Conspiracy Theories

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In the five years since "Black Tuesday" was published more than three thousand books, many of which are set out various versions that run counter to the official. The present version was a hotbed of English-speaking Internet. If the Google search engine type keywords World Trade Center Conspiracy, then instantly appear more than 11 million (!) Web sites, most of which are devoted to various conspiracy theories. And what would be fantastic as these theories, they readily believed by many people both in the States and beyond.

It is significant that many referred to books and websites have been partially or completely translated into Russian and Ukrainian languages, while "the response of publication", in particular network issue Popular Mechanics, dedicated to exposing the sixteen most common "myths 11" and an article from Wikipedia (a Web-traditional encyclopedias), dedicated to the detailed classification of these myths and their explanations based on scientific evidence and common sense, yet remain inaccessible to the Russian and Ukrainian reader. Truly truth is boring and unattractive ...

The term "conspiracy theory" is misleading, as it describes not the real conspiracy theory, and the fear of conspiracies mythical, imaginary. This is the way we perceive and explain the historical events as a consequence of the conspiracy of the powerful, to which are usually related to intelligence agencies, international corporations, secret societies, religious hierarchy, etc. However, and this is perfectly well known to historians, the real conspiracy in human stories also happen and frequently. This and numerous cases of palace coups, and the secret agreement among heads of some states against others (at least remember the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), and attempts to unfairly in the political struggle (eg American Watergate) ... However, as noted at the time the sophisticated connoisseur of backstage intrigues Machiavellian plot to carry out in strict accordance with the plan is extremely difficult, most of them fail, and even the most successful spells sooner or later becomes publicly known. In fact, the difference between successful and failed plot is that the first becomes known after, and the second - to implement it, and so "do" that "after" does not occur at all.

Of course, time and degree of disclosure of plots depend strongly on the social order. If you are the dictatorships they can not hide from the people for decades, in democratic countries, as experience shows, there's always at least one whistle-blower (literally - the one who blew the whistle) are still at the preparatory stage. By the way, is very telling is the fact that in our language has no exact analogue of this relatively new, foreign-language term.

After all, our "snitch" or "stool pigeon" are distinctly negative connotation, while the English version is quite neutral.

Experts do not conceal that the real and imagined conspiracies are similar to the "outside the picture." To distinguish them from each other to help common sense, knowledge and understanding of the history of characteristic symptoms conspiracy, the main ones are: the tendency to the incredible, and even mystical (eg, the belief that the Earth really does wielded by aliens from outer space); links inaccessible or closed to information sources (documents from "secret laboratories," etc.), the credibility of the fake (the classic example - the notorious "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"); contradictory arguments (usually "overlooked" by the proponents) negligent relation to historical facts and dates (plus or minus a couple hundred years for them - a common occurrence); pile of data that can not be verified (often accompanied by the minutest detail - perhaps to be more convincing), increasingly complex explanations when the original conspiracy theory becomes A complex, which includes new and new actors ...

The main complaint that can present a conspiracy - it is an inadequate assessment of people and their behavior. On the one hand, they clearly overestimate their abilities (not all, but only the "evil genius"), rejecting error, neglect, and even stupidity. On the other - underestimated in terms of motivation: any "positive" reasons rejected as hypocritical, and the main engine of history is the thirst for power, money and carnal pleasures. A similar underestimation of the people and their faith in the representations is that all the important things happen behind the scenes to get only the chosen and ordained, and all who think that their opinions and actions that something depends on - the naive simpletons and the election and democratic mechanisms - just a hoax, the way zadurivaniya masses.

Conspiracy theorists really believe in the universality and infallibility approach Cui bono? ("Who benefits"). The possibility of an unexpected "side" benefits they dismiss, which sometimes leads to extreme absurdities (for example, by their logic, as a result of the French Revolution, Jews were granted civil rights, so they staged it, and). They are wrong not only by the people, but also distorted perceive the world as a whole. Visibility for their deceptive life - a performance, people are insincere, wear masks and pretend to be. Healthy skepticism toward government officials and goes into paranoia, when all seems a trick, collusion, and malicious intent. Often the "proof" is the very absence of evidence ("everything is destroyed, you bastards ...»).

The first who noticed an amazing similarity between pornography and conspiracy, was an American historian Daniel Pipes, author of the "Conspiracy: an explanation of the origin and progress of paranoid style." Despite the fact that both phenomena exist throughout history, they got very popular in the middle of the XVIII century. As well as pornographic publications, texts, outlining the conspiracy theories related to the literature, which until recently had to distribute and read furtively. They are unsuccessfully trying to protect young minds, and professionals involved in their study, quote them with care, avoiding unintentional propaganda. Conspiracy fantasy no less expressive than sexual fantasy, and entertainment acts on the conspiracy theory fans not less than entertaining sex.

The invention and development of the Internet only exacerbated this similarity. As you know, the most visited sites on the Internet were initially just porn sites (there are not fewer, but they pushed the "normal" - especially news, and those where you can buy something). The wave of the same conspiracy sites, it seems, only accrues. Based on surveys, in today's society is much more than those who believe in conspiracy theories than those who do not believe. However, unlike pornography, the main consumers of which appears to be a male conspiracy are equally attracted to both sexes. Does not affect the propensity for it nor the level of education or profession. Affected by age - young people more likely to believe that, possibly due to the inherent rebelliousness and distrust of the adult world. The greatest tendency to exhibit conspiracy people are dissatisfied with their present and uncertain future. They are more likely to choose option "would be worse", when asked how they see the near future, more fear of losing their jobs and more likely to agree that the authorities do not care about ordinary citizens.

