Monday, May 19, 2008

Follow the money part 2

As mentioned in the earlier criticism of disingenuous fraud Frank Legge, the logical fallacy that drives a healthy fraction of conspiracy theory thinking is called cui bono: “who benefits?” whereby everyone who in the minds of conspiracy theorists has “benefited” from a tragedy must have had some stake in causing that tragedy. 9/11 deniers are lucky that the rest of the world is better at thinking than them.

There have always been snake-oil peddlers waiting in the wings to capitalize on the fears, doubts, and failures of logic of others, but all the evidence seems to indicate that the 9/11 deniers take the cake for their rapid-response marketing blitz to take the credulous for every penny they’ve got.


Fig. 1 – CDs, t-shirts, buttons, DONATIONS! Spread The Truth and save the day, for a price.


Fig. 2 – Hm, I wonder where all those t-shirts came from...


Fig. 3 – with a web address like septembereleventh.org, you’d think these guys would’ve been able to keep going for longer. Despite their evident sole purpose as a hawker of cheap DVDs and ad space for other frauds, this site has fallen apart and is “no longer accepting donations” (by “donation,” they meant, “buy our crap”).

Because the 9/11-denier movement is in dire straits as mentioned earlier on this Blog and most of their hallowed halls are now hollow wastes of bandwidth, it’s hard to gauge exactly how many of the most egregious con artists are still active. But there will probably always be at least one survivor. He is, after all, the master, the king of the televangelists, the Creflo Dollar of conspiracy theorists, the ever-loudmouthed right-wing nutjob...


Fig. 4 – Alex Jones and the orgy of really, really silly ideas that collectively form the content of infowars.com

Yes, if there’s any singular chipmunk-cheeked, loudmouthed, Bill-O’Reilly-esque purveyor of hilarious ideas and cheap merchandise who has since been vaunted into quasi-fame for his ability to sustain a loud volume for sufficiently long periods of time, it is this one. Considering that pretty much every other 9/11 denier’s business ventures have failed completely, Alex Jones stands as the most consistent and lucrative of the bunch.

Thus, the evidence is clear. We know now who really caused 9/11. Ladies and gentlemen, the true culprit: Alex Jones. So simple, isn’t it? A multi-thousand-dollar city-state of chuckle-inducing rants against the UN, far beyond the wildest dreams of even the most ambitious yahoo with lots of absurd opinions. Alex Jones truth now!

I know, how stupid would you have to be to believe that, right?

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