The YouTube video Loose Change, which promulgates well-trodden 9/11 conspiracy theories, has been without a rival since its 2005 inception.
Even George Monbiot was engrossed for a time by the video’s “calm and authoritative voiceover” – a voiceover which, its filmmakers claim, has been heard by more than 100 million people.
One of Loose Change’s funniest parodies, another YouTube video, undermined its seriousness with graphics à la 1990s game console – but even that was only watched by around 100,000 people.
Now, though, Loose Change has real competition.
Zeitgeist, released last year by Joseph Phillips, is the new kid on the counterknowledge block. The two-hour long video doesn’t lack ambition: it aims to reveal the three most effective ‘lies’ forced on us by those in power.
The first two are predictable: Christianity and 9/11. The third, less so – it concerns the international monetary system.
The second part of the film – ‘All the world’s a stage’ – has to be one of the most infuriating pieces of counterknowledge online. It begins with video footage of the hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 flying into the South Tower of the World Trade Centre.
Sickeningly, the film shows the plane’s impact no less than 10 times, all in rapid succession. Footage of the consequent collapse of the Trade Centre is shown from four different news channels – conspiracy theorists, it seems, are inclined towards this sort of disastrous pornography.
The video relies heavily on contemporary news commentary from 9/11 – as well as dodgy interviews with shaken eye-witnesses – to propagate the old myth that the twin towers were destroyed by controlled explosions.
But yes, you guessed it, there is not a solitary piece of real evidence to back this claim up.
Most interestingly, the film focuses on the 9/11 hijackers, using a BBC article (dated 23 September, 2001) to call into question their identities.
But the BBC article, entitled Hijack ’suspects’ alive and well, is out of date. A short note at the bottom declares: “An update on this story was published in October 2006 in the BBC News editors’ blog.”
Five minutes’ research will reveal that the original article has been “superseded” by more recent ones.
In 2006, Steve Herrmann (editor of the BBC news website) wrote:
“We’ve carried the full report, executive summary and main findings and, as part of the recent fifth anniversary coverage, a detailed guide to what’s known about what happened on the day.
But conspiracy theories have persisted. The confusion over names and identities we reported back in 2001 may have arisen because these were common Arabic and Islamic names.”
Significantly, he continued:
“We recently asked the FBI for a statement, and this is, as things stand, the closest thing we have to a definitive view:
The FBI is confident that it has positively identified the nineteen hijackers responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Also, the 9/11 investigation was thoroughly reviewed by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States and the House and Senate Joint Inquiry. Neither of these reviews ever raised the issue of doubt about the identity of the nineteen hijackers.”
If you are still convinced the film is worth watching, here is the link.
Zeitgeist relies heavily on Loose Change and other conspiracy theory web sources. All of them have that Michael Mooreish feel to them: a reliance on obscure facts and the making of dubious links between them, obfuscation being the aim of the game.
All the world’s a stage, indeed. For some reason though, the makers of Zeitgeist think their audience is blindfolded.
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The YouTube video Loose Change, which promulgates well-trodden 9/11 conspiracy theories, has been without a rival since its 2005 inception.
Even George Monbiot was engrossed for a time by the video’s “calm and authoritative voiceover” – a voiceover which, its filmmakers claim, has been heard by more than 100 million people.
One of Loose Change’s funniest parodies, another YouTube video, undermined its seriousness with graphics à la 1990s game console – but even that was only watched by around 100,000 people.
Now, though, Loose Change has real competition.
Zeitgeist, released last year by Joseph Phillips, is the new kid on the counterknowledge block. The two-hour long video doesn’t lack ambition: it aims to reveal the three most effective ‘lies’ forced on us by those in power.
The first two are predictable: Christianity and 9/11. The third, less so – it concerns the international monetary system.
The second part of the film – ‘All the world’s a stage’ – has to be one of the most infuriating pieces of counterknowledge online. It begins with video footage of the hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 flying into the South Tower of the World Trade Centre.
Sickeningly, the film shows the plane’s impact no less than 10 times, all in rapid succession. Footage of the consequent collapse of the Trade Centre is shown from four different news channels – conspiracy theorists, it seems, are inclined towards this sort of disastrous pornography.
The video relies heavily on contemporary news commentary from 9/11 – as well as dodgy interviews with shaken eye-witnesses – to propagate the old myth that the twin towers were destroyed by controlled explosions.
But yes, you guessed it, there is not a solitary piece of real evidence to back this claim up.
Most interestingly, the film focuses on the 9/11 hijackers, using a BBC article (dated 23 September, 2001) to call into question their identities.
But the BBC article, entitled Hijack ’suspects’ alive and well, is out of date. A short note at the bottom declares: “An update on this story was published in October 2006 in the BBC News editors’ blog.”
Five minutes’ research will reveal that the original article has been “superseded” by more recent ones.
In 2006, Steve Herrmann (editor of the BBC news website) wrote:
“We’ve carried the full report, executive summary and main findings and, as part of the recent fifth anniversary coverage, a detailed guide to what’s known about what happened on the day.
But conspiracy theories have persisted. The confusion over names and identities we reported back in 2001 may have arisen because these were common Arabic and Islamic names.”
Significantly, he continued:
“We recently asked the FBI for a statement, and this is, as things stand, the closest thing we have to a definitive view:
The FBI is confident that it has positively identified the nineteen hijackers responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Also, the 9/11 investigation was thoroughly reviewed by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States and the House and Senate Joint Inquiry. Neither of these reviews ever raised the issue of doubt about the identity of the nineteen hijackers.”
If you are still convinced the film is worth watching, here is the link.
Zeitgeist relies heavily on Loose Change and other conspiracy theory web sources. All of them have that Michael Mooreish feel to them: a reliance on obscure facts and the making of dubious links between them, obfuscation being the aim of the game.
All the world’s a stage, indeed. For some reason though, the makers of Zeitgeist think their audience is blindfolded.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
But what of the other 2 parts of the film? That Christianity is based largely on the zodiac (12 signs surrounding the sun, 12 followers of Jesus anyone?) and the manipulation of the monatary system (Euro, Amero?). Whilst I totally agree the 911 stuff is more of the same rubbish, don’t dismiss the other 2 parts as counterknowledge just because they don’t fit in with your common, but hugely less plausible ‘beliefs’. You’ll quickly loose your credibility, as debunking other peoples work in favour of your own belief system of self delusion simply makes youy another purveyor of the proverbial ‘crap’ I’m afraid. Brave of you though, I’ll give you that!