Hate to tell you mate.... but
08/05/09 08:59 Filed in: Personal
BBC’s “Breakfast” show have just interviewed David Aaronovitch about his latest book “Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History”.
Now, I’ve not got the book. So what I’m commenting on is just the interview. But, I hope the book’s got a lot more ‘facts’ than his interview did.
I hate to run the guy down, but he mentioned and laughed about a couple of “well known” facts that really don’t stack up.
For a start, I’m not sure the widely held consensus IS that Bush blew up the Twin Towers on September 11th. From what I can gather, I believe the widely held understanding by most conspiracy theorists is that the terrorists were allowed to carry out the attacks. They (not I) would site such facts as the number of times the FBI were pulled off investigations into the perpetrators. The point is that Mr Aaronovitch started by stating an untruth and then worked up from there.
“They” (being conspiracy theorists) also believe in the moon landings being faked. He then told a story of a person he worked with and how they surprised him by saying they believed the landings were all staged.
“|t all sounded like a plot from a 1978 movie.” by which I believe he is talking about Peter Hyams “Capricorn One”. When in fact, if Mr Aaronovitch had done as much research as he had claimed, he would have discovered that the film was in fact partly inspired by Bill Kaysing’s 1974 book (and subsequent controversy) “We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle” - Essentially the first book suggesting the landings were faked.
Incidentally, I don’t think the landings were faked. But the idea that people are automatically deluded idiots for having another opinion; that’s a little arrogant.
I noticed on the cover of the book is a picture of John F. Kennedy. Be interesting to see if he writes that the US Government proved there was no conspiracy when in fact the opposite is true. Really? I hear you all cry.
Well, the “The House Select Committee on Assassinations”, established in September 1976, came to the conclusion that JFK was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. Don’t believe me? Follow the following links;
An easy link to Wikipedia’s write up.
The official US Government archive version.
That’s the problem with facts, get in the way of a bloody good dishing down.
Now, I’ve not got the book. So what I’m commenting on is just the interview. But, I hope the book’s got a lot more ‘facts’ than his interview did.
I hate to run the guy down, but he mentioned and laughed about a couple of “well known” facts that really don’t stack up.
For a start, I’m not sure the widely held consensus IS that Bush blew up the Twin Towers on September 11th. From what I can gather, I believe the widely held understanding by most conspiracy theorists is that the terrorists were allowed to carry out the attacks. They (not I) would site such facts as the number of times the FBI were pulled off investigations into the perpetrators. The point is that Mr Aaronovitch started by stating an untruth and then worked up from there.
“They” (being conspiracy theorists) also believe in the moon landings being faked. He then told a story of a person he worked with and how they surprised him by saying they believed the landings were all staged.
“|t all sounded like a plot from a 1978 movie.” by which I believe he is talking about Peter Hyams “Capricorn One”. When in fact, if Mr Aaronovitch had done as much research as he had claimed, he would have discovered that the film was in fact partly inspired by Bill Kaysing’s 1974 book (and subsequent controversy) “We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle” - Essentially the first book suggesting the landings were faked.
Incidentally, I don’t think the landings were faked. But the idea that people are automatically deluded idiots for having another opinion; that’s a little arrogant.
I noticed on the cover of the book is a picture of John F. Kennedy. Be interesting to see if he writes that the US Government proved there was no conspiracy when in fact the opposite is true. Really? I hear you all cry.
Well, the “The House Select Committee on Assassinations”, established in September 1976, came to the conclusion that JFK was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. Don’t believe me? Follow the following links;
An easy link to Wikipedia’s write up.
The official US Government archive version.
That’s the problem with facts, get in the way of a bloody good dishing down.
