if someone can dismiss the maker of the video as a raving idiot (which isn’t hard to do to be honest). then the point about the fake event is lost with him. Once again we pin our hopes on people and over 15 years after 9/11 we should really learn that the events stand up for themselves without the need to elevate people to some special status.

      1. So what did your post say? You conflated the event with the person making the videos – which means if someone can dismiss the maker of the video as a raving idiot (which isn’t hard to do to be honest). then the point about the fake event is lost with him. ~ KP
        Well, with that statement, you pretty much summarized the Sunstein counter-information operation. And, one of the key reasons for those 15 years having passed during which “the events” failed to “stand up for themselves”
        For example, on another blog, it was quickly pointed out to me that Russiavid, the youtuber whose videos I referred to because he had the clearest picture, was a flat-earther, and I already knew, from the few videos of his that I have seen, he liberally engages in nonsensical and very selective numerology stuff. With a guy like that, it wouldn’t take more than thirty seconds for an average person to dismiss him as a “raving idiot” as you call it.
        Don’t have the time, nor access to the footage. I have to fall back on these raving idiots. Because they are idiots, their findings, as well as their videos containing the footage are dismissed.
        This small example of circular logic perfectly describes the engineered loop cycle we are presented with, and are trapped in. There are swarms of people on the internet who are working to make sure we stay there, and everything that needs covering up has someone who can be dismissed as an idiot who’s actually exposing that event. Which leaves us, as individuals, to our own resources, comprehension ability, critical and analytical thinking, etc. to separate wheat from chaff. And, there are millions upon millions of us that fall into that category at this point, who have been educated by those 15 years, who can and do put things into proper perspective. There are millions of us who can see, observe and identify the charade… However, we are all like individual snowflakes. And snowflakes do not make an avalanche as long as “accumulation” is prevented.
        In regards to the event in question… Had there been sufficient coverage of the event by main stream sources (better paid idiots) and they made the videos available, I could have provided different links. But we do not live in that world, do we? For the dissemination of hard to find footage, we have to rely on passionate people, some of whom are Sunsteinistas, who care to or are paid to spend time looking at every minute detail of these “events” like a proper investigative journalist or an investigator should…
        That said, I have also mentioned LiveLeak as a source of some of the footage, unedited and with no commentary that one may choose watch to avoid being misled by sincere but flawed and fallible people like Peekay, or insincere limited hangouts like Russiavid. As I had mentioned in my post, the staging and production of this specific event is so amateurish, I would argue that anyone who’s not under the influence of the blue pill can clearly see the choreography, the choreographer, stage director, actors, extras, cameraman, and the stuntman as clear as day. No need for any commentary by anyone if someone has the time and the interest to watch the videos more than three times.
        Even then, the event itself is not so significant in an of itself besides reconfirming that the American Manufactured Reality Industry is franchising their operations to other nations. I hate to say it, but if your laws for controlling the shitizens are too lax down there in NZ, you can expect something happening in the near future. Since you are a satellite state (I don’t mean this as an insult) your “event” doesn’t even have to be as big. The manufactured news of someone having “attempted” to run over some people, or someone simply doing a few doughnuts at an intersection would be plenty good to scare the people into submission and silence simply by association.
        In any case… Perhaps by talking about the videos and the event too much, I failed to make it clear that the main emphasis of my comment above, which was also what I felt tied it to Craig’s article above, was to point out the unprecedented legal action and enforced psych evaluation taken against someone who makes videos at home and releases to the world. The content of his videos, the (in)accuracy off his analysis, and whether or not he is a raving idiot is absolutely immaterial in respect to setting precedence. This is a legal and procedural issue, and I will reiterate that I feel it serves as a beta test for what is to come for ALL of the shitizens of the so-called civilized world…

        1. What you say is totally spot on. Just saw this tweet
          “If Trump follows Putin’s playbook, he’ll boost his ratings w/a false flag attack killing his own people, leading to war to justify autocracy”
          So people have no problem believing that Putin would do such a thing as he is the “enemy” but somehow are fine with 9/11 where there were 10 physical impossibilities before morning tea?
          The Pentagon actually unites a large number of people on this site – it was the “no large plane flew into the Pentagon” what separated the fakes from the real folk. Any person of logic, having analysed all the physical evidence and subsequent interviews has to conclude that no plane of that size flew into the Pentagon. And it became the key issue – the one where a lot of well-known truth people refused to accept it and did their best to discredit those whose work went towards establishing it. That was what made me realise that “9/11 Truth” was controlled from the beginning – so not everyone involved was a fake but significant effort was made to promote the fakes to appear authentic.
          A fake event in NZ? Quite possibly although hopefully we’re small and insignificant enough to avoid it. Also I’m not sure we have the goon infrastructure required to pull it off – it needs a fair amount of man power.

    2. Systematic psychiatric intimidation of independent analysts–aka conspiracy theorists–in the future? Why not? As long as the 9/11 censors–i.e. just about all mouthpieces of importance all over the world–ignore it or dismiss it as worthy of no attention, it could disrupt the few serious investigations into what seems to be a worldwide rendition of Plato’s cave. And the acquaintances who dismiss Craig’s critical thinking may believe in good faith that a few days of forced brain clean-up can only be good for him.
      This is one more reason to promote information that is very difficult to deny, including by smart people (like a mental health expert) who try hard to not understand it. Should I ever be subject to psychiatric abuse, I’d try to stick to the distinguished examining doctor’s failure to learn about Building 7’s self-destruction when it happened.
      Love,

  32. Feel free to counter the negative charge of conspiracy theorist as an egoistical fantasist with this definition of denial: a defense mechanism in which the existence of unpleasant internal or external realities is kept out of conscious awareness.

        1. socketpuppet and Gayle,
          you got the joke – congratulations!
          Did you notice Jimmy started the argument clinic, but wasn’t joking?

  33. Reblogged this on satoconor and commented:
    Conspiracy theorists are actually fighting against a black box, no wander they have most of the times very few evidence and witnesses, the black box is most of the time stronger 🙁 can be the whole intelligence community with their millions of people think tank and brain storm over the internet

  34. I wouldn’t identify it as a black box but a distraction as illusions are to divert your attention from what is actually going on. A main reason of the red tassel on the Chinese spear, to confuse your opponent.
    First one must remove themselves from the mind control media which includes TV, newspapers, periodicals and about 95% of what comes across online. There’s still real there yet but TPTB are working hard at shutting that down as we seen in the “Fake News Meme” that came about during the last US election. A hint of whose real online would be most of the 200 alt media sites accused of being created by Russia to steer the election.
    They’re very clever, there’s many catch phrases they incorporate that can and do instill a dramatic engineered response in the general populace. With them controlling more than 90% of MSM news feeds, they can totally manipulate public discourse.If one follows all the news feeds across the country, the talking heads spin the same scripted news format that’ll continue for days where in people come to believe it as fact without ever critically fact checking the story line.
    The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/ or military consequences of the lie.
    It becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
    Joseph Goebbels

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