But if conspiracy theories are unfounded, unprovable and false, why do so many people willing to join in, why they are expanding rapidly, so why resist? Psychologists believe that we are in need. We find it hard to believe that the president can kill obsessed loner, a favorite of the audience, the beautiful princess - kill the driver's negligence banal. And it is quite impossible to believe that a handful of the conspirators directed and inspired by the will of man, which is not worth a single state, no formal structure, can terrorize a whole superpower. The logic of sense tells us that if this is true, our lives and certainly not have any protection. We can not accept this, hence our rejection of reality and alternative care in a parallel world populated by the demonic and the all-powerful figures.

In other words, with conspiracy theories, we rationalize that defies rational analysis, gives meaning to everything that surrounds us. We are more comfortable to consider all the bad things happening in the world, including wars, epidemics, accidents, economic downturns and even natural disasters, is the result of the evil will of an omnipotent and invisible personalities. Paradoxically, if we can point the finger at those who are to blame for our suffering, it becomes easier to bear ...

Of course, in a newspaper article can not give a complete list of all the myths associated with September 11. Here briefly are only three of them, which, in my opinion, are the most popular in the Ukrainian-and Russian-speaking parts of the Internet.

Myth One: "blow up the towers." Conspiracy theorists believe that the World Trade Center were destroyed with explosives embedded in the wall and powered by distance shortly after the strike aircraft. Their main argument is based on the fact that steel melts at a temperature below the burning aircraft fuel. However, in order to reinforced concrete building was destroyed, its steel pillars is not necessary to melt - just enough to lose structural strength. (Steel loses about half the strength at a temperature of 550 degrees Celsius, the combustion temperature of kerosene - from 425 to 815 degrees.) Burning fuel was the fuse that caused the burning of other combustible materials, provided in abundance in the interior of the towers - a synthetic carpet, curtains, furniture, Paper ... When, weakened by the heat, lost bearing capacity of parent columns of the building, located above and fell to the underlying floor, which, in turn, being podtochennym heat, could not resist the energy of the blow and fell down, too. Thus began a snowballing process of folding, when each level was falling more and more weight with increasing speed.

Many are suspicious that the buildings fell straight down, rather than obliquely. Direct drop due to the fact that almost 95% of the towers was air. The same, incidentally, explains the huge emissions of smoke mixed with dust and larger particles of the destroyed material, which was taken by many as a proof version of the controlled explosion. Still quite popular are the allegations that the tower took shape at a speed of free fall. This impression could emerge from eyewitnesses who were in emotional shock, but it is not confirmed by a careful study of the video.

Myth Two: "Too small a hole." And indeed, why in the wall of the Pentagon there were two relatively small holes (diameter of 22.5 m and 5 m) rather than one large - the size of an aircraft with a wingspan of 40 meters? Conspiracy theorists believe that no plane at all and was not, and was a rocket, operated a satellite from space. But this is only the characters of cartoons, crashing into a brick wall, punched a hole in it with the contours of your body. Humor is based, in particular, to contrast this picture the laws of nature - even small children know that this is impossible. "Boeing", too, could not punch a hole in the wall of the Pentagon's fortified with the contours of his "body", including the wings.

From school physics course knows that the main parameter for the puncture - which accounts for the mass per unit area of ​​punctured walls. In the wing, because of its scale and overall a relatively small weight on every square inch of the walls, literally fall program. One wing of the aircraft, aimed at the Pentagon, hit the ground, and the second was broken from the impact of fortified concrete wall. Holes in the wall struck two rotor engines, which are massive metal rods, and worked as an armor-piercing projectiles.

The third myth: "Four thousand Jews." Message that "four thousand Jews did not come to work in offices located on the World Trade Center, received a warning because of the attack," first performed in the transmission channel, "Hezbollah", "Al-Manar "and then repeated many times by other media. Let's start with the fact that the U.S. passport does not indicate ethnicity, but there is an item Nationality, which all citizens have one - United States of America, - and means citizenship. So to determine a person or a Jew not a Jew "by birth" in America is difficult, and serves as the main indicator of the Jewish religion.

The investigation, conducted independently by the correspondents of newspapers, "The Wall Street Journal," "The New York Times" and "Dzhuish Week," from 2071 of the deceased, who were in the towers, shopping center, 1700, directly or indirectly indicated their religious affiliation , about 400 of them indicated Judaism. This represents approximately 15-20% of the total number of victims and some followers of Judaism than the proportion living in New York (12%). Logic and mathematics say that if you have four thousand Jews were not really that day on the job, the percentage of deaths would be significantly lower than the average figures for New York.

... Of course, no official record should not be taken for granted just because it's official. Nevertheless, to date there is no reason to doubt the official version of what happened on September 11, 2001. However, even without any conspiracy Americans have something to worry about in connection with this tragedy, which revealed huge gaps in the organization of national security. And here it is clearly visible is another serious problem with conspiracy theories: they divert attention from real problems and mistakes of government services.