Encountered my first "Truther" today

I have seen an occasional truther bumper sticker on beat up cars, never on a new car though...I wonder why.
 
I've seen various Truthers at a distance (e.g. a small group holding signs in a street in DC the day of Obama's first inauguration) but the only one I've spoken to face to face was at a sushi bar in San Francisco during a business trip, circa 2009. I was dining alone, and there was a young couple next to me trying to figure out what to order. The woman hadn't eaten sushi before and was asking the man what she should order, and he wasn't really sure how to advise her. I gave them my standard sushi advice (start with kinds of fish that you know you like when they're cooked; order ebi, tamago, or crab if you don't want raw; taste the wasabi carefully first; etc).

After the meal, the guy suddenly turned to me and asked, "Have you ever seen a building commit suicide?"

"Um..."

"Seriously. Buildings can't commit suicide, right?"

And he started telling me about building 7 on 9/11! Obviously he expected me to agree that because buildings cannot commit suicide, building 7 couldn't have collapsed on its own without thermite or some such. Once I realized what the heck he was talking about, I mentioned that the building had been on fire with no firefighting for several hours, and so forth. He seemed surprised that I knew anything about it, and after a few quick rebuttals of his boilerplate talking points (unfortunately the "buildings can't commit suicide" bit was his only original material) quickly gave up trying to sell me on a conspiracy, and they left soon after. His girlfriend never said a thing and was rolling her eyes the whole time.

No one got arrested, or even angry. The girlfriend might have been slightly miffed. Somehow I doubt that relationship lasted long.
 
I've met a lot of Truthers, in various settings; at various workplaces I have often found Truthers around, in bars and one at my cousin's wedding. And then there are also those who I would call Truther-friendly in the sense that they don't espouse 9/11 Truth but they seem to think that it's an interesting as opposed to loopy theory and enjoy saying things like "well I guess we'll just never know" as though all claims are as legitimate as the next.

As obnoxious as many of them were, I never found any of the Truthers I met to be particularly aggressive. There were a lot of supercilious ones who tended to think that because they embraced crazy and unpalatable theories it meant they were smarter, braver and with eyes more opener than others. In fact while some of them would do a bit of evangelizing I think many of them had a smug sense of superiority. But the Truther as described in triforcharity's OP sounds like no Truther I have ever met.
 
angrysoba said:
I've met a lot of Truthers, in various settings; at various workplaces I have often found Truthers around, in bars and one at my cousin's wedding. And then there are also those who I would call Truther-friendly in the sense that they don't espouse 9/11 Truth but they seem to think that it's an interesting as opposed to loopy theory and enjoy saying things like "well I guess we'll just never know" as though all claims are as legitimate as the next.

As obnoxious as many of them were, I never found any of the Truthers I met to be particularly aggressive. There were a lot of supercilious ones who tended to think that because they embraced crazy and unpalatable theories it meant they were smarter, braver and with eyes more opener than others. In fact while some of them would do a bit of evangelizing I think many of them had a smug sense of superiority. But the Truther as described in triforcharity's OP sounds like no Truther I have ever met.
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I've met a handful. They have all been mentally unstable.
 
RedIbis said:
I lurk a bit from time to time. Don't really participate in these old worn out threads anymore, but this thread certainly proves that the so-called skeptics couldn't wait to jump on Tri's bandwagon, and a stupid twoof such as myself saw the lies and fabrications for what they were.
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Sad you can't see the lies and fabrications of 911 truth and be as aggressive as you are for someone telling a story you don't believe. Do you believe all the lies of 911 truth, all the idiotic claims, and all the delusional anomalies due to ignorance.

There was no bandwagon to jump on. Tri told a story, tri was unable, unwilling to supply hard evidence; case closed. Do you need to attack people to feel good, need to keep the gravy quote to feel good. You make a stand against this, but can't make a stand on 911, the event of 19 terrorist, not the car. Good luck with the gravy stuff, but this many years of obsession, is ... I think you failed to read the thread for comprehension.


I have talked with some who believe in 911 truth claims. Believe it or not, I corrected the claims, explained they were wrong, and they would have to figure it out on their own.
 
NoahFence said:
Do they think 9/11 was an inside job? Do they think explosives could have survived the airplane crash?

That's a pretty fair way to determine mental instability.
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Follow-up questions:
Do you believe that thousands of undercover NWO minions have kept 911 a secret for over 12 years? How often do you wear an aluminum foil hairpiece?
 
angrysoba said:
Maybe they were. How did you determine their mental instability?
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Training, talking to them.

