If you read one 9/11 anniversary series this week, read Jeremy Stahl on the rise and (apparent) decline of 9/11 “trutherism.” The latest portion is about the role of anti-Iraq War anger in populating the truther movement.
Then, in the summer of 2004, Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 was released, earning more than $100 million to become the top-grossing documentary of all time. While Fahrenheit 9/11 does not allege any sort of Bush-led conspiracy concerning 9/11, the film does depict a government hell-bent on covering up how much it knew prior to 9/11 and using the attacks as a false pretext for a war with Iraq. In 2004, more and more Americans were willing to raise these kinds of questions. Bush derangement syndrome, as Charles Krauthammer would famously call the emerging trend of Bush hatred, had not yet reached a boiling point. But it would. Within three years of his film’s release, Moore himself would start giving credence to some of the more out-there conspiracy theories.
Go on and read.
