All of You, Who Once Believed in 9/11 Truth, Share Your Experiences

[ref]

I am looking for written experiences from people who used to be on the truther side, but are not anymore. I know there are many on this board. What I'd especially like to know are follows:

a) How did you once become a truther? I am not looking for answers, like "watching Loose Change". If possible, I'd like you to write in a bit more detailed manner, like "I watched Loose Change, and started surfing the internet. All I could find were more truther sites, which further reinforced my truther status... etc" or something like that.

b) What convinced you back from truther to non-truther? Once again, I hope you do not respond something like "truthers are dumb", but a bit more specific.

c) What are your thoughts nowadays about your time as a truther? What mistakes you made back then? Were you 100% convinced, agressively promoting the truth? Whatever comes to your mind.


I can give examples from my own experiences.

a) Conspiracy theories were very remote to me before 9/11 truth. Of course, I had heard that there were some JFK conspiracy theories, but had never gone through any of the claims in detail. Then all of a sudden, I was exposed to some truther propaganda. I went surfing the internet and found only more and more stuff reinforcing the conspiracy point of view. I guess it was the lack of any previous exposure to any conspiracy theories, combined with the massive amounts of conspiracy material so easily found in the internet, that made me a truther for a short while. I had no experience dealing with this kind of false claims. I thought at least most of the stuff had to be for real.

b) I started debating my (conspiracy) point of view, but every time I came out disappointed. I always thought I had a weaker case. But still, I could support my case pretty cleverly, if I only distorted some evidence a little bit, ignored some other evidence, etc. Until I reached the point, when I was so frustrated with it all, I knew I had no case. I knew very well the points each side was making. It was a non-contest. I became a debunker overnight. But it took me a couple of months of trutherism and defending my weak points, before I fully realized I was wrong.

c) I am somewhat embarrassed, that I was lured into the conspiracy world so easily. I had always thought I was critical of evidence. I had always thought I cannot be fooled. And there I was, claiming WTC demolition. But that time also taught me a lot. One has to be very careful with stuff that sounds exiting, but you have no previous experience with. Because once you take the first wrong step, it is very easy to convince yourself with further evidence supporting the wrong conclusion, while twisting in your mind the evidence that doesn't.


Share your thoughts, all people that once believed even some of the truther stuff. I might do some writing about this subject, if I get enough material.

 

[CYiNCE]

a) How did you once become a truther?

I had always enjoyed being skeptical pretty much anything, and as an angst ridden teen, (twenty something actually) government conspiracy's fascinated me, by believing them I felt as if I was smarter than people who believed the official story, and telling people made me feel superior, cause at the time (like Dec 2001, saying the government was behind the attack was a pretty wild thing, and did atcaully make you controversial). I used to read Rense all the time (I considered it the REAL news, and all the MSM stuff was just BS). At that time I would have been 20. So it wasn't really facts that made me a truther, just wanting the be superior. Then I just accepted it and didnt' follow it for years, I just assumed the government was lying. Then I saw loose change and the fire was re-ignited.

b) What convinced you back from truther to non-truther?

The first chink in my armour was a fourm called Protestwarrior, which I trolled at, and thoes guys just made me look like a chump...so I avoided dissenting opinions in order to settle my cognitive dissonance. Then the South Park episode...that lead me to Screw Loose change, which lead me here and the Gravy's sites.

c) What are your thoughts nowadays about your time as a truther?

Embarrassed. I will see people who I haven't seen in years, and they still think I believe that...sadly some of them do now, because of me. So now I try to educate people in Real life, and clown CTists on the Internets for lulz.

 

[Praktik]

A) I was never a 9/11 Truther but in the years running up to 9/11 I was following Michael Ruppert pretty closely, watching some of the early DVD's that were downloadable back then. Visiting copvcia.com and reading about oil and drug-running. At this point in my political orientation I was very anti-imperialist (and still am) but I guess I found just reading about American crimes to be thrilling in some respect, and there was some of the self-satisfaction mentioned above in feeling that I had an "inside story" on a lot of stuff.

b) Now, I still think I do have an "inside story" on policy decisions but its now an educated one. I dropped Ruppert after a few years, I remember watching one documentary and it was paced really badly and there were some shots of Ruppert and some "colleagues" talking outside of a place he was running a seminar at - and I just got a real "clubby" vibe from the movie. Seemed to me that these people were all reinforcing each other in certain shared assumptions and I guess I reacted to that and decided to go elsewhere for my information. Nowadays I tend to seek more balanced, careful prose and discourse - I wanted to know WHY decisions came to be made and Ruppert and crew, despite outlining some basic elements of self-interest that are uncontroversial, didn't really go too far in outlining how, on an institutional/organization perspective, policy becomes shaped.

