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View Full Version : Loose Change - A Compelling 'Documentary' Or Callous Misinformation?


JebusHCripes
01-28-2006, 11:07 AM
First off, you should know I'm Canuckian and have absolutely no political affiliation/bias regarding America beyond that of curiosity as it plays out within the realm of world events and history.

Secondly, I'm pretty much indifferent in my outlook and feelings regarding the events of 9/11, as I knew no one directly affected by it both in an immediate sense and in a resultant sense. That of course doesn't mean I don't feel compassion and sympathy for those affected by it, but rather I'm simply indicating that the effect it has upon me is similar to reading about ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.

Third, it is NOT my intent to incite a flamewar in any way, nor am I trolling for reactions, and if I've hurt or aggravated anyone by this post, you have my sincerest apologies, as it wasn't my intent to do so.

With that said, to the point/subject at hand.

I don't know how many of you have seen these films (I hesitate to call them documentaries, since there's conjecture and supposition being presented as primary sources of evidence and information), but if you haven't, you really should (see end of post for how to do so).

I won't give details about their conclusions, as I do believe some of the impact of the films is the discovery process as you view them. What I will say, is that there is VERY compelling evidence being presented and that the filmmakers are not stereotypical 'conspiracy whackjobs', but rather are university/college kids that have pieced together information that cannot be denied.

Like many theories, much of the observational and anecdotal evidence (provided by witnesses) is subject to a certain degree of interpretation (any law enforcement officer will tell you that an eye witness is about as reliable as the wind). I myself found many of the observations to be easily plausible and explainable due to numerous results in many instances that are counter to supporting their claims. That said, they bring up aspects which cannot be attributed to observational divergence, especially when presenting several scientific points, multiple expertise assessments, documentation (as a matter of record), etc.

I've seen a few 9/11 conspiracy films, primarily out of curiosity both from the aspect of wanting to hear what crazy theories someone might put forth as well as from a historic aspect, but very few of them are as unnerving as this one. The reason being is that it's almost entirely plausible, even with how fantastic it sounds on the surface, as well as the fact that on the afternoon of 9/11, I had a fleeting conversation with a friend of mine down in California where I suggested/theorized that it could be some Hollywood-esque ploy to steal billions of dollars while bilking insurance of yet more (after the fact) by using the loss of data from various sources like the SEC.

My point is, these films weren't the ramblings of some hick living alone in the woods, or some street rambler in need of medication. They appear to be legitimately genuine, but the information points to something so outlandish and almost Hollywood, that it's difficult to bring oneself to even consider the possibility.

Which begs the question about what we take in as fact and what we believe, as well as questions regarding how we perceive what we're told and by whom. Being an observer from the outside, I'm afforded the luxury of being able to be impassionate about the events in question (in a direct sense) and can ask those questions with more relative ease, but it doesn't change the fact that even I have to admit to initially accepting what I read, hear, and see from news media as fact first and then question with tacit speculation second. Though really, if you stop to think about it, things have always been that way, and could never be any different due to the nature of information. The only real question is whether one does the questioning at all.

Anyway, I've rambled long enough about this, and I'm curious to see impressions and opinions come forward, both from Americans as well as non-Americans. At the very least you owe it to yourself (especially if you're an American) to watch these films. That I would even say such a thing is unusual for me, as there are very few films, literature, music, etc. that I would say that about.

I won't bother giving direct links to the films, as all you have to do is do a search on pretty much any decently sized torrent site to find them (just search for "Loose Change") as I'm not sure if that would be acceptable by the mods, as while the creators openly encourage the distribution of the films (even without any remuneration to the creators) by any means possible, according to the creators, there IS a law in the US which expressly forbids distribution of films such as the ones which they've produced. If you really can't find it, you're seriously doing something wrong, or are too incompetent for the impact and point of such a film to matter to you.

Finally, go check out their website (http://www.loosechange911.com/).

Jebus

Kusoyaro
01-28-2006, 06:41 PM
I've seen it. Life is like an iceberg.

M.Laird
01-28-2006, 09:12 PM
My problem with conspiracy theories is...well, why? Why go to all that bother? Not to mention that with the sheer number of people necessary to pull off your average conspiracy someone would have talked. I mean, someone talked when it came to Watergate and that was much smaller in scale. I just don't think any conspiracy of the sort of size postulated by 9/11 theorists could last more than a few months before someone said the wrong thing to the press.

