I hope you know by now that I think that these 9/11 conspiracy narratives are highly unlikely and based on "wishful thinking." They in fact make me angry because it shows how deeply apolitical and off the point so many "left-liberal" US citizens are.
But, I have to present a stronger defense to this "racist" bandwagon, so now I find myself defending people who I think are screwy thinkers.
How do you know these people are racist? Have they expressed it to you?
Don't be so ready to accuse these conspiracy obsessives of anti-Arab racism. They often point out that it is anti-Arab racism that the Bush-regime used to convince the rest of "us" of the "official story."
In other words it is they who accuse people who too easily believe the official story of anti-Arab racism. This flinging about of the idea that so-and-so is racist, or such and such is a racist story, without good evidence, devalues the actual workings of white supremacy, etc.
Chuck, may have evidence of anti-Arab racism among some people that believe in these 9/11 conspiracy narratives. But I haven't seen that evidence. Until I do I prefer to concentrate on what I do know and can provisionally conclude; the nature of explanation that these narratives provide and the political function of the conspiracy narratives.
Finally, what of all the people in the Arab world who think that 9/11 was a Bush conspiracy. Are they self-hating Arabs? Before you accuse them of such "self-hatred" step back and think what flinging such accusations actually means.
Jerry
On 8/22/06, jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> On 21 Aug 2006 at 17:15, Jordan Hayes wrote:
>
> > Bleah. These guys did it, despite it being hard and depite them being
> > stupid. Their masters thanked them for their sacrafice.
>
>
> On 21 Aug 2006 at 18:45, martin wrote:
>
> > I think that you've hit on the heart and soul of the entire matter of
> > enquiry - determining the masters. Masters often remain hidden. Masters
> > often act through surrogates.
>
>
> Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> > THis is, I think, very nearly the _whole_ reason behind most
> > conspiracism. Stupid arabs couldn't do anything that clever, it must
> > have been done by the kind of guys that brought us the Bay of Pigs.
>
>
> On 22 Aug 2006 at 14:45, Chuck wrote:
>
> > Right. I would add that the conspiracy theorists ascribe too much power
> > and intelligence to the people they think were secretly organizing the
> > conspiracy.
>
>
>
> On 22 Aug 2006 at 15:55, ravi wrote:
>
> > Funny to see a bunch of [what I suspect are] white guys
> > re-characterizing a simple question from a brown guy as driven by
> > anti-brown-skin racism (though I guess the device of "self-hating X" can
> > be borrowed from the right). Funnily enough, they are probably correct
> > in their analysis (when applied reflectively) that we tend to see what
> > we want to see.
>
> You are missing the best part ravi. The Arabs are labeled "stupid and lucky" by the people who think they did it
> and "too stupid to be capable" by people who think they didn't. They're stupid in either the official version or the
> conspiracist version.
>
> John Thornton