On this sunny about-to-be 80 degree morning, I say this to all of the probing minds who attempt to follow the logic thread down the rabbit hole...

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

What happened to " Interesting Questions" ? I can access the whole free DL site ---except " Interesting Questions ". It  just spins its wheels and does not open.  That has been for like 8 months now . Not that I really miss it much.

Agreed -it appears the BBC has gone daft.

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Its been very quiet round this neck of the woods this weather. Personally speaking, I was all politik-ed out. I feel re-invigorated now though so lets rock!

I think the loose change documentary whilst unconvincing, through it out there at least. Alot of people feel uneasy at the CIA links with Bin-Laden & the Taliban and think that this relationship hasn't been explored nor explained anywhere near satisfactorily.

Any takers?

I'm a taker if/when there's something to latch onto, James, but CIA/Bin Laden "links" are more CW (conventional wisdom - which are neither) than fact. Yes, the US government, by means of some CIA operatives, was interested in a defeat of the Soviets, who had invaded Afghanistan in the 80s. Yes, Osama bin Laden was ONE of the mujahadeen fighting the Soviets during that time. But the mental picture in the little heads of the likes of a Dylan Avery and his minions of the surrogates of President Reagan plotting away in a cave with the Big Guy are unconvincing.  Their greater conspiracy of an interrelated cozy working relationship that spans decades with Saudi-yada-Texas-oil-yada-skull&bones-yada-hmmmmmm requires more wacky weed than I might accidentally whiff.

It's the loosey goosey methodology of the Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing Gang that makes actual truth-seeking impossible. Throw into the mix a natural aversion to either the US, Reagan-Bush-Bush, or any American Republican, and the die is cast without the need for any additional 'proof.'  THEY did it, controlled demolition, remote control, drone missiles, yada yada yada.  

The initial comments on the BBC link echo my opinions. I've argued it all soooo many times before.  I am willing to do so again if there are any so lacking in common sense and logic to believe the folderol and argue it. Personally, I find the pathology of conspiratorial thought processes more interesting than any of the individual paranoic delusions themselves.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Unlikely as it seems, I thought there was a small chance you would be interested vaguely in what the programme was actually like, and the follow up to it, which was described by the '9/11 Truth Movement', et al. as 'a hit piece' on them.  Still, never let reality get in the way of a chance to have a dig, eh?  Lunatics? 

I'm sure you do this just to draw me out (though that is probably the workings of a paranoid mind).

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/mike_rudin/

Well, it worked, didn't it? Of course I'd try to bring your cantankerous self back into the fold, Andrew!

I wouldn't pay much attention to the view of 9/11 "Truthers" as their deficits in credibility are well demonstrated by their illogical belief systems and loosey goosey connections. I read the presentation from the BBC editorial page (as I said) and the comments from readers, which is where I found the real wisdom. Now I have to watch yet another program that asks "questions"??? I am pretty sure I've been down that road one too many times already. 

But if the presenters of the program did a radical shift from their advertised version of the show, that only proves my point -- they are either cynically promoting conspiracy theories as valid; or they are plainly as ill-informed and downright dim as the 9/11 "Truthers" themselves. I vote the former. Neither has journalistic merit.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

From Al-Beeb:

Many people question the official analysis of 9/11

With their Puritan legacy of always seeking the Devil behind inexplicable events, a Republican (my edit:  by Republican this means non-monarchist, not GOP) distrust of secrecy and special privileges, a recurring - but usually unfounded - sense that the exceptional mission of America is threatened by un-Christian enemies, and an abiding faith in the power of individualism closely followed by a fear of anything that threatens the individual, Americans have often been quick to turn to conspiratorial explanations that blame all manner of external forces for why things have not worked as hoped.

Although Americans have had a special affinity with a conspiracy talk, they no longer have a monopoly on the paranoid style.

With the growth of new media technologies conspiracy theories now circulate around the globe at lightening pace, and in recent years the UK has become increasingly attracted to rumours of conspiracy.

Peter Knight is a Senior Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Manchester. He is the author of Conspiracy Culture (2000), The Kennedy Assassination (To be published in 2007), and the editor of Conspiracy Nation (2002) and Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopaedia (2003).

Aha! A reverse baiting, huh? Why I oughta...

Yes, this Peter Knight certainly has his finger on the American conspiratorial pulsebeat! Was he part of the BBC special? You know -- the designated "expert" who unravels the complex historical genesis of the American Tin Foil Hatter to BBC auds, telling them all about why ...

