Bill Maher vs. 9/11 Truthers

Living in NYC, I am very familiar with the 9/11 Truth people. There's 9/11 conspiracy graffiti here and there, and they seem to have set up permanent camp in Union Square. I rarely mention them, because what's to say? They've been throughly debunked and mocked. I think back in the '90s, they were ranting about black helicopters.

Based on what I read online, apparently 9/11 was but merely one intricate part in a larger conspiracy involving the Federal Reserve, international bankers (and I think we know what they mean there), various U.N. treaties and laws, illegal immigration, and the most incompetent New World Order ever. Mumbling something about the "CFR" will really help you earn your conspiracy stripes. And then insist that anyone who doesn't share your viewpoint is a zionist tool of this organization and its failed schemes. Oh, and also only Ron Paul can save us by abolishing the government and letting the free market decide our fates. Or something. Don't look for logic.

Yes, Bush/Cheney are evil leaders and used the event to move forward with preset ideological agendas. And they, and the politicians and companies in their favor, continue to milk it for all its worth. But that doesn't mean that there is no such thing as 'terrorism', or that some incredibly-convoluted scheme (involving hundreds of people who all kept quiet) has to be behind what happened that day. You don't have to be an engineering genius to understand the how and why of the World Trade Center's collapse.

Writing in New York magazine last year on the grief culture that America embraced after the event, John Homans had a good take on the psychology behind this worldview: "The memory of 9/11 continues to stoke a weepy sense of American victimhood, and victimhood, as used by both left and right, is a powerful political force... In our current tragicomedy of Daddy-knows-best, it’s a national neurosis, a perpetual childhood. (With its 9/11 truth-conspiracy theories, the [truth movement] has its own infantile daddy complex, except in that version, the daddies are the source of all evil.)... It will take years for the country to again understand its place in the world."

Anyway, they have now set their sights on a new enemy- Bill Maher.

Bill Maher had been harassed by 9/11 Truth-ers to mention the topic on his show. He finally did... and I don't think it was what they expected. First, on the May 12, 2006 show, he dismissed the theories. On a later show, he focused on them in his New Rules segment, insisting that they should be medicated. The Truth-ers decided this man needed spanking.

And for the past couple of weeks, they have infiltrated his studio audience, and started heckling him during the broadcast, insisting he address the 'truth' about what happened that day. Needless to say, Maher's been getting pissed off. This week, the shit really hit the fan-



I post this not just because I find it interesting/amusing, but because I think this is the Truth movement's jumping the shark moment. These people believe that the Bush administration pulled off the greatest scheme since the Nazi party took control of Germany. And yet, they don't camp out in front of the White House or make serious appeals for greater awareness. Instead, they harass people, spam internet sites, and... heckle Bill Maher.

I give assholes like Michelle Malkin crap on a regular basis. But these folks deserve it too.