dubfan
Critical Thinker
- Joined
- May 4, 2006
- Messages
- 452
If Gore would have won the presidency instead of Bush would the losers still be pursuing this? There seems to be a lot of consipatorial references to the Bush regime as a whole. Dont want to detract from the topic at hand but this has occured to me. What's your view on that?
There would've been 9/11 CTs no matter what, IMO.
What I think has happened with respect to Bush, is that the very polarized nature of politics right now has made this CT particularly virulent, because it is attracting people who despise Bush and basically believe any sort of bad charge thrown against him. The soil is fertile -- partly because of the Bush admin's own actions -- and there are people desperately eager to believe it (because believing Bush is actually acting in good faith makes many of them very uncomfortable indeed).
I think we're in a "perfect storm" environment for a conspiracy theory:
1. Arguably the most publicized event in modern history
2. Lots of material available on it -- video, testimony, reports, etc.
3. Very strong emotional context and emotional reactions on all sides
4. A contested election, divisive politics, an unpopular war
5. An administration characterized by secrecy, deeply mistrusted by many
6. Technology -- popularity of internet video, viral marketing, Google, availability of cheap video production software
In other words, this is basically Glenn Reynolds' "Army of Davids" phenomenon being acted out pathologically.
