Skeptic Project

You've collected some great resources there. Thanks for sharing with us, I'm bookmarking that.

Personal disclosure:

For a while in 2007 and early 2008, I was partly convinced by some of the WTC demolition claims. I knew from the beginning that a lot of the alleged evidence was weak. Other alleged evidence did seem convincing to me for a while, though I was never 100% convinced. I spent a lot of time studying the writings of debunkers as well as proponents, and I also spent a bit of time interacting online with both proponents and debunkers.

Eventually I concluded that even those WTC demolition arguments I thought were convincing were without merit after all. And, once I ceased to believe in any of the alleged evidence for WTC demolition, I no longer believed in any kind of 9/11 "inside job" theory either.

I did read up on other aspects of 9/11, as perceived by both "inside job" believers and debunkers, and I did come across evidence of coverups (such as statements by the 9/11 Commissioners themselves saying that there were coverups). So I can still honestly sympathize, at least in some ways, with the call for a "new investigation." But there are any number of other things that could be covered up besides an "inside job," and, at the present time, I don't see any real evidence of the latter.

During the time that I did believe in the WTC demolition idea to some extent, I got to know lots of people in the 9/11 Truth movement, both online and offline. Besides my above-mentioned online interactions, I also attended meetings of New York 9/11 Truth.

But I was never a believer in what I call grand conspiracy ideology: the idea that many or even most world events have been secretly orchestrated by a centuries-old or even millenia-old cabal, e.g. the "Illuminati" or the "Elders of Zion," which has somehow managed to keep its existence a secret from historians and other reputable sources for lo these many centuries. Even during my time in the 9/11 Truth movement, I strongly opposed grand conspiracy ideology because of its overtones of religious bigotry -- sometimes overt and sometimes just implied. I was aware of the role of "Illuminati" beliefs in both the religious right wing and the "Satanic Ritual Abuse" scare, as well as their similarity to historical anti-Jewish claims.

Many people in the 9/11 Truth movement are also believers in grand conspiracy ideology. When I was involved in the 9/11 Truth movement, it bothered me a lot to see secular-minded people being drawn into religious right wing ideology.

But when I spoke out against it, I discovered that there were also quite a few people in the 9/11 Truth movement who were not believers in "the Illuminati," and who appreciated my objections to grand conspiracy ideology.

Anyhow, based on my experience on both sides of the fence regarding beliefs about 9/11 itself, and based on my experience interacting with people on both sides, always making an effort to understand people on both sides, I think I'm in a good position to talk about communications barriers between believers and skeptics of 9/11 inside job theories and other controversial allegations of government wrongdoing. I'll discuss this in another thread.

I've replied here, in a separate thread, to avoid turning this current thread into a 9/11 thread.