- Vivian Darkbloom
- Jul 14, 2004
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Whatever happened to the original "Loose Change" video, i.e. the one where it starts by talking about Egyptian Gods, winter solstice, and how Bin Laden and the hijackers are a modern reimagination of the Nativity story?
NYT did a good story on it, but the full thing is behind a paywall: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/technology/loose-change-9-11-video.html
quote:I was not a particularly persuadable “Loose Change” viewer — too young, too self-absorbed, more interested in using my computer to play video games than chase down conspiracy theories. But millions of Americans were seduced. After watching it, they disappeared down rabbit holes and emerged days or weeks later as, if not full-fledged 9/11 truthers, at least passionate skeptics. They had opinions about obscure topics like nano-thermites and controlled demolition, and they could recite the melting temperatures of various construction materials. Some believed the government was actively involved; others merely thought Bush administration officials knew about the attacks in advance and allowed them to happen.
Today, the Sept. 11 truther movement is often mocked or reduced to a sad historical footnote. It’s easy to forget how successful it was. More than 100 million people watched “Loose Change,” by its director’s estimate, making it one of the most popular independent documentaries of all time. And while conspiracy theory videos now routinely go viral, “Loose Change” was an early example of the internet’s ability to accelerate their spread.
I recently went back and watched several versions of “Loose Change.” (There are at least five English-language versions in total.) I also spoke to Korey Rowe and Jason Bermas, a producer and editor on the film, along with several experts on the 9/11 truther movement. (The film’s director, Dylan Avery, declined my interview request after concluding that I was writing a “clickbait article that blames a movie that came out 15 years ago for everything wrong with the internet today.”)
I was curious how the film holds up. But I also wanted to know whether revisiting “Loose Change” on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks could reveal anything about the trajectory of more recent conspiracy theories, or suggest how today’s popular delusions — QAnon, Covid denialism, election rigging fears — might be deflated or redirected.
What I found, in short, was that 16 years after its release, “Loose Change” is still bizarrely relevant. Its DNA is all over the internet — from TikTok videos about child sex trafficking to Facebook threads about Covid-19 miracle cures — and many of its false claims still get a surprising amount of airtime. (Just last month, the director Spike Lee drew criticism for indulging Sept. 11 conspiracy theories in a new HBO documentary series.) The film’s message that people could discover the truth about the attacks for themselves also became a core tactic for groups like QAnon and the anti-vaccine crowd, which urge their followers to ignore the experts and “do their own research” online.
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Sep 14, 2021 23:44
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