> Brown guy says "No" (it may be wrong, but it isn't racist. Hell, I will
> go further and even disagree with Jthorn's version -- I do not even
> think it is racist to say that some guys were dumb and hence couldn't
> have flown the plane. Again this view may be wrong, but it's not racist.
>
> --ravi
Let's be careful to agree or disagree with my actual position.
What I said is that a narrative with Arabs too dumb to succeed except with spook (white) help is no more or less racist than a narrative with Arabs who were stupid and lucky ( a phrase used here and agreed with by more than one person). Yet the "stupid and lucky" crowd crows about how racist is the the idea that spooks had to help the dumb Arabs. In fact, I've actually seen anti-conspiracists on this list and elsewhere use the terms, stupid and/or dumb and lucky Arabs while I've yet to see a conspiracist claim spook help was needed because the Arabs were dumb/stupid. That specific thought is alleged by those wishing to throw dirt on the conspiracist ideas. As if the idea that planting explosives in the building beforehand secretly wasn't so improbable that attacking the mindset of the adherents to this viewpoint should be considered necessary.
I never claimed belief that the terrorists were dumb in itself constituted a racist thought. It is perfectly possible to believe the terrorists were dumb and lucky and not be racist just as it is perfectly possible to believe they would have required spook help while similarly not being racist. What is silly is for an adherent of one thought to label the opposing idea racist when the evidence for racist thought is equal in both camps and probably exists in roughly equal amounts in the adherents of either idea. I have posted this thought rather clearly before.
They may not have been very intelligent but I think that is unlikely. Learning to fly those planes in a short time seems a difficult task, although not horrifically so. And the plan did work. It's tough to argue the stupidity of the success. This red guy also thinks it matters little how intelligent they were.
John Thornton