Corrected By Reality

I’ve been presenting my Challenge to conspiracists for a couple years now and the attempts to answer it have all been quite similar. In an effort to shave some time off the attention I have to put forward to some of these answers, allow me to give a summary of the rebuttals to some of these responses.

Remember, the Challenge is: WHAT fact or piece of evidence would get you to admit you’re wrong?

1) By far- the most popular response is “I can’t answer that”.

This is a particularly fun response for me, because it proves my point without any effort on my part. By admitting that the question cannot be answered, the conspiracist admits that no fact or piece of evidence will get them to change their mind- ie the facts do not matter (which they often admit freely) and therefore they are not being objective or scientific, but instead embracing a bias which clearly will not allow science into the theory. Conspiracists who so quickly jump to this answer will almost always do one of the following, either: A) Immediately try to retract the statement, or B) Immediately retreat and never come back. In both of these cases the cognitive dissonance is quite obvious. This type of response so clearly demonstrates that the “Truth Movement” (conspiracism) is not a scientific movement- they are not interested in the facts or the science- but rather it’s a political movement.

2) Perhaps the 2nd most common response is “video of the plane hitting the Pentagon”.

This claim was presented by a YouTube user by the name of arachnodauthi- who quickly removed the video after I presented a video rebuttal. I gave him 3 main reasons that this criteria is irrational:

1. Demanding a clear image of the plane would require high-speed photography. The best images that can be expected would be from security camera footage. Had anyone with a video camera been there or had been focused on the Pentagon as the attack was occuring and had been far enough away as gain a clear perspective- the story would be different. Since we have only security camera footage which often only captures images at around one frame per second- this requirement would be the equivalent of demanding a photograph of a lightning strike- it’s just not plausible.
2. We do have clear pictures of planes hitting the Twin Towers- and it does not change the conspiracy theory whatsoever. To try and claim that a legitimate plane attack occurred at the WTC but did not at the Pentagon is obviously a direct contradiction and does not work for the conspiracy theory. (Which is one of the things that makes no sense whatsoever: why attack the Pentagon with a missile if you’ve gone to the trouble of hitting the WTC towers with planes?) Anyway, the claim that a clear picture would change the mind of a conspiracist is disingenuous.
3. The fact that even suggesting this as a criteria would contradict the claim of a conspiracy. As I mentioned above- you cannot have a legitimate plane crash at the Pentagon or the WTC and then have the other be part of a conspiracy- it just makes no sense whatsoever.

More information on this can be seen in the video, here: Response to arachnodauthi

3) The third most popular response is similar to the one above, except that it is simply demanding that “The FBI release the 80 tapes showing the attack on the Pentagon.”

There’s quite a few problems with this claim- the first being that it’s not an answer to the Challenge. In the Challenge, remember, I ask for a fact or piece of evidence- the demand that the FBI release the tapes is an action. Instead, the request is incongruent to the question, and therefore non-sequitur. It also attempts to shift the burden of proof- which is arguably acceptable considering the question- but also creates a complex question fallacy which gives us quite an insight into the failure of conspiracist thinking. The logic goes like this: the tapes are being withheld, therefore they contain something that the government doesn’t want you to see- which could only mean it does not show a plane.

This is quite a leap beyond logic, and it conveniently ignores a complete lack of evidence on the conspiracists part- but it also makes no sense when compared to the other tapes that have been released. Three sets of tapes have been released showing the Pentagon attack: the security tapes from the Pentagon entrance, the Citgo footage, and the DoubleTree hotel footage. In each of these cases, the government confiscated the tapes and refused to release them. It was only after a lengthy legal battle and the conclusion of the Moussaui trial that the tapes were released to the public. It showed that the government was not hiding anything. The claim- therefore- that when the government does not release tapes it must be hiding something, is obviously not logically consistent with the facts. Occam’s Razor also helps us out, here: it’s far more likely that the tapes are being withheld as part of an ongoing investigation, private property, or security issues (releasing footage of all the security camera locations at the Pentagon might not be the best idea in the world). Finally, although the number of “80 tapes” has been tossed around for quite some time- there simply is no evidence that the tapes even exist. It may simply be the case that the feeds are live-only (as is the case with the DoT cameras of the same event).

In the end, however- the claim is pretty absurd. One can only hold their theory hostage pending the release of confidential tapes if they ignore all the other available evidence. These responses cleverly dodge that. Additionally, since the question is “what fact or piece of evidence would get you to admit you’re wrong”- it would imply that the “evidence” that allowed the conspiracist to arrive at their conclusion is a lack of footage, or the government not releasing all the footage. To base a conclusion on that- instead of the facts, science, and logic- exposes the conspiracists for what they are.

There’s a few other responses that have been presented over the years- but every single one falls into one of these 3 categories: denial, irrationality, or non-sequitur. In a couple of rare cases, the conspiracist has presented criteria which has easily been satisfied, including: hijackers appearing on the flight manifest (see previous entry), Osama Bin Laden confession, and visual records of the damage to WTC7. It is often the case, however, that despite the criteria being satisfied, the conspiracist is rarely honest enough- or even prepared- to admit that their theory has been debunked; they will often run away from the facts or try and ignore the evidence and try and present more criteria- ignoring the consequences of their entire theory being debunked.