Sunday, September 10, 2006

Call Mulder and Scully

Time.com recently ran this article, talking about the persistence of conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks.

It's not a terrible article, but I certainly don't need that many words to tell you "Why the Conspiracy Theories Won't Go Away." It's because nearly all the big historical events have conspiracy theories surrounding them. They go together like peanut butter and chocolate. (In the proper ratios, anyway.) Conspiracies about the moon landing and the JFK assassination have had traction for decades. Why should it be surprising that some 9/11 conspiracies would still be floating around five years on?

And though I said the Time article isn't bad, I did find one particular nugget in it a little sloppy:
A Scripps-Howard poll of 1,010 adults last month found that 36% of Americans consider it "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that government officials either allowed the attacks to be carried out or carried out the attacks themselves.
That's a rather imprecisely worded question. What exactly is meant by "allowed the attacks to be carried out"? Because if that means "had knowledge, but took no action," well then certainly I would think the infamous Condoleezza Rice testimony about the "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" briefing would be enough to put more than 36% of Americans in doubt.

But anyway.... drifting afield of the main point, which is: it's almost not a modern historic event without at least one accompanying conspiracy theory.

2 comments:

TheGirard said...

Nostradamus is turning in his grave...but he already knew he would

GiromiDe said...

If by "conspiracy," they mean "bureaucratic apathy, arrogance, and lack of imagination, and a preoccupation with Iraq in the Bush Administration" then sure, there was a conspiracy in our government. We might never get the real story about the years leading up the 9/11, because even the Commission itself was a little tainted.

Clinton was well within his rights to express outrage at being depicted as letting Osama get away. What president wants an Oval Office blowjob and 9/11 to be a part of his legacy? But he should at least take some kind of "buck stops here" attitude. It seems like none of our leaders want to do that any more.

I just chalk it up to our government not doing exactly what it was chartered to do -- to protect the citizenry. Our government would rather just piss away budgets, bitch and moan about politics, and bow down before the Almighty Corporate Plutocracy. When the hell would it have time to protect us?