9/11 Glossary
From SkepticWiki
This page contains a glossary of the more obscure terms used by and about 9/11 conspiracy theorists. For a guide to the conspiracy theorists themselves, their names, hypotheses, and credentials, consult our article on 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists.
[edit] Alphabet Agency
Any government agency usually referred to by its initials, for example the CIA and the FBI.
[edit] Box Cutters
Utility knives, such as a Stanley knife. One of a wide range of weapons attributed to the 9/11 hijackers, including, knifes, guns, chemical spray, and bombs strapped to them. Mentioned in a phone call from flight 77 by one passenger, Barbara Olsen, who described the hijackers as being armed with "knives and cardboard cutters"; it is assumed that by "cardboard cutters" she meant "box cutters".
[edit] CD
Controlled demolition.
[edit] Clunkity Clunk
A phrase coined by Truther Sofia Shafquat (creator of the video 9/11 Mysteries) in one of the strangest Truther arguments of all time:
- These buildings fell in ten seconds. They’re a hundred ten stories. Now let’s just use our mouth to demonstrate this. If a pancake collapse can be described as “clunkity clunk,” how many times can you say that in ten seconds? And if one floor is “clunkity clunk, clunkity clunk, clunkity,” you cannot say that one hundred and ten times in ten seconds. So let’s even give it the benefit of the doubt. Let’s just take off the “clunk.” Let’s just say “clunkity.” You can’t say that in ten seconds, one hundred and ten times. --- Sofia Shafiqat.
[edit] Coincidence Theorist
Derisive Truther term for anyone who does not believe that every tiny little incident that happened on 9/11 was carefully scripted in advance by a vast omnipotent conspiracy.
[edit] COINTELPRO
A program of covert operations carried out by the CIA between 1956 and 1971, intended to infiltrate organisations considered to be subversive, and to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" these organizations. Many Truthers believe that this or a similar program has infiltrated the Truth Movement in order to propagate disinfo. See our main article on Disinfo for further information.
[edit] CT
Conspiracy theory or conspiracy theorist.
[edit] Debunker
One whose hobby is exposing the blunders of the Truth Movement.
[edit] DEW
[edit] Directed Energy Weapon
A death ray used to bring down the Twin Towers in some of the odder variants of the Truth.
[edit] Disinfo
How a conspiracy theorist describes information which conflicts with his own chosen version of the Truth: for example, how Planers describe No-Planers. Usually used with the implication that the disinformation is deliberate and organized by the conspirators to discredit the Truth Movement. See our main article on Disinfo for further information.
[edit] False Flag
Act of war or terrorism committed by one organization or government in order that it be blamed on another organization or government.
[edit] FDNY
Fire Department of New York. Regarded as heros by most people; many Truther scenarios implicitly or explicitly require them to be part of their vast, ill-defined conspiracy.
[edit] FEMA
The Federal Emergency Management Agency. Either a sinister plot to rob us all of our freedoms, or some sort of federal agency that manages things in emergencies.
[edit] Fire Alone
Approved Truther phrase for describing fire plus massive structural damage.
[edit] Floating Floor Model
A simplified representation of the collapse physics of the Twin Towers, first used by Frank Greening to demonstrate that the collapse times were consistent with a gravity-driven collapse. Since updated to include resistance of the columns to collapse and many other factors.
[edit] Footprint
In architecture, the area that a building stands on. It is often claimed by Truthers that WTC1, WTC2, and WTC7 "collapsed into their own footprints". This is not true, as can be ascertained by spending a few seconds looking at pictures of the debris, or finding out what happened to the other four buildings of the World Trade Center complex.
[edit] Hit Piece
Truther description of any publicly broacast or published documentary, book or article that examines conspiracy theories, and contains analysis by experts that discredits claims made by CTers. (Several "Hit Pieces" have been done by Popular Mechanics, History Channel, Discovery Channel, etc.)
[edit] Hushaboom
A sort of explosive which explodes without making any noise. Doesn't actually exist.
[edit] JAQing off
"Just Asking Questions". A manoeuvre whereby a Truther abstains from putting forward any hypothesis of his own, but simply complains about the things he doesn't understand about the OCT.
[edit] JON-ES
The Journal of 9-11 Studies, a website set up by Steven Jones to present pro-conspiracy articles reviewed by other conspiracy theorists in order to give the appearance of a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
[edit] Joos
Sarcastic debunker term for the evil secret rulers of the world. Do not exist. Not to be confused with Jews, who exist but don't secretly rule the world.
