If you don’t think it will make you aspirate your cruller, please go get a look at this article in This is London (of the Evening Standard) about the burgeoning popularity of trutherist paranoia regarding 9/11, and particularly the Loose Change fuckumentary. A taste:
The movie was shown on television to 50 million people in 12 countries on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 last autumn. More than 100,000 DVDs have been sold and another 50,000 have been given away. In Britain, 491,000 people have clicked on to Google Video to watch it on their computers.
Called Loose Change, the film is a blitz of statistics, photographs pinched from the web, eyewitness accounts and expert testimony, all set to hip-hop music. And it is dramatically changing the way people think about 9/11.
A recent poll by the respected New York Times revealed that three out of four Americans now suspect the U.S. government of not telling the truth about 9/11. This proportion has shot up from a year ago, when half the population said they did not believe the official story of an Al Qaeda attack.
The video claims the Bush administration was, at the very least, criminally negligent in allowing the terrorist attacks to take place. It also makes the startling claim that the U.S. government might have been directly responsible for 9/11 and is now orchestrating a cover-up.
Unsurprisingly, the film’s allegations have been denied, even roundly condemned, by White House sources and U.S. intelligence services.
Only this week, the letters page of the Guardian newspaper was full of discourse about Loose Change, which was made by a trio of twentysomethings, including a failed film school student and a disillusioned ex-soldier.
Then, go visit David Thompson’s excellent blog to reassure yourself that not all Brits are loony. You’ll find there an excellent article on the Death of the Gallery, one on Che chic, PoMo and Terry Eagleton (all literature is about class relations), and a really superb post about Phantom Guilt Syndrome. Plenty more great stuff there, and though David’s written for the Guardian, he’s quite sane!
Check out Scott Burgess’s new pic at the Daily Ablution, and the first installment of his New Orleans photo journey. He’s also got the news of how Joni Mitchell’s saving the world, one ticket at a time.
I’m guessing (without clicking the link) that they didn’t bother to point out that non-political types like Popular Mechanics have debunked this crap.
JAA, it just doesn’t matter.
Because of teh Truthiness!
Here’s a good antidote to the Toother’s ahhhhh”truth”.
http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/
Good site. Go through the permanent top posting, some interesting reading there.
Fuck this noise. I mean seriously, fuck it.
I’ve seen too damn many people shipped off to go get shot at, and have given up too much, put up with too much crap, and a whole dose of this that and the other.
I take national security very, very seriously. Not in a – hmm, let’s read about something on a blog – but like 40% pay cut, relocation kind of serious. The only damn reason I’m typing this rather than getting shot at in some obscure corner of the world is because of health issues – and don’t think I haven’t dug right the fuck into DoDMERB, major waivers, minor waivers, and all that good fun.
That’s all my choice, and what comes of it comes of it.
But these ^&^#@(&*( [insert Marcott-type tirade here] +*&(*&*&^.
I mean, what the unholy hell. I don’t care if y’all are intent on committing suicide, but for God’s sake, don’t crash your car into mine at high speed – go find a bridge embuttment to drive into or something. And don’t jump on my case when I make the evidently horrific assumption that folks might just not be aching to get killed or live their lives in abject terror.
Screw this, screw loose change, screw it all. I’ll be in a job with real money, and I’ll call y’all back after someone does 100 kT of urban renewal to NYC or DC or something. It’s sure as hell evident that nothing short of that will stop asshats like these from totally losing the plot.
I think you stated that well, BRD. I have nothing to add.
This whole site fucking sucks since Jeff stopped smacking people in the face with his cock. Collins, you’re fired.
Don’t worry too much about the “numbers” in Britain supporting this – they are the same 400,000 who read the Grauniad and “The Bedwetter” (as “The Independent” is commonly known).
Its’ easy to see Britain, viewed through the prism of our media, as a lost Eurabian cause – a sinilar view could be applied to the US if you only read the WaPo or NYTimes.
Common feeling (what the guys at work and in the pub talk about) is VERY different.
In a week where reports of the “beheading plot” are in full flow, nobody here is really questioning who done it, 911 wise.
Of much more concern here, are the Professors and Academics who pedal this drivel cause they just can’t stop behaving like teenage oiks! I say lets stop their pocket money!
We had the Reaganite/Thatcherite removal of leftism from our economic management (thank God); when do we start the same process in our education system and local government.
I was reading some of the comments over at the Screw Loose Change site, and the only thing now evident is that the creeping anti-intellectualism of progressive politics that has infiltrated our school systems is indeed having an effect.
We are churning out kids so pumped up on self-esteem that any argument they wish to defend is perforce true. That many can’t be bothered to master the foundational knowledge necessary to support their wild assertions is an unsurprising yield from a contemporary feel-good curricula, which, when coupled with the intentional weakening of national pride, massive historical revisionism, and large doses of cultural guilt, sets the foundation for both the egocentrism and the intellectual ineptitude of conspiracy theorists, many of whom suffer from precisely the same selection bias that they’ve picked up from their teachers and their media.
