Aaaah, Yer Fadder's Mustache!

Sometimes when I consider the strife that erupts in every group of human beings, I am inclined to howl in naive fashion, "Why can't we all just get along?" I check the impulse, because I know that we can't. Dissent, festering (or perhaps "Fetzering") into rancor, ad hominem attacks, and name-calling is the worm in even the most idealistic organizational apple. Politics dictates when there are three people in a room, two of them will gang up on the other one. It doesn't matter whether these combatants are pirates or philosophers--except that the latter are by nature more vicious.

The recent "Oh yeah? So's your old man" tone of discourse between members of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth is distressing to those of us who have looked to the group as a lodestar of conduct and inquiry--but it's not entirely unexpected. The Uticans for 9/11 Truth were in large part inspired by the Scholars, and our tag line "because the soul of our nation is at stake" is from a speech given by Professor James Fetzer. So this current vituperative atmosphere is a case of "say it ain't so, Jim."

Jim Fetzer, while up until recently having presented sound material exposing the 9/11 cover-up, has let a few howlers get through. He repeated without caveat the Tom Flocco story of Barbara Olson being arrested on the German border. When callers or guests on his programs have dared to suggest that the Clintons weren't perfect, he has gone on tirades defending them. And on WING TV he extravagantly praised Victor Thorn's anti-Jew diatribe, 9-11 Evil, admittedly without having read it through. But Fetzer was still doing great speeches and groundbreaking appearances on Big Media talk programs, so we sort of winked at these lapses.

These days, however, the atmosphere at the Scholars has gotten rank. The website (edited by Fetzer) is as cluttered as a batchelor recluse's apartment, and is almost unnavigable. The No-Plane contingent of the group (which includes Morgan Reynolds and Judy Wood), notable for a certain ad hominem style, now purporting the use of high energy beams directed from space to bring down the WTC towers, has enlisted Fetzer in their ranks. This "Gang of Three" has been chipping away at the research, reputation, and character of Professor Steven Jones (whose thermite/thermate theory is now generally accepted by 9/11 Truth activists) to promote untested Star Wars fantasies. Jones has responded in a dignified fashion to their swipes, but the Scholars are irrevocably tainted by the others' vitriol and absurd jockeying for position.

Fetzer has stated that the site should not limit itself to publishing theories that have been through the rigors of testing, because "looking at alternative possibilities that have not yet been 'shaken down' is a large part of what real science is all about." Possibly. But the truculence of the theorists seems to be in inverse proportion to the soundness of the theories. The No-Planers are a testy lot, and now that they have this Outer Space component to their rag-bag of notions, they are impossible. Anyone who disagrees with their hallucination-of-the-month is a liar, a bully, or a Big Stupid.

Without imputing to him more sinister motives, it may be that Fetzer wanted to avoid the space-laser-like sting of their abuse--and so he climbed up on their bandwagon. Moreover, Fetzer is a philosopher--and, Lord knows, those guys will bite on anything, including the idea of their own non-existence. So why not believe in laser beams from space? Chances are, in the Multiverse, you can believe in everything at once and it will all be true. It is even conceivable (though not likely) that in some parallel world, the Official Story is what actually happened.

Nineteen Islamic fundamentalist hijackers with boxcutters flew passenger planes into the buildings to bring them down because they hate our freedom. Or destructo rays. Or mini-nukes. Or "galvanic corrosion." It's all good. Cogito ergo dumb.