Richard Gage was on C-SPAN. Why?

Richard Gage, the founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth was on C-SPAN the other day, and my only question is why was he on there? There's really no reason for him to be on there at all.

Anyways, the first thing he claimed was that only three buildings were destroyed. This is false.

All of the buildings there were several damaged to the point where they had to be razzed due to debris from WTC 1 & 2 hitting them. The reason why 9/11 truthers continue to insist that only three buildings were destroyed that day is because that's all we saw that were destroyed.

The second thing he claimed is that there is evidence of a controlled demolition, especially with WTC 7. This is not true. We know how WTC 7 collapsed. It's a result of the lower floors being heavily damaged by falling debris and the tower being on fire for several hours. The combination of this caused the structure to collapse on it's own, and in a way that looked like a controlled demolition for most people.

He then goes on for several minutes about how WTC 7 is a smoking gun, which as I explained is not true. He also claims that most people don't know WTC 7. This maybe true, but I imagine that most people are more focused on the WTC 1 & 2, and the nearly 3,000 people that died in those towers, and not the zero amount of people that died in WTC 7.

He also continued to insist that the towers came down due to thermite charges, but if this was true then how come they didn't go off immediately when those two jets hit the towers, because those towers clearly began to collapsed at the impact sites? Also it would take an awful lot of thermite to actually cut through those steal beams.

The only logical answer is that there was no thermite charges there and that the towers collapsed as a result of massive structural damage due to the jets hitting them and jet fuel fueled fires weakening the steal beams holding the towers up.

C-SPAN should not have given Gage any time because not only is he just spouting off the same debunked BS that the 9/11 truth movement has been spouting off for years, it also gives the 9/11 truth movement and his group a false sense of legitimacy.

It also keeps a conspiracy theory that needs to die alive.

P.S. before anyone says anything about his group's 2200 members I feel I need to remind you that not everyone in his group is an architect or engineer, and even if everyone in that group was an architect or engineer it still wouldn't mean anything because they are less than 1% of all of the architects and engineers in the US.

5 Things I've noticed about... Truthers

Truther, a term that came from the 9/11 Truth movement, but has become more than just an ironic and demeaning term for 9/11 conspiracy theorists.

A Truther can be someone believes in conspiracy theories other than the 9/11 conspiracy theories.

With this in mind I've taken a look at these people, and while I've noticed alot of traits about them, I've narrowed it down to about five different things.

So here are five things I've noticed about Truthers:

5. It's a broad and encompassing term.

For most people when they hear the word "Truther" they think of someone whom is apart of the 9/11 Truth movement, or just someone whom believes the myth that the US government, or Israel, or the Illuminati committed the 9/11 attacks. While this is true, "Truther" has become a more broad term and could include not just a member of the 9/11 Truth movement, but any conspiracy theory.

What a Truther really is is a type of conspiracy theorist that both claims they want to know the truth about a conspiracy theory, and then claims they already know what the truth is, but in reality it's anything but the truth.

Think of this type of person as someone whom asks you where the nearest large body of water is and you tell them that there is a pond 100 feet behind them, but they don't believe you and then tell you that nearest large body of water is two miles away, despite the fact that the pond is clearly behind them, and all they would have to do is turn around to see it. Even if they do turn around they'll just insist that it's not really a large body of water.

That's another thing about Truthers...

4. They keep "Moving the Goalposts".

For anyone who has had a "conversation" with a Truther type of conspiracy theorist you probably already know what I'm talking about, but for those who don't I'll explain.

Truthers, when confronted with evidence and/or logical arguments that contradicts or disproves their conspiracy theories, will often claim that what is being presented to them is not enough evidence to disprove what they are claiming isn't true, or that the evidence that you are presenting to them isn't true, and in either case they will claim to need more.

When a skeptic gets into an argument with a Truther and they start doing this a person like myself will usually determine that either the Truther is too dumb to realize what they are doing, or too deluded to realize what they are doing, or are in serious denial and are trying to hold on to what they believe or want to believe is real, but somewhere in their minds they know they're wrong.

Besides just "Moving the Goalposts" another tactic that Truthers like to use is...

3. They call everyone that disagrees with them a shill.

Truthers are under the assumption that they are right, and that everyone else who does not agree with is wrong. For those that continue to insist that the Truther is wrong then the Truther just seems to naturally assume the skeptic is either a sheep that has not "woken up" to "the truth" (their truth mind you) or someone who is being paid to say what they are saying.

Accusing someone of being a shill will often leave many skeptics to question whether or not a Truther seriously believes that a person is a shill, or if they're calling someone a shill as a way to avoid having to address the evidence and logic that a skeptic brings up.

Skeptics are not the only people get accused of being a shill. Truthers accuse each other of being shills, usually over a disagreement about who committed a "conspiracy", how they did it, and for what reason.

Most people would think that with two Truthers, despite their disagreement over how it was done, who did it, and for what ever reason a conspiracy took place, that they would show some unity, but they don't. Infact...

2. They're often aggressive with each other.

To a skeptic watching a Truther try to argue with another Truther can be the most hilarious thing to watch. Not only do these arguments show that their is no solidarity among Truthers of a certain conspiracy theory, but they also seem to try to one up each other in bogus and false claims, as well as sheer insanity.

Ofcourse this only happens with two Truthers that are near or equally aggressive. If one Truther is a newbie or just not as near aggressive as the Truther they get into an argument with, the aggressive Truther can be very domineering as well as very intimidating, and could cause some people to leave a Truther movement, or cause others to form their own Truther movement, or try to force that one aggressive Truther out (but this rarely happens).

The probable reasons why some Truthers are so aggressive towards other Truthers is that they are trying to weed out the weak (a sort of Truther hazing as some might see it) or they're trying to "identify" possible "shills", or they could just so seriously believe that their conspiracy theory is correct that they feel they must do what ever it takes to prevent the spreading of false information by others, including fellow Truthers.

Then there are just those that are naturally aggressive towards others and probably have some serious mental health issue.

Regardless of whether they are arguing with a fellow Truther or a skeptic a Truther will always do this one thing...

1. They will always bring up the same stuff that they think is evidence.

Regardless of whether or not a Truther will keep moving the goalpost on someone, or call them a shill, or just get really aggressive with another person, they will always use the same discredited arguments, and use the same debunked evidence that they believe is real evidence.

The arguments a Truther will make concerning any conspiracy theory are as predictable as phases of the Moon, and the reason I say that is like phases of the Moon they constantly repeat themselves over and over again.

Sometimes the arguments that they make are so common and in lock step that we skeptics know what a Truther is going to say before the Truther says it.

I guess that's the way of the Truther. Keep making the same debunked arguments over and over, while at the same time denying any real evidence.

Maybe we shouldn't call them Truthers. Maybe we should call them "Mythers"? Or liars.

"You might be a domestic terrorist if:" A look into conspiracy theorist claims about what makes a person a terrorist

Recently in one of skeptics groups that I belong to on Facebook someone posted this picture they found on a conspiracy theorist group:

Apparently conspiracy theorists believe that because some people believe or do certain then that makes them a "terrorist".

This picture is one of the most blatant examples of persecution complex that I have seen in a while and kind of shows the mindset of a conspiracy theorist.

I'm going to go through all of these claims and explain why believing in these things does not make you a domestic terrorist:

You raise/grow your own food

Why would this make you a domestic terrorist? The answer is it doesn't.

Millions of people across the country grow their own food in one way or another, be it either in small plots as a hobby (as my dad does) and as a way to have fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables, or in greenhouses, or in large fields that provide enough food to feed their entire family. Heck, even the White House has it's own vegetable garden.

If growing your own food made you a domestic terrorist, then why wouldn't the government just go around to everyones' houses and destroy their gardens and green houses? Or pass laws that make it illegal to grow your own food? They wouldn't because growing your own food is harmless and effects no one.

Oppose GMOs

Opposing GMO foods does not make you a terrorist. It might make you someone who doesn't understand the science behind GMO foods, or someone who has embraced anti-GMO propaganda, but not understanding science or embracing some group's claims without questioning them doesn't make you a terrorist.

If opposing GMO foods made you a terrorist then there would be no organic foods in any grocery store or farmers market anywhere, and no laws meant to either label GMO foods or prevent them from being grown or sold would ever be proposed, much less passed.

Prefer natural medicines

If this was true then how come the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a official United States government agency that researches and promotes things like natural medicines, even exists?

While the government does restrict multiple types of alternative and natural medicines, this is only because some of them are dangerous, or the manufactures claim it can do something when infact it cannot.

If natural medicines made a person a terrorist then all forms of alternative medicine would be illegal and people who sale it or even promote it would be going to prison.