All of which is my pet conspiracy theory, of course—though in this case, it is helped by the fact that it is ALL TRUE, MAN!
Great post, great comment thread. BRD, my hat’s off. What more can I say? To whatever capacity I could, I’d be proud to stand with you.
And Chris, thanks for a Sunday morning lift. Really. I’ve suspected for some time that the US led the world in delusional, self-involved, socialist emoting. To have your optimistic, almost droll take on old Britain does the heart good.
And what Jeff just said.
“Progressive” leftism is a syndrome, not a valid point of view.
Thanks, Chris. I don’t really think that about you guys. I read Burgess (well, he’s American) and Bloody Scott and Melanie Phillips and Worstall and Harry, etc. I just wanted to prevent people who’ve aspirated their crullers from overgeneralizing in a moment of outrage.
Loose Change: Panhandling the Truth
“Brother, can you spare a clue?”
JHoward, Dan…
if I need a “sunday morning lift” I come straight to Protein Wisdom. This site is an island of sanity (and wit and comedy and good sense and old fashioned wisdom) and a refuge from the acrid stench of lefty defeatism and craven cowardice that I’m sure we all deal on a pretty constant basis.
I have to say that this old limey thanks God everyday for the American and British boys and girls who, with honour dignity and courage stand in front of us and put their lives on the line to protect the idea of freedom and democracy.
Britain has no truer friend than the United States, and that friendship is deeply appreciated on this side of the pond.
I hope you keep us updated, Chris. Best wishes over there…the madness here can be palpable at times.
This whole site fucking sucks since Jeff stopped smacking people in the face with his cock. Collins, you’re fired.
Posted by unimpressed troll
He can’t. It’s gotten so big, it won’t return his calls.
Amen, brother. And thanks for the rockin’ language. It’s the tits.
Those of you who followed my despatches from Dhaka will know that the Jews are not only behind the 9/11 conspiracy.
The Jews are also responsible for the poor choice of shoes in Bata shops and for the current political upheaval in Bangladesh.
This is to go over old ground of course.
My concern is that it has not so far been established that Henri Paul was Jewish. This is fucking up my Diana conspiracy theory, and to suggest that the Duke of Edinburgh may be Greek is a feeble red herring.
One last thing, guys. I had forgotten this speech until the other day when somebody posted it as a sort of birthday tribute.
Its Ronald Reagan speaking in 1964 – its’ unbelievable how relevant it still is. And boy could he hit that lefty target!
I had heard parts of it in my youth, but hearing it again today ….
“in a cold, dark winter it warmed the cockles of the British Heart”
<a href=”http://jebstersr.freepgs.com/MLFAudio/HappyBirthdayRonnie020607.wma” target=”_blank”>
I see that she’s reworked Kipling’s “If” and set it to a jazzy dance number. It’s probably for the best that I can’t find what she’s done to it.
I’m one of those people who doesn’t think that the government has told the whole story about 9/11. Does that make me part of a conspiracy-mongering horde of idiots? Well, maybe not since I do believe that the government’s official version is the truth.
Polls are stupid. I believe in unidentified flying objects, but I don’t believe they came from space. If I can’t tell what kind of bird or plane it is, it’s unidentified. Stupid semantics indeed, but there you are. And 400,000 people watching something isn’t the same as 400,000 people agreeing to something. In a world where Tupac and Elvis are hanging out with aliens in Wyoming figuring out who to kill next now that Enemy Number One Anna Nicole Smith is dead, a few hundred thousand Brits watching some claptrap doc is not a big deal.
Chris,
You’re one of the good ones – it heartens me to know that folks like you can still be found.
BRD
The Reagan speech is fascinating when compared to the current political climate.
BUAWHAHAHAHAHA!!! A perfect description of the “Truthers”.
Dan, Jeff, et al,
The truthers are, of course, a coalition of opportunistic whores and the easily deluded. Much like the AGW crowd.
Jeff’s on to something fingering the self esteem cult. Excessive cultivation of self esteem destroys a key mental ability–relating cause and effect. For too many, there are no consequences, or consequences are easily manipulated.
I propose a modest solution. Fist fighting should be required on the playgrounds of every public school. A solid crack on the nose is a wonderfully edifying event. Just think of the lessons in physics, physiology, and psychology.
Said anothe way, there are some things that you can say or do that will get your ass beat.
The truthers need there asses beat–some metaphorically, some not.
Yeah, he’s like that a lot. I suspect it’s one of the reasons he writes.
In reaction to “Brother, can you spare a clue?†The_Real_JeffS wrote:
I disagree.
“I find your lack of clue… disturbing.”
That fits better, especially if the Truther is being telekinetically strangled at the time.
Pat, your version works MUCH better…..just don’t stop when Grand Moff Tarkin intervenes, OK?
I fell in love with tupac through music, movies, and picutes . I will be in peace when Iam with tupac in heaven. My love for tupac keeps be beliving there is a higher power. Life happens so fast . Tupac never had the chance to live life to the fullest. Keep faith in God and faith in tupac’s music.