On September 11, 2001, a series of coordinated attacks were carried out in the United States leaving almost 3,000 people dead. <\/p>\n
Recent psychological and sociological studies in the US and UK indicate that the so-called \u00c5\u201cconspiracy theories\u201d about contested events such as 9\/11 are turning into the conventional wisdom, an analyst says.\n<\/p>\n
According to a psychological study of online discussions of news articles comparing pro and anti-conspiracy comments, those who disbelieve government accounts of such events as the 9\/11 and the JFK assassination outnumber believers by more than two to one, Kevin Barrett said in an article published by Press TV on Friday.\n<\/p>\n
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That means it is the pro-conspiracy commenters who are expressing what is now the conventional wisdom, while the anti-conspiracy commenters are becoming a small, beleaguered minority,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The analyst went on to say that studies showed that those who accept the official versions of contested events often displayed \u00c5\u201canger and hostility\u201d possibly due to the fact that their conventional views no longer represent the majority.<\/p>\n
Barrett noted that those who favored stereotypical versions of news events turned out to be \u00c5\u201cfanatically attached\u201d to their own conspiracy theories as \u00c5\u201cindisputably true\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cFor people who think 9\/11 was a government conspiracy, the focus is not on promoting a specific rival theory, but in trying to debunk the official account,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The analyst added that it was the CIA that invented and popularized the term \u00c5\u201cconspiracy theorists\u201d as part of a propaganda campaign to smear and defame people questioning the JFK assassination. <\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cIn other words, people who use the terms \u00c5\u201cconspiracy theory\u201d and \u00c5\u201cconspiracy theorist\u201d as an insult are doing so as the result of a well-documented, undisputed, historically-real conspiracy by the CIA to cover up the JFK assassination. That campaign, by the way, was completely illegal.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He said that anti-conspiracy people seek out information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs, while using irrational mechanisms to avoid conflicting information.\n<\/p>\n
He concluded that the CIA\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s old campaign to stifle debate using the \u00c5\u201cconspiracy theory\u201d smear is nearly \u00c5\u201cworn-out\u201d adding, pro-conspiracy voices are now \u00c5\u201cmore numerous\u201d and \u00c5\u201cmore rational\u201d than anti-conspiracy ones.\n<\/p>\n
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