Questioning Motivations

I've touched on this a few times, but in general I prefer combatting the Deniers on the evidence rather than on their motivations. But it dawned on me that the motivations may be more the key to understanding their beliefs than the evidence itself.

Look, for example, at Holocaust Denial. At first it is tempting to believe that Holocaust Deniers are trying to absolve the German people and especially the Nazis of their guilt in this horrific case of genocide. And some of the Holocaust Denier's surnames, like Zundel and Hufschmid give us reason to wonder if that is their motivation.

But what about Eric D. Williams? I have no particular reason to believe that he is descended from Germans. So it seems unlikely that whitewashing the Nazis is his motivation. I suspect Holocaust Denial for him has more to do with the present day state of affairs than with World War II. If we deny the Holocaust, then Israel's founding seems completely unjustified, as is (arguably) America's support for Israel.

And it seems quite possible that 9-11 Denial springs from similar motivations. Libertarians oppose the Patriot Act. But if 9-11 was an inside job, then there was no justification for the Patriot Act. Some on the far left and far right want President Bush impeached. Look, for example, at the intro to this DRG article in Tikkun:

Because we at Tikkun are aware of extensive arguments that have appeared elsewhere against the perspective presented by the author of this piece, we debated long and hard about whether to present David Ray Griffin's argument here. We decided it was still important, given that if his view is true, the position he articulates would provide adequate grounds for impeachment of the president, grounds far more substantive than those that formed the basis of the impeachment by a Republican dominated Congress of President Bill Clinton.

Essentially they are saying, yes, 9-11 Denial is kooky, but if it's true we'd be able to get rid of Bush, so we'll print Griffin's article.

Jon Gold has much the same take over at 9-11 Blogger. He tries to sell Cindy Sheehan on 9-11 Denial, but is it on the basis that it's the "Truth" or is it on the basis that this is how other things can be achieved? You guessed it:

Cindy, 9/11 Truth will end this "illegal Iraq occupation" faster than ANYTHING anyone has been able to dream up so far. Not only will it do that, but it will reverse our loss of civil liberties, our loss of the Constitution, and our loss of stature in the eyes of the world.

As George W. Bush himself said, "we went to war because we were attacked, and we are at war today because there are still people out there who want to harm our country and hurt our citizens."

9/11 was the justification for the "illegal Iraq occupation". If you take away that justification, Cindy, then all of this can end.