9/11 Conspiracies Folklore Analysis
9/11 Conspiracies and their Role in American Society
Essentially everyone knows about the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. It was a terrifying moment for not only the country but the whole world. Nothing was the same afterward. However, after the events unfolded many were distrustful of the official narrative. Conspiracy theorists claim that the terrorist attacks were done at least in part by the U.S. government. These include theories about the toward being knocked down by controlled demolition, and can even go as far as people believing there weren't even any planes flown during the terrorist attacks. I'm sure you've undoubtedly heard the phrase "jet fuel can't melt steel beams", something that has been frequently repeated by conspiracy theorists as "proof" that the towers couldn't have fallen on their own.
These theories all fall apart under basic scrutiny, but people still have many reasons for believing them anyway. I would argue that 9/11 conspiracies would be labeled under legends since although these stories supposedly happened in our world they are simply impossible to prove. 9/11 conspiracy theories stem from a general distrust in the government. Although I don't give any credence to the conspiracy theories there are a lot of things that the government has done which has caused people to lose faith in them, and these things deserve proper criticism.
I believe that many of the initial legends about 9/11 started due to the chaos of that day. Something like this had never happened before in the history of the world and it had millions of people confused and speculating. Many initial reports concerning the collapse of the towers claimed that it was a bomb that had caused the tower to collapse. The 9/11 conspiracy documentary 911 - In Plane Site uses these reports as supposed proof that there were actually bombs. This may sound like something was up, but what these people fail to realize is that because nobody in the media had any idea what was happening that day they would hype up any report that came their way, and there were many of these during 9/11. For example, CNN falsely reported that there was a fire at the Washington Mall when there was no such fire. A lot was going on that day, and conspiracy theories seem to take anything some random person says as gospel, despite its lack of evidence. On page 146 of the official NIST report on the collapse of the buildings, it states that the collapse was not due to any bombs, rather the collapse started due to the fire on the floors impacted by the plane.
Confusion has to do with the start of a lot of these conspiracy theories, but obviously, some of these theories have been sticking around for much longer than the release of the initial reports. This is largely because many believe that the United States government helped orchestrate the September 11th attacks. What many of these conspiracy theories propose is that the United States government in some way planned the attacks to have a reason to invade the oil-rich Middle East. The reasoning for this is that after the attacks the Bush Administration did seize the opportunity to invade Iraq with George Bush claiming there was a possibility of countries like Iraq having "weapons of mass destruction" which failed ever to materialize.
Although the Bush Administration had motivations to invade Iraq there is still no solid evidence to prove the claim that they orchestrated or had prior knowledge of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. However due to the mistrust of the government because of the lies following 9/11 many people cling to the conspiracy theories for an explanation. With conspiracy theories like these people can feel like they have some special knowledge. Not only that but people feel more secure when they feel like they know the truth. In an article by the American Psychological Association, they state that "researchers found that overall, people were motivated to believe in conspiracy theories by a need to understand and feel safe in their environment and a need to feel like the community they identify with is superior to others". What conspiracy theories like the ones related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks hope to do is to frame the government as evil and corrupt and those who believe the conspiracy as "free thinkers who can see the real truth".