tenets of truthism

[defaultdotxbe]

1: 9/11 was an inside job

2: any honest person who has done serious research will conclude that 9/11 was an inside job



anyone saying 9/11 wasnt an inside job is immediately assumed to have not researched (per the second tenet) if it becomes apparent he/she has researched then the honesty of his/her findings come into question (also second tenet)

in this manner the primary tenet, that 9/11 was an inside job, can never even be challenged, let alone falsified

[PerryLogan]

Another weird tenet is that it's all terribly obvious. When they get excited, Truthers always start saying how obvious it is that 9/11 was an inside job, that only really stupid people could possibly miss all the clues. It's part of the Truther paradigm that everyone in the world is dumb or brainwashed...or in on the plot. No wonder they're so creepy.

[PerryLogan]

Thank you, Mr. Logan. That was brilliant.

Another tenet: Truthers believe that the bad guys always confess. They honest-to-God think Silverstein blurted out the whole plan on a PBS documentary. They truly believe Dick Cheney confessed to stealing trillions from the Pentagon. Alex Jones thought he saw CFR members predicting 9/11 on The Chris Matthews Show. This is one of the weirdest tenets of Truthism--that the perps make all these confessions...but only the conspiracy guys can hear them.

[Anti-sophist]

In fact it is so obvious to them that anyone who doesn't agree hasn't done the research. If you have done the research, you are a shill. If you are an expert who has researched the issue, you are an operative.

[Kiwiwriter]

A few more:

1. The US government has within it unscrupulous killers who will target their own innocent citizens as a matter of government policy.

That should be obvious! :)

2. The vast mass of the ordinary people actually support the Troofers, but are either afraid to speak up, or simply have not had the fog lifted from their eyes.

True believers think everyone is really on their side. The only way someone can possibly oppose them is they're in on the conspiracy. They think anyone with a rational brain and honor would naturally support them. That's why they get angry when they're greeted with derision, contempt, and ridicule.

3. There is no possibility of chance, random events, bad luck, or misplanning taking place in any event. Everything is the planned outcome of the evil conspiracy.

The NWO rules all.

4. There is a conspiracy, and it's the exact same conspiracy as the previous one they denounced, just doing different things.

And has the same cast of characters and plotline.

5. The great conspiracy is about to utterly crush our civil liberties and either destroy the world, or turn it into a police state straight out of "1984," complete with vast extermination campaigns.

But they never happen.

6. Only the Troofers have the answer, but other people must do the hard work for them to prove the case.

They always put rational folks on the defensive, and make us do their bloody term papers.

[PerryLogan]

And of course, one of my favorites:
The news is controlled...unless you like the story. Then suddenly, Fox News is news.

[pagan]

1: 9/11 was an inside job

2: any honest person who has done serious research will conclude that 9/11 was an inside job



anyone saying 9/11 wasnt an inside job is immediately assumed to have not researched (per the second tenet) if it becomes apparent he/she has researched then the honesty of his/her findings come into question (also second tenet)

in this manner the primary tenet, that 9/11 was an inside job, can never even be challenged, let alone falsified


Yep, this is true. I mean you should always keep an open mind.

But you miss a few important steps. Before we come to your premise:

9/11 was an inside job.

[pagan]

And of course, one of my favorites:
The news is controlled...unless you like the story. Then suddenly, Fox News is news.

You like Fox news, admit it. They are working their ass off for you guys.

[TheGrunion]

All knowledge can be derived from the internet. The use of a search engine eliminates the need for education, training or experience in virtually every subject.

[steve s]

Another weird tenet is that it's all terribly obvious. When they get excited, Truthers always start saying how obvious it is that 9/11 was an inside job, that only really stupid people could possibly miss all the clues.

As someone recently pointed out in another thread, they claim it's so obvious what happened but then none of them can actually agree on what happened. If it's so freakin' obvious why can't they come up with a coherent story? Where's the bashing-head-on-wall smilie when you need it?

[ETA] Who the hell's been messing with my signature?

[ETA] It's back to normal now. Never mind.
Steve s.

[defaultdotxbe]

As someone recently pointed out in another thread, they claim it's so obvious what happened but then none of them can actually agree on what happened. If it's so freakin' obvious why can't they come up with a coherent story? Where's the bashing-head-on-wall smilie when you need it?

Steve s.
like any major religion there are several denominations that dont agree on things, lol

[Anti-sophist]

Check out this post:
http://www.colboard.com/viewtopic.php?t=17667&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=73

In it, EugeneAxeman teaches us how truthers choose their sources and how to recognize bad sources, instantly.

This is one of the all-time greatest posts I've ever seen by a CTer. It's like.. layers of wrong. Like, right in the middle of his logically fallacious reasons for dismissal, he takes time out to just start lying. So we have him choosing a lie to use as a premise for a logical fallacy. That takes talent.

It might make your eyes bleed.

[T.A.M.]

Tenet 6...or 7.

Experts....we dont need no stinking experts...

TAM:)

[JimBenArm]

What a black hole of stupid that post is!

I especially loved how if you cite a source too many times, it invalidates what you're trying to prove. New one for me!

[Kage]

1. The conspirators are ultra organized and super powerful, as well as being blundering idiots who make mistakes and leave "obvious" signs of their mischief readily apparent to anyone who has access to the internet.

2. Anyone who doesn't buy into the troof is a sheeple, a shill, or an imaginationless idiot----worse, a republican (which I am happily not).

[ConspiRaider]

Thank you, Mr. Logan. That was brilliant.