Refuse vaccinations

Refusing vaccines does not make you a terrorist as there no laws that say that you have to get vaccinated. However, it does make you dangerous to others, as well as your own self as it puts you at greater risk for getting infected with a disease that could kill you, as well as spreading said disease to others who either weren't vaccinate because they also choose not to (or their parents choose not to have them vaccinated) or a person whom couldn't get vaccinate for various medical reasons, or someone whom did get vaccinated but the vaccine did not take affect for some reason.

Have a Ron Paul bumper sticker

This does not make you a terrorist, it just makes you someone who likes Ron Paul and refuses to accept the reality that he'll never be President, and someone who doesn't know when to take a bumper sticker off of their car.

Question 9/11

Believing in 9/11 conspiracy theories, or any other conspiracy theory for that matter, doesn't make you a terrorist. If it did then people like Alex Jones and Mike Adams would be in prison, and their websites, as well as any other websites that promote 9/11 conspiracy theories, would be shut down. This also include Youtube videos, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts that also promote 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Object to geo-engineering

I would ask what exactly do they mean by this, but I think they're talking about chemtrails.

Being opposed to geo-engineering chemtrails does not make you a terrorist, but this is due to the fact chemtrails don't exist, and even if they did, there are no laws that says that you cannot object to it.

However, if you threaten to shoot down a plane because you believe that it's spraying these imaginary chemicals, then you are a terrorist, or atleast someone whom has the potential to become one.

Oppose war

How does opposing war make you a terrorist? If anything it makes you the exact opposite, unless you oppose war via violence.

Support the Constitution

Why would supporting the Constitution make you a terrorist? I can't think of any reason why.

Certain people and places may not like it when a person expresses their rights as outlined in the Constitution, and have even tried to stop people from doing so, but whenever taken to court those people and places almost always lose.

If supporting the Constitution and standing up for your rights made you a terrorist then the people who stand up for their rights would always lose court cases where argue their Constitutional rights, and would go to prison for doing so.

Reject the NWO and Agenda 21

Rejecting the NWO does not make you a terrorist, but this is mostly due to the fact that the NWO does not exist.

As for rejecting Agenda 21 this also does not make you a terrorist. At worst it might make you someone that believes in the conspiracy theories about Agenda 21, but that only makes you uninformed about what Agenda 21 is, as well as someone that only listens to what other conspiracy theorists say it is rather than looking it up and reading about it yourself.

Believe your gov't is corrupt

I guess that means that I'm a terrorist! Because I think the government is corrupt.

Almost everyone believes that the government is corrupt, and there is a very good reason for that. Because it is, or atleast certain parts of it is.

If believing that the government was corrupt made you a terrorist, then you would never ever hear or read about in the news about any sort of corruption that goes on in the government because if a news organization did report on government corruption they would be labeled a terrorist group and shut down.

5 Things I've noticed about... Cults

Cults... those groups of seemingly nutty people that have been around with us since forever.

Most cults tend to die off, but some do stick around and in some cases evolve into religions.

Now many cults do have a lot of things in common but I've noticed five certain things about them.

So here are five things I've noticed about cults:

5. They're self destructive.

With a few notable exceptions most cults will eventually die off and cease to exist.

Most of the time a cult will cease to exist due to it's leadership's abusive and controlling behavior, which sometimes results in either a member getting kicked out for some minor infringement, or a member getting fed up with the behavior of the leadership and leaving. These combined with the public's finding out about a cult's abusive behavior, plus what ever strange beliefs they may have, might keep some people from wanting to join, and thus the the cult eventually dies out due to it being unable to gain new members.

Ofcourse sometimes a cult dies off not slowly and gradually, but very quickly due to it's members committing criminal acts that forces law enforcement to imprison most of it's members (those that come peacefully that is) or they get killed by law enforcement because they refuse to be arrested, or the members commit mass suicide or murder/suicide.

4. They isolate people.

Almost every cult there is encourages (or forces) it's members to engage in some form of isolation. For some this may be as minor as encouraging it's members to have as little contact as possible with people that are considered to be possibly "harmful", to having no contact with people who left the cult, to outright isolating themselves from society in general.

Sometimes this isolation isn't the result of a cult encouraging it's members to stop having contact with other people, but instead encourages them to engage in behavior with non-members that is usually considered to be bizarre, imposing, or abusive. Such behavior often times causes non-members to not want to be around any of these members, regardless of whatever relationship they may have with these people.

Regardless of however a cult does it, ultimately a cult will usually end up causing a member to be isolated from those that were closest to them (i.e. friends and family).

3. They're financially ruinous.

Many cults encourages it's members to do things that can cause them to go broke, or at least set them back financially.

One of the ways that cults ruin people financially is that they encourage their member to give large sums of money to the cult. This can be done either through encouraging it's members to give large donations to the cult directly or any "charities" it runs, or encouraging buying overpriced products from the cult, or requiring it's members to pay large sums of money inorder to advance through the cult.

Other ways that cults ruin people financially is by encouraging their members to make bad financial decisions. This could be done either through encouraging their members to make bad investments into things that the cult likes, or to quit a job because the cult doesn't approve of the job, to quiting a job and leaving to go work for the cult.

Regardless of how a cult does it, with the exception of maybe it's leadership, a cult will often times leave a person worse off financially then they were when they joined.

2. They engage in dangerous pseudoscience and alternative medicine.

Almost every cult there is promote some kinds of pseudoscience, which for the most of them isn't actually dangerous, but then there are some types of pseudoscience that cults promote that really are dangerous, particularly concerning medical issues.

One example of this would be the Jehovah's Witnesses who strongly "discourages" (i.e. threatens to excommunicate) it's members from receiving blood transfusions, which has lead to needless deaths.

Another example of this would be Scientology and their "stance" on psychology, in that they believe that psychology is evil. This type of belief can cause people to not seek out or engage in any type psychiatric help when they really need it, which could cause a person to commit suicide or even an act of violence.

Some cults even go so far as to use no modern medicine what so ever. Christian Science is probably one of the best examples of this as they believe that praying will heal a person, and that they do not use any type of medicine at all, instead relying entirely on God's will and prayer.

1. They don't actually have to be religious or organized.

While many cults are generally organized and have religious aspects to them, there are some groups out there that are neither religious or organized, but because of it's own actions and the actions of it's members, many people would argue that they are cults

The 9/11 Truth movement and the Anti-vaccination movement are just two examples of groups that while neither are religious or organized into one single group (although there are several separate groups for both movements) both movements have been accused of being cults due to the movements' continuous promotion of the same stuff that has been debunked for years, and the behavior of both movements' adherents.

Then there are groups that are organized into one single group that are not religious, but because of it's promotion of pseudoscience and other things that are just not possible, as well as how it treats critics, they are considered to be a cult by many people who have examined the group. The Zeitgeist Movement is a prime example of this.

Regardless of whether or not it's religious or organized or neither, a cult is a cult, and it could potentially damage and even destroy your life, so it's best to avoid them.

The best Videos of the Week for 2013

Last year I started putting up on this page one video per week.

Now I've had a lot of videos on here that were just great, and today I've decided to have a look back at what I consider to be the five best videos of the week for 2013:

5. Alex Jones As Alien Lizard Explains Obamacare

Probably every skeptic around the world knows who Alex Jones. While many skeptic bloggers have atleast written up a couple of articles to either discredit him and/or show what kind of a fool he is, still by far the best person to discredit Alex Jones and to make him look like a fool... is Alex Jones.

This clip from Right Wing Watch's Youtube page clearly shows why that's true:



4. Debunking 9/11 conspiracy theorists part 6 of 7 - The psychology behind a 9/11 truther

From late 2012 to early 2013 Myles Power created a seven part series that is in my opinion one of the best 9/11 conspiracy theory debunking videos that I have ever seen, and the sixth video in the series, which explains the psychology and mindset of a 9/11 Truther, and infact most conspiracy theorists, could have itself been a stand alone video apart from the series.



3. Five Stupid Things About the Anti-Vax Movement

Steve Shives is one of my favorite vloggers on Youtube, and his Five Stupid Things segment is my favorite of all of his video segments, and in this video he rips the anti-vaccination movement a new one, showing not only how all of their claims are completely bogus, but also how dangerous it is not to vaccinate your child, or yourself for that matter.



2. Dumbest Anti-Gay Comments (Compilation)

How best to expose the leaders in the anti-gay movement as the homophobic bigots they really are? Actually you don't have to. They do a good enough exposing themselves by making the most vile comments about homosexuals, and do so in public for all the world to see as this clip from Secular Talk shows:



1. Psychic Char Margolis fail on WGN Morning News

I know I might sound a little bit malicious for this, but I love it when a psychic fails, and not only fails, but fails on live TV for the whole world to see! In this clip from WGN News "psychic" Char Margolis fails to make a psychic reading (or what is better known as a cold reading) and pretty much makes a fool of herself infront of the world:

"You Know You Are a Conspiracy Theorist If…" a deceptive test to make people believe they are a conspiracy theorist

A few months ago I came across this "test" (which I found to be laughable win I saw it) to help a person tell a conspiracy theorist or not (view the test here).