That being said, the last two truthers I saw, I did not talk to, rather they were talking (well more like yelling) at each other on a suburban train platform basically saying that "F word 9/11 was a (very naughty word) inside job." Both were highly intoxicated. Perhaps sober they might have been excellent bike messengers or the equivalent. As it were, they should have been in the drunk tank to sleep it off. Of course, it WAS nearly 7 pm....
 
16.5 said:
I've met a handful. They have all been mentally unstable.
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angrysoba said:
Maybe they were. How did you determine their mental instability?
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NoahFence said:
Do they think 9/11 was an inside job? Do they think explosives could have survived the airplane crash?

That's a pretty fair way to determine mental instability.
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In other words, if they are Truthers they must be mentally unstable by definition and they need not have said or done anything over and above a declaration of Trutherism to be considered mentally unstable.

Is that in the DSM? No, it isn't. So is it a "pretty fair way to determine mental instability"? No, it isn't.
 
angrysoba said:
In other words, if they are Truthers they must be mentally unstable by definition and they need not have said or done anything over and above a declaration of Trutherism to be considered mentally unstable.

Is that in the DSM? No, it isn't. So is it a "pretty fair way to determine mental instability"? No, it isn't.
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stop being rational

Most "truthers" are on a temporary stage of woo, smarter than I. They will wake up. Some are "professional" grade BS artists, like Jones, and Gage - or Gage and Jones are idiots, or truly insane.
 
beachnut said:
stop being rational
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Sorry. :o

beachnut said:
Most "truthers" are on a temporary stage of woo, smarter than I. They will wake up. Some are "professional" grade BS artists, like Jones, and Gage - or Gage and Jones are idiots, or truly insane.
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Yes, I agree that not all Truthers are the same. Some of them, I don't doubt, may indeed be mentally unstable and extremely paranoid. But others who I have met seem to be able to function perfectly fine in day-to-day life and are sane, reasonable people for whom things like 9/11 Troof is more of a hobby. And yes, some of them are simply scammers. While there is a weird other category of people who may have no idea what the difference is between truth, falsity and BS.
 
angrysoba said:
In other words, if they are Truthers they must be mentally unstable by definition and they need not have said or done anything over and above a declaration of Trutherism to be considered mentally unstable.

Is that in the DSM? No, it isn't. So is it a "pretty fair way to determine mental instability"? No, it isn't.
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If you're able to ignore plane crashes and fires not fought, that's mental instability.
If you ignore the other 2 crashes, you're unstable.

If you take a dump on the lives lost that day, you're unstable. That's all there is to it. I don't give a damn what leeway you want to give truthers. They're mentally unstable. Period.
 
angrysoba said:
In other words, if they are Truthers they must be mentally unstable by definition and they need not have said or done anything over and above a declaration of Trutherism to be considered mentally unstable.

Is that in the DSM? No, it isn't. So is it a "pretty fair way to determine mental instability"? No, it isn't.
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That was an odd post. Did you miss MY post responding to your post?

I posted, you asked me a question, I answered it, and you quoted someone else.

Very odd
 
angrysoba said:
In other words, if they are Truthers they must be mentally unstable by definition and they need not have said or done anything over and above a declaration of Trutherism to be considered mentally unstable.

Is that in the DSM? No, it isn't. So is it a "pretty fair way to determine mental instability"? No, it isn't.
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If every Truther you encounter acts irrationally, it is a fair way to determine instability.
 
16.5 said:
That was an odd post. Did you miss MY post responding to your post?

I posted, you asked me a question, I answered it, and you quoted someone else.

Very odd
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Sorry. I didn't miss your post. You said they were drunk and that you could tell they were unstable from training and talking. Okay, if you say so.

My post that you just quoted was in reply to someone else.
 
NoahFence said:
If you're able to ignore plane crashes and fires not fought, that's mental instability.
If you ignore the other 2 crashes, you're unstable.

If you take a dump on the lives lost that day, you're unstable. That's all there is to it. I don't give a damn what leeway you want to give truthers. They're mentally unstable. Period.
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I'm not giving them "leeway" I just think that saying Truthers are "mentally unstable" is inaccurate and you are basing your criteria for mental instability on irrelevant things.

For example: "If you take a dump on the lives lost that day, you're unstable."

Assuming that all Truthers are taking a metaphorical dump on the dead it does not equate to mental instability.

It seems about as accurate as saying that all Truthers are paedophiles on the basis that I hate Truthers and I hate paedophiles so they must be the same.
 
16.5 said:
Training, talking to them.

That being said, the last two truthers I saw, I did not talk to....
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angrysoba said:
Sorry. I didn't miss your post. You said they were drunk and that you could tell they were unstable from training and talking. Okay, if you say so.

My post that you just quoted was in reply to someone else.
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I emphasized the part of the post that you misread. I freely admit that the two drunks might not have been mentally unstable.
 
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