Reply #44: As the OP, there is so much I disagree with you on I don't know where [View All]

to start.

First of all, you are conflating and reading into the OP and the Voice article a lot of conspiracy theory (CT) stuff that is not in my post or the article. One tactic of official conspiracy theory apolitists (OCTA) like you -- that is believers in the fanciful notion that a guy in a cave in the most primitive country in the world alone directed 19 arabs to defy physics and evade a trillion dollar air defense system -- is to confuse the questioning of the official theory with every bizarre CT in the country. Where did the Voice or I say "we" are being silenced by a massive conspiracy of various institutions?

There are people I consider not credible who believe that the planes had pods or were mere holograms. Just because I don't believe the official story, doesn't mean I buy every CT out there, like those, and I did not refer to them. If you ask me, I would say the conspiracy, if there was one, was very small, consisting of the criminals at the top who have already proven that they are both murderous and incompetent and callous toward human life, in Iraq and Katrina.

As far as this being a populist issue, you must not know New York very well. I see from your profile you are from Chicago. I work two blocks north of ground zero. 60 percent of New Yorkers polled believe the government was complicit in 9/11. That's a populist idea by my book.

It wasn't CT minded DUers or narrow minded bloggers that got this story on the front page of the Voice. It is that there is a big truth movement in NYC, supported by a majority of the population. There are lots of commercials on TV in the NYC market by a few rich guys who are clearly pissed at the white wash and believe that the government is lying about 9/11, saying the whole thing needs to be reopened. There are regular lectures in NYC by OCTA sceptics. So this is a populist thing in this city.

I'm amazed that you believe you can read my mind, and assume that I wrote the OP to boast that:

"the real purpose of the original message is to boast: 'hey, we got our little 'beef' into that left-wing (but still 'credentialed') rag the Village Voice'. In fact the description in the original post sounds as if it were written by a Voice marketing department..."

Now that's really horseshit. From the perspective of NYC, my only celebration is that the MSM -- and the VV is pretty much MSM -- is finally recognizing what another poster called the 800 pound gorilla in the middle of city's living room -- namely that the horrific, surreal attack that we all experienced has much deeper and more sinister meaning than we have been led to believe. Do you really think "we" are taking credit for it? That the reporters of the Voice can't see for themselves what is going on in NYC and with its public opinion?

As for the Voice, it is not just a lifestyle or alternative newspaper. The Voice is well known for investigative reporting, and its reporters have won Pulitzer prizes and other journalistic recognition for real, hard news reporting.

Finally, you wrote:

"but 'discrediting' professional organizations and the government as a whole appears to be one of the goals of these propagandists. I repeat, this was NEVER the goal of progressive political activist groups. Only extremists and paranoids hold that view."

So are you saying that criticizing the criminals who have hijacked our government is a sinister attempt to discredit all professional organizations and goverment? Is that your point? Don't talk bad about Shrub, Cheney, and Rumsfeld because it makes the US look bad? As though they represent the best of American institutions and government?

What you are really saying is that we have love bush and not recognize what he is doing, or else we will hurt America. I take a very different view, my friend. I say we have to call these criminals out to save America.

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