I have some things to say about this "test" and some comments about "questions" that were asked (well, they're not really questions) as well as a few questions of my own:

You are capable of critical thinking.

This is a paradox. If a conspiracy theorist was capable of critical thinking, then they wouldn't be a conspiracy theorist because people who are capable of critical thinking would figure out that a conspiracy theory was BS.

You distrust mainstream media.

So do most skeptics, although for entirely different reasons than conspiracy theorists do.

You like nature.

Lots of people do. What does this have to do with being a conspiracy theorist?

You think it’s a good idea to spend the Friday after Thanksgiving with your family rather than camping outside Best Buy to get a cheap plasma television made in China.

That doesn't make you a conspiracy theorist. That makes you someone who is smart enough not to waste their time in the cold waiting for some store to open in the hope of finding bargains.

You think it’s a little strange that WTC building 7 came down at free fall speed on 9/11 yet it was never hit by a plane.

This might make you a conspiracy theorist, as well as someone who has conveniently forgotten that WTC7 was hit by something... a skyscraper.

You think that drones in America might not be for Al Qaeda.

This might also make you a conspiracy theorist... or it might make you someone who knows drones that fly over America are also used for multiple benign purposes.

You would like to be able to get on a plane without having to engage in a mandatory radiation bath and digital strip search.

As do many Americans, especially those who have gone through that process.

You have read a book in the past year.

What does reading a book have to do with being a conspiracy theorist?

You think you have the right to protest.

According to the first Amendment I don't think I have the right, I have the right, period!

You think the War on Terror is a scam.

That depends on what your definition of "scam" is.

You think the War on Drugs is a scam.

Again, that depends on what your definition of "scam" is. Does your definition mean completely bogus and fraudulent, or wasteful and unnecessary?

You think the anger directed at America from the Middle East could possibly be related to our foreign policy rather than hating how amazingly free we are.

This just means you've done more than five minutes worth of research about the Middle East.

You think the Republicans and Democrats are exactly the same on the important issues affecting our country.

This could mean you're a conspiracy theorist... it could also mean that you're a Libertarian, or you're just ticked off at both political parties.

You think believing in The Constitution does not constitute a terrorist act.

Who the Hell believes that believing in the constitution is a terrorist act? The only people who believe that are idiots!

You have heard of the Bill of Rights and can even name what some of them are.

As most Americans have and can...

You question whether the government loves you.

The government is not a living entity. It neither loves nor hates, therefore it is pointless to ask if it loves you or not.

You think the right to bear arms is not for hunting, rather so citizens can fight back should the government become a bunch of tyrannical thugs.

Yeah, this could mean that you're a conspiracy theorist... it could also mean that you just don't like the government, or you're afraid that the United States "could" become a tyrannical dictatorship.

You don’t own a television, and if you do, all you watch is RT, especially the Keiser Report and Capital Account.

(Reading that alone makes me wonder if this is satire) If all you watch on television is RT (Russia Today) then there is no need to finish this test. You are a conspiracy theorist.

You don’t think the NDAA is the name of Kesha’s latest single.

Who's Kesha?

You think rich, powerful and connected people should be subject to the rule of law and go to jail if they commit crimes. Even if they are bankers and work at JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs.

I'm sure that Bernie Madoff would disagree.

You think corporations aren’t people.

As do most other Americans.

You think Warren Buffet is a phony and a crony capitalist.

This could make you a conspiracy theorist. This could also make you a socialist, some one who doesn't like the rich, or someone who doesn't like Warren Buffet.

You don’t care that Warren Buffet likes cherry coke, hamburgers and ice cream.  He’s still a bad guy.

What does what he likes to eat has to do with him being a bad person or not?

You know that gold was made illegal by FDR in 1933 and confiscated from the American people.  You know that gold bullion remained illegal for Americans to own until 1975.

So American history experts are now considered to be conspiracy theorists?

You think politicians that push for war should be sent to fight on the front lines.  If they are unable, their children should go.

Lots of people think this. It might mean that you're a conspiracy theorist, or it could mean that you're someone that is against war and feels that the ones who start them should be the ones who fight them.

You want your food to be labeled GMO so that you can make your own decisions on what you are consuming.

This could mean you're a conspiracy theorist, or it could meant that you're a health fanatic whom has been lead to believe that GMO foods are bad for you.

You grow your own food.

Lots of people do that. This has nothing to do with being a conspiracy theorist.

You buy raw milk.

You could be a conspiracy theorist, or much like with GMO foods, you could also be a health fanatic who believes that raw milk is better for you than pasteurized milk (the exact opposite is true).

You think food and energy should be included in inflation calculations.

I'm sure most economist would agree with this.

You are aware that the Department of Homeland Security has purchased 1.2 billion rounds of ammo in the past year.

A lot of people are aware of this. A lot of people are also aware that this is just another example of bureaucratic waste.

You question whether said ammo purchases are in anticipation of a Normandy beach style landing by Al Qaeda.

I'm sure if you believe that is the official explanation for why so much ammo was bought (instead of the real official explanation in that it was a good deal on the price it was being bought at) then you're probably a conspiracy theorist.

You think allowing a small group of unelected people (The Federal Reserve) to print unlimited amounts of money and distribute it as they please might not be a good idea.

I might be a conspiracy theorist if I thought this way too about the Federal Reserve, and I would think this way if it wasn't for the fact that members of the Federal Reserve board have to be confirmed by the Senate first before they can take office, and the fact that the Federal Reserve is not incharge of printing money (the Department of Treasury does that).

Now the final part of this "test" says this:

If you answered yes to more than five of the above, you might be a conspiracy theorist.
You also may be on the government’s terror watch list.  Be very alarmed and report it to the authorities immediately should you discover your neighbors engaged in such uncivilized thought.

I answered yes to 19 of them. I'm definitely not a conspiracy theorist, and I'm almost certain I'm not on any terrorist watch list.

This test is extremely deceptive, and is meant to make the average person believe that they are a conspiracy theorist by throwing in a bunch of mundane questions that almost every American would answer yes to, and enough of them that it would be nearly impossible for anyone not to answer yes to atleast five. Heck, most of these questions have nothing to do with being a conspiracy theorist, and should not have been on there.

Being a conspiracy theorist has nothing to do with growing your own food or having no trust in the government. It has everything to do with whether or not you believe in conspiracy theories.

6 Conspiracy Theories that have no reason to exist

There are a lot conspiracy theories out there, most of which have no evidence to support the claims made, either because whatever evidence that has been put forth has been debunked, or no evidence has ever been put forth in the first place.

In fact there are some conspiracy theories that have no reason to continue to exist, or have no reason to exist in the first place, such as:

Moon Landing Hoax

Perhaps one of the older conspiracy theories out there, there are a lot of people who do not believe we went to the Moon, and that all of the videos (the hundreds of hours worth) and photos (the many thousands of them) taken from the Moon were all done on a sound stage.

The reasoning behind this is that it is believed by people who claim we did not go to the Moon that we did not have the technology to go to the Moon.

The problem with this argument is that we actually did have the technology to get to the Moon. Also, as surprising as this may sound, we actually didn't have the technology to fake going to the Moon.

There is also a ton of other evidence that says we did in fact go to the Moon, such as several tons worth of rocks and dirt that were brought back, the fact that not one of the hundreds of thousands of people who worked on the Moon landing project has ever said we didn't go to the Moon, or that the Soviets never said that we didn't get there, or the fact that the landing sites have been photographed by satellites orbiting the Moon.

9/11 conspiracy theories

Ever since that tragic day over 12 years ago there have been multiple conspiracy theories put forth concerning what happened that day, and while all of them tend to be different (from both who did it to how it was done) they all have one thing in common: They have all been debunked.

I know, a lot of people in the 9/11 "Truth" movement will say otherwise, and will claim that they have "evidence" that backs up their claims, the facts are is that when this so called evidence has been examined it's been shown to be either incorrect, or completely false, and it is now seriously considered by skeptics and debunkers that the only reason why anyone would continue to make these 9/11 conspiracy theory claims is that they are either self deluded, or mentally ill, or they are lying.

Autism - MMR vaccine connection

Ever since 1998 when Andrew Wakefield wrote and published a "research" paper in The Lancet that concluded that there was a "connection" between the MMR vaccine and autism (research of which has since proven to be both unethical and fraudulent and resulted in both the research paper being formerly retracted and Mr. Wakefield's name being removed from the General Medical Council, which is the British equivalency of having one's medical license revoked) there has been a conspiracy theory going around concerning the alleged connection and vaccine manufactures trying to suppress such information.