... immediately revealing his lack of credibility with his central assumption. Americans have NOT historically been prone to believing conspiracy theories. I would argue that a large part of the success of the USA has been because of our dearth of conspiracy theorizing even if there has been the occasional colorful fringe element. Widespread conspiracy theorizing is a recent and disturbing trend spawned during the years that followed the convoluted JFK assassination. It has reached a mind-numbing crescendo taking the lead from Arabic and French sources, and finally giving us the American version, echoing the same nonsense so predictably trumpeted by the afternoon of September 11, 2001. This is new in terms of proportion of the US population though I understand when "experts" are so keenly focused on the evils and shortcomings of one nation alone, it's harder to keep a proper perspective on what goes on in lesser functioning states. Wherever conspiratorial thinking prospers, so drops the inverse ratio of civilizational heights. I'm sorry to live to see this time in my own country, but so it goes. I'll not go down silently.

The following explanation says more about Knight's prejudices than any reality, or, as they say in the Conspiracy Community -- truth. I'm guessing that by "Puritan legacy" he is referencing that Salem witch trials, where recent transplants from England charged a group of individuals as witches, then executed twenty of the "guilty" parties. This is a drop in the bucket when compared to the mass killings of "witches" that spanned centuries back in the Mother Land. But yes, I concede that some 400 years ago, in a Puritan colony of the once great imperial power, on whom the sun never set, there was this small embarrassing historical event, notable mostly for the aberration it would be in the land now known as the United States of America.

Nothing ever in the United States to have equalled the multiple murdering sprees resulting from such "inexplicable events" as the Bubonic Plague, to state another of countless Euro-examples. But never mind. Knight has a point to make. [PS Not to be picky, but the author should have written "republican" -- as in a form of government known as a republic -- with a lower case "R" in order to differentiate it from the proper noun referring to any political party of the same name. Must have been the slip of the shift key.]

Although Americans have had a special affinity with a conspiracy talk, they no longer have a monopoly on the paranoid style.

With the growth of new media technologies conspiracy theories now circulate around the globe at lightening pace, and in recent years the UK has become increasingly attracted to rumours of conspiracy.

Meanwhile, in Knight's A Little Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing explanation above, he leaves out the Mother of All Conspiracy Theorists while seeking to focus on the ever-stupid, ever-religiously blinded, ever-superiority-complexed Americans. What malarkey!

Was this guy just an example of an expert from the BBC program or does he moonlight for the network?

Nice to see you back, Andrew! Would love to know what's going on in your life these days. Wha's new??? How'd you do in that class? (you know what class)

Susan

 PS, I haven't read his entire U of M (not Michigan but Manchester, England-England) website page, but got a chuckle out of the classes Dr. Knight teaches.  I can't help but think about that Meadow Soprano class at Columbia... "Images of Hyper-Capitalist Self Advancement in the Era of the Studio System." 

Shucks, I'll bet these classes are taught with a combination of loathing and envy and maybe a touch of luv... 

Undergraduate

AM 1031 Theories of American Culture

AM 3381 Conspiracy Theories in American Culture

Postgraduate

AM 6331 American Studies: Histories, Theories and Methods

AM 5332 American Fiction and the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Yes, that is an interesting slip into upper case letters there now you point in out.

Makes you think....................(smirk). I know you luv that phrase and how it always like, expands your mind when people say it.

I am out of higher education due to my own inability to ever split my focus between more than one thing.  I don't want to dwell on this - even just telling you is making me want to hang myself.  I was doing very well in that class that you mentioned but I didn't write the paper for it or take the exam.  I did a presentation on the topic 'Is Music Haram?' that was very well received, if I say so myself. (Answer: Not really, no, but you know.....whatever.)

Susan, take pity on a poor, beleaguered depressive, and don't try to lure me back here.  Lord knows The Gazette is bad for my mental health.

Aw, sweetie, I am sorry to hear all of that.  I DO take pity.  I DON'T want to have any part in dragging down your mental health.  I DO want to make you feel better.  Would some Butterfingers or Red Vines help?

Heh, heh, you know I'm just kidding you about the BBC, right?  I love the BBC, it's one of my across the top bookmarks along with Apple, IMDB, Amazon, eBay and Google News.  I'm only yanking your chain when I make fun of it.  Why I'd sooner demean George Bush than say anything seriously negative about my Beeb!  

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin