[lbo-talk] 9/11 nuttery

Chuck chuck at mutualaid.org
Sat Sep 9 15:59:57 PDT 2006


ravi wrote:


> And what is that analysis? That anyone who thinks (not JThorn or CB)
> that the guys are dumb and hence couldn't have flown planes is motivated
> by racism? Or is effectively racist? That is not analysis.

My opinion or analysis versus your opinion or analysis.

That is a
> claim. What analysis can you offer to back that up? On what grounds do
> you justify this analysis?

I've articulated those grounds on iterations of the 9/11 thread. If you want to insist on making this a personal exchange, I invite you to research the list archives.

Especially given that one black, one red, and
> one brown guy (CB and JThorn are dealing with the issue of US Govt
> involvement, I am extending the discussion to include the question of
> whether these guys were capable of doing this) on this list don't find
> these questions racist nor do they think their community will think so.
> Perhaps we need an actual Arab to pipe in -- though note that some of
> the hijackers were Pakistani, not Arab.

This is groundbreaking news. You are arguing that only people of color on this list can have opinions on what racism is and what is racist about 9/11 conspiracy theories. That's pretty stupid. Anybody on this list has a right to talk about racism.


> It would be a good thing to get past some of the confusion in this
> discussion. JThorn's (and perhaps also CB's) point seems to be that it
> is valid to question if the US govt could have enabled this, without
> making any assumption about the intelligence of these guys. It would be
> strange to call that position racist. I mentioned that from what I had
> read these guys do not seem bright enough to fly a sophisticated plane
> into very specific targets. It is a huge leap to conclude that this is a
> form of racism (i.e., a statement about a very small set of individuals
> is a statement about the race/group they belong to. In another post I
> called this the soft bigotry of high expectations). Finally, there are
> probably some white people who offer the same thoughts/questions. Is
> that racism? The burden of proving such a far-reaching claim lies on
> those applying that label. AFAICT that burden has not been met even
> half-way.

I'm making my argument as Chuck0, not as a white person. I'm referring to criticisms that I've read in the past that addressed the UFO movement's racist dismissal of the agency of people who built the pyramids and other ancient structures. I don't think that the 9/11 movement is racist, but there are some racist assumptions underlying some of their theories, especially the ones that try to argue that 19 Arab terrorists didn't skyjack four planes and crash them into buildings.

Chuck



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