Besides the fact that none of this "information" has ever been suppressed, it has been proven by multiple scientific and medical research institutions that there is no connection what so ever between any vaccines and autism, and that all of the claims made by the anti-vaccination movement are wrong and false (and dangerous).

Project Blue Beam

Project Blue Beam was a conspiracy theory that was first brought to public attention in 1994 by an investigative journalist by the name of Serge Monast in which he claimed that NASA would use advance technology to simulate the second coming of Jesus Christ in order to start a New World Order.

So how much of this is true?

None of it.

Monast had no evidence what so ever of Project Blue Beam, or that anything like it even existed, and there is still no evidence to this day that there is or ever was a Project Blue Beam. Plus he also made several claims of when it was to implemented (1995, 1996, and 2000), all of which have clearly never happened.

Chemtrails

The chemtrail conspiracy theories first showed up in 1996, but hasn't really gained popularity amongst conspiracy theorists until about the last few years.

The basics of the conspiracy theory is that the government, or Illuminati, or some other group, is spraying chemicals from airplanes, and that what we believe to be contrails coming off of those planes are actually these chemicals that are being sprayed around the world some sort of malevolent purposes (what ever those purposes may be, as no one can seem to agree upon what they are for).

This conspiracy theory, despite how obviously easy it would be to prove it was true, has never been proven to be true, and that all of the claims made about what chemtrails are suppose to do have been proven false (sometimes at a level in which it is considered to be laughable).

President Obama was not born in America

Even before President Obama took the oath of office in 2009 there has been this huge conspiracy theory floating around that the President was not born in the United States, and is not an American citizen, and that there has been this huge cover up in order to keep him in office. The people who make these claims often times use a "Kenyan" birth certificate that has his name on and date of birth on it as "proof" of this.

Of course there are a few problems with this:

First, that "Kenyan" birth certificate is actually Australian, and it is an admitted hoax.

Second, President Obama has released his long-form birth certificate. The birth certificate that was certified by Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, a Republican.

So what evidence is there that President Obama wasn't born in the Untied States? None.

Every single claim of this conspiracy theory has been disproven, and every single time it's been taken to court, the judges have thrown it out and have even fined and imposed sanctions against some of the people who brought it to court for wasting the court's time.

5 Things I've noticed about... Bizarre Conspiracy Theories

When you dive into the world of conspiracy theories (either as a skeptic, or a conspiracy theorist, or just a curious onlooker) you will ultimately come across some conspiracy theories that sound really, really bizarre...

In fact ever since I started doing serious skepticism and debunking and investigating conspiracy theories I have found conspiracy theories so strange that I could never have possibly have thought of them (which is probably a good thing).

Now while there are a lot of things I have noticed about bizarre conspiracy theories, I have narrowed it down to five different things.

So here are five things I've noticed about bizarre conspiracy theories:

5. They're indicators of mental illness.

First I want to say that anyone who believes that the world is controlled by shape-shifting aliens, or that the World Trade Center towers were brought down by lasers, or that the government is using radio signals to attack peoples minds, or believes in crisis actors, or believes that chemtrails are real is not necessarily mentally ill... I'm just saying it's a pretty strong indicator of mental illness, especially when you consider the fact that others who also believe in such conspiracy theories have engaged in behavior that strongly indicates that they are mentally ill (such as making long and incoherent rants, or harassing people, or making threats), or actually has been found out or proven to be mentally ill.

It's not just the people who believe in them either. Many of the people whom have created the most bizarre conspiracy theories out there are they themselves believed to be mentally ill. Even the ones who are very intelligent and hold college degrees, but come up with these weird conspiracy theories, are automatically assumed to be mentally ill because it's really the most logical explanation for many skeptics concerning a person whom is very smart but believes in really weird stuff.

4. There is no deep end to them.

Have you ever heard or read about a conspiracy theory that made you think, "there is no way that there can be something stranger than this..." Well, I don't mean to burst your bubble, but trust me when I say this, there is a conspiracy theory out there that is more bizarre than what you have just heard or read about. And if there isn't one, one will be invented soon enough.

Now I don't blame anyone for believing that whenever they hear about a crazy conspiracy theory that they believe that it is the craziest conspiracy theory out there, I use to believe that myself when I came across a really bizarre conspiracy, but then I would be proven wrong again and again whenever I kept coming across one even more bizarre than the next one, it kind of destroyed my ability to believe that there is a bottom to conspiracy theory craziness.

In fact some are so bizarre that...

3. They are confused for satire.

It really should not surprise anyone that there are some conspiracy theories out there that are either so weird, or so bizarre, that some people don't believe that it is a real conspiracy theory (well, as real as one can be) and that it was made up as a parody of other conspiracy theories, or some type of satire, or, as some conspiracy theorists may claim, dis-information.

This is something that even I have assumed at times whenever I see a bizarre conspiracy theory, either in the hope that no one can seriously be so crazy that they could come up with such a thing, or that it just looks like satire.

In fact some have actually turned out to be satire (or a hoax) but because some conspiracy theorists can't tell the difference between what is real and what is fake, some of them assume that it is real.

2. Other conspiracy theorists will debunk them in an attempt to look credible.

Sometimes a conspiracy theorist will debunk an even more bizarre conspiracy theory (usually about the same event) in order to either look like they are capable of not accepting every conspiracy theory that is put out there, or to make their own conspiracy theory look more credible by making people believe that they have done their research and have discarded any theories that do not prove true (except their own).

Now the real probable reason why conspiracy theorists reject and even debunk the more bizarre sounding conspiracy theories is because if they don't then it makes it appear as if they also accept those conspiracy theories, and it might also help to make the conspiracy theory that they promote appear less bizarre as well. The only problem with that is...

1. Most conspiracy theories are bizarre.

Just because a conspiracy theory at least sounds "plausible" (and I use that term very loosely) or because a lot of conspiracy theorists accept it, it doesn't mean that particular conspiracy theory isn't any less bizarre then the one that doesn't sound plausible at all. An example of this would be the various 9/11 conspiracy theories, which in my opinion all of them sound just as bizarre as the one that is considered to be the most bizarre, the space laser theory.

The fact is that almost every conspiracy theory there is is actually pretty bizarre, and that the only reason why it might sound less bizarre than other conspiracy theories is that it at least (usually) involves something that might exist, rather than other really bizarre conspiracy theories that involves something that does not exist.

And of course just like with the bizarre conspiracy theories, all conspiracy theories have one thing in common: They all end up getting debunked.

5 Things I've noticed about... 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

A few months ago I did one of these "5 Things I've noticed about..." articles on the people in the 9/11 Truth Movement, and it had me thinking to myself "what about the conspiracy theories that the people in the 9/11 Truth Movements promote?"

So what about those conspiracy theories, and what are some of the biggest things about them that just stand out? Well, I've noticed a lot of things about them, and I've narrowed them down to five different things.

So here are five things I've noticed about 9/11 conspiracy theories:

5. There are a lot of them.

Probably one of the biggest problems with the 9/11 conspiracy theories is that there are more than one of them, instead of just one that the people who believe in and focus on.

For some people these can be confusing not only because they are all very different, but they are mostly not even connected to one another.

Not only can they be confusing, but they are also progressively more bizarre as well.

There is the let it happen theory, the controlled demolition theory, the drone plane theory, the nuke theory, and even the no plane/space lasers (which is so bizarre a person in the 9/11 Truth Movement debunked it).

I guess you say that the 9/11 conspiracy theories are a lot like the JFK assassination conspiracy theories in that not only are there more than one theory to what happened, but also because...

4. There is apparently more than one perpetrator.

Besides there just being more than one 9/11 conspiracy theory, according to these conspiracy theories, there is no solid conclusion on who the "real" perpetrator is.

Some people claim that it was Al-Qaida, it's just that those in the government allowed them to attack. Some people say that it was a collaboration between the government and Al-Qaida. Some people believe it was just the government, or Israel, or the Illuminati, or someone else entirely.

It just seems like none of these conspiracy theorists who claim that 9/11 was an inside job can agree upon who did it, and how they did it. Of course that isn't very surprising to me, because...

3. The biggest promoters of the 9/11 conspiracy theories are kooks.

Now I'm saying that all people who believe in the 9/11 conspiracy theories are kooks, but the biggest promoters of these theories are.

There's Alex Jones, whom constantly promotes conspiracy theories on his radio program, thinks everything bad that happens is a false flag attack, and just starts yelling and making incoherent rants.

There's Mike Adams, a promoter of pseudoscience and medical quackery (especially dangerous types of medical quackery), as well as other conspiracy theories.

Finally, there's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, whom in addition to promoting 9/11 conspiracy theories, is also a holocaust denier, and is antisemitic.

