Friday 13 November 2009

Bailed up by 911 Truthers in Sydney

I've just been handed a 911 Truther postcard (click the picture to embiggen) in Sydney of all places. I was just coming out of Central Station on my way home when I saw a couple of people, older guys, handing out flyers. I usually ignore these people but something struck me about the beige t-shirts they were wearing. The motif was a stylized 911 with the ones made to look like the Twin Towers overlaid with a magnifying glass. Anyway I was past these guys before it sunk in as to who they were but I couldn't be fudged going back. But as luck would have it about 100 metres up the road closer to home there was another person handing out flyers. This time it was a blonde thirty something woman wearing the same beige t-shirt. Beauty I thought, I'll get a brochure this time. She saw me and headed straight to me saying, "You look like you'll probably be interested in this". She probably noticed my grin. She handed me a postcard.
"Ah, you're 911 Truthers" I said. I was laughing out loud at this point.
"Yes we are" she said. "We're having a talk tomorrow night at the Tom Mann Theatre across the road. You look like you'd enjoy it. Brings some mates." She handed me more postcards. What the hell do I look like? I was wearing a black t-shirt with a 3d barcode on it but does that make me look like a conspiracy loon? Well duh.
I laughed some more as I walked away but she followed and said, "Have you heard about the thermite?"
I turned and said, "The thermite as in the trace metals and chemicals that can also be found in thousands of pulverized and burned computers and mobile phones? That thermite?" Thanks Penn & Teller's Bullshit.
She stopped and started to back away. "In that case if you come tomorrow night you can come for free. You might learn something. Brings some mates" she said.
I laughed and kept walking home. I was thinking, free though? How much was it to go to this thing? There it was printed on the postcard. $60! Fudging heck. It must be quite a lurk this 911 Truther thing. Apparently I could go for free if I wanted to though.

I really don't think I can buggered going along tomorrow night to listen to these hard core loons. I mean it is Saturday night after all. The other thing is that these people are spouting shit that is plain offensive to the memories of the thousands of people that perished on 9/11. Every point they have raised has been debunked by credible experts thousands of times.

If you do want to go to loonfest though they have a web site, thehardevidence.com and 911oz.com. You'll want some kind of mind bleach afterwards though. You never know I might even still go seeing as I can get in for free. Maybe not.

If you want the real story though check out this site, www.debunking911.com. It is a good place to start to read about some real debunking of the shite the 911 Truthers spew. Here is a link to the awesome Popular Mechanics 9/11 myth debunking article. Hopefully these will be an antidote to the paranoid ravings from the conspiracy believers at 911Oz for you.

It was an interesting experience though. It was the first time I've met these characters in the wild and the first time I've heard of them here in Oz. Usually I run in to them on-line at places like Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy Blog - www.badastronomy.com.

Update 16/11/2009: I didn't end up going because... well I forgot. We were watching Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress which was totally diverting for me and 2 hours of Michelle's life she won't get back. :-)

3 comments:

  1. Shane: "This time it was a blonde thirty something woman [handing out flyers and] wearing the same beige t-shirt."

    Was she an "aeroplane blonde"?

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  2. Dude its free, there are substances you can smoke befor hand, go in have a giggle, take some videos or don't smoke substances have a couple drinks get roudy and heckle! we both know of people that will support you! i would if i was there.

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