How Did You Pop Your 9/11 Conspiracy Theory Cherry?

in #politics7 years ago (edited)



I'll never forget when I first watched Loose Change for the first time. I jokingly searched "9/11 Inside Job" on YouTube when I was in 8th grade (this was in 2008 by the way) because I thought it would be funny to see how ridiculous and crazy those wack-job 9/11 conspiracy theorists could be. I never thought my worldview would be so quickly altered forever. I was in middle school at the time, and the next day I had this group discussion period called "Teen Talk" where once a week you and a group of people (typically your friends) could voluntarily eat lunch in a room with a guidance counselor who guided a discussion about anything that was on your mind. This sounds corny but it was actually a lot of fun and led to some interesting conversations. My close friends at the time and I regularly attended. 

I, still being young and naive, thought it would be a good idea to lead the discussion about how I watched Loose Change and how I was now convinced that the official story was bogus. You can only imagine how that went, and looking back it actually makes me laugh at how blissfully ignorant I could have been to think this was a good idea. I of course spent the rest of the session being lambasted by the entire room about how ridiculous I was being and essentially how stupid I could be for believing such nonsense. Even my guidance counselor, who was a pretty open minded person, was very unwilling to consider my point of view. The worst part was that the father of one of my friends in attendence was a firefighter who was pulled out of the rubble (still alive) on 9/11, so he did not take kindly to my discussion topic.

This probably comes as no surprise to the people reading this, but it was a big deal for me at the time. The reactions from my guidance counselor and close friends remains to have a lingering effect on my life. It really woke me up to how strongly conditioned most people are to worship their government to a point where they are unable to critically assess anything claimed by them. I remember also bringing this up to my parents that same week. Although they were more understanding, I got a similar reaction from them as well (luckily I have been able to move them closer to my side over the years).

There's my story. Sorry it isn't that detailed but it has been a long time. Please share yours, I am very interested to hear the experiences of others.

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Your first is better than mine. Haha. I remember it was xmas, I wanna say 2010. We had a family dinner for the holidays. My cousin, in from Florida at the time(holler@arevolution), had some zeitgeist videos and we snuck off to watch a little... 3 hours later...I was just a hot mess, tears, all that, I coutldnt believe that ones own country could do something so devestating and so hurtful!! I remember not even questioning what i had just watched. I knew what the truth was all of a sudden. Thanks for sharing your story and letting me share mine.

Thanks for sharing! It's amazing how some people like us are naturally less resistant to cognitive dissonance, while most people are almost crippled by it.

Exactly! Its nice to chat with someone who has similar insight. Keep Steemin!

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