Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Whither the Truth Movement?

Or perhaps that should be "wither". Where do the "Truthers" go from here, with Bush out of office and a Democrat headed for the White House?

I used to think that this would be the end of the 9-11 crackpottery, but that was also when I thought that they would remain fairly strong during the election campaign. As we have seen, that didn't happen; the race actually ended up sapping them especially when liberals started turning against them for their hecklivism of Bill Clinton, John Kerry and other top Democrats.

What's left, however, is pretty hardcore. I don't think we're going to see much further decline over at 9-11 Blogger; but not much growth either, at least in the United States. Overseas will be the growth market for Trooferism. Note particularly that Richard Gage and David Ray Griffin have recently started peddling their snakeoil to the foreign rubes. Griffin in particular seemed to regress in time to the 2004 theories, even recycling that old chestnut that seven of the hijackers were reported to be still alive. Anti-Americanism always sells well in Europe, and while there will be a brief honeymoon for Obama, inevitably it will rear its ugly head again.

So basically the growth phase ended in 2006, the decay phase probably ended last Tuesday. The Troofers will settle in now like the Kennedy Assassination theorists. Periodically there will be a hubbub as Tom Cruise or some similar Hollywood airhead mutters that fire can't melt steel, but it will die down quickly. Alex Jones will continue to talk about it, but he'll weave in new fantasies. I hear that he's been talking mostly about the financial bailout which fits perfectly into the "international bankster" focus that Zeitgeist promotes.