The 9/11 attacks are overgrown with conspiracy theories: where they come from and why people believe in speculation

The tragedy of September 11 has been overgrown with a huge number of rumors and theories over twenty years. However, like any serious shock of this magnitude. The most incredible speculations began to emerge after the 9/11 terrorist attack: the American authorities knew about the impending tragedy; no planes actually hit the building; bombs were planted at the base of the skyscraper. Correspondent VOA decided to find out what conspiracy theories overgrown the tragic event 20 years ago. Among other things, she tried to find out what conspiracy theories people in the United States and in Russia are convinced of, and why they believe in them.

Mark Fenster, an American researcher and author of books on conspiracy theories, answered Ksenia Turkova's questions. He is a faculty member at Levin College of Law in Florida.

Ksenia: 11 years have passed since the September 20 attacks. Have there been more or less conspiracy theories during this time?

Mark: The number of conspiracy theories about 11/XNUMX became stable by the middle of the so-called noughties. What could be new? Maybe a few new details or new theories, new ideas. But nothing serious. As a rule, the point was that President Bush was supposed to organize this. What did he have to do with it, let it happen, or did nothing to prevent it.

All of these theories were shortly after 11/2001. And by the end of XNUMX, many of them were well developed. Their distribution continued until the mid-XNUMXs, after the report of the Commission of Inquiry was published.

Therefore, they became the most popular, peaking in 2005-2007 and spreading in the media. By that time, the theory had already taken hold.

Ksenia: Yes, there are quite a few of them! What types of 11/XNUMX conspiracy theories can you name?

Mark: The most popular conspiracy theories in the United States have been about whether the United States government was aware of the attacks. Everyone said they knew. Another theory was that the government was involved in planning the attacks. Some theories have gone very far in their beliefs. Others refused to do so and only argued that the authorities somehow found out about the attacks and allowed them to happen. So these are the basic assumptions.

There are also some famous theories that bombs were planted at the base of the Shopping Center. And the planes were a distraction from the real cause of the towers falling.

Most speculation was that the government had planted the bombs. This led to the question: why did the government need it? Many believed that this was due to the subsequent war in Iraq. The authorities were accused of wanting to gain control over Iraqi oil and, moreover, to establish a new world order led by the United States.

The most popular versions were in the Middle East and Europe - anti-Semitic theories about the role of the Mossad. Allegedly, the Mossad was behind the attacks. It was said that all Jews working in the building were warned not to go to work that day. This is not true, of course, because I personally know the people who were in the building that day. So there were such theories.

Ksenia: As far as I know, among them there are absolutely incredible ones that do not even seem realistic. Can you name them?

Mark: The most incredible ones dealt with the laser technology used to collapse the towers. It was said that there were bombs at the base of the Shopping Center, but no one saw them - they were hidden in trucks. And later, somehow, in the report of the Commission, they were forced to describe everything in such a way that the truth would not be revealed.

At least it makes some sense. Yes, you can plant bombs and detonate them remotely. The Justice Department in early August announced its intention to release documents related to the tragedy of 9/11. Reported about it Forum Daily New York.

But the most incredible theories were that buildings were destroyed by lasers from space, and everything like that. These assumptions tried to find other reasons for the collapse of the building.

Yes, there was also a “no-plane theory” according to which there were no planes. There were holograms or videos that were “brought” to television networks. But this theory does not fit with the fact that people saw the planes not on TV, but live. There are witnesses.

Ksenia: Usually, different conspiracy theories have about the same scenario, the same patterns. Are the 11/XNUMX theories any different in this sense?

Mark: The 11/XNUMX conspiracy theory is no different. For example, from the theory of the Kennedy assassination. An abnormal trauma event occurs, and explanations appear as to why it happened. The explanations differ from the official ones. They require, first of all, a certain level of faith in them. Like all such explanations.

Take the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone to assassinate President Kennedy. This may or may not seem plausible.

Conspiracy theories do more than provide alternative explanations for events. They explain more extensively who did it and why, and what the consequences might be.

