“Terrorstorm” by Alex Jones
Dun, dun, dunnnnnnnn
I’ve always sat on the fence when it comes to subjects like the Iraq War because, frankly, I’m a little ignorant of the facts. Not more ignorant than most people I doubt, but I take longer to reach a conclusion. Somebody telling me, ‘it’s all about the oil’ doesn’t really sell the idea. When it’s backed up with a FACT it doesn’t help because a fact is useless unless you can put it in context and check its accuracy.
But I finally decided I should become a little better informed. This is a major issue afterall, and it’s not really sensible to be ignorant of politics.
My route in was Terrorstorm — a documentary by Alex Jones declaring that the London Bombings of 7th July were ‘an inside job’ just like 9/11. This is obviously the extreme view (and he gets more extreme) but it’s amazing how easy it to get sucked into his argument when you are igorant of what he is talking about. I decided to let go and for the two hour documentary I suspended my disbelief and swallowed every FACT (he prints them reguarly in capitals across the screen) he shoved down my throat.
By the end of the documentary I was furious, scared and ready to fight against the evil conspirators…
…just as soon as I checked out the counter argument.
The first page of search results were just people propagating the video, but on the second page I found some forums that tore his documentary apart. How did they do this? Well they took the majority of his facts and proved (often with citation, but admittedly not always) that his facts lacked accuracy. Not all his facts were torn apart, but enough to seriously discredit him as a reliable source of information.
But to be sure I had to check the counter argument. That didn’t really exist for Terrostorm but I found the more common 9/11 conspiracy theories. What became immediately obvious was that those that believe it was ‘an inside job’ generally had less reasoned forms of argument; they jumped to conclusions based on a profound mistrust of the government and little else.
However, the majority actually had a more reasoned argument, were very well informed and took more of a middle-road conclusion. Everyone knows that governments twist the truth and hide too many details. Not only does this produce a profound mistrust, but that mistrust is usually well founded. The chances of all terror attacks being funded by the Illuminati in order to set up the World Bank that will rule the world is possible, but very unlikely. The chances that the government made several cock-ups and is trying to hide them is so likely that I’d ‘eat my shorts’ if it didn’t prove true.
There are so many political problems that we know are true and we really should be focusing our attention on them. I don’t like government cover-ups nor spin and I believe we should be focusing on ways to counteract it properly. If we do that, it will reveal any true conspiracies along with it. As it is conspiracies do more harm that good by distracting from real issues that never really get resolved. Whatever your stance on Iraq, falsifying intelligence reports is wrong. Even if it proves the correct decision, the means still do not justify the end. Such a lie shows such a great disrespect for British citizens that there is no way we should ever have voted such a person back in. So why did we?
April 6th, 2007 at 14:02 UTC
Thank you for posting this. Unfortunealy this type of conspirancy mogering is doing more harm than simply distracting people from the real issues. The terror they are creating is affecting peoples lives, especailly those with mental illlness who are vulnerable to paranoia. I have a family member who is totally drawn into “Terrorstorm” the 911 conspiracy and every bit of manic rant the Alex Jones (and others) spew out. She is so convinced that we are living in a Gestapo- style police state with concentration camps being built as we speak that she has pulled her son out of school and is leaving the country! She is convinced “they” are after her. I am at a loss as to how to communicate with her. There must be others who are being affected in this way. Its has “jonestown” written all over it. But I can find no web-site or posting (except yours) which attempts to question this Tsunami of paranoid dillusion that is sweepin the web. If you know of any help please let me know.
April 6th, 2007 at 18:43 UTC
Yes, very good point.
It’s not even particularly easy to separate those that are just taken in through naivety with those who have a psychiatric disorder causing the paranoia.
I don’t really know of any place to go for help and this is certainly a concern. I noted, like you, that when I searched specifically for counter arguments I had to look deep into the search results before I found anything. I’m sure that many people will struggle to involve themselves in a reasoned debate, but for those that would, there should be something for them. Unfortunately there currently isn’t anything.
I think it’s perhaps so easy to look at Alex Jones and ignore him because he is an obvious loony. But as exasperating as it is, he has far too many followers to ignore.
There is a similar problem over climate change at the moment. Listen to a radio broadcast or read an article by someone who denies it, and it sounds convincing. But it only sounds convincing because you don’t understand the subject.
My thinking is that if you put Alex Jones side-by-side with any real expert on Terrorism he would lose a good portion of his command on an audience.
I’ve just made another Google search for Terrorstorm to see if there are yet any good results with a counter argument. There certainly are not any that are obvious. I don’t find this too surprising since those capable of making the debate are more likely to ignore Alex Jones rather than waste their time. Unfortunately, I think this is a mistake.
Propaganda should always be taken seriously.
I wish you the best of luck with your friend. I’m sorry I don’t have a good solution.
December 12th, 2007 at 17:16 UTC
I haven’t seen Terrorstorm, but I have seen Zeitgeist, and Endgame. I have also been following the posts on Alex Jones’ web site. They all appear to say pretty much the same thing.
I too am worried about affect of the conspiracy theories sweeping the web on those with dispositions toward paranoia. There is a potential for violence: after all, if a person really believes the “global elite” is planning to kill 80 per cent of the population, they could very well engage in violent acts of “self defence.”
As far as a rebuttal is concerned, since the conspiracy movement’s central claims are internally incoherent, we don’t really need to refute them on the basis of empirical research. For example:
1. “The Illuminati, Bankers, Bilderbergers, and so on, create wars so that they can earn profits by selling to all sides of a conflict.”
2. “The ultimate goal of the Illuminati, Bankers, Bilderbergers, and so on, is a new world order in which the world is unified under a single dictatorial government.”
Comment: If the “elite” has benefited so much from international conflicts, why would they want to unite the world?
3. “Any person of influence who has ever advocated any form of internationalism is in fact advocating the establishment of an oppressive new world order under a single dictatorial world government.”
4. “The elite who are pushing the new world order is comprised of the most powerful corporations and individuals in the world.”
5. “Concern about climate change is being used as an excuse to establish a new world order to confront the problem. Skeptics about climate change are serious scientists who are challenging the new world order.”
Comment: See exxonsecrets.org, which details how the largest corporations have been funding “climate skeptic” organizations. Jones appears to be in cahoots with Big Oil here!
January 8th, 2008 at 5:34 UTC
You people are really stretching here.
First off, TERRORSTORM is not in any way conspiracy theory.
Please explain the USS Liberty attack?
Please explain the “Gulf Of Tonkin” attack that was admittedly staged
Please explain the “operation northwoods” shown to kennedy?
Terrostorm is simply a “history of government sponsored terror” that is all.
January 8th, 2008 at 10:27 UTC
“Terrostorm is simply a “history of government sponsored terror” that is all.”
It is not simply that. There is no secret that political decisions by governments including the US have had horrible consequences. There is almost certainly also merit in some of what ‘Terrorstorm’ brings up. The problem is that the documentary goes ten steps beyond that and states as fact what is speculation and pushes beyond even that and accuses both the UK and US of attacking their own people with absolutely no evidence except their own paranoia.
Journalism without evidence is just fantasy.
Whether Alex Jones is right about some things or not is pretty irrelevant now. He has proven himself as an unreliable source of information. He has shown himself to be almost unbelievably biased towards conspiracy and unquestioning of it being anything else. He has just cried wolf too many times.