On 9/11 Bullshit

"It is just this lack of connection to a concern with truth - this indifference to how things really are - that I regard as of the essence of bullshit."  Henry G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit p. 33-34

America is drowning in 9/11 bullshit.

I'm not talking about the "conspiracy theories" that Cass Sunstein deplores. Nor am I talking about the Official Conspiracy Theory (OCT) per se. Yes, the OCT is bullshit. But only 16% of Americans believe the OCT. That mentally-challenged minority is not the problem.

The problem is that the 84% that doesn't believe the OCT - most of them anyway - display a "lack of connection to a concern with truth" meaning "an indifference to how things really are." They know, or at least suspect, that they are not being told the truth about the most significant historical event of the 21st century - an event that rolled back the Constitution and triggered two murderous wars of aggression that have bankrupted the USA both morally and financially. And yet most of that 84% show little or no interest in discovering or publicizing the truth.

When Michael Shermer, a bullshitter who posed as an Economics Professor for several years until exposed by this blog, defends the Official Conspiracy Theory and falsely claims to have read David Ray Griffin's books, he is, of course, bullshitting.

"Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person's obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic exceed his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic." (Frankfurt 63)

Compare Professor David Ray Griffin's nine books on 9/11, and his countless essays, to Unprofessor Michael Shermer's discourse on 9/11 (see here, here, and here). Dr. Griffin, plainly, knows what he is talking about. He displays comprehensive "knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic." His books meet the highest academic standards of reasoned argument and thorough documentation. He considers potential counter-arguments and treats them fairly (most obviously in his first book The New Pearl Harbor, published before the reeking pile of bullshit known as the 9/11 Commission Report made it obvious that 9/11 must have been an inside job).

Shermer, unlike Griffin, does not address any specific evidence. Instead, he speaks in vague, general platitudes punctuated by ad-hominem attacks on his opponents. The Skeptic Magazine articles he published, written by Phil MolĂ© and Brent Blanchard, are not much better.  Each offers a cursory overview of some of the evidence cited in the 9/11 debates; and without exception, that evidence is presented in a mendacious or distorted way. (See Anab Whitehouse's analysis.)

Those who, like Shermer, Chertoff's Popular Mechanics crew, and the very few others who have openly defended the Official Conspiracy Theory - the untruthers - appear to be "disconnected from a concern for truth" (Frankfurt 40) to the point of fanatical devotion to untruth.

What can possibly explain such monumental bullshit?

And what can possibly explain the indifference to truth of that majority of the American people who don't believe the government's version of 9/11?

Will that majority finally wake up when it left hungry and homeless by the trillions spent on the 9/11 wars?

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