Among the Truthers by Jonathan Kay Read Free Book Online

6), propagation through modern media, academic and activist networks (Chapters 7, 8, and 9), and, more generally, the manner in which it erodes our society’s collective grasp on reality. In Chapter 10, I offer suggestions for countering the spread of conspiracy theories—including a brief description of a hypothetical academic course that would give college students the tools needed to identify and debunk conspiracist ideologies.
    Before proceeding further, let me offer five caveats about the way the material is presented.
    First, this book focuses primarily on conspiracism in the United States and the Internet-based conspiracist culture that has grown out of it, with some coverage of prominent Canadian theorists who have taken an active role in promoting American conspiracist narratives. (True to its moderate stereotype, my native Canada has virtually no indigenous conspiracist culture of its own, except in regard to phobias of U.S. hegemony. And so its paranoiacs tend to co-opt American obsessions with JFK, 9/11, the USS Liberty , and the like.)
    The 9/11 Truth movement is widespread beyond North America’s shores—particularly in the Muslim countries of the Middle East and South Asia. But in these parts of the world, such theories are wrapped up in complicated ways with anti-Americanism, colonialism, and the long history of the West’s interaction with what was once called the Third World—issues that lie beyond the scope of this book.
    Second, this book is not intended as a rebuttal to conspiracists. Nor will I provide a complete recitation of their elaborate proofs. Those seeking a point-by-point rebuttal to the claims of the 9/11 Truth movement already have several fine resources at their disposal. In particular, I recommend the 2006 book Debunking 9/11 Myths : Why Conspiracy Theories Can’t Stand up to the Facts , authored by the editors of Popular Mechanics magazine; Mark Roberts’ Links for 9/11 Research ; the websites 911 Myths, Debunking 911, and the blog Screw Loose Change . Readers who wish to devote more time to the issue might also consider reading the Final Report of the 9–11 Commission , released in 2004; Lawrence Wright’s Pulitzer Prize–winning 2006 account of the history of 9/11, The Looming Tower ; and, for those who share my interest in technical material, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s exhaustive Final Reports of the Federal Building and Fire Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster (a twenty-million-dollar effort that took three years to produce, and drew on the efforts of three hundred staff and external experts). I also recommend a brief, but highly illuminating 2006 paper by explosives and demolitions expert Brent Blanchard entitled A Critical Analysis of the Collapse of WTC Towers 1 , 2&7 From a Conventional Explosives and Demolitions Industry Viewpoint . It can be found on the website of the Journal of Debunking 9/11 , which contains a number of other interesting articles aimed at helping laypeople refute Truther claims.
    Third, a note about terminology: Throughout this book, I employ the terms “conspiracy theory” (and, interchangeably, “conspiracism”) to describe 9/11 Truth and similar movements. The phrase is defined by Merriam-Webster’s as “a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot.” But that formulation is broad enough to encompass actual historical conspiracies, such as the plot to frame Alfred Dreyfus in the 1890s, the 1972 plot by members of the Committee to Re-elect the President to spy on the Democratic National Committee headquarters, and the actual al-Qaeda plot that led to 9/11. So instead, I adopt the narrower definition set out by Oxford University conspiracy theory scholar Steve Clarke and Brian Keeley of Pitzer College (formerly of Washington University): A theory that traces important events to a secretive, nefarious