How 9/11 Made Everyone a Conspiracy Theorist

How conspiracy theories conquered America

Things have changed a lot since January 6th, 2021.

The UFO craze was created by government nepotism and incompetent journalism

Blame Harry Reid, Skinwalker Ranch, "dino-beavers," and The New York Times

Confronting New York City's Lies About Toxic Air After 9/11

Plus, a selection of some of the best writing on 9/11, and more news to take you into the weekend.

CIA warned of threat of 'explosive airplane' years before 9/11, documents show

The spy agency released 71 declassified presidential briefings, with one showing it had thought Al Qaeda's plans were 'widely known' by extremists.

Does Developing a Belief in One Conspiracy Theory Lead a Person to be More Likely to Believe in Others?

ABSTRACT The monological belief system model suggests that—for at least a subset of people—developing a belief in one conspiracy theory will cause them to be more likely to believe in others. This model has been influential in the literature, but its core causal hypothesis has never been credibly tested. We therefore tested it in two longitudinal studies. Study 1 used a sample from New Zealand and Australia ( N  = 498), with 7 monthly waves. Study 2 (preregistered) used a sample from New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom ( N  = 978), with 13 monthly waves. We applied random intercept cross‐lagged panel models, permitting a credible causal identification strategy, albeit we cannot rule out time‐varying confounds. We find that increased belief in a conspiracy theory at one wave did (on average) predict increased belief in other conspiracies at the next wave, although the estimated coefficients were small.

Does Developing a Belief in One Conspiracy Theory Lead a Person to be More Likely to Believe in Others?

ABSTRACT The monological belief system model suggests that—for at least a subset of people—developing a belief in one conspiracy theory will cause them to be more likely to believe in others. This model has been influential in the literature, but its core causal hypothesis has never been credibly tested. We therefore tested it in two longitudinal studies. Study 1 used a sample from New Zealand and Australia ( N  = 498), with 7 monthly waves. Study 2 (preregistered) used a sample from New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom ( N  = 978), with 13 monthly waves. We applied random intercept cross‐lagged panel models, permitting a credible causal identification strategy, albeit we cannot rule out time‐varying confounds. We find that increased belief in a conspiracy theory at one wave did (on average) predict increased belief in other conspiracies at the next wave, although the estimated coefficients were small.

How 9/11 changed the way America surveils its citizens • Stateline

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, transformed how American intelligence and law enforcement agencies collect, share and analyze information. Twenty-five years later, that infrastructure has merged with a digital world capable of generating vast amounts of data about Americans — and artificial intelligence is making it easier to connect and analyze that information. The result is a surveillance system far more powerful than anything imaginable in 2001, raising new questions about privacy, policing and civil liberties.

25 years after 9/11, our definition of terrorism continues to expand : Code Switch

In the 25 years since 9/11, we've seen the definition of terrorism expand. The Trump administration has called more and more groups “terrorists,” from “narco-terrorists” in Ecuador to people who protest ICE to the entire Democratic party. This week, our conversation with Saher Selod, an expert on the surveillance of Muslims, about the effects of the war on terror after 9/11, and historian Alex Lubin about how the word “terrorist” has been used to enact violence and surveillance.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

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The Conspiracy Theory About Wayfair Is Spreading Quickly Among Lifestyle Influencers On Instagram

The theory plays into the bigger QAnon conspiracy theory, which baselessly claims that the world is controlled by a secret cabal of pedophiles that President Trump is actively fighting against.

‘War on terror’: How 9/11 changed the language of conflict

The events of September 11, 2001 spawned a new lexicon which effectively sanitised the erosion of human rights.

The saga of 'Pizzagate': The fake story that shows how conspiracy theories spread

Thousands of people are spreading a false rumour about a Washington pizza restaurant and a child sex ring. But why?

The Anti-Mamdani 9/11 Bigotry Has Become the Stupidest News Cycle Yet

Bigoted City councilmembers and pathetic Wall Street Journal blowhards are melting down over the stupidest nonsense.

Conspiracy Brokers: Understanding the Monetization of YouTube Conspiracy Theories

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3485447.3512142 WWW '22: Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2022, Virtual Event, Lyon, France, April 2022

Opinion | 9/11 took Islamophobia mainstream in America – and things have only gotten worse

Although I have always had kind and mostly tolerant neighbors, the effects of widespread Islamophobia have touched my life intimately.

LLM Audit 22 July Conspiracy Theories

Factiverse and Revontulet tested 9 leading AI models with 5,616 requests to see how they handle conspiracy narratives about the 22 July attacks. Read the findings.