My Two Cents on the Twenty Bucks Video
I’m not one to trust the government. I think anyone who looks at my blog knows that. I’m also willing to take a look at anything a fellow progressive forwards to my attention, especially one that starts off talking about the dangers of having blind faith in the government.
So it was with an open mind that when my friend Jim sent me the “Twenty Bucks” video about the the explosion of the World Trade Center Tower 7 as food for thought, I took a nibble, and as much as I like to bash the government, this video left some bad tastes in my mouth. Take a look.
Not knowing much about planned explosions of buildings, the video evidence makes a clear case for the explosion of WTC7 being a planned explosion. If WTC7 weren’t the subject of the video, or wasn’t shown at all, I would have loved the video. I love watching planned explosions. They’re cool.
What disturbs me about the video, besides watching the horror over and over, is that it leads a lot of people to the conclusion that the government was behind it, or at least knew a lot about it ahead of time. A lot of my students arrived at this conclusion, and because “they saw it on the internet” they figured it was true.
I’m cynical, and I hate George Bush, but I can’t imagine our government being behind the attacks on the World Trade Centers, or even being willing accomplices. I’ll entertain the fact, but I’m just not that cynical.
I agree with Michael Moore’s conclusions in both Fahrenheit 911 and “Dude, Where’s my Country” that the Bush family’s ties with the Bin Laden family undoubtedly clouded the investigation in its early and later stages, but it’s too much of a leap to say the government helped the terrorists blow up the Trade Centers. The Bushies knew the prodigal Bin Laden son was a loose cannon, and gave him way too long a leash, but that’s as far as I’m willing to go.
That being said, the video plants a powerful seed of a very important concept, and for that I’m glad. Even if the video goes too far, and offers up some wild conclusions, it’s a great example of how free speech and the internet can give us opportunities to think critically about the government.
Technorati Tags: Twenty Bucks, World Trade Center, WTC7, George Bush, World Trade Centers, Michael Moore’s, Fahrenheit 911, Dude, Where’s my Country, Bin Laden
Filed under: Politics on April 29th, 2007
Yeah, I think that’s a bit skewed too. Cynicism is good, I think it should encouraged in everybody, but blatant falsehoods aren’t admirable at all. My dad thinks that there’s a very good possibility that the government shot down that plane the terrorists took over into the field instead of the passengers overtaking it. Of course, that’s still a terrible thought but that goes back to the two major philosophies, the greater good for the greater number and do the right thing. I agree that the government as a collective is a horrible soulless bogeyman ( in fact I think I’d be an anarchist if people weren’t such flawed prats) . But it’s still made of human beings. They have to draw the line somewhere.
As Mr. Spock says, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
If the government shot down the United plane, I would think they’d fess up, because most people would understand the reasons behind it.
There’s also a video floating around on Google, it’s called Loose Change, and it’s about an hour and a half long.
It goes WAY into the conspiracy theory about how the terrorists that were on the planes are still alive, and how the actual trade towers were also demolished in a similar way to Tower 7.
But they discuss the pentagon “plane,” which to me is the most significant evidence that our government had some knowledge of the attack.
The video is at least thought provoking, if anything.