They are of course not the only one's who promote the 9/11 conspiracy theories, but they are some of the biggest ones, and many of the other promoters of the 9/11 conspiracy theories are just as nutty (or possibly fraudulent) as these guys.

2. They contain a lot of bigotry.

Many conspiracy theories contain forms of bigotry within them, and 9/11 conspiracy theories are no different.

A lot of the 9/11 conspiracy theories are antisemitic, either indirectly by blaming several prominent Jews of being involved in the attacks, or blatantly antisemitic by blaming Israel, and that all the Jewish people who worked at the World Trade Center were in on it.

Besides the antisemitism within these conspiracy theories, these conspiracy theories are also racist as well, because many conspiracy theorists try to justify their belief that someone other than some people from the middle east had to have done this because people from the middle east (and Arab people in general) are not mentally capable of planning out and doing such a thing, or if they did, then they would have had to have had help from either white people or Jews, or have been allowed to do this.

1. They've all been debunked.

Every single 9/11 conspiracy theory has been debunked. From the "let it happen" theories, to the controlled demolition theory, to the really crazy no plane theories, not a single one has ever been proven to be true, or have been shown to hold up to any sort of evidence, or even hold up to logical arguments.

In fact they have all been debunked for years now, and some skeptics no longer even debate and debunk the people who make these claims, either because they have determined that those people are either to stupid to figure out that none of these conspiracy theories are true, or that they are to self deluded to be able to see that what they believe to be true is not, or that they are mentally ill, or they are a liar with an ulterior motive.

The fact is that all of the evidence surrounding the 9/11 attacks point in only one direction: Al-Qaida and the 19 members of that terrorist group who hijacked those planes and flew them into the sides of those buildings, and no one else.

5 Conspiracy Theories that would be easy to prove

Through my studying of conspiracy theories I have found that many of them are easy to dis-prove. In fact some of them are so easy to dis-prove that it's actually kind of shocking that anyone believes in them.

Now despite the fact that most conspiracy theories are quite easy to dis-prove, a few of them could actually be proven, and quite easily at that, if a conspiracy theorist was willing to spend the and money to try to prove what they believe is real.

The following is a list of five different conspiracy theories that I feel could be easy to prove:

The Moon landings were hoaxed.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that the moon landings did happen and that we really did send 12 men to the surface of the moon and back between 1969 to 1972, many conspiracy theorists still insistence that the landings were all faked, and that they were all filmed on some movie set in on a military base in the middle of the desert.

Despite the multiple pieces of "evidence" that they believe prove that the moon landings were faked, they have not produce one shred of evidence that hasn't ended up being debunked.

Now, despite the fact that all the evidence that they claim proves the moon landings were hoaxed have been debunked, there are actually a few simple (but expensive) ways for them to prove the moon landings were hoaxed:

First, they could build their own telescope that is powerful enough to see close up to the surface of the moon, and look at the moon landing sites to see if anything is there.

Second, build your own satellite and rocket that can travel to the moon and photograph the sites where the moon landings were suppose to be.

Third, build a space ship that can actually get to the moon, land at the sites, and see for yourself if anything is ther. Oh, and here is the bonus part about this one: If it turns out that you're right, and you prove that the moon landing were faked, "you" become known as the first person to walk on the moon!

Chemtrails

Among some conspiracy theorists there is this belief that the government is using aircraft to spray the population with chemicals to either dumb us down, or make us sick, or make us infertile (assuming it's not for geo-engineering like other chemtrail conspiracy theorists are insisting).

Of course there is no evidence what so ever to prove these claims (despite what they insist) but, there is in fact a very easy way for them to prove that chemtrails are real.

All they would have to do is get a plane, attach a scope or two to that plane (be sure they are the types that remotely open and shut in order to avoid contamination) fly through an alleged chemtrail (actually you might want to do this several times in order to collect several samples, just to be sure) take the samples you've gotten, and have them tested to see whats in them, and how high the concentrations are (because that plays a big factor too).

Now, if this is done, one of two things will happen: You and many other conspiracy theorists will be proven to be right, and all skeptics will have to eat their own words (during the revolution that would most likely follow) or, you will be proven to be wrong, and it will be shown that chemtrails are in fact nothing more than water vapor.

The World Trade Center towers were brought down by nuclear weapons.

There are a lot of conspiracy theories concerning the 9/11 attacks, and while all of them have been debunked, I also have to admit that many of them might not have been that easy to prove either (mostly because it would have required real investigating instead of just watching a bunch of poorly made Youtube videos and looking at a bunch of photos that have been taken out of context). There is one however that would have been shockingly easy to prove if it was true: The nuke theory.

All one would have to do to prove this one is go to the World Trade Center site with a Geiger counter, turn it on, and wait for it to start making.

Now, if nuclear weapons (even the smallest ones made) were used, the site still have lots of left over radiation for the blast which would easily be picked up on a Geiger counter, or any other device used to detect radiation.

Of course you could also just walk around the site for a few hours until you have clear signs of radiation poisoning...

The Earth is flat.

As it shockingly (and sadly) turns out there are actually a few people who do believe that the Earth is flat despite of the numerous amounts of evidence that the Earth is clearly a sphere, there are just some people who are to stubborn (or stupid, or both) to admit that the world is round.

Besides the fact that they won't acknowledge a simple fact that almost everyone else on the planet knows, they actually believe that there is a conspiracy to cover this up (which would be impossible).

Now, if they really wanted to prove to themselves (and to others possibly) that the Earth really was flat, all they would have to do is do one of these three things:

First, they could get on a boat and sail around the Earth.

Second, they could get on a plane and fly around the Earth (or see the curvature of the Earth if they are high up enough).

Third, they can build their own space craft, fly into space, and really fly around the Earth (personally, this would be my choice).

Former Japanese internment camps are being turn into FEMA camps.

For years now conspiracy theorists have been claiming that the United States government (via FEMA) have been building concentration camps around the country in order to hold citizens who might oppose them and the New World Order (which in my opinion has been taking the longest time to finally put their "master plan" to work). Because these alleged camps are being built by and run by FEMA, they are commonly referred to by conspiracy theorist as "FEMA camps".

Now I have done some research into the claims about these camps, I can tell you for a fact that none of these camps exists, I have found that several of these sites are former Japanese internment camps (where we really did hold United States citizens against their will for no good reason other than the fact that they were Japanese, and we were at war with Japan), and that these sites are being rebuilt and refurbished in order to once again hold United States citizens against their will.

Despite the claims that these places are being rebuilt and refurbished, there is actually a way for conspiracy theorists to confirm if these claims are true or not: Go there!

From my research on FEMA camps I have found out that almost all of the Japanese internment camps are open to the public, and anyone can go there to learn the history of that camp. Many of these camps even have there own museums, and memorials, and encourage the public to come in order to learn the history of the camp.

The fact that these camps are open to the public should make it easy for anyone (including a conspiracy theorists) to see if they're being turned into a FEMA camp or not.

10 More Lies Truthers Tell

A few months I wrote an article about ten of the most common lies that people in the 9/11 Truth Movement (whether it be intentional or not) tend to tell.

While I did touch upon ten of what I considered to be biggest lies, I still felt there were more lies that people in the 9/11 Truth Movement promoted that still needed to be addressed.

So, I have put together another list of ten more lies that Truther tells:

10. Nothing hit World Trade Center 7.

Actually something did hit World Trade Center 7... a skyscraper.

To be more precise falling debris from World Trade Center 1 hit World Trade Center 7 and caused huge amounts of damage to the lower floors of the building. The combination of that, and the fact that the building had been on fire for hours caused the building to collapse.

9. Only two buildings were hit, but three were destroyed.

This is not true. In fact more than three building were destroyed that day. World Trade Center 3, 4, 5, and 6 were heavily damaged that day and what was left of them had to be torn down because they could not be repaired.

Also, many other buildings around the World Trade Center were damaged as well.

8. A nuclear bomb brought down the towers.

If this was true then this would be the easiest one to prove, as all you would have to do is go down to the World Trade Center site with a Geiger counter and one would easily find large amounts of radiation there.

Also, lower Manhattan would be uninhabitable right now due to that radiation, plus the destruction caused would have been far greater, and a lot more people would have died, either from the initial blast from the weapon, or from the radiation and radioactive fall out.

Plus, there would have been an obvious flash some what similar to the Sun when the device went, and there would have been no way to hide that.

7. The towers were reduced to dust and gravel.

Primarily promoted by followers of Judy Wood and those that believe in her theory that the towers were brought down high energy lasers, their claims are that the towers were reduced to dust and gravel by these alleged lasers.

While the collapse of the towers did create a lot of dust and gravel, it also left large chunks of concrete, long pieces of steel beams, and even places where pieces of the outer wall several stories high still stood.