I came to realize that the people in power were not the base individuals I had thought they were. This CS Lewis quote describes what I came to realize quite well:

"The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loved to paint but is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clear, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices."
- C.S. Lewis

When the towers fell, I didn't feel like at a loss for answers. The "official story" was - on its face - plausible. It fit into a pattern of blowback that America has been caught up in for the last half century of meddling in the Middle East. I was not surprised at all that terrorists in the region would want to inflict harm. As it happened after my flirtation with CT theory, and as I was coming to study foreign policy and world history more closely, I found that the events fit rather neatly in there. I knew America didn't "need" 9/11 to start foreign wars or to spy on Americans - the motive just made way more sense when laid at the feet of Al Qaeda (or Al Qaeda-like terrorists) than to be some kind of self-inflicted, and needlessly complex, conspiracy.

c) Since my flirtation was relatively short-lived and I didn't end up going that far down the rabbit hole my thoughts on my "time as a truther" are not that significant. To be honest I think Ruppert comes out a lot better than many of the wackjobs out there and I think there are parts of his "research" which stand up pretty well. Its just that there's a lot of things these research approaches miss: the world is simplified into a manichean struggle between the "controllers" and the unwashed masses. And when I think back to that time I see it as part of a longer journey of growing awareness - maybe even a necessary step to get me where I am today.

When you look back and see the way your ideas have evolved, even the mis-steps can be seen as useful. And since I can plug the work of Ruppert into a larger schema that I think is "more correct", I think there are sometimes still some nuggets of value you can extract from people like him. Less-so from people like Fetzer and Icke anyway..

 

[240-185]

a) How did you once become a truther? I am not looking for answers, like "watching Loose Change". If possible, I'd like you to write in a bit more detailed manner, like "I watched Loose Change, and started surfing the internet. All I could find were more truther sites, which further reinforced my truther status... etc" or something like that.

I have to confess that I was secretly a truther. "Secretly", because I never expressed my thoughts about this topics. I was quite unsure if a plane had struck the Pentagon, because I had heard of many people claiming that it wasn't a plane which stroke the Pentagon. But I was strongly against stoopid theories involving a controlled demolition which brought down the Twin Towers, as it seemed obvious to me that two planes launched at full speed DID destroy the towers. At this time, I didn't realize that my statement was also contradictory: I admitted that 19 people had hijacked the planes, but I wasn't quite sure about the Pentagon and the Shanksville planes.

Then, I watched the first minutes of "911 Mysteries", whose link was provided by a truther; I wasn't pleased with the claims that all witnesses in Manhattan were part of the inside job. I didn't like the tone of despise used to describe the "official" story.

Next part in my answer to b.

b) What convinced you back from truther to non-truther? Once again, I hope you do not respond something like "truthers are dumb", but a bit more specific.

The answer to "9/11 Mysteries" was a guide. "9/11 Mysteries Guide". I started to read carefully this guide. On my PC. On my PSP. In my bed. In my bathroom. Every claim in "9/11 mysteries guide" debunked the original clip. Every. I was astonished to see all the documentation about who said these claims. I was quite surprised that "9/11 Mysteries" was essentially propaganda.

My doubts about 9/11 were vanishing. I started to finally believe that the so-called "official" story was the right version about what happened on that tragical day.

While reading "9/11 Mysteries Guide", I got soon on Gravy's site. A LOT of documentation. All 9/11 conspiracy theories were presented, and debunked. Then, I read later on "Loose Change Guide", while surfing on the internet. The main critics were quite the same compared to "9/11 Mysteries Guide". Sloppy research, "leaders" of Truth Movement who were frauds, lies... I was convinced.

Then I met a hardcore french truther on a forum, and I began to practice debunking. It was quite funny to see his logical flaws: he didn't trust he governments, because they were the governments, nah. He used other "conspiracies" to prove that 9/11 was an inside job. He used every truthy claim to prove the inside job. Then he disappeared.

But I felt I was a newbie at debunking. That's why I registered on a skeptical forum from Québec (Hi Pardalis), so I could ask some questions about debunking 9/11 conspiracies. Like Edna Cintron.

Nowadays, I'm still learning, but I strongly fight trutherism as it has the same ways of arguing like Shoah denialism: pissing on victims' graves, pissing on psychological victims, spreading lies, and wanting to open a "debate" in order to spew their hatred of thoughts shared by a majority of people, jsut because it was a majority.

c) What are your thoughts nowadays about your time as a truther? What mistakes you made back then? Were you 100% convinced, agressively promoting the truth? Whatever comes to your mind.

As I wasn't totally 100% convinced by the twoof, I didn't feel the necessity of spreading the truth. Now, I wish I had known Gravy's site sooner, I wish I had never heard of trutherism which is only motivated by hatred of America.