[edit] Keebler Elves
- And recently I gave a talk at an engineering conference where I showed some diagrams of the towers being built and I showed, “If this were a tree and the Keebler elves cut out this big chunk out of the side here, to put their, for their little house, where their dwelling is. Would that affect the towers?” And everyone in the room could see, that no, the way the structure is designed, it can’t bring it down. --- Judy Wood.
[edit] Kerosene
Preferred Truther description of aviation fuel.
[edit] KSM
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of six men charged on 11th February 2008 with complicity in the 9/11 attacks. Usually referred to by his intitals.
[edit] LC:FC
Loose Change: Final Cut. Allegedly Dylan Avery's final attempt to make Loose Change.
[edit] Left Gatekeeper
Truther term for any prominent or influential person on the left who doesn't agree with Truthers, i.e. pretty much all of them.
[edit] LIHOP
"Let It Happen On Purpose". The hypothesis that people in the Bush Administration could have prevented 9/11 but chose not to. A fallback position for Truthers who find themselves unable to come up with any plausible MIHOP scenario.
[edit] Loose Change
The name of a film, or series of similar films, directed by Dylan Avery, promoting the Truth Movement.
The reason why the film is called Loose Change is a mystery to most of its audience. Here is an explanation, of sorts, from Dylan Avery himself:
- And I don't remember, it was so long ago, but basically the phrase 'loose change' just kind of came out, and I thought about it for a second.. and I was, like, 'huh!.. Loose Change', because everyone hears that, and they think, you know, they think money. I didn't think about money, I thought 'well, that's cool, cuz people think loose change is money, but it actually means the change is loose, you can't stop it - you know, again.
[edit] Looser
Derisive term for anyone dumb enough to be taken in by Loose Change.
[edit] Meridian Building
A (now demolished) building in Philadelphia that caught fire and burned for several hours. Often cited by troothers as evidence that a skyscraper cannot collapse from fire. This claim is marred by a distinctly different structural design, working fireproofing, active firefighting efforts, limited fuel supply, and a working sprinkler system in the upper floors, and the fact that a plane hadn't crashed into it. Despite these advantages the collapse of Meridian by fire was only barely avoided. The building needed a large cover and re-enforcement, and was dismantled piece by piece. After remaining a vacant lot for years, the space it occupied is now having a condo built on it.
[edit] MIHOP
"Made It Happen On Purpose". Denotes the versions of the Truth in which the Bush Administration organised the 9/11 attacks.
[edit] MSM
Mainstream media.
[edit] M$M
Alternate spelling of MSM cunningly designed to insinuate that the private corporations that run the mainstream media have sunk so low as to try to make a profit.
[edit] Neocon
Neoconservative. Term used by Truthers to describe anyone who disagrees with them, no matter what their actual political views are.
[edit] NIST
The National Institute of Standards and Technology.
[edit] NIST Report
The final report of the Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster, which analyses the structural response of the WTC towers to the aircraft impact and resulting fires up to the point of collapse initiation.
[edit] No-Planers
A sect of Truthers who believe that no planes hit the Twin Towers, regarded as odd even by most other Truthers. Note that this does not include people who believe that no plane hit the Pentagon, which is considered normal for Truthers.
[edit] OCT
See Official Conspiracy Theory.
[edit] Official Conspiracy Theory
How conspiracy theorists describe what actually happened on 9/11, i.e. hijackers hijacked planes and flew them into buildings, which fell down.
[edit] PENTTBOM
The FBI criminal investigation into the 9-11 attacks on the Pentagon and the Twin Towers; largest operation in the history of the FBI. Often implied by truthers to be non-existent.
[edit] Plane-Huggers
Derisive term used by No-Planers to describe Planers.
[edit] Planers
Members of the Truth Movement sufficiently in touch with reality to admit that planes hit the Twin Towers on 9/11.
[edit] Pod People
Truthers who believe in the existence of Pods. A term used both by other Truthers convinced that Pod People are insidious US Government plants intent on hijacking the Truth movement, and debunkers amused by the hysteria and paranoia displayed by said Truthers.
[edit] Pods
Mysterious attachments supposedly seen on the planes that hit the Twin Towers, identified by Truthers as secret military technology, and by debunkers as the fairings containing the landing gear.
[edit] Poison Pill
A "poison pill" is an idea inserted into the Truth Movement by COINTELPRO infiltrators to discredit it.
It is likely that no-one has in fact bothered to infiltrate the Truth Movement; in practice a Truther will simply use the term to describe any Truthy idea that he personally thinks is stupid.
See our main article on Disinfo for further information.
