A friend asked me why I was still continuing to surf the infosphere in search of weird and wacky web sites? Was it simply self-entertainment (the joy of finding targets to poke fun at) or had it become an addictive habit or was there some greater point? This question made me stop and think, because I had no specific motivation. I was just doing it.

However, maybe there is a greater point. IMHO, the infosphere contains a reasonably complete record of every stray idea or theory that has gained credence among one or another group of wired individuals. It is fascinating what the ‘collective thought stream’ includes and it is particularly stunning what some people will happily believe without even a little critical examination.

A good example of this is 9/11. The conspiracy theory that the US government actually organized the terrorist attack itself really ought to take a great deal of swallowing. After all, every six months or so, Osama Bin Laden regularly flaunts his terrorist achievement by sending a video to Al Jezeera calling upon the sons of Islam to rise up and destroy America, Israel and all points in between. So, were all the other terrorist attacks attributed to Al Qaeda (the bombing of the US Embassy in Kenya, the attack on the USS Cole, etc.) also self inflicted?

I give you two theories to mull over, that seem to have gained web site traction - and they seem to believe exactly that:

1. The airplanes were flown into the buildings by remote control. What - no terrorists? Precisely. But who were those guys on the photographs? Completely bogus. What about all those pilot training flights? Bogus. And that guy they caught. Bogus. The video footage of them passing through Boston airport? Bogus. If it sounds to me like someone’s in denial here, you don’t get it - conspirators can invent facts and spin the news.
2. The twin towers were rigged with explosives. Why? So that they could be blown up and collapse after the planes had hit. Didn’t the planes and the fire make them collapse? No, airplane fuel doesn’t burn hot enough. But wouldn’t the dynamite explode when the planes hit? No. it was planted below the point where the planes hit. So the planes, flown by amateur pilots, hit the buildings at precise preplanned points? Precisely. So why bother with the planes at all, why not just use the dynamite?

Such suggestions are a million miles from credible and yet they have very wide appeal. If you Google “9-11″ and “conspiracy” you get 1,450,000 hits which is an extraordinary number - about three times as many as you get for “Kennedy”, “assassination” and “conspiracy”. To sift through these would take months, even years, but a brief trawl through them reveals nothing credible.

Indeed if there had been a genuine conspiracy and evidence revealing it were posted somewhere on the web, my guess is that you’d never find it. It could happily hide in plain sight.