6. Israel did it.

Besides the fact that there is no evidence what so ever that Israel did this, the fact is that Israel had no reason to do something like this.

The United States is Israel's biggest supporter, and President George W. Bush was one of Israel's strongest supporters at that.

To simply put, the people in charge of Israel would have had to have lost their minds to have done something like that. Not only would they have been risking losing support from the United States, but also risked going war with the United States in order to get more support from the United States.

5. No Jews were killed that day because they got a call from Israel to stay home.

While estimates vary on just how many Jews died that day (mostly because by Jewish tradition some people might be considered Jewish, but in reality they don't consider themselves to be Jewish) it's believed that somewhere around 270 to 400 Jews died that day, including five Israeli citizens.

Also, considering how many Jewish people actually worked at the World Trade Center, a few of them would have said by now that they had gotten a call telling them to stay home.

4. We're just asking questions.

Actually no. What truthers are really doing is making accusations while at the same time asking leading question in an attempt to influence others. When confronted about this they'll claim that they are "Just asking questions."

There is actually a term for this, it's called JAQing off.

3. Other false flag attacks help give credibility that the 9/11 attacks were false flag attacks.

There are two problems with this: the first one is that most "false flag attacks" that people in 9/11 Truth Movement claims to be false flag attacks are in fact not false flag attacks and have been proven so.

The second problem is that even if some of these alleged false flag attacks really could be proven to be false flag attacks, it still doesn't prove or give any credibility that the 9/11 attacks were false flag attacks, especially when all the claims about it have been all debunked.

2. New information is constantly coming out proving that the 9/11 attacks was committed by the US government/Israel/Illuminati.

No there isn't. There hasn't been any new information from the 9/11 Truth Movement since 2005!

Any "new" information that the 9/11 Truth Movement claims to have is just old information that's been rehashed and rearranged in an attempt to make it look new, but in reality is just the same old stuff that has dis-proven and debunked for years.

1. There is undeniable proof that the 9/11 attacks were an inside jobs.

No there isn't.

If this was true then members of the 9/11 Truth Movement should present their evidence to the NYPD and get the people arrested who they believe were the "real" perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. This is not done of course because they do not have any proof what so ever that the 9/11 attacks was an inside job, which they probably know, but don't want to admit.

Odds are that any "proof" that they have is going to be the same stuff that's been debunked for years and that no one outside of the 9/11 Truth Movement takes seriously any more.

'Conspiracy theorists' sane: government dupes crazy, hostile: A flawed article about conspiracy theorists and skeptics

A few days ago I came across an article that had been published on PressTV (which is owned by the government of Iran) that was titled "New studies: 'Conspiracy theorists' sane; government dupes crazy, hostile".

The title alone made it quite clear that the article was one sided, and that it is also quite clear what the writer of the article thinks about skeptics and debunkers... and anyone else who believes the reality that the U.S. government did not stage the worst terrorist attack in history.

Let me share with you the first couple of paragraphs of this article:

• The most recent study was published on July 8th by psychologists Michael J. Wood and Karen M. Douglas of the University of Kent (UK). Entitled “What about Building 7? A social psychological study of online discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories,” the study compared “conspiracist” (pro-conspiracy theory) and “conventionalist” (anti-conspiracy) comments at news websites. 
  
  The authors were surprised to discover that it is now more conventional to leave so-called conspiracist comments than conventionalist ones: “Of the 2174 comments collected, 1459 were coded as conspiracist and 715 as conventionalist.” In other words, among people who comment on news articles, those who disbelieve government accounts of such events as 9/11 and the JFK assassination outnumber believers by more than two to one. That means it is the pro-conspiracy commenters who are expressing what is now the conventional wisdom, while the anti-conspiracy commenters are becoming a small, beleaguered minority. 

I can tell just by reading this that what this article is claiming is very flawed.

For one thing it's assuming that the majority of people making comments on an internet news article reflects the views of the majority of the people. Even on non-conspiracy theory subjects where the majority of people posting comments may seem like the overall majority, in reality they are just being the more vocal of the two groups.

The seconded problem is this "coded comments" thing. What exactly does this mean? Does it mean that the people who did this study read comments individually and were able to establish their content and context? Because of the way it was worded it doesn't sound like it to me. It makes it sound like the people who did the study actually let a computer search for certain words and phrases that are commonly used among conspiracy theorists and skeptics, which is a highly flawed way to research something like this because computers can't understand context like humans can.

This of course isn't the only thing this article claims. It also claims that those that believe what they are calling the "mainstream views" are also display more anger and hostility towards those who don't:

• Perhaps because their supposedly mainstream views no longer represent the majority, the anti-conspiracy commenters often displayed anger and hostility: “The research… showed that people who favoured the official account of 9/11 were generally more hostile when trying to persuade their rivals.” 

I admit, sometimes skeptics and debunkers do get angry at conspiracy theorists, but actual hostility is actually pretty rare (although it this can be questionable as what some people consider to be hostility might not be considered hostility to others), and usually comes in the form of insults to the conspiracy theorist's intelligence or sanity (both of which after time becomes questionable) and rarely includes the form of threats (unless you include threats of getting banned and having your comments removed). Conspiracy theorists on the other hand engage in hostility towards others all the time, including fellow conspiracy theorists.

This paragraph is also making the assumption that just because the majority of people who comment on internet articles about the 9/11 attacks reflects the majority of the population itself. It does not. In fact the majority of the American people have never believed that the government committed the 9/11 attacks.

The next two paragraphs makes it appear that skeptics are the real conspiracy theorists:

• Additionally, it turned out that the anti-conspiracy people were not only hostile, but fanatically attached to their own conspiracy theories as well. According to them, their own theory of 9/11 - a conspiracy theory holding that 19 Arabs, none of whom could fly planes with any proficiency, pulled off the crime of the century under the direction of a guy on dialysis in a cave in Afghanistan - was indisputably true. The so-called conspiracists, on the other hand, did not pretend to have a theory that completely explained the events of 9/11: “For people who think 9/11 was a government conspiracy, the focus is not on promoting a specific rival theory, but in trying to debunk the official account.” 
  
  In short, the new study by Wood and Douglas suggests that the negative stereotype of the conspiracy theorist - a hostile fanatic wedded to the truth of his own fringe theory - accurately describes the people who defend the official account of 9/11, not those who dispute it. 

This is of course another common claim and belief among conspiracy theorists in that the skeptics of the 9/11 conspiracy theories haven't done their research and just assume that the official account is correct, when in reality skeptics have done their research and have determined that the official account is for the most part correct, and that it is the claims that the conspiracy theorists make that are flawed and incorrect.

This article also makes it appear that skeptics feel like they are "rivals" to conspiracy theorists. This is completely untrue. Skeptics don't consider themselves to be rivals to conspiracy theorists because skeptics don't consider a conspiracy theorists conspiracy theory to be rival to the truth.

As it turns out this whole article is hugely cherry picked from the original article published by Micheal J. Woods and Karen M. Douglas (read here) and comes to an entirely different conclusion than what the original article did.

This article for PressTV, which was written by Dr. Kevin Barrett, a 9/11 Truther and conspiracy theorist himself, is hugely deceptive, and is nothing more than an attempt to make people who are not apart of the 9/11 Truth movement look like a bunch deluded people who live in a fantasy world, when in reality the opposite is true.

In conclusion, the article is nothing more than propaganda and dis-information.

5 Things I've noticed about... False Flag Conspiracy Theorists

False flag conspiracy theorists are conspiracy theorist who believe that almost anytime there is some type of large attack in this country then it is most likely done by the government.

While there are a lot of things that these types of conspiracy theorists tend to do, I narrowed it down to five things.

So here are five things I've noticed about false flag conspiracy theorists:

5. They have no idea what a false flag attack really is.

Most conspiracy theorists believe that false flag attack is when a government agent disguises themselves as an enemy, and commits an attack against the public. Technically speaking this is not a false flag attack.

A false flag attack is actually a navel term for when you put up your enemy's flag on your ship in order to sneak behind them and attack them. That is what a false flag attack really is. You're not posing as your enemy in order to attack your own people, but to attack your enemy.

4. They think everything is a false flag attack.

It doesn't matter how obvious it is that an attack was done by some whack job, it doesn't matter how many people died in the attack, or even if it was someone whom killed their self and their self only, according to a conspiracy theorist, it was a false flag attack.

In fact it doesn't even matter if it was a random act of nature, or an industrial accident, or a plane crash, as long as people got killed (or even if people didn't die) according to many conspiracy theorists, they were most likely false flag attacks.

3. They think that other alleged false flag attacks prove their claims.

If you ever ask a conspiracy theorist what proof do they have that what they are claiming to be a false flag really is a false flag attack, they will usually give you a long list of other attacks that they believe to be false flag attacks.

