(This is my first post/thread so be kind)
So I have been a lurker on these boards for quite a long time and I have recently had the enjoyment :rolleyes: of reading about the giant hoax that is the holocaust and the bullshit that was being thrown around gave me flashbacks to some heated arguments I have had with a couple of friends that seriously endangered our friendships.
It all started about six months ago when one friend told me I should see this movie called Zeitgeist and that it will blow my mind and disprove everything I thought to be true in my entire life. This particular friend has a knack for hyperbole so I threw the statement to the side and didn’t bother. Within the week I had another friend tell me about this life changing movie that everyone should see because it will change your entire view on life. Now I am a little curious, TWO claims of a life changing experiences in a WEEK? Maybe I should read a little bit about this movie…
Well I did some elementary research (wikipedia) and found out that it’s basically a conspiracy theory movie that supposedly reveals the truth of three subjects: Religion, 9/11, and our national banking system. Although I have major issues with all three parts, the one that came close to destroying my faith in people was the part that tried to prove that 9/11 was an elaborate, planned attack by the American Government. The planes didn’t destroy the twin towers, it was destroyed by explosives set under the building and they had pictures to prove it.
What? This was what was creating the life changing experience with my friends? That can’t be… Well they aren’t the brightest bunch so maybe a little discussion will set them in order and in having this discussion I will have successfully fought ignorance and made the world a bit of a better place. So I went to them and talked to them about it, get a feel for how much they took out of the 9/11 conspiracy theory, because who knows? maybe in the heat of the moment they bought what the movie was selling but upon further review realized the error of their ways… If only this were the case.
So upon my questioning they proceed to throw these seemingly indisputable facts at me, basically regurgitating the movie at me and I realized I had nothing to refute these claims. It was a verbal massacre. I KNOW what they are saying is false but I didn’t know how to undeniably disprove their claims. I had this same feeling upon reading the holocaust thread. Junior Spaceman put it my situation quite well in the holocaust sister pit thread.
So I may have lost that round, but I refused to lose the war. I attempted to arm myself with a wealth of knowledge, my primary source being this website that seemed that it would be able to do the trick. So I went back into the battle arena with some new weapons, but it did not turn out as I had expected. They had smoking guns, IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE. They had well rehearsed, bullet point style arguments. I had a counter website that looked great on paper but in practice was extremely hard to utilize. The sources I came out with were under great scrutiny and it was seemingly impossible to prove my side beyond a shadow of a doubt.
(A little of an aside but as I went through that website it actually disappointed me a bit. After reading a lot of the site I decided to humor myself and check one of the sources link and it turned out to be a broken link… Ok that seems reasonable there a lot of sources cited throughout the website so one broken link seems reasonable. So I decide to check another and it turns out to be some geocities style website. Not quite the irrefutable source I hoped for. Check a third cite, wikipedia. I trust much of what wikipedia says but that would be eaten up if I tried to throw wikipedia in the mix it’s so easy to argue the legitimacy of wikipedia and throwing that in the mix would have spawned a whole new debate altogether. It started feeling less and less like my smoking gun after all these incidents.)
So after a few more rounds I gave up trying to show them the error of their ways, it felt like a futile effort on my part and our discussions got pretty viscious near the end and in both sides frustration insults were thrown about and nobody was winning so we both sort of silently called off the debate. It was not fun but I feel like I failed in fighting ignorance, I failed Cecil, and what’s worse is I feel this disease spreading across the globe where more and more people seem to have seen this movie and have had their lives changed or minds blown and ignorance is spreading. More and more friends have seen it and I try to poke around and find the ones that are a little more cynical about it and show them the light but they are few and far between.
So with all this said I pit ignorance and that damn Zeitgeist movie that almost destroyed my friendships and is still a bit of a white elephant in the room when we are hanging out. I also am looking to reach out and find any others who may have had similar issues and feel as though they are fighting what seems to be a futile fight and let them know they are not alone.