Conspiracies vs Debunking according to Google

[mythstifieD]

I did a Google Insights search for two terms "911 conspiracies" and "911 debunking"...

http://www.google.com/insights/search/?hl=en-US#q=911%20conspiracies%2C911%20debunking&cmpt=q

How do you interpret this graph?

I think it's weird how no one cared in 2005 for some reason lol

[Arus808]

Easy. Its just tracking the trend of the search terms over the years.

2006, you can see that the theories and debunking started to go hand in hand. where you found one, you found a site, or page to debunk the theories.

2006 is a key year. Many of the most outrageous claims came out during this year (pods, space beams, keebler elves, controlled demolitions, FDNY are murderers, jews...etc)

[JAStewart]

How people are searching in Google isn't a huge indication, but it do show some things. I would imagine in there is an unnatural dip in searches it'll be a problem with Google or something.

[mythstifieD]

It's nice to see that debunking keeps pace with conspiracies.. it may imply that people look up conspiracies, then look up debunking..

or.. one family member looks up conspiracies, rants about it to their brother or mother.. then the other family member looks up debunking.. hmm

also, it'd be more interesting if i could cluster the search terms, so all the conspiracy related terms could be clumped vs all the skeptic terms

[rjh01]

At least towards the end of 2008 the numbers went down and then kept on going down in 2009. Slowly but steadily. This is consistent with other information. Like the 9/11 CT movies. The first two (Loose Change) were far more popular than the ones made after that.

[fourtoe]

Yeah, 2006 was the year of the Truther, I know that that was the first time I heard of Loose Change.

I'm kind of bummed because I missed all the fun. Maybe it'll spike up in 2011 or something.

[Brainster]

Remember, there was an election in 2004; the Troofers prior to that point were mostly far-lefties who pushed their theories hard in the election year and then got discouraged when Bush won another four years.

Early in 2004, the guy who ran the McKinney Sucks blog (http://mckinneysucks.blogspot.com/), aka What Didn't Really Happen, one of the early debunkers, stopped posting. The big growth in the "Truth" Movement came in early 2006 as Loose Change really became a phenomenon. In late 2006 you had the fifth anniversary, which clearly was the high-water mark for the Troofers. The spike for debunking in early 2007? Rosie O'Donnell; our traffic zoomed every time she said "Fire can't melt steel!" A very small spike for the 2007 anniversary; anybody remember Luke begging people to buy his leftover tee shirts?:D

[T.A.M.]

Being Nostalgic over the 2006 truther apex is so 2008...come on people, this is 2009!


TAM;)

[Childlike Empress]

It's nice to see that debunking keeps pace with conspiracies.. it may imply that people look up conspiracies, then look up debunking..

or.. one family member looks up conspiracies, rants about it to their brother or mother.. then the other family member looks up debunking.. hmm

also, it'd be more interesting if i could cluster the search terms, so all the conspiracy related terms could be clumped vs all the skeptic terms


You simply used the wrong term. 911 conspiracy (http://www.google.com/insights/search/?hl=en-US#q=911%20conspiracy%2C911%20debunking&cmpt=q) puts it into perspective.

[Justin39640]

You simply used the wrong term. 911 conspiracy (http://www.google.com/insights/search/?hl=en-US#q=911%20conspiracy%2C911%20debunking&cmpt=q) puts it into perspective.

i would never think the term "debunking" or any variation of it would get as many hits as the term "conspiracy"

in fact i bet many searches for conspiracy would get hits on both sides of the fence

heres some more relevant terms (IMO)
http://www.google.com/insights/search/?hl=en-US#q=911%20conspiracy%2Cal%20qaeda&cmpt=q

http://www.google.com/insights/search/?hl=en-US#q=911%20conspiracy%2Cosama%20bin%20laden&cmpt=q

http://www.google.com/insights/search/?hl=en-US#q=9%2F11%20conspiracy%2Cground%20zero&cmpt=q

http://www.google.com/insights/search/?hl=en-US#q=9%2F11%20conspiracy%2Cterrorist%20attacks&cmpt=q

[Childlike Empress]

It's quite a crude tool anyway, but this trend sucks:

http://www.google.com/insights/search/?hl=en-US#q=alex%20jones%2Cnoam%20chomsky&cmpt=q

[Justin39640]

It's quite a crude tool anyway, but this trend sucks:

http://www.google.com/insights/search/?hl=en-US#q=alex%20jones%2Cnoam%20chomsky&cmpt=q

it really is

i never think a google search is very important in giving you real data (as far as number of hits and stuff like that)

its too general

[mythstifieD]

Remember, there was an election in 2004; the Troofers prior to that point were mostly far-lefties who pushed their theories hard in the election year and then got discouraged when Bush won another four years.

Early in 2004, the guy who ran the McKinney Sucks blog (http://mckinneysucks.blogspot.com/), aka What Didn't Really Happen, one of the early debunkers, stopped posting. The big growth in the "Truth" Movement came in early 2006 as Loose Change really became a phenomenon. In late 2006 you had the fifth anniversary, which clearly was the high-water mark for the Troofers. The spike for debunking in early 2007? Rosie O'Donnell; our traffic zoomed every time she said "Fire can't melt steel!" A very small spike for the 2007 anniversary; anybody remember Luke begging people to buy his leftover tee shirts?:D

Indeed!

I think one of my early experiences of Cognitive Dissonance was when their donation meters didn't continually skyrocket. I didn't understand why they weren't getting much support if they have so many people. I explained it away though as "Well, I'm not donating, so they must be all like me!"...

I asked a truther on facebook the other day how big he thinks the movement is.. he pegged it at 1 billion strong.................