There are no conspiracies

[Deep Dish]

Websites such as this are breeding grounds for conspiracy theories. Certainly there are websites far worse than here, but here conspiracy theories do run amok and I have noticed how the propagators of such conspiracies often become "heroes", championing the underdog in a symbolic and sublimated struggle of identity and gaining control in their life. I am getting to be practically twice as old as some young chaps on here and about a decade older than what seems to be the majority of fellows on here. I support the establishment and usually take a chuckle when I read the latest thread against the police or about some sort of "brainwashing" by "the media." Most disconcerting are threads supporting conspiracies concerning 9/11, the IRS, or even about Darwinian evolution; subject matters which require colossal denial of evident reality, to the point where it's not even worth debating them to their face because that gives them, as Richard Dawkins said of creationists, the "oxygen of respectability" that they want.

People believe in conspiracy theories because they suffer what psychologists call an external locus of control. In other words, they feel that life events just happen to them rather than proactively leading where life takes them. I wouldn't necessarily go as far to say that conspiracy theories are their way of making excuses but their lack of control in life certainly leads them in that direction.

The young are especially prone to conspiracy theories for probably two reasons:

1) The young are biologically programmed to believe everything and anything. This high suggestibility is grounded in evolution. You don't want toddlers to be skeptical about staying away from alligators. We don't really start forming independent opinions until the teenage years but at that point, since we were relatively new on the scene in terms of critical thinking, we have a difficult time distinguishing credible ideas from fraudulent ones. I personally used to firmly believe in some very bizarre things: the JFK conspiracy, Nostradamus, "god", and even that fluoride in water kills people. It took me several times of being bamboozled that I began to wise up.

2) The young have an external locus of control. You are under the wings of your parents, you grudgingly attend school every week day, there are few places in public to hang out with your friends, you are financially dependent on your parents and even when you start working you are getting paid for next to nothing. You can't even drink alcohol if you so choose (which by the way I have never met a matured adult who regretted not having drank more in their life). As people grow older and tend to gain control of their life, predictably beliefs in conspiracy theories tend to decrease. Of course, those whose lives remain with an external locus of control, with a great example being the impoverished and minorities living in poor neighborhoods, so do the conspiracy theories remain.

This is probably why posters on this forum who push the conspiracy angle tend to become popular (or at least distinguished). Teenagers, which comprise the vast majority of this forum, are struggling to gain control of their life and subsequently root on those fellow posters who say "F*ck the estalishment", "The income tax is illegal", and other anti-establishment stances. It's all in a symbolic journey for them to find their way in life. Just think of Tom Cruise.

I would imagine the factor other than age which contributes to why this forum is a breeding ground for conspiracy theories is that this website is about "getting" women. The ladies are one aspect which they feel is out of control and that problem tends to correspond with other problems elsewhere in life.

Since yesterday was September 11th, I posted an essay (which I did not write) on my blog which thoroughly dismisses and credibly dismisses 9/11 conspiracies. It's a popular conspiracy to believe but completely without merit and blasphemously tarnishes the lives of those people who actually died.

The point of this thread is that why people believe weird things is a larger and more important issue than each individual issue. You can relatively easily discredit a particular theory but why people believe is the real issue.

 

[KarmaSutra]

Wait a goddamned minute brother, You mean to tell me that all of the dollars I got for my teeth when I was a kid didn't come from the tooth fairy?


Bigfoot ( I call him Gene) and I just shared a wonderful waldorf salad in the wilds of Washington state watching my beloved Seahawks kick ass, was that just a dream?

Now I'm all foccoccled . . .

 

[( . )( . )]

None, zero, zip conspiracies?

Holy sh!t what are you omnipotent or something?

To be that certain about it would probably place you among the conspiracy nuts, just at the polar opposite end.

I believe in a few conspiracies which I wont bother going into, but now that I know your actually an all knowing, all seeing God I guess I'll have to rethink them.

Not sold I'm afraid.

 

[ThreeStorms]

What about the lie about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, isn't this some sort of conspiration? Many people in the government knew it was wrong but lead the US to war anyway.
Oops, no political discussion allowed so ignore this post.

 

[Don Ronny]

This essay is all based on personal opinion and is backed by very little hard facts. I thought you of all people would post something better.

For starters, the author writes:

Carefully review footage of the collapses, and you will find that the parts of the buildings above the plane impact points begin falling first, while the lower parts of the buildings are initially stationary

If you understand how the towers were built you would know that their primary support structure was an internal concrete core. The exterior of the building had little structural value..it was more of a facade. If you put powerful enough explosives in the ground to knock the feet off those internal supports, then what happens? most of the collapse occurs inside the building, dragging down the top past the weak points.

For a better idea of construction, see this photo:

World Trade Construction

Those 4 cranes you see in the photo, are perched atop the central support core of the tower. This core is built of sheer concrete reinforced by 44 beams of construction grade steel (not aluminum as the blog author suggests) which were sealed in fire-repellant asbestos. (not aluminum as the author implies) As you can see, it takes up the majority of the towers footprint and is what holds the building upright.

Another piece of evidence this author fails to talk about are the seismographs taken that day...

Columbia University's Seismic Readouts

The above image is a seismographical readout at the time of the attacks and collapse of the WTC. You can clearly see on the top line the small peaks of the planes impacts.

But here is where it gets interesting, check out those two really BIG spikes on the 3rd and 4th lines. Those spikes represent the collapse of the towers. Notice the shape of these spikes, the highest peak is actually at the beginning. A strange anomaly when you consider the nature of a collapse is more gradual than explosive, with the vibrations becoming more and more intense as each floor collapses onto the next.

But this isnt the case in the seismograph.

The Palisades seismic data recorded a 2.1 magnitude earthquake during the 10-second collapse of the South Tower at 9:59:04 and a 2.3 quake during the 8-second collapse of the North Tower at 10:28:31.

