Caedee: The problem is that historically conspiracies fail, someone always gives the game away in the end. People are very bad at keeping secrets because we are social animals.
This is true. The more people who are supposedly involved in an alleged conspiracy, the less likely it is to be true. It's the private one person conspiracies that are most effective.
So for example I don't believe that Eisenhower knew about Pearl Harbour before the attack because it makes no sense. A thwarted attack would have had the same effect as a successful one.
Londo: Eisenhower wasn't President in 1941. Or perhaps he was...and history has been covered up! :smile:
LOL! You're right. I don't know why I wrote Eisenhower. He was just on my mind for some reason. Regarding FDR's lack of motive for allowing the attacks to happen, I think that a fiery holocaust would have had a much greater emotional punch on people than a thwarted attack. But, whatever his motives may have been, the fact is that America had cracked the Japanese military code without their knowledge and long before Pearl Harbor. Unless the Japanese were super paranoid and never even hinted about the attacks in their communications, people in Washington would have known in advance what they were planning to do. It could have been that FDR simply did not want to risk tipping the Japanese off that their code had been cracked. Pearl Harbor was an acceptable loss if it meant ultimately defeating the Japanese.
TD: The idea that the Holocaust never happened is a conspiracy theory contradicted by a ton of evidence. There is no reasoning with someone who embraces a conspiracy theory, because every single piece of evidence is written off as part of the conspiracy.
The flaw in most holocaust denial arguments comes down to special pleading. They want people to accept their 'evidence', but they simply deny the credibility of any counter evidence. They'll accept the testimony of a few concentration camp inmates that it really wasn't so bad: that the Nazi officers didn't work them too hard and even arranged things like orchestras and talent shows to keep the inmates entertained. Meanwhile, the vast majority of survivors who testify to the cruelty of the Nazis are called liars. It never seems to occur to them that Nazis were just human beings whose behavior could range from nice to nasty and that, for this reason, a concentration camp could easily become a hell on earth if a bad Nazi was in charge. Creationists use the same strategy.
redvip: For example, the folks that believe that the twin towers came down because of explosives in the buildings. This is completely ridiculous. The amount of people required to do this would be massive. No way you can keep that a secret.
Not to mention unnecessary. If some powerful faction in the US government wanted the twin towers to go down all they would have to do would be to wait and let it happen. The 911 hijackers weren't the first people who wanted to blow up the WTC.