There are two problems with this: the first one is that these other alleged false flag attacks have themselves almost always have never been proven to be false flag attack, and two, even if they could prove that any of those attacks really were false flag attacks, it's still not evidence that what they are claiming to be a false flag attack is a false flag attack.

2. They have a very low opinion of anyone who disagrees with them.

If you tell a conspiracy theorist that you believe them, or are at least willing to hear them out, then their your best friend and will treat you kindly. Disagree agree with them however, well then you should prepare yourself  for a barrage of insults and allegations.

If you tell them that you don't believe their claims of a false flag attack what will usually happen is that they will call you a sheep or a sheeple. If then continue on and actually debunk their claims, then they will call you a troll, shill, and a disinfo agent (along with other less than nice words).

1. They always think it will lead to something bigger.

One of the things that conspiracy theorists claim about false flag attacks is that it will always lead to some larger attack in the near future, and eventually Martial law, the New World Order taking over, etc., etc.

The one biggest problem with this is that rarely does an attack (false flag or not) gets followed up soon after with one that is larger in scale and lose of life. In fact the largest terrorist attack ever (and one that's still claimed to be a false flag attack, despite all the evidence that says otherwise) the 9/11 attacks has never been followed up by anything bigger in the near twelve years since the attack, nor has Martial law ever been declared nation wide since the attack either.

10 Counter conspiracy theories

Ever hear of the term "Counter conspiracy theory" (which is in a conspiracy theory that is meant to counter another conspiracy theory)? Probably not, but you have probably read of a few of them (mostly when someone is having an argument with someone promoting a conspiracy theory).

So, I have decided to play Devil'e Advocate here and have listed ten counter conspiracy theories:

10. 9/11 conspiracy theories were invented by Al-Qaeda.

Ever since the 9/11 conspiracy theories started to show up, some people have made accusations that Al-Qaeda itself actually invented many of the 9/11 conspiracy theories, and even bribed certain people within the 9/11 Truth movement to spread these conspiracy theories.

The problem with this is that Al-Qaeda admits to committing the 9/11 attacks, and even criticized Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for saying that the United States government did it.

9. "Shape shifting reptilian aliens" is a code word for "Jews".

Many have accused David Icke's primary conspiracy theory, that "Shape shifting reptilian aliens" control the Earth and impersonate leaders of the world, as being nothing more than a re-hashing of old Jewish conspiracy theories, and that "Shape shifting reptilian aliens" is actually a code word for "Jews".

While it is possible that "Shape shifting reptilian aliens" is a code word for "Jews", most antisemitic conspiracy theorists don't bother to use such code words. Plus, David Icke is pretty much crazy as hell, so it's actually possible that he really does mean "Shape shifting reptilian aliens".

8. Alex Jones is a fraud.

While many negative things have been said about Alex Jones and the conspiracy theories that he promotes (which also usually gets debunked) one of the claims that is made against him is that he is just a fraud, and that he doesn't even believe what he says, and that he is just making up conspiracy theories to make money from his followers.

It's true that Alex Jones has made a lot of money from promoting conspiracy theories, and there is proof that he is very manipulative, the problem is that there is no 100% proof that he doesn't believe in the conspiracy theories he promotes.

7. Police State conspiracy theories is made up propaganda.

While there is quite a number of "Police State" conspiracy theories (i.e. FEMA camps, false flag attacks, martial law, etc.) some people have accused these conspiracy theories of being nothing more than propaganda made up by extreme right wing groups as a way to help recruit, or at least attempt to justify their own actions.

While it is true that, like with most other conspiracy theories, police state conspiracy theories are made up, and are sometimes used as propaganda, with the exception of a few people, it can be pretty hard to tell if a person making such claims are doing so for propaganda purposes, or if they really do believe what they are saying.

6. "The invasion of Iraq was for oil" claims is nothing more than propaganda.

Even before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, there were claims that the invasion was for nothing more than to get that country's oil, and almost immediately there were counter claims that these accusations were actually being made up by those opposed the invasions, and even was created as a form of political propaganda (most of those accusations tend to be towards the Democrats and the former Iraqi government, but other groups are accused as well).

While it is true that many people who opposed the invasion also claim that it was for Iraq's oil, the problem is that they are also very sincere in their beliefs, and most politicians (even those who opposed the invasion) tend not to make those claims either.

5. Holocaust denialists don't even believe themselves.

There are a lot of accusations directed towards Holocaust denialist (most of which are probably true) one of the accusations is that Holocaust denialists don't even believe themselves, and that it is strictly made up antisemitic propaganda.

While it is true that some Holocaust denialists probably don't even believe what they are claiming, and are making these claims as nothing more than antisemitic propaganda, it is also possible that some of them really do believe that the Holocaust didn't happen, and that their bigotry is causing them to be willfully ignorant of the facts.

4. Tax protesters are just trying to get out of paying taxes.

One of the claims made against tax protesters (people who refuse to pay taxes because they believe that the IRS, income taxes, and most other taxes are illegal) is that they aren't doing what they do because they really do believe that the IRS and taxes are illegal, they're just doing it because they don't want to pay taxes.

While it is probably true that many so called tax protesters are only with the movement because they simply don't want to pay taxes, there are some tax protesters out there that really believe that taxes are against the law.

3. Creationists believe in evolution.

While many of the "claims" creationists have made to try to "counter" the theory of evolution are down right ridiculous (which includes the claim that the theory of evolution was just made up, or that it's an invention of the Devil), there are some people who claim that many creationist actually do believe in evolution, and that they are claiming that they don't either because of social pressures, or, for the high profile creationists, are just making up stuff to hold on to whatever power they have.

While many of the top creationist probably are trying to hold on to whatever power that they have, the odds are is that they really do believe in what they are saying, otherwise they wouldn't put out such ridiculous counter theories to evolution.

2. Global warming denialists are being paid to be denialists.

Probably one of the largest counter conspiracy theories out there is that many of the top promoters global warming hoax conspiracy theory are actually being paid by certain industries to deny that global warming either exists, or that it's being caused by human activities.

While it might be easy to believe that many of the top global warming denialists are being paid to promote the global warming hoax conspiracy theories, the problem is that there really is no proof that these people really are being paid to promote global warming hoax conspiracy theories.

1. Birthers are racists who are trying to get President Obama removed from office because he's black.

While many Birthers (people who believe that President Obama wasn't born in the United States) probably are racists, and that the conspiracy theory as a whole is fundamentally racist, some people actually accuse Birthers of making up the conspiracy theory simply to get President Obama kicked out of office because he is black.

The problem with this is that while it might actually be true for some, it might not be true that everyone who believes this conspiracy theory are just being racists who can't stand the thought of a black man as president, and there is really no proof for the most part that most of them don't actually believe what they claim.

Conspiracy theories only create more conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories are all over the internet it seems these days, and there are a lot of things I have noticed about many of these conspiracy theories, but there is one thing that seems to be an absolute constant about conspiracy theories:

Conspiracy theories create more conspiracy theories.

Take the 9/11 conspiracy theories for example. What was probably the original conspiracy theory concerning that act of terror was the accusation that the Bush administration allowed it to happen, then it eventually progressed into the belief that the government made it happen, then into the belief that the towers were brought down by explosives, then into the belief that the towers were hit by drones, until finally you get to the really bizarre ones that claim that no planes hit the the World Trade Center towers at all.

Originally it would take years for a conspiracy theory to get to it's most bizarre levels (as the 9/11 conspiracy theories did) but now it takes no time at all.

The Sandy Hook conspiracy theories for example took very little time to go from your basic false flag attack conspiracy theory, to the truly bizarre theory that it didn't happen and that all the grieving parents of the children that were killed were just actors, and that all the children that were killed either were not killed, or never even existed.

That progression took less than a week.

And the conspiracy theories concerning the recent bombing of the Boston Marathon went from being an alleged false flag attack, to being an outright staged hoax in less than a day...

Sometimes it will go even further than just going from being mundane to being really bizarre (and perhaps harmful), sometimes it will lead to the creation of a conspiracy theory will actually end up being what's called a "counter conspiracy theory".

What a counter conspiracy theory is, is an attempt to counter a conspiracy theory with a conspiracy theory that is the exact opposite of that conspiracy theory (and in some cases themselves becoming pretty darn bizarre).

Going back to the 9/11 conspiracy theories, while there are a lot of conspiracy theories concerning who did it, there are some conspiracy theories concerning the creation of the 9/11 conspiracy theories.

The main ones being that they were created simply as a way to try to either get or keep the United States out of the middle east. There are some claims that Al-Qaeda created those 9/11 conspiracy theories, and even payed people in the United States to spread these conspiracy theories.