[edit] Pull
Word used by Larry Silverstein to describe the withdrawal of firefighters from WTC7:
- I remember getting a call from the fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, 'We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.' And they made that decision to pull and then we watched the building collapse. --- Larry Silverstein.
Members of the Truth Movement often interpret the word "pull" as meaning "destroy by controlled demolition", a meaning that it doesn't have, and deduce from this that what Silverstein was trying to tell his television audience is that the fire chief ordered the controlled demolition of WTC7, a statement that he has never made.
For more information, see our main article on WTC7.
[edit] Pyroclastic Flow
A high-speed, high-temperature dust cloud flow sometimes observed as a result of a volcanic eruption. For some unknown reason, many Truthers believe it is also a characteristic of a CD, and was observed during the collapses of WTC1 and WTC2. Neither of these beliefs has any foundation.
[edit] Red Pill
A plot device in the movie The Matrix, which wakes the protagonist Neo up from the virtual reality he's been existing in, into the real world. Used by Truthers as a metaphor for accepting the unpleasant reality of government complicity in 9/11. Actually represents the appealing fantasy of gaining wisdom without significant effort (such as, by watching Loose Change).
[edit] Salomon Building
Another name for WTC7.
[edit] Sheeple
How a conspiracy theorist describes non-conspiracy theorists.
[edit] Shill
Literally, a conman's accomplice. By extension, anyone whom a Truther disagrees with (including other Truthers: see also disinfo).
[edit] Silverstein
Larry Silverstein, lessee of the World Trade Center. Often accused by Truthers of complicity in 9/11, because, heck, if you had an underinsured property that cost you three billion dollars, wouldn't you want to blow it up?
[edit] Squibs
How the Truth Movement describes the ejecta from the windows of the Twin Towers as they collapse. We are not sure why, since the meaning of "squib" is "small firecracker".
[edit] Straw Man
A strawman argument is an attack on a position your opponent doesn't hold. When the phrase is used by a Truther, however, it refers to any debunking of any widespread piece of Truther nonsense that he personally doesn't believe in. E.g:
- The article is yet another straw man attack, failing to disclose any strong arguments for insider involvement in the attack while highlighting red-herrings like the Silverstein's "pull-it" comment.[1]
[edit] Stundie
Monthly award for the silliest thing said by a conspiracy theorist, as voted for by members of the JREF forums; also, any statement silly enough to deserve nomination. Named after a flagrantly silly Truther with the Internet username of Stundie.
The word Stundie can also be used as a verb, meaning to nominate a statement for a Stundie.
[edit] Thermate
An incendiary used to bring down the Twin Towers in some versions of the Truth. Not to be confused with (a) an explosive (b) thermite.
[edit] Thermal Expansion
In physics, the well-known tendency of materials to expand when they get hot, as put to use, for example, in a mercury thermometer. To many Truthers, something that NIST invented in 2008 to explain the collapse of WTC7.
[edit] Thermite
An incendiary used to bring down the Twin Towers in some versions of the Truth. Not to be confused with (a) an explosive (b) thermate.
[edit] TPTB
Acronym for "The Powers That Be", i.e. whoever the Truther using the phrase thinks is secretly or overtly running the world.
[edit] Truth
When spelt with a capital T, the word "Truth" is how 9/11 conspiracy theorists describe 9/11 conspiracy theories. Not to be confused with truth.
[edit] Truther
[edit] Truth Movement
How 9/11 conspiracy theorists describe themselves.
[edit] TTFL
Time To First Lie. A common measure of the accuracy of Truther videos on YouTube.
[edit] Uncle Fetzer
Derisive nickname for James Fetzer.
[edit] Vicsim
Nonexistent, fictitious victim of 9/11: a term used by the minority of Truthers who believe that no-one, or very few people, died on 9/11 and the names, photographs, and grieving relatives of the dead are all part of an elaborate hoax.
[edit] Windsor Building
A building in Madrid, Spain which caught fire in February 2005, with the result that the steel structural elements failed, and only the concrete core retained its integrity. To Truthers, a proof that fire does not weaken the steel structural elements of buildings. To everyone else, proof of the exact opposite.
[edit] WTC 1
[edit] WTC 2
The southernmost of the Twin Towers, also known as the South Tower.
[edit] WTC 7
World Trade Center building 7, also sometimes referred to as the Salomon Building. A building that was extensively damaged by falling debris and fires and subsequantly collapsed. Many conspiracy theorists believe that the building was in fact demolished by the FDNY on the orders of its owner, Larry Silverstein, using the memorable phrase 'Pull'.
For further information, see our main article on WTC7.
