Un-Blinding Them With Science (or Not)

The National Geographic Channel . . . or “NatGeo” is the new hip new name, I believe . . . is running a great little special over the next few weeks. It’s called “9/11: Science and Conspiracy.” In it, a team of scientists in various specialties examine the key elements of the major conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon.

They set up experiments to test things like the effects of burning jet fuel on structural steel (Guess what, Rosie . . . Fire actually can melt steel!) In fact, they laid a length of of structural steel over a shallow pit with jet fuel in it and placed a small amount of weight on the beam. Then they lit the jet fuel and started a stopwatch. The steel bent, buckled and twisted after only 3:51 seconds–even though the fire only reached a temperature of 2000, several hundred degrees lower than the steel’s “official” failure temp.

The best parts of the special are when they show a group of high profile “truthers” each experiment and the scientific findings. In each case, the truthers simply refused to accept what they were seeing. They were so invested in their preferred narrative that no amount of refutation could move them.

I was reminded of a great Thomas Sowell quote I heard recently. “A person cannot be reasoned out of a position they did not reason themselves into.”

Check out this video excerpt from the special. And catch one of the airings of this special if you can.