http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/Articles/Opinion/22591/

Incredibly ignorant commentary on the 9/11 story and the truth movement- posted in full:

The Jews were responsible for the events of Sept. 11, 2001. So was the mysterious Bildeburger group, the “military-industrial complex,” the Israeli intelligence agency called the Mossad and the contracting company named Halliburton. Using the evil radio-wave emitter in Alaska acronymed HAARP, the reptilian aliens disguised themselves as world leaders and members of the British royal family, and demolished the World Trade Center. Confused yet? So am I.

Conspiracy theories about the events of Sept.11, 2001 are more prevalent than Ohio State fans on the Ohio University campus. Now, I’m not one to judge people, but some of the people who believe in such wacky stories are plain loco. Here’s why.

Our story begins in the 14th century, with a philosopher named William of Ockham. Amongst his wide studies of nature, physics, the Bible and logic, one of his achievements stands apart: Ockham’s Razor. Ockham’s Razor is simple; one of the different interpretations goes, “of equivalent theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be preferred.” To paraphrase, the theory that requires the least prior assumptions in order to be consistent is to be believed. The Razor is a principle that is applied — with overwhelming success — in everyday, logical, rational life. The people who believe that Zionists, the Mossad, the shape-shifting aliens known as the Ananuki, the Bildeburgers — heck, anyone except disaffected Saudi 20-somethings working for al-Qaeda — either don’t know about or don’t care about the basics of physics, geopolitical happenings and emergency response. They don’t understand that their theories require layers of prior assumptions, such that entire alternate world histories have to be imagined in order for their scenario to work. This is just one of the reasons that 9/11 conspiracy theories are born of ignorance and irrationality.

Yeah, I said it. 9/11 conspiracy theories originate from ignorance; determining whether or not that ignorance is willful or accidental is left as an exercise to the reader.

9/11 conspiracy theories require not only willing suspension of belief, but an encouragement of poor reasoning. The human brain is not good at accurately processing vast amounts of information, because it soon gets lazy and starts looking for patterns. The human brain looks for patterns in information, as a way of easing the reasoning process. Even where none truly exist, false patterns will begin to emerge. Soon, these patterns will start to build on each other, until the cycle repeats, and an overarching mega-conspiracy is created.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, some of these freaky people can vote. It’s a good thing that our country is so democratic that even sanity is not a factor in determining who gets to vote. It is also a bad thing, for the same reason.

Part of being a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, apparently, is seeing fascists, Zionists and Rupert Murdoch in the shadows and under the bed and lashing out at people who try to point out the error in their thinking. I say that this behavior is part of being a conspiracy theorist because it happens so much. The 9/11 conspiracy theorists like to call themselves “Truthers.” I like to call them “Troofers.” “Troof” sounds like “truth,” but after you look at the facts and think about it, you realize that “troof” is not the same thing as “truth.” 9/11 conspiracy theories may sound like truth, but they’re not true.

George W. Bush did not order 9/11 to be done. There are no Bildeburgers, Illuminati or New World Order. According to Alan Moore, the author of the graphic novel V for Vendetta — also the movie that Troofers adore for its hard-hitting commentary about post-9/11 America — the original work was in no way about post-9/11 America, but rather 1980s Britain. To paraphrase the words of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, 9/11 was done by a bunch of ticked-off Muslims. Not only does Ockham’s Razor eliminate all the other theories, but it also demands that you remember these words of advice: “Get a job, because this one goes to 11 … 9/11.”