 

[Bobert]

I actually was never a truther but do have to thank a truther for prompting me look at 9-11 and get back into keeping up on current events.
While I vehemently disgreed with him it did promt me to look at the things that I believed and evaluate them.

 

[BCR]

a) NTSB Data

b) I am still a Truther, just not a "truther"

c) I have never worked with such a group of loony toons in my life. Pass me an aspirin.

 

[Baylor]

Richard Dawkins was more likely to turn a creationist than I was a truther.

 

[Baylor]

And ref- you are not American right? Did you have anti-American attitudes that helped "tip the scale?"

 

[CYiNCE]

And ref- you are not American right? Did you have anti-American attitudes that helped "tip the scale?"

This wasn't directed at me, but it reminded me. Yhea, I was totally anti-Amerian, I was of the opinion that the US was the Evil Empire, and everything they did was evil etc. The anti American sentiment coupled with attaching an inflated sense self worth to 'truther' theories (ie: I'm so much smarter than these sheeple) is what I think allows the movement so called to continue in the face of monumental evidence to the contrary; albeit in a feeble state.

 

[Thunder]

c) i was very easily convinced by the fancy videos, cool soundtracks, and the thoughts of meeting hot chicks in cut off "9-11 was an inside job" t-shirts out in LA.

 

[~enigma~]

I was never a believer in MIHOP but I did believe in LIHOP. Hanging out on the Myspace 9/11 truth groups I saw arguments from both sides and I honestly couldn't comprehend the sheer foolishness of almost every MIHOP supporter I spoke with. I saw plenty of infighting among truthers and that coupled with weak and non-existant arguments prompted me to read Gravy's Loose Change guide (even though I always thought LC was a bunch of baloney). I then watched Screw Loose Change and 9/11 Deniers Speak - Exposing The 9/11 "Truth" Movement. Then I read Gumboot's paper on Norad and since then I question the intelligence (lack of) of any 9/11 truther that believes in MIHOP. If I ever feel "pulled" to return to the ranks of truther idiocy, I just go to LCF and the thought disappears.

 

[eromitlab]

I actually tilted towards "truther" for a time, swayed by the LIHOP-lite/incompetence stance of "Fahrenheit 9/11". But I was never really spurred into action by any of it. It was fairly easy at the time for an anti-Bush type such as myself to believe that the warning bells that were there (the 8/6/01 PDB, the tip about Muslims at flight schools, the James Woods tip, et cetera) could go unexplored and 9/11 happened because partisan hacks were just sitting on their duffs. That actually seemed plausible.

What pushed me away from trutherism was, ironically enough, the spam campaign for their movement, the main truthist videos and the theories they'd adopted. Specifically, Loose Change.
Through a (non-troofer) friend, I'd found reddit.com, a social news site that offered me many useful and interesting stories I probably wouldn't have found searching the internet on my own. I would come to know not long after that that reddit was riddled with truthism, many users offering helpful missives like "9/11 was an inside job, watch Loose Change" and "WAKE UP SHEEPLE!" when they weren't upvoting any and every troofer link and downvoting anything that disagreed with their view. It was through this venue that I discovered Loose Change. Well, part of it. I followed a heavily-upvoted link to youtube and saw a clip from version 1, I suppose. Specifically, it was the stuff about the pods, alleging that the planes fired missiles into the buildings "seconds" before impact. I could clearly look at that video and see that the damning "flash" that they showed from multiple angles "seconds before impact"... came when the nose of the plane first penetrated the exterior wall of the building. Equipped with this lack of trust in their claims, I followed another troofer link on reddit to Loose Change version 2. Then I struck out on my own and found the Screw Loose Change viewer guide and video. SLC put the unhinged, open-ended rambling of Loose Change into the proper perspective. I tried to look for some sort of LIHOP-lite or incompetence, but it seemed that form of truthism had been swallowed by the CD/Larry said pull/Pentagon "mystery" crowd. I also looked for some sort of alternate narrative from the truthers... couldn't find one, just a bunch of "what about such-and-such" and similar loaded questions that they asked even though they already knew the answer you were supposed to arrive at. Not long afterwards, after seeing the outright idiocy of the "Larry said pull" stuff that reddit's truthists were now pushing, I gave voice to my anti-truthism there; the responses I received from the resident truthists (stupid, sheeple, gov't shill, do some research, insults, threats and so on) convinced me that truthism was not the way to go, that the "movement" had nothing constructive to offer except a superiority complex for those that bought in at face value.

