Conspiracy Theories

It seems like every time a major event happens some group of kooks has to concoct a wild conspiracy theory and find any amount of flimsy, circumstantial, and questionable evidence it can to promote and support it. There are people who believe the following list of conspiracies: 1- Marilyn Monroe was murdered by the Secret Service on the orders of a jealous Jacqueline Kennedy. 2- JFK was killed by the CIA. 3- Alger Hiss was an innocent stooge that was set up as a fall guy by Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover to create the Red Scare. 4- Man never landed on the moon. 5- Man did land on the moon, and it turned out to be a giant alien observation post. 6- Intelligent life from other worlds has nothing better to do than shove probes up the behinds of every human they can possibly abduct before wiping their memories clean and returning them to Earth. 7- Marriage was invented to oppress women. 8- The Twin Towers were destroyed by the US government to boost President Bush’s poll numbers.

All of these are patently ridiculous, and all of them have been packaged and repackaged to create and maintain a cult following of people who have a natural distrust of the government. They are nothing more than manipulative exploits designed to make money for a specific few who are only to happy to profit from the gullibility and suspicion of their fellow man.

The one about the Twin Towers being destroyed by the US government is particularly appalling because it takes the worst act of terrorism in all of history, and redirects the blame form the Muslim Terrorists who have admitted to planning and carrying out this vile act to President George W. Bush in a transparent effort to make political gains at the expense of America as a whole. I have followed the logic the conspiracy theorists use, and every last bit of it is readily explainable by physics, chemistry, basic logic, and a little bit of examination of the rest of the facts.

One such theory is the Thermite was used to melt the iron structure of the World Trade Center. Thermite burns hot enough to melt iron and steel, and it would explain what appeared to be molten metal running from one of the towers. There are two other explanations though. 1: The molten metal could easily have been lead piping or tin, both of which are present in most large buildings. 2: Combine burning jet fuel, which burns so hot water actually feeds the fire, with iron and aluminum, and you could potentially have a chemical reaction he would create some amount of thermite. Other considerations when dealing with chemistry are the thousands of other chemical compounds that would be fueling the fire. In chemistry, and combustion is a chemical reaction, there are several types of reactions. I shall use unofficial terms for simplicity’s sake. There is the basic single compound reaction. This is always predictable. But there are several ways a multiple compound reaction could work. The first is that they do nothing to each other and react independently. The second is that they could interfere with each other and actually reduce the violence of the reaction. The third is that they can add a portion of their energy to the reaction up to each other’s full amount. In this situation 2+2 can equal anything from 2.1 to 4. The final is a multiplying effect. This is a particularly hazardous reaction type because 2+2 will generally equal 5, 6, 8, or even 10.
So, what are the odds that say . . Zinc and magnesium, both highly flammable metals with a low flash point compared to their burning temperature were present in large quantities in the WTC? The odds are 100% that they were present in alloy form, which could have been broken down by vigorous thermal reactions around them.

What about the explosions people heard before the WTC actually collapsed? Any large cracking sound coming from such a large structure would make a booming sound. So if any of the structural support was failing for any reason prior to the collapse, which absolutely HAD to happen or there would not have been any collapse, it would be heard as an explosion despite the lack of any explosive being used.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The point is that every bit of evidence of “evidence” the wacko conspiracy theorists point to is entirely too easy to explain in non-conspiratorial thinking. I understand that not everyone actually paid attention in school, so not everyone has a grasp of the basic concepts that I have presented here, so I can excuse the ignorant for acting ignorantly. The people I have a real problem with are the ones who should know better and selfishly, irresponsibly, propagate a lie for self gain. These people are the ones the ignorant point to as experts in most cases, and this exploitation of the ignorant is inexcusable.