2011/07/30/0948/link/woozle

2011/07/30/0948/link The 2005 Popular Mechanics article Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report is apparently one of the major sources pointed to by 9/11 anomaly denialists as having definitively "debunked" the idea that the official story of 9/11 is false in any significant way. This page is an analysis of the claims made in that article.

Popular Mechanics apparently also published a book on the same subject, which may be also be deserving of its own analysis.

Paragraph by Paragraph

Paragraph 1: "From the moment the first airplane crashed..." - people want to know how it happened. (True)

Paragraph 2: "Three and a half years later, not everyone is convinced we know the truth." - and there are a lot of articles about it that use the word "conspiracy". (True)

Paragraph 3 doesn't address any specific claims, but does make a lot of implicit emotional arguments, so it's worth quoting:

Healthy skepticism, it seems, has curdled into paranoia. Wild conspiracy tales are peddled daily on the Internet, talk radio and in other media. Blurry photos, quotes taken out of context and sketchy eyewitness accounts have inspired a slew of elaborate theories: The Pentagon was struck by a missile; the World Trade Center was razed by demolition-style bombs; Flight 93 was shot down by a mysterious white jet. As outlandish as these claims may sound, they are increasingly accepted abroad and among extremists here in the United States.

Implications:

• All claims of conspiracy are paranoia. (If any claims were worth examining on their own merits, they would have mentioned this.) This is stating opinion as fact, since it not backed up with evidence or with the promise of evidence.
• All conspiracy theories are "wild tales" being "peddled" (sold for profit?) "on the Internet" (implying that none of these claims are ever made face-to-face -- ignoring the many lectures, street demonstrations, pamphlets, etc.) This is demonstrably a false claim.

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