While the aircraft crashes caused minimal earth shaking, significant earthquakes with unusual spikes occurred at the beginning of each collapse. Not only that, but these two unexplained spikes are more than twenty times the amplitude of the other seismic waves associated with the collapses!

This seismic record shows that as the collapses began - a huge seismic spike marked the moment the greatest energy went into the ground. The strongest jolts were all registered at the beginning of the collapses, well before the falling debris struck the earth.

THE EXPERTS SPEAK OUT

Asked about these spikes seismologist Arthur Lerner-Lam, director of Columbia University's Center for Hazards and Risk Research told the American Free Press, "This is an element of current research and discussion. It is still being investigated." According to Lerner-Lam, "The ground shaking that resulted from the collapse of the towers was extremely small."

A "sharp spike of short duration" is how seismologist Thorne Lay of Univ. of California at Santa Cruz said an underground explosion appears on a seismograph. Another seismologist, Won-Young Kim, stated that the Palisades seismographs register daily underground explosions from a quarry 20 miles away. These blasts are caused by 80,000 lbs. of ammonium nitrate and cause local earthquakes between Magnitude 1 and 2, and their spikes greatly resemble the activity seen on 9-11

Evidently, the energy source that shook the ground beneath the towers was many times more powerful than the total potential energy released by the falling mass of the huge towers.

To see some indication of this explosion, See this video

Notice how the ground shakes BEFORE the towers fall!

BUT HEY, THESE ARE JUST SILLY NUMBERS AND SCIENCE

You would think more people would have reported hearing explosions on 9-11. Well if you watch the news you wont come across videos like this..

Firemen talk about explosions

Fireman1: Floor by floor it started popping out...
Fireman2: It was almost like they had detonators…
Fireman1: Yeah, detonators…
Fireman2: …planted to take down the building. boom-boom-boom-boom-boom….
Fireman1: All the way down. I was watching it and running..

Or hear clips like this...

MP3 of FIrefighter Transmission

We have numerous people covered in dust because of the secondary explosion…

And I can guarantee you that Fox News will never talk about these transcripts ...

Firemen Transcripts Released

Official: Battalion 3 to dispatch, we've just had another explosion.
Official: Battalion 3 to dispatch, we've had additional explosion.
Dispatcher: Received battalion command. Additional explosion .
[...]
Dispatcher: Battalion 5, be advised we're trying to contact Battalion 3 at this moment to report north tower just collapsed.

SO WHY DON'T WE HEAR ABOUT THIS?

Well the government has passed a law which prevents full accounts from being published

NEW YORK COURT CENSORS TESTIMONIES OF 911

(1) denied the motion of nine family members of persons who died on 9/11 for leave to intervene as petitioners (Family Members), and
(2) directed disclosure of the oral histories albeit redacted to delete the employees' personal expressions of feelings, opinions and recommendations.

…Not falling within the intra-agency exception are the personal expressions of feelings contained in the oral histories, and we accordingly modify to direct disclosure of such expressions.

In other words, if a firefighter who was interviewed said, "I heard what sounded like explosions and I think it was bombs that took down those towers, it was all so horrible", the press will merely get the portion that says: "it was all so horrible".

(3) directed disclosure of the 911 tapes and transcripts albeit redacted to delete the opinions and recommendations of respondent's employees, and further redacted to delete the words of 911 callers other than those related to the Family Members, unanimously modified, on the law, to grant the motion to intervene, and to direct disclosure of respondent's employees' personal expressions of feeling contained in the oral histories, and otherwise affirmed, without costs.

Translation for you non-lawyer types: The transcripts of tapes of the calls that people made to 911 on that day will not be released at all because the Court said they would invade the privacy of the surviving families - even though surviving family members indicated to the Court that they waived such rights to privacy.

There is a lot of evidence that shows explosives were indeed used.

Your author also fails to address the fact that Several of the hijackers are still alive and well

More resurrected hijackers here

CONCLUSION

Ultimately, I do agree with your message Deep Dish, especially about the external locus of control. I have studied this tragic day quite a bit... it got to the point where it consumed my life and I just had to let it go, even though the truth made me so angry. The world is not fair and corrupt people are in power...its been the same damn song ever since civilization began. Ultimately, life is too precious to live it in constant paranoia, and this is why I don't get too deep into the study of these things anymore.

Having said that, I will never stop educating myself or seeking the truth about world events and I hope that more people become conscious of what is really going on, that they would turn off their televisions because the news in this country is watered down crap and a disgrace to the profession of reporting.

People may take outrage at this post, saying that I dishonor the families of those who were murdered. Well it may come as a surprise that a great deal of these families have actively participated in the 911 Truth Movement and fought hard in court to release some of the evidence I have presented here. Can you really blame them?

Footnote: I would like to give credit to Geronimo Jones for providing the best explanation I have read to date. I have only pasted pieces of his post and you will find a lot more startling info there.

 

[Don Ronny]

woops..double post

 

[Shiftkey]

I have three words for you: Nixon and Watergate

Did that scandal suddenly become true simply because there was enough uncovered evidence? No, it was true long before that. So just because a conspiracy theory doesn't seem plausable to you right now, that does not make it false.

 

[cant think of a user name]

...usually take a chuckle when I read the latest thread against the police or about some sort of "brainwashing" by "the media."...

Are you referring to that thread where people said they hated the police?

I'm not trying to get into a debate here, or launch any personal attack, but just because police mistreatment hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

There have been numerous official investigations, academic studies and writings I can refer you to if you want to look at the... very real racism and discrimination (among other things) that exists in police culture.

Of course, that doesn't mean I hate the police or anything like that. Just stating what has been comprehensively researched and investigated.