Monday, September 05, 2011

9/11 Deniers Ride Again

There's good news and bad news on the 9/11 denier front.

The good news is that Jonathan Kay has a new book, Among the Truthers, containing a perceptive analysis of the commonalities among 9/11 "Truthers", Obama "birthers", and other fringe conspiracists.

The bad news is that the 9/11 deniers are soon to host yet another laughable truther meeting, which they pompously call the Toronto Hearings, September 8-11, at Ryerson. Here's an article in the Canadian Press that mentions it.

Many of the usual Canadian 9/11 crowd will be there, including Michael Keefer, Graeme MacQueen, and Adnan Zuberi.

I hope some of our local skeptics can attend and report on it.

12 comments:

Corey said...

The Kitchener news radio station, 570 News, has been doing a "conspiracy" or alternate scenario segment on Tuesdays at 11:30 am for the past two months.

Topics included 9/11, moon landings and the New World Order.

Tomorrow should be really interesting as was last week's (go to 18:20 of the clip).

Miranda said...

Just a toss-out-to-the-crowd question: Are there any conspiracy theories that are making the rounds that you do accept, despite the fear that people might lump you together with "one of those types"?

(Just to be up front: I reject the birthers and the truthers, and I appreciate your airing this news.)

Miranda said...

"I hope some of our local skeptics can attend and report on it."

Calling people who deny the 9/11 deniers "skeptics" is a degradation of the term, don't you think?

Anonymous said...

I haven't done anything more then glance through it, but this article was in the news a few months ago: http://www.infowars.com/33-conspiracy-theories-that-turned-out-to-be-true-what-every-person-should-know/

Les Lane said...

"Controlled demolition" is a common theme among "truthers". To appreciate the complexity of controlled demolition it's worth checking out the demolition of Detroit's Hudson Department store.

Anonymous said...

If you consider this a "conspiracy theory," Miranda, I am willing to accept as at least plausible that the New York Police Department, the F.B.I., or the C.I.A. were aware of and turned a blind eye to the plot to assassinate Malcolm X, as Manning Marable discusses here:

http://www.democracynow.org/2005/2/21/the_undiscovered_malcolm_x_stunning_new

Jos said...

My favourite conspiracy theory is that the short-lived Pope John Paul 1 was actually a prank appearance by Peter Sellers. Look them up, the resemblance is remarkable.

Anonymous said...

My favorite conspiracy theory:

That Miranda is an intelligent human. I keep hearing rumors of this but I just don't see the evidence for it.

Anonymous said...

You are being rude, Anonymous 2011.09.07.15:47. I vehemently disagree with nearly everything I have seen Miranda post on Recursivity, but abusive "witticisms" like yours are disgraceful.

(I hasten to add that Professor Shallit has been the target of all sorts of obnoxious comments on these pages. I am impressed by his commitment to free speech in allowing them to appear.)

Anebo said...

Is anyone with a major public platform (e.g. the anchor of a network news broadcast) planning on denouncing and humiliating the Truthers this weekend. I haven't hear of any, buy you;d think it would be a good opportunity.

Doug Brinkman said...

9/11 was an inside job Shallit - September 17th 2011 - 1200 petitions demanding for a made in Canada Public Investigation will be presented to Parliament today.

Jeffrey Shallit said...

And guess what Hawkeyi - those petitions will be laughed at by Canadian MP's in exactly the same way that I do.