Weapons of Mass Obfuscation

In class, we just finished watching the movie “Loose Change”. It tries to communicate to the viewer that the Official Report of 9/11 was false, and that it was an inside job done by the government.

The most frustrating thing about this film is that is does not project a coherent thesis or idea about the who, why or what of 9/11. Instead of propagating a new idea about 9/11, cynical filmmaker Dylan Avery simply attacks old ideas via nitpicking techniques. Odd, seemingly irrelevant facts are presented, and odd, seemingly irrelevant people talk. Contradictory data is presented, and the contradictions noted, in an attempt of subversion of any data. Anything to make us question the government’s view is compiled and presented in a jumbled fashion.

A good movie that tries to sway public opinion should be like a painting or a pamphlet – anything with a structure and foundation. This movie is like a fusillade of darts throw at said structure in hopes that a few of the darts will stick. In short, it’s a movie made to destroy, not to create. The evidence never gells and the result is that this movie does not blow a massive hole into the official report of 9/11, rather it perforates a small part of it, leaving the vast remainder intact.

I’m open to new ideas, even radical or crazy ones. The problem with this movie is that it constantly and consistently tries to undermine any notion of truth or solution. When questions are answered and those answers questioned again, and this cycle perpetually repeats itself, it seems like a slippery slope towards nihilism. While researching this movie on Wikipedia, I found that while this movie was being revised and re-edited, references to Wikipedia were removed because they were not considered to be a very good source. The last sentence of this paragraph is false.