I guess if I had to offer any thoughts about my time as a "truther", if one could even call it that... I sometimes think "what if". I share more in common with truthers than I really care to admit. I think what if I had been a teenager at this time... would I have been one of those who bought in, for the sake of being different and controversial if nothing else? But I also think, what if the focus of the movement landed on something potentially more plausible like LIHOP-lite or incompetence, something that could have galvanized anti-Bush sentiment. You know, instead of claiming the man is stupid, yet somehow he masterminded the biggest conspiracy in the history of ever to pull off a false flag attack that would wound the economy in the short-term and in the long-term ruin his legacy and weaken his party with its goals. Would truthism have actually meant something if it was something that wasn't absolutely ridiculous on its surface?

 

[Thunder]

i also hate Bush. it was very very easy for me to believe that Bush would be involved in such a scheme of murder and deceit. but then i realized, that no matter how much I hate Bush, it is not right for me..or anyone else..to blaim him for deaths that the evidence just doesn't convict him of.

yet..i will admit....that a part of me still does hopes and prays, that someday, some evidence does come out making it clear that Bush had some hand in either making it happen, or allowing it to take place.

but, until the evidence proves it, I am no truther.

 

[PhantomWolf]

I wouldn't go as far as to say I hate Bush, I'm not an American and so to me he's more of a passing inconvenience. I dislike him and think he's got the intellectual abilities of a Chimp. I actually found it funny that Americans voted for him, and in the end I had to put that down to them not liking their leaders to be smarter than they are, and well with Bush they hit the jackpot, the entire population of the US is smarter, including some that live in zoos.

My main reasons for never accepting the 9/11 Theories is because, a) they'd absurd, b) because they'd require Bush to be some sort of genius mastermind, and clearly he's not, and c) they'd require the US government to be sort of competent and able to keep a secret. As I said, the theories are absurd.

 

[Baylor]

When pomeroo first had the LC kids on his show, it looked like he was being introduced to these nutty ideas. He had a big "WTF" expression on his face, as if he was thinking, "you cannot be serious." I had the same look on my face when I watched the first nutty conspiracy videos.

 

[Thunder]

i remember how scared my mom was when i spouted all the conspiracy theories at her. she was not happy at all that i was saying all these things.

i text messaged my ENTIRE family: "i have seen a new video, which shows compelling evidence, that our own government was responsible for 9-11!!"

i got zero responses...=)

but the point is, i felt like i had discovered something HUGE!! something that made me part of history. i felt like...a revolutionary. like someone who could help change the world.

and then..i woke up to the boring truth.

i admit, defending Bush...sucks. it sucks big time. but i do feel a great sense of decency..a great sense of conscience, that i am somehow fighting to defend the truth, and bring light to the truth, of that horrible day. i know i am doing the right thing.

..but it still sucks defending Bush and Cheney. thank God for their lies and criminal acts in Iraq. i can always rail against them for that.

 

[njslim]

Used to believe that a jolly fat guy in red suit would come the chimney on Dec 25 with
all sort of neat toys - that is until some kid at school told me it was my parents putting
the stuff under the tree....

 

[ref]

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. Great posts.

To UNLoVedRebel: I am not American. But eventhough I disliked Bush, I had no anti-American attitudes in general, so that wasn't an issue with me.

 

[Arus808]

nice thread. i was a "truther" for all of the 90 minutes I spent to watch Loose Change (2nd Edition) and then did research on my own to see that 100% was bunk. does being a truther for 90 minutes count? I hope not...

 

[GlennB]

a) How did you once become a truther?

It stemmed, I believe, from the ferocious resentment I was harbouring towards Bush and Blair for the pack of lies and manipulation they pushed our way to justify the wars in the Middle East. I'll stress here that this was not "anti-American" feeling. As a Brit and a natural Labour voter I cannot adequately express my hatred for Tony Blair. I'll put GWB in exactly the same class.
Then, watching a couple of "Truth" videos that were being discussed on an unrelated forum. This cracked the damn, so to speak. Yes, thought I, those #######'s are well capable of that. I must admit that finally seeing the collapse of WTC7 was shocking.
Much investigoogling led (naturally) to finding countless "sources" and I was steaming so much that the ol' brain wasn't in a fit state to realise they were merely recycling the same bilge.

b) What convinced you back from truther to non-truther?

I expressed some opinions here and received some slaps in the face (some tactful, some not) with good plain information. But - having a good scientific background - I was able to see that at least some of the tripe I was pushing was just flat wrong. This gave pause for serious thought. Plus, here and elsewhere, I was beginning to find links to the debunking sites. Of course a lot of this could have been avoided simply by putting "9/11" +"debunk" into Google in the first place, but I suppose the desire to believe in something wacky can lead one astray.

c) What are your thoughts nowadays about your time as a truther?

Mostly embarrassment, especially as the whole business flared and died in a matter of a couple of months and I should really have had the wit to notice that I was getting much too excited, too quickly, about the whole 9/11 "truth" business. That's never a healthy sign. But it highlights very strongly (again) for me that the power of self-deception is very strong in the human race.