You tube hit extraordinaire, Loose Change is a documentary based on Dylan Avery’s alternative account of 9/11. Loose Change derives it’s power to persuade a post 9/11frazzled audience by doing what a lot of conspiracies do, which is to take already acknowledged facts/half truths and use them to justify a theoretical interpretation of events. After being taught how to identify what I already know is a black box, I am meant to presume that Dylan Avery will keep on furthering my education as the film drags on.
The question I want answers to the most is not whether or not secret voice mimicking technology was used to stage phone calls from passengers on flight 93. The question I wanted to get to the bottom of while watching Loose Change is why people love conspiracy theories.
The word conspiracy alone denotes an instinctual grin and a shrug. I cannot pinpoint why I am so quick to dismiss the countless theories in opposition to the official government account of 9/11. Maybe because it is more time efficient for me to shrug my shoulders than it is to Google every little tidbit put forth on You tube as to what might have actually happened.
I have come to the conclusion that what keeps conspiracies alive is the fact that people simply like to be in on something. There is some kinda joy in rewriting history and turning fact into fiction that just might have an element of remaining fact. While both Avery’s and the U.S. government’s accounts of 9/11 should come under equal fire- its just fun to be starting the small ones.
Yet in the end, when it comes to blowing up major infrastructure and killing thousands of citizens, that many people just can’t keep a secret.