Angelyne
01-28-2006, 09:45 PM
I've never seen any films about it, but I wholeheartedly believe that our government was somehow involved in Sept. 11. There is just too much shady stuff surrounding the circumstances to ignore the possibility.

And before the inevitable flamewar begins, let me add that I lived in a DC suburb during Sept. 11, my dad was/is working for a government agency that is within walking distance of the Pentagon, and I saw the damage (also visited Ground Zero a few months after it happened). I'm not some redneck easily criticizing from across the country.

I also believe that Bush didn't legitimately win the 2004 election, but that's another conspiracy for another thread...

Kusoyaro
01-28-2006, 10:14 PM
Bush DIDN'T win the elections, he was given it to him by the supreme court. If you count the ballots, the other dude (forgot his name) won. You cannot deny there is something deeply wrong with the system when the man who actually won gets the fucking shaft.
M. Laird, the thing is, see, consipracy theories needn't be perpetrated with numbers. the Watergate scandal, as I'm sure we're aware, was the first such scandal in a number of years (post-wars) that was brought to public attention. The NAZI agenda was labelled as a conspiracy theorist by the League of Nations before their creed became apparant, and hardly a person can deny the involvement of intn'l conglomerates in the worlds of politics. The fact is the politics works for business, it's a simple fact of (most people's) life.
Think about this:
We are raised in a family-unit, a preset, determined construct with externally influenced bias that ways on internal systems, we are tuaght in schools only what is deemed neccesary by largely inept governments, where we sit alone, work alone (in a team if neccesary), and problem solve. We learn to obey commands, whether they be illogical or not, and become a part of a niche, a unit that is rather easy to observe and understand. We graduate from highschool, commorating relatively insignificant feats, then go on to the workforce or go on for further study so you can have that piece of paper with nearly guarantees social and economic superiority.
We are basically forced into buying a immobile housing unit, and are tied down to fiscal responibilities, then familial ones, that negate the possibiliy of true free thought. TV and media aid in the perceptions of the masses, and hide truths that many harm the staus quo. Etc.
Life is constructed in such a way as to shape us into relatively similar drones, where what we watch, listen to, read and say can be monitored with ease (technologically speaking, it's really fucking easy). In the words of Onizuka, a good student is an educators gift to middle management. We are bred simply to serve the "upper classes" that thrive on the backs of our toil. The world is all about money now.
We are the proletariats of the new world order.
Take that conspiracy theory and jam it down you throat kids.

Pierrot le Fou
01-30-2006, 05:59 AM
Give me a break. Killing over 3000 people, shocking world markets, sinking the airline industry, all as a conspiracy? I tend to believe that the simpler explanation tends to be closer to home, and it's simpler to believe that a bunch of terrorists really wanted to kill Americans and had a damned shocking way to do it. Bush ain't that evil.

Matt W
01-30-2006, 06:30 AM
I dont think Bush did 9/11, though he and his administration clearly benefited from it.

In the words of Immortal Technique:
Now here's the truth about the system that'll fuck up your mind
They gave Al Queda 6 billion dollars in 1989 to 1992
And now the last chapters of Revelations are coming true
And I know a lot of people find it hard to swallow this
Because subliminal bigotry makes you hate my politics
But you act like America wouldn't destroy two buildings
In a country that was sponsoring bombs dropped on our children
I was watching the Towers, and though I wasn't the closest
I saw them crumble to the Earth like they was full of explosives
And they thought nobody noticed the news report that they did
About the bombs planted on the George Washington bridge
Four Non-Arabs arrested during the emergency
And then it disappeared from the news permanently
They dubbed a tape of Osama, and they said it was proof
"Jealous of our freedom," I can't believe you bought that excuse
Rockin a motherfucking flag don't make you a hero
Word to Ground Zero
The Devil crept into Heaven, God overslept on the 7th
The New World Order was born on September 11

[Hook]

[Verse 3]
And just so Conservatives don't take it to heart
I don't think Bush did it, 'cuz he isn't that smart
He's just a stupid puppet taking orders on his cell phone
From the same people that sabotaged Senator Wellstone
The military industry got it poppin' and lockin'
Looking for a way to justify the Wolfowitz Doctrine
And as a matter of fact, Rumsfeld, now that I think back
Without 9/11, you couldn't have a war in Iraq
Or a Defense budget of world conquest proportions
Kill freedom of speech and revoke the right to abortions
Tax cut extortion, a blessing to the wealthy and wicked
But you still have to answer to the Armageddon you scripted
And Dick Cheney, you fuckin leech, tell them your plans
About building your pipelines through Afghanistan
And how Israeli troops trained the Taliban in Pakistan
You might have some house niggaz fooled, but I understand
Colonialism is sponsored by corporations
That's why Halliburton gets paid to rebuild nations
Tell me the truth, I don't scare into paralysis
I know the CIA saw Bin Laden on dialysis
In '98 when he was Top Ten for the FBI
Government ties is really why the Government lies
Read it yourself instead of asking the Government why
'Cuz then the Cause of Death will cause the propaganda to die..

