The Road to Hell is Crazily Paved with Best Intentions

In spite of my best intentions, I've been somewhat preoccupied these last few days with the 9/11 thing.

However, through accident or design, every time talk of 9/11 seems to be reverting to background levels something has come along to knock the volume back up a couple of notches

• There were those rants written by Monbiot in the Guardian comparing 9/11 scepticism to a disease and describing 9/11 sceptics as morons
• Then there was that BBC documentary that went down so well
• And most recently, from the BBC again, that footage of a reporter doing a Mystic Meg impression on 9/11 - followed by an excruciatingly poor 'explanation' of how that came to be

The established UK press sure has a hard-on for 9/11 at the moment

Which, in a way, is a shame as I have been distracted from documenting the results of my latest research into staring at famous London buildings whilst holding my breath until I see hidden messages in their architecture, plus I had a great title for a post after reading the news that Cressida Dick had been promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Sadly, the moment passed and so the title...

Shoot a Brazilian and Win a Prize!!!

will never see the light of day, except for here, obviously

London is about to get a lot more Dick. Phwoar! Angelina Jolie eat my your heart out

There was a cracking quote from Len Duvall at the MPA...

“Unprecedented circumstances surround one of the officers we have confirmed as Deputy Assistant Commissioner. Consequently I have decided to take the unusual step of commenting on matters that would normally remain confidential.

“Having considered these circumstances we are satisfied that our decision to confirm promotion is the right one to take at this time.

“The MPA is keenly aware that the people of London must have confidence in the police who work, in what are often difficult circumstances, to protect them. By confirming this promotion we are making it clear that the officer retains our full confidence.”

... which you could interpret in a couple of different ways, depending on just how cynical you happen to be feeling at the time

Anyway, I was hoping to put 9/11 out of my mind for a while and then I came across a link to this (admittedly 2 month old) post on the BlairWatch website

Listen guys, you've posted the same thing time after time on Blairwatch. We do not believe the theories based on the evidence you present. We're also concerned that you also appear to get a lot of your 'evidence' from neo-nazi sites.

You are welcome to post here on other subjects, but we're bored of the same old story you're spamming us with.

Therefore we will delete any further posts by yourselves on 9/11 and 7/7.

Delete posts about 7/7 as well as 9/11?

Equate 7/7 scepticism with being a neo-Nazi?

I have to say, there's something about being accused of being an insane, moronic Nazi, infected with a mental virus that can really win a guy over to other people's point of view.

7/7 has become an absolute cornerstone of the Blair government's 'security' agenda. 7/7 and 9/11 are frequently cited as the primary evidence to justify all sorts of heinous shit that would otherwise be rejected out of hand

...and a site called Blairwatch is going to delete posts relating to scepticism about the official account of 7/7?

So, presumably investigation into any possibility of complicity on the part of the security services - ranging from direct involvement to merely hyping up the terror threat - goes right out of the window?

For fuck's sake

(edit: a commentator from Blairwatch (I think) has chipped in their penny's worth at the end of this post and fair play to them for taking the time to do so)

I appreciate that some of the people advocating 9/11 and 7/7 conspiracy theories are sometimes, how can I put it, 'enthusiastic' about promoting their ideas and very often a tad more 'imaginative' than your average person but that's not the same thing as demonstrating there are no issues there.

And, as The Antagonist reminded me in a post about Mark Thomas wanking on at the No Trident protest last week if there's one thing we can be sure of, without recourse to any conspiracy theory, it's just how ineffective and plain crap the mainstream left in UK politics has been in recent years...

"You're all doing very well... and now I'm asking you to do just that little bit more and SMS the world into being a better place (Calls Cost £1.50, normal network charges apply. Please ask a grown-up for permission beforehand)"

crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap

crap

The embarrassing truth about Left wing politics in this country is that the fundamental changes imposed on our civil liberties and corporate ownership and control of our social infrastructure under the current Labour government far exceed anything that happened in the Thatcher years

So, tell me again, who are the moronic twats living in a fascist fantasy world? I'm having trouble keeping up to speed with that one.

But hey, just one more march, just one more petition, one more free concert, one more text message, will turn things around and it will all be over by fucking Christmas

Bollocks

That would be the 'Surge' theory of mainstream left wing activism

There's a line from an old war movie I watched once and it went something like

'Never reinforce failure. Failure reinforces itself'

Too bloody right

Tony Benn speaking at the Troops Out - No Trident demo ... just like Groundhog Day but without the jokes

At times like these I'm reminded of a couple of quotes from the Great George Monbiot

Democracy is sustained not by public trust but by public scepticism. Unless we are prepared to question, to expose, to challenge and to dissent, we conspire in the demise of the system for which our governments are supposed to be fighting...

.. If we are to preserve the progress, pluralism, tolerance and freedom which President Bush claims to be defending, then we must question everything we see and hear...

In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, there's a fundamental belief that still persists even on the political left, that our leaders are basically decent, honest people, the same as the rest of us and when they do something wicked it's always the result of an honest mistake. Never anything darker than that.

And that's the fundamental reason why 'Conspiracy Theories' are so maligned and will continue to be maligned even if the entire neo-nazi space-alien contingent disappeared (was abducted?) overnight.

The debunkers guide to spotting mentally ill, mentally retarded, neo-nazi plague carriers - ouch, I think I've just cracked a rib laughing so hard

A conspiracy theorist is basically saying 'Someone is responsible for this and should be held to account'. The opposing point of view is 'Shit happens'. In reality, the 'Truth' usually lies somewhere between the two extremes; with arguably more weight on the 'someone is responsible' side of things than is currently admitted in the mainstream.

And the sooner a few more people start looking at our government and the bulk of our media as entities that willfully act in the interests of a small minority; rather than as a collection of idiots staggering from one unforeseen fuck up to another, the better.

If that assumption is made, or at least entertained, it totally changes your view of what are and are not viable tactics to deal with the excesses of that minority.

It doesn't even really matter if an ultra cynical view of government is 100% 'True' or not. I doubt that it is. The point is that the existing paradigm for popular activism just isn't delivering results and more of the same old crap thinking isn't likely to either.

Of course, no such changes are going to happen for a while yet. A lot more 'perfectly honest' mistakes will have to be made and things will have to get a lot more fucked up first.

.