Let’s Talk About Truth

Seems that a few 9/11 Truthers were in the audience for Bill Maher’s show last night, acted like fools and got tossed out. This, of course, has sparked more Truther debates all over the net, including the one I’ve been reading today at Fark.

The problem here, is that we have a generation of people who’ve grown up watching a little old lady solve complex murder cases by seeing a single inconsistency and making incredible leaps of logic to reveal the solution. (I use Murder She Wrote as illustration here, I’m not laying total blame on Angela Lansbury. That actually falls on the whole TV mystery genre.) These people actually think that this is how deductive reasoning works.

It’s not.

You never see the whole process on a TV show. It does start with noticing little inconsistencies. But from there, you start looking for simple explanations to those inconsistencies. The solution is the simplest one that you can find that doesn’t contradict the existing facts. Occam’s Razor.

The Truthers take the inconsistencies that they find and leap to huge, elaborate theories to fill them in, ignoring the new inconsistencies that they create in the process. Every expert that comes along to explain the original inconsistencies with reason is laughed off as part of the conspiracy. (Apparently, Popular Mechanics is part of the conspiracy.)

Does this mean that I find the US government to be completely blameless when it comes to the events of 9/11? No. I think a strong case can be made that failures to properly respond to intelligence reports allowed those events to occur. That is not, however, the same thing as claiming our government engineered those attacks. No evidence exists for such a claim.

And another thing. Truthers frequently cite financial gain as the motive for this giant deception. As if the entire disaster was just a ruse to get Halliburton into Iraq. I find war profiteering claims to be obnoxious enough, but to insist that the profiteering was premeditated? Somebody needs their fucking lithium.

Let’s talk about Dick Chaney and Halliburton for a second. Actually, let’s talk about car repair first. (I know, bear with me.) Let’s say that you own an auto repair shop. Better yet, your best friend owns one. Now, you’re out on a date with this girl that you like and she mentions that her car’s not running properly. The first thing you think of is, hey, I’ve got a friend that’s got an auto shop. He’s a great mechanic. Let’s take your car over to him, he’ll get you fixed up.

Doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Not particularly immoral or dishonest? So, we’re in the middle of national crisis and the Vice President suggests dealing with a company where he knows the people and is familiar with their work. And somehow, this is evil and unjust. Profiteering? Uh-huh.

Sorry, bit of a tangent, there. Can’t believe I actually wrote two paragraphs defending Dick Fucking Cheney. Weird.

Anyway, the Truthers are just another deluded group of people who believe some totally wacky things. Like Scientologists. Or UFOligist. Or Flat Earthers. Or Christians. Or Republicans. Or Democrats. Or people who watch wrestling. Or people who watch The View. Or Fox News. Or CNN. Or…..

I suddenly feel very alone.