Who's A No-Planer?

One of the more amusing debates within the Troofer community involves the "No Planes" theories. The "No-Planers" are commonly considered by the "Plane-Huggers" to be disinfo operatives planted inside the movement by the government to discredit the "legitimate Truthers".

That's wrong, and the reason why it's wrong reveals a lot about the nature of conspiracy theories and how they're constructed. Suppose you're "Truther No.1", the very first 9-11 conspiracy theorist, on the morning of 9-11. You say to your friend, "The US government did it!" And he promptly punches you in the snoot.

But suppose he's a conspiracy theorist himself, so he doesn't smack you. He says, "That's interesting, but I don't see how they pulled it off. Who, other than radical Muslim fanatics would commit suicide by flying a plane into a building?"

So you start brainstorming with him. Maybe commandos hijacked the planes, gassed all the passengers, and set the autopilots to crash the airliners into the buildings before parachuting to safety. Or maybe they already had remote control on the planes and so the cooperation (or elimination) of the pilots was not necessary. Maybe they were other planes, drones without passengers.

When you get right down to it, the planes are terribly inconvenient for the conspiracy theories. And as a result, almost all the MIHOP people attempt to wish them away either implicitly, or explicitly.

Examples? We get told all the time that Flights 11 and 77 were not even scheduled for that day. That's a "No-Planer". We get told that the tail numbers for some of the planes were not retired. That's a "No-Planer". Dylan Avery says in Loose Change II that Flight 93 actually landed in Cleveland. That's a "No-Planer". We get told constantly that the actual planes that crashed into the World Trade Center were 767-200 refueling planes. That's a "No-Planer". We get told that a cruise missile hit the Pentagon. That's a "No-Planer". Dylan Avery said in an interview that he'd like to believe the planes are still out there, flying around. That's a "No-Planer". We see references to "alleged" Flight 11. That's a "No-Planer". We see mentions that Todd Beamer isn't on the Social Security Death Index. That's a "No-Planer". We hear that 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 of the hijackers are still alive. That's a "No-Planer".

Almost all the 9-11 conspiracy theorists are "No-Planers", when you get right down to it. So the notion that the "TV Fakery" people are the "No-Planers" is absurd, and the notion that the supposedly mainstream Troofers are "Plane-Huggers" is equally a lie. The only Troofers who actually accept the planes are LIHOPers and that somewhat rare category of "LIHOP plus Controlled Demolition".