NERD
01-30-2006, 06:36 AM
I didn't bother reading the rap. Don't think Bush was behind 9/11 either. The problem with conspiracy theories, which I know more than my share, is that they often ignore the most logical and sound explanation and go around for the most convoluted, long-winded and simply impossible explanations. Period.

But yes, his administration did benefit from it, especially since Dubya right before 9/11 was being badgered with questions about his abilities to lead a country and his frequent vacations to his ranch.

Kusoyaro
01-30-2006, 06:39 AM
I don't think Bush had anything to do with it's formation or implementation. He may have known about it, but he probably wasn't privy to details and such. But there are people in this world who think nothing of killing a few thousand people for profit. And to honestly reason that there are no large-scale conspiracies, while probably true, can also be construed as a rabid obsession with order and the status quo. It's why we have persisted for so long, but also the method in which faults are propegated. Thoseof us who have decided to live the life os contentment (which is very hard), and live to better ourselves may remember the time when we were at a cross-roads in life, deciding whether we want to be succesful in material wealth or of intellectual/spiritual/familial wealth, or what have you. Most decide to live by their principles and lead a good life, others ched their morals completely and do what it takes to get what they want. Greed results i such situations, I think (for man is a creature of habit [habit is the most powerful tool of change in the world, i have found]).
Honeslty, you cannot say that the petrol companies are not stifling the employment of hydrogen cars and other such alternative sources (if you read science periodicals, you may know that hydrogen cars have actually been around for almost a decade, but never developed en masse). It's only logical to assume that they want to protect their interests. Only when they have a firm hold on this new tech will they slowly relequish the reins o oil as their primary source of income. Of course, with the advent of hydrogen, it will become possible to make your own gas at home (at risk), so their revenue will go down the shitter. What do they do? They search far and wide for more barrels (Alaska, anyone?), push to sell more cars, and use their lobbyists to push for more leniency. But then again, sometimes the only things we must see are the only things we don't.

I honestly don't know if conspiracy theories exist, but I don't like dismissing anything of bat. I want to end with a witty remark, but I can't think of one.

Edit: Bust basically, the primary reason not many people wil even entertain a conspiracy theory is because it will skewer their perceptions, and no one likes getting the rug pulled out from udner them.
I fucking hate injudiciousness.

NERD
01-30-2006, 06:52 AM
Conspiracy theories do exist, and they are quite real- real enough to have some people make a living out of it, while some spend hours trying to prove their convictions and convince others. Kusoyaro, you do have a good point about conspiracy theorists challenging the status quo and order- that how they thrive, I assume.

There are some conspiracy theories that proved to be true, such as Emile Zola's defense of the French Army being anti-semitic in regards to the Dreyfus affair, the Tuskegee testing of syphilis to African Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama, assassination of Julius Caesar, etc. In fact there's a quick list of proven CTs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proven_conspiracies

Some of the more popular CTs that were not proven is the existence of Atlantis, Area 51, the Men in Black (not the movie!), Freemasons as the Illuminati or the New World Order, Elvis, the whole Man on the Moon hoax, UFOs, abductions by aliens, Knights Templar, Oklahoma bombing, 9/11, Jack the Ripper, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory

Studying conspiracy theories is an interesting and alternative method to study history, but I would advise that you don't get too deep into it.

erbiumfiber
01-30-2006, 07:24 AM
...Bush ain't that evil.

Nor do I believe is he even competent enough to pull something like 9/11 off.

Cheney on the other hand...(just kidding, although I believe Cheney is evil personified).

I despise Bush with a passion that helps keep me in Japan paying as few taxes as I can to support the war. But I still don't believe it of "team chimpy." I think ANY president with any level of public speaking ability would have been able to rally the country around himself/herself given the mood of the US after 9/11.