Facts, not theories

Who was behind the attack on Sept. 11? Who killed J.F.K.? Did the moon landing really happen? Pretty simple questions, right? Yes! These three questions have very simple answers: Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks on 9/11, Lee Harvey Oswald killed J.F.K. and the moon landing really happened!\nWell, a few guys on my floor recently watched an online conspiracy video telling them all about our government’s secret plan to take over the world. Now, this wasn’t the first time I’ve heard about this conspiracy or the online conspiracy videos, but I knew I was going to have to watch it if I was going to be able to debunk any of these crazy theories.\nSo my roommate sent me the video in an e-mail and I started watching it right away, anxious to find all the flaws and inaccuracies. I watched as they called Jesus Christ and religion in general a sham. I watched as they called 9/11 a modern-day Reichstag fire. And I watched as they claimed the “elites” were establishing a North American Union just like the European Union in an attempt to establish a “world empire” in the near future. I must say the video was very convincing, and I started having doubts on everything that I thought to be true. Furthermore, some of the things this video had to say seemed to be proof of a government cover-up. Thus, after I finished watching the video, I was left to conclude that everything I knew and cherished had to be a government conspiracy.\nHowever, having strong convictions and never wanting to admit when I’m wrong, I decided to try something most conspiracy-believers haven’t tried: Check the facts. And what do you think I found? Many inaccuracies and a lot of half-truths.\nFor lack of space, I’ll only be able to reveal the flaws of one of the conspiracies, but I encourage people to look into the others.\nSo one of the conspiracies, as mentioned above, is that 9/11 was an inside job. Supposedly, the government blew up the towers with explosives in order to justify a wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as, according to the video, the soon-to-be invasion of Venezuela. Thus, the claim is that the towers didn’t fall because a plane crashed into them, but rather because a series of explosions somehow damaged or destroyed the center beams in the tower.\nOne of these suggestions comes from a physics teacher who claims the towers fell nearly at free-fall speed, suggesting there had to have been explosives set to cause the explosion. Based on the height of the towers, this would mean the second tower would have fallen within nine seconds. But if you watch the video of the buildings collapsing and time it yourself, it actually appears to take from 15 to 20 seconds.\nThese conspiracy videos do a great job convincing the general audience, but people should not just take them as sources of absolute fact. Watch the videos and read the reports, but come to your own conclusions.