Then there are of course the counter counter conspiracy theories, which basically are conspiracy theories that claim that the counter conspiracy theories were created as nothing more than propaganda to make people fearful of believing in certain conspiracy theories, and as a way to make conspiracy theorists look like traders, and that if you believe in these conspiracy theories, you are a trader.

This is basically what happens when a conspiracy theory is created. It creates more and more conspiracy theories, and conspiracy theories that are meant to counter those conspiracy theories, and other conspiracy theories that are meant to counter those conspiracy theories.

In the end it all becomes so confusing that it is best just to ignore them all and go about your life.

A review of "Debunking 9/11 conspiracy theorists" by Myles Power

On October 31, 2012 blogger and vlogger Myles Power began uploading to his Youtube page the first of a seven part series called "Debunking 9/11 conspiracy theorists".

The series (as you can tell by the name in itself) primarily focused on several of claims that members of the 9/11 Truth movement made when he went down to the World Trade Center site on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and interviewed some of the movement's members that were there protesting near by.

The main claims that were addressed were the ones concerning the beliefs that the Twin Towers and WTC 7 were brought down in a controlled demolition, that thermite was used to bring the towers down, and that a missile hit the Pentagon (along with a few other minor related claims).

Myles does an excellent job at debunking these claims using a combination of science, logic, and photographic and video evidence, while at the same time addressing and debunking these claims in a way that is not only easy to understand, but is also entertaining. I even learned couple of things myself that I didn't even know, such as that the plane that hit the Pentagon struck several lamp posts before it actually hit, and what exactly caused the Twin Towers to finally collapse (besides just the constant heat from the intense, jet fuel fueled fires that were causing the steel beams strength to weaken, the constant pressure from the rest of building up above pressing down on the weakened steel beams, and of course the damage caused by a Boeing 767 traveling 400 mph into this sides of the buildings).

While I did very much enjoy the series, I do have a couple of (minor) complaints.

First is that there were a few more claims that, in my opinion, should have been addressed.

While I know that Myles was primarily focused on the claims from the 9/11 Truthers that he had met made to him, I believe he should have addressed a few other claims that are also made by other 9/11 Truthers, such as the drone theory, the "let it happen" theory, the "Israel did it" theory, the "no plane" theory, and the related "space laser" theory (which he did briefly mentions, but would not bother address simply because it was so insane, which I don't blame him for).

If he does decide to make some follow up videos concerning some of the issues that were not addressed, I do hope that he will address and debunk these claims.

My other complaint actually concerns the sixth part of the series, which talks about the psychology behind 9/11 Truthers (and conspiracy theorists in general).

While I did find that part to be very interesting and informative in showing how conspiracy theorists think, in my opinion I don't feel that the part was actually necessary. Why I do know that part was included to help better show the thought processes of a 9/11 Truther, I feel that part should have been completely separate from the series, rather than apart of it.

Besides these two minor issues, I felt overall that this series was excellent, and I highly recommend viewing it, and not just for skeptics and debunkers, but also for people in the 9/11 Truth Movement, and people who just have some unanswered questions about that horrible day.

Below is the first of the seven part series:

The other six parts can be found here

Myles's Youtube Page

Myles's Blog

Myles's Facebook Page

Myles's Twitter Page

How many people really do believe the government committed the 9/11 attacks?

How many people actually believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks, or at least allowed the attacks to happen? This is a question that I sometimes wonder about.

What I mean by people who actually believe the government committed or allow the 9/11 attacks to happen, I don't mean simply people who say they believe that the government committed the 9/11, I mean people who actually mean it when they say that they believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks.

Now there are multiple surveys that have been conducted over the past decade that have asked people whether or not they believe the government was involve in the 9/11 attacks, but there are a couple of problems I have with these surveys:

One, they are often vary in percentages of how many people actually believe the government was involved in the 9/11 attacks. This can be because of where the surveys were taken, when they were taken, and how the questions were actually worded.

And two, there is no realistic way to filter out the people who just say they believe from the true believers.

Now many of you are probably asking "why would someone claim they believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks but not really mean it?"

Well, one reason might be for political purposes.

It's very well known that conspiracy theories are often time used for political and propaganda purposes, and the conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks are no exception.

A person could be claiming this because they have anti-government beliefs, or anti-American beliefs, or anti-Israeli beliefs (for those that are antisemitic), or they could be a person who hated President Bush so much that they say they believe the government committed the 9/11 to (in their minds) further delegitimize his presidency.

Of course they could also be saying that the government committed the 9/11 attacks not because they have a anti-something beliefs, but because they wish to further their own political agendas, and they're just using and exploiting the 9/11 Truth movement to do it.

Of course, political reasons are not the only reasons why some people claim to believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks and not really mean it. It could be that they are, or fell like they are being pressured into saying that they believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks.

Perhaps a person joined a group of people who believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks because they themselves were once curious about the conspiracy theories about the attack, but now no longer believe in the 9/11 conspiracy theories. They might continue to claim that they believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks simply because they made friends in that group, and they don't want to risk losing them.

Another reason is because they are feeling pressure from their family to believe in these 9/11 conspiracy theories. Perhaps they even feel threatened by a spouse or a parent to "believe" in these conspiracy theories.

This happens all the time with things like religion and politics, and so it really would not surprise me if it happened with things like conspiracy theories (since conspiracy theories are sometimes a mixing of religion and politics).

Then there is one more group that has to be taken into consideration: people who have severe mental illness.

While a person who is severely mentally ill, and believes that the government did commit the 9/11 attacks, probably sincerely does believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks, there is the question about whether or not their belief should be considered a legitimate belief or not. The reason why I question if their belief that the government committed the 9/11 attacks should be consider legitimate or not is because it is questionable whether or not they would still believe that the government committed the 9/11 attacks if they were either not mentally ill (sometimes severe delusional disorders will make a person believe in anything), or if their mental illness was under controlled to the point where they were considered sane. Because of this it should be taken into consideration whether or not we should even count those beliefs as being sincere because their minds might not be allowing them to see clearly the facts when presented to them, rather then just simply ignoring the facts.

Because of all these factors I truly do wonder how many people actually believe that the government caused the 9/11 attacks, and honestly, I don't think it's as high as what many people think it is.

5 Things I've noticed about... People in the 9/11 Truth Movement

There are a lot things that I have noticed not just about the 9/11 the Truth movement, but the people in the movement itself.

So here a five things I've noticed about people in the 9/11 Truth movement:

5. They're not who you think they are.

Back a few years ago I use to think that 9/11 Truthers came in three different flavors: Those on the extreme left who were suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome, those on the extreme right who greatly distrust the government, and paranoid kooks who may be mentally ill and willing to believe in just about any crazy theory, but over the years I've found people who do not fall into any of those categories, and are actually perfectly normally people.

Heck, a few months ago a friend of mine posted something on their Facebook page in which they implied that the towers were brought down by explosives, and I was very shocked that they believed that. In fact I had actually thought that person's page had been hacked, but it turns out it wasn't, and because of that it's made me rethink that maybe not all 9/11 Truthers are a bunch of cranks, just misinformed. Some of them might even be to afraid to express their beliefs for fear of being labelled a crazy person.

4. They keep using the same, dis-proven theories.

Go to any site that promotes 9/11 conspiracy theories, or talk to anyone who believes in some of the 9/11 conspiracy theories, and you will get a variety of theories (technically speaking they're actually hypothesis) that despite their beliefs, and despite how much they seriously believe them to be true, they have been dis-proven and debunked, yet they still keep promoting them.

Apparently they must live belief that if you say something that isn't true enough times it will become true.

3. There is a lot of infighting.

While most people who promote certain types of conspiracy theories are normally united if they promote different theories about certain events, the same cannot be said about people who promote 9/11 conspiracy theories. This may be due to shear fact that unlike many conspiracy theories, 9/11 conspiracy theories varies greatly. Because of this members from one group promoting one theory might fight with members from another group promoting a different theory, with the two groups eventually accusing each other of being dis-info agents.

In the skeptic community this is generally referred to as "nutter fights"?

2. They always claim to have "undeniable evidence."

If you do a search on any major website using the words "9/11 Truth" you are going come across some pages that claims to have "undeniable evidence" or "undeniable proof" or something of the like that the 9/11 attacks were a false flag attack.

These claims in the end tend to prove absolutely nothing, but people in the movement still make them.

1. They don't want to do any real research into their own claims.

Probably the only reason why currently the amount of people that believe that the 9/11 attacks were committed by the government is above 10% is because the people who believe in it after all these years isn't because of some mental disorder, it's because they haven't done any real research for themselves, and have only relied on web sites and videos that promote the theories that they believe in.

In fact on the occasions when a a person who is a 9/11 Truther does real research on their own, and not simply rely on what some other 9/11 Truther says, they tend to leave the movement.