> For example, the idea that the Pentagon was hit by a cruise missile on 9/11 is worth brief consideration. But when you dig into it, there's no support, while

> For example, the idea that the Pentagon was hit by a cruise missile on 9/11 is worth brief consideration. But when you dig into it, there's no support, while there's plenty of support for the airliner. The way I convinced my buddy to get out of that 9/11 conspiracy mode was to ask him questions about the shitty conspiracy theories he thinks US govt comes up with. For instance: * Why claim that it was an airplane which hit Pentagon, when they can claim that terrorists got hold of a rocket launcher, or a cruise missile. Since they claim that it was a CIA agent who launched the missile, then it would be even better to claim that there is a 20th terrorist who is hiding among us, and thereby getting more advantage of what they did by claiming conspiracy (i.e. to create an environment of panic in public). * After I told about the ridiculousness of the 'conspiracy theory' like the point above, they would talk about Hitler's quote "bigger the lie, the more they'd believe it". When I tried to do more research on it, it turns out that there is no documented proof of Hitler claiming bigger unbelievable lies. In fact that quote was used by Hitler to claim the grand Jewish communist conspiracy theory of blaming Germany for the loss of WW1, which he had no proof for. Other than that, that's it. * Since the purpose of govt officials who conspired is the same as the purpose of 'alleged terrorists', i.e. to create widespread fear and panic (just for a different end goal), literally everything govt did, can be attributed to the terrorists. The terrorists performed the demolition, they destroyed WTC7 after stealing gold, etc etc. This way govt ends up with having an even more foolproof conspiracy. In fact, if the conspiracy theorist questions that by making terrorists do that many things, it would make things more ridiculous, then you can point them to "bigger the lie, more they'd believe it" statement. * Finally I asked my buddy, "Imagine if I was the person behind the attacks, I was one of the terrorists, how could I convince you that I did it, what proof can I provide you that I did it". Thankfully, my buddy hadn't lost all touch with reality, so he didn't really blame me for being a govt plant. He didn't really respond to me, but as far as I know that was the last time he advocated the conspiracy theories to anyone. And now we laugh at other conspiracy theorists.