Another tenet: Truthers believe that the bad guys always confess. They honest-to-God think Silverstein blurted out the whole plan on a PBS documentary. They truly believe Dick Cheney confessed to stealing trillions from the Pentagon. Alex Jones thought he saw CFR members predicting 9/11 on The Chris Matthews Show. This is one of the weirdest tenets of Truthism--that the perps make all these confessions...but only the conspiracy guys can hear them.
Yepster. And let's not forget our pal Rummy, who insisted it was a "missile" that hit the Pentagon. A tenet of twoofers is their unique ability to sift through bushelfuls of what they see as "lies" from a Gov official - and seize upon that one kernel of "twoof" that exposes the entire "conspiracy".

Thousands of hours of TeeVee watching has convinced twoofers that the perp secretly always wants to confess. When that "happens" - twoofers leap. Twoofers pounce. Twoofers declare Game Over.

[PerryLogan]

Conspiracy guys can predict the future.

Truthers and other conspiracy guys confidently predict the future all the time. It's not just Alex Jones. There are guys all over the web who have figured out the secret conspiracy that only they can see. Their knowledge of the way things really work enables them to predict what's going to happen next.

For example, did you know that the last Super Bowl was going to be nuked? There was a buzz amongst conspiracy folks that the bad guys were going to nuke the Super Bowl. It would have been an awesome culmination of the Rolling Stones' career.

(The fact that CT predictions are always wrong doesn't change anything. A tenet's a tenet, after all.)

[TheGrunion]

For example, did you know that the last Super Bowl was going to be nuked? There was a buzz amongst conspiracy folks that the bad guys were going to nuke the Super Bowl. It would have been an awesome culmination of the Rolling Stones' career.

Cockroaches and Keith Richards would have been the only survivors. ;)

[Triterope]

Here are The Six Tenets of Truthism:

1. 9/11 was an inside job.
2. 9/11 was an inside job.
3. 9/11 was an inside job.
4. 9/11 was an inside job.
5. 9/11 was an inside job.
6. 9/11 was an inside job.

Some of you may have noticed that the six tenets are very similar to each other, and may even seem redundant. However, The Six Tenets of Truthism are structured this way for several good reasons:

First, real Truthers know that if you repeat a claim enough times, it becomes more valid. This proves that '9/11 was an inside job' is six times more true than any other tenet.

Second, the repitition of a single phrase mimics the Truthers' ritualistic chant, as heard at Ground Zero on the fifth anniversary, and other places.

Third, it emphasizes the one thing all Truthers can agree on. Going into any more detail than that would inevitably lead to competing theories, infighting, and accusations of disinfo. Truthers can proudly say '9/11 was an inside job' six times and be in total agreement about it. (There is also unanimous agreement about the date of the attacks, but that is implied in tenets 1 through 6. Non-truthers also agree with this point, so it's obviously something Truthers would like to downplay.)

Fourth, this structure gives Truthers six different things they can all agree on. This allows them to disprove all accusations of infighting, disunity, and contradiction by saying "we have six tenets we are in 100% agreement on!" Really, how many organizations can say that?

Fifth, it's a rallying cry to debate. Any Truther knows that any point, no matter how thoroughly defeated, can brought back to life simply by mentioning it anew as if it had never been discussed before. The Six Tenets of Truthism inspire Truthers never to concede a point, and even shows them how to carry on the fight for truth.

Finally, The Six Tenets of Truthism speak to the eternal nature of the movement. While there are officially six tenets, Truthers are never required to recite all six of them at one time, or to stop at six. They may be repeated as many times as necessary, or in any fractio necessary, to make the point. Their beginning was on 9/11, but they have no end. Once invoked they cannot be ended, just as the search for the truth about 9/11 will never end.

[TellyKNeasuss]

Experts in fields unrelated to any aspect of what happened on 9/11 can easily determine what really happened.

Experts in relevant fields cannot be trusted to understand the evidence.

[chipmunk stew]

Yep, this is true. I mean you should always keep an open mind.

But you miss a few important steps. Before we come to your premise:

9/11 was an inside job.
Logic is an inscrutable process that can be circumvented by returning to the first tenet.

[chipmunk stew]

You like Fox news, admit it. They are working their ass off for you guys.
Those who raise doubts about the first tenet are unquestioning supporters of the Perps and the Perps' propaganda machine.

[beachnut]

Yep, this is true. I mean you should always keep an open mind.

But you miss a few important steps. Before we come to your premise:

9/11 was an inside job.

You missed the basic fact! They have zero facts and evidence when they say 9/11 was an inside job. They just say it; The make it up; they are so stupid they repeat what they are told by their experts!

zero facts - that is the tenet number one

[PerryLogan]

It's OK for a Truther to insult everybody, but not OK for anybody to retaliate.

I keep finding this out, despite my honey'd tongue and message of love.

Conspiracy guys seem to have little idea how incredibly insulting they are, and if you retaliate, as I like to do, they cry foul as if they hadn't started it. This is simply amazing.

After all, the whole Truther/Patriot 9/11 theory hinges on them being smarter than everyone else in the world, which strikes me as virtually megalomaniacal. I'm not a psychologist, but Truther behavior sometimes suggests "poor social judgment" to me. They don't always seem to know how they're coming across--you know?

Example: Alex Jones withv his bullhorn, tramping amongst a group of women who were quietly marching for stricter gun control. Alex charged through them like a rhino--not hurting or touching anyone, but blaring out his favorite anti-gun-control slogans (e.g., "Hitler was for gun control").

OK. Everybody came out all right. But think about it. Not only did Alex think this was a cool thing to do...he had someone tape it...and he put it on TV. Is that diminished judgment, or am I a newt?

By the way, I love Triterope's post above, which seems the definitive statement about the Truther mentality:
http://forums.randi.org/showpost.php?p=2302600&postcount=19

Funny and penetating. Finally, someone else at JREF who can write!

(Totally kidding. Totally. Chill out.)