Pat Curley of the Screw Loose Change blog posted this video today:
Here are decent responses published at 911truth.org and 911blogger.com at the time.
This episode aired in late 2006, so this commentary is most likely from awhile back as well. I have to wonder if South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have come to realize that haphazardly choosing to feature 911truth.org on a t-shirt in the episode to show people how "goofy and dumb" they think 9/11 truth advocates are was a complete back-fire.
I really don't think they knew they were calling these people retards:
Respected Leaders and Families Launch 9/11 Truth Statement Demanding Deeper Investigation into the Events of 9/11
But I'm sure plenty of other people found out!
Here is a first hand account of how the show back-fired from Debunking the Debunkers blog contributor Scootle Royale, who at first was also suckered in by the pseudo-skepticism of Popular Mechanics, but who unlike Trey and Matt, researched his way past initial perceptions and cognitive dissonance and emerged a true skeptic!
When I was a young teenager going through secondary school, I was very supportive of the scientific establishment. I was strongly anti-religious, I was pro-globalism, and I genuinely believed the only way to make poverty history was to genocide everyone living in poverty and start again! In the summer of 2007, as I was about to start a university course on the wonders of data-mining, I watched an episode of South Park that completely changed my life. It was called "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce" and it was a parody of 9/11 truth. Although the episode was basically a hitpiece, the writers inserted enough points in there to spark my interest in the subject.It is important to note regarding the Popular Mechanics debate that is referenced in the commentary that many in the 9/11 truth movement pleaded with the producers of Democracy Now to bring on more formidable opponents who do not support all of the claims made in Loose Change.
Unlike most people however, I took a more neutral approach. I read the Popular Mechanics debunking piece quite early on and at first I fell for it as it seemed very authoritative and credible. When I did deeper research however, I realised that the piece was nothing more than propaganda. It was full of strawman arguments, ad-hominem attacks, arguments of ignorance/incredulity and appeals to authority. The biggest shock I got from studying 9/11 was the revelation that scientists lie! I never really trusted the government or the media, so I had no problem coming to terms with the idea that they were lying about 9/11, but I was very naive when it came to the scientific community. I always thought of it as as an open forum, free from political motivation, religious persecution and corporate control, where anyone can voice their dissent and put forward alternative theories. Oh, how wrong I was!
Scootle The Anti-Skeptic
Related Info:
Debunking Popular Mechanics' 9/11 Lies
Popular Mechanics and the military should get their stories straight on NORAD! As it is, we have caught Popular Mechanics and the military lying about NORAD's true capabilities on 9/11.
Dean Jackson/Editor-in-Chief DNotice.org Washington, DC
The NORAD Papers--NORAD's Mission To Monitor and Control Territorial Airspace on 9/11
