I simply want to raise the question: is the amount of time, energy, and passion devoted to 9/11 truths fundamentally based on a racist presupposition: that "our" lives are more important than "their" lives.
Noam Chomsky and other so-called "liberal gatekeepers" have been taking a lot of heat over the past 2 years or so from the 9/11 conspiracy investigators. I cannot say whether or not the 9/11 conspiracies are true. But, I offer a question, hoping that the reader will answer for himself of course: is the 9/11 Truth movement racist?
The 9/11 conspiracy is so vast and so convoluted (meaning difficult to pull off and cover up) that it would be outright lunacy on the part of those who are supposed to be behind it.
As with most conspiracies, there is a wealth of circumstantial evidence. However, unless you are trying an African-American for raping a white woman, circumstantial evidence is simply not enough. There is also some plausibility to the propositions laid out, but there are some very serious pitfalls with using the "who benefits" method of investigation. There is also physical evidence, the case for which has been examined and presented by some expert investigators. However, every piece of it has been refuted by equally credentialed experts, which means that if this were a trial, it has been negated. Once again, there is possibly enough here to send an African-American man to prison for raping a white woman, but certiainly not enough to indict the most powerful men in the world.
However, even if the conspiracy were true, how many more people in the world did US imperialism kill that day? How many deaths were the high-level planners in the US State/Defense sector responsible for that day/week/month? Depending on how one sets the parameters, one could assert that the US government killed many more than 3000 people that day in September. So the fundamental problem is that even if it were true, those in the 9/11 Truth movement are ignoring those others deaths, because they are not as valuable as American lives. They are foreigners, and we are isolated and insulated from the consequences of what our government does to them. This, in my view, is a kind of nationalistic racism. It is fundamentally based on a racist and abhorent truism: that our lives are more valuable than theirs.
This is standard fair, to be sure. It is the same thing that elites in the US do everyday. It is an intrinsic component of imperial society and implicit in our culture. If one looks at this in terms that are sheerly material, Chomsky's work has brought to light the human consequences of US imperialism in far greater magnitude.
Individuals in the 9/11 Truth movement have been castigating "left gatekeepers" publicly for simply taking the logical course and prioritizing their message based on the human consequences. This is not true of all the "left gatekeepers," but it is certainly true in the case of Dr. Chomsky. Though he can speak for himself on this issue, I think that the questions I am raising are important and often overlooked. The American government is constantly guilty of serious criminality that does not require a conspiracy theory - it is open fact. The problem is that so many citizens simply don't even assert that there is anything criminally wrong with "business as usual" as it relates to their fellow humans in other countries (particularly the Third World. This is a fact of life, and it is shameful.