Nothing ruins my day quite like coming into contact with that breed of especially stupid person who thinks that 9/11 was an 'inside' job. Walking around Broadway Market in east London this weekend, I saw a poster which reminded me that such people have a like-minded community with whom they can share their delusions.
The poster advertised the 9/11 'truth' events taking place all over London this week, hosted by an organisation called Truth Rising, to coincide with the nine year anniversary of 9/11. So, if you are that way inclined, you can go to a 'party' where you dress up as your favourite neocon, watch 'Loose Change' (a fictional movie pretending to be a documentary that is a fave with conspiracy theorists) and then be entertained by spoken word 'legend', MC Angel, and someone who calls himself Planetman.
Alternatively, if Brazilian music interspersed with 'truth' films about 9/11 is more your bag, you are catered for at Notting Hill Arts Club. Earlier in the day, you could get together with Stop the War Hounslow, WeAreChange London and London Truth Action for a demonstration outside the BBC to 'pressurise' them into reporting the truth about 9/11.
We've all been unfortunate enough to meet the types that go to such events. The sort of person who thinks that President Bush and co were devious enough to:
- Mastermind the destruction of the Twin Towers (using explosives/remote controlled planes/holograms of planes, delete as appropriate);
- Pin it on al-Qaeda (the dozens of protestations of al-Qaeda that, yes, they really did do it was another cunning sleight of hand by the Bush administration);
- Find new and exciting ways to restrict civil liberties (it was truly astonishing how you could find absolutely no dissent or criticism of Bush in the news, on the street, in music, film, or art during his entire time in the White House);
- Lie about weapons of mass destruction in order to justify going to war in Afghanistan and Iraq (to further the interests of Halliburton/the military industrial complex/Israel/world Jewry/the neoconservatives/other people we don't like)
They seemingly weren't devious enough to take the next logical step and then fabricate WMDs in Iraq once they had invaded, in order to complete the illusion. Still, they pulled off most of their grand masterplan, and had managed to keep it secret from the entire world - until, of course, a few bright sparks on the internet got wind of the plans.
I suppose we should be used to such lunatics by now. But I do think we should manage to maintain our sense of anger and moral outrage at those who - when confronted with totalitarianism, wickedness and mass murder - choose to blame anybody but those actually responsible.