In this sense, the 11/XNUMX theory is similar to the others. But instead of the assassinated president, the object is the Twin Towers and the building in Washington.

We have an official explanation that makes some sense. We have evidence of how suicide bombers hijacked planes and sent them to the towers. But later we get an alternative explanation. It may contain the same facts as the report of the Commission of Inquiry, but they only contain other details. But a completely different version of what happened can also be stated.

Ksenia: Maybe I'm wrong, but conspiracy theories thrive in autocracies, because in countries like Russia or Belarus, people don't trust the government. Why did this happen in America?

Mark: Oh, this has happened to America since becoming its country! There were conspiracy theories before the American Revolution, after it. Conspiracy theories have been around throughout history.

When people go into politics, they often try to describe opponents or another party, and not necessarily with the help of conspiracy theories, but try to say that the opponents are corrupt. Or tell something scary that they have a dark side, so in no case should they be allowed to power.

So it has been part of American political culture for a long time.

The popularity of conspiracy theories in the United States either grows or falls depending on the situation in the economy. From events, from the behavior of political parties.

But, of course, I understand their popularity in autocratic regimes, because there are conspiracy theories “from below” - when people try to explain why the leader seized power, why he is entering himself in a certain way. There are also conspiracy theories "from above", when politicians, leaders, autocrats describe other countries, governments or opposition parties in this way; make them part of conspiracy theories.

We had it to some extent during the presidency of Donald Trump. He and his followers viewed representatives of the opposition party and elements of the government through the prism of conspiracy theories.

That is, we remain a democracy - imperfect, but a democracy. And yes, sometimes we can look a little like autocracy when we put our political beliefs in the context of a conspiracy theory.

Ksenia: Over the past twenty years, we have had a technological revolution: we have the Internet, smartphones and so on. What role did all of this play in the spread of conspiracy theories?

Mark: Let's start with what we know for sure. Conspiracy theories are spreading really well on the internet. They proliferated in the early 2000s, mainly through blogs and websites. We now have social media. Especially such web forums as 4chan, 8chan, which spread information close to the theories popular in the 9s about 11/XNUMX.

And spreading your fear is much easier and cheaper. But here's an interesting question: does this mean that more people now believe in conspiracy theories, or have these people just become visible, and their number has not changed?

In 2008, I compared two opinion polls on the Kennedy assassination versus belief in conspiracy theories about the event, and the 11/XNUMX conspiracy theories.

The result was curious. People were equally influenced by conspiracy theories about either event.

This complicates the picture of the world, given our perceptions of how much the Internet has changed. Indeed, in 1964-1968 there was no Internet.

Ранее Forum Daily New York reported a case where the internet became a murder weapon.

Ksenia: Let's imagine that another twenty years will pass. How likely is it that people will stop believing the 11/XNUMX conspiracy theories because they have more or less comprehensive information?

Mark: You have to understand that conspiracy theories are like old pop songs that people forget for a while. Then for some reason they come back. Let's say the theory that the earth is flat starts to circulate again. People have talked about her before. Or that the American landing on the moon was fake.

Such theories are not very popular. Usually they are not considered important, but then some anniversary happens and people start talking about them.

So the well-known “well-forgotten old” works, and people who believe in conspiracy theories remember them and sometimes put them in the context of some larger theory - to explain what happened today with the help of events that happened 15, 20, 50 years ago. It will now also be from September 11th. It doesn't matter how much information we have.

We have a huge amount of documents regarding the Kennedy assassination. But this did not "buried" conspiracy theories, including the most insane ones. And just recently, when Trump was president, he released even more documents.

And what do you think - conspiracy theorists look at them and say that these documents confirm their theories, they see some kind of explanation in them.

A huge number of 11/9 documents were released by the Terrorist Investigation Commission. Its experts assumed that people would speculate on this topic, build theories around 11/XNUMX. So they wanted to prevent this all, so they released the documents, held open hearings. We did numerous interviews, even wrote a book. But none of it mattered.

No matter how much information is disclosed, it will never explain all the details and all the anomalies of the event. It won't make people stop believing what the conspiracy theory suggests.