WeAreChangeNewJersey

This week we saw the announcement of a new chapter of WeAreChange in New Jersey. Before reading what I have to say about it I recommend having a look at their site.

When people start a political action group they are generally concerned with how to deliver a message to a target audience. Within any social movement there should also be a concern for how the group's actions will reflect on others involved. With the launch of a website, people have near total control over how they convey their values and priorities and which audience they will reach as a result.

So then, what did WeAreChangeNJ decide was going to be their message and audience? And how will the present content of their site represent the movement, regardless of their intentions? The site is sparse at this point and will likely grow. But introductions are very important in forming opinions of your orientation, intentions, and competence.

First of all, a quick review of post titles was immediately unsettling to me. "Bahai Faith = NWO Religion" "Glenn Beck Is An Operative" "Superbowl Symbolism" "What Is Synchromysticism?" "Spice Girls Are Illuminati Tools" "The 9/11 Stargate Conspiracy" Now, here's my question. What do these titles suggest to the average reader who knows little about the movement? That we are paranoid? That we are intolerant of people's faith? That we are obsessed with symbolism and coincidence? With such outrageous titles many people will certainly turn away before deciding to see if they are just bad at writing titles. In this case I think the average reader would be turned off.

If we turn to looking at what the site seems to be promoting, we find a good deal of focus on the NWO conspiracy and "synchromystisim." They also seem to be getting along well with CrotchShotRadio. Here's their tagline:

"The Crotch Shot Radio Show is on a mission, wait wait, a fucking pilgrimage, fuck that. On a fucking movement, that features the loudest spick of Brook-Nam, Louie Bee Are You animal enough to enter our newly created Forest Of Hate? This is no bullshit radio, Doing Preemptive strikes on bullshit producers. Instead of Operation “Shock and Awe”, we are conducting Operation ” Fuck and you.” No fucking Coalition forces needed."

"Preemptive Strikes"? "Forest of Hate"? Racial epithets? I don't want those things associated with 9/11 truth or myself in any way. I may recognize that the intention could possibly be some kind of hip edginess. Most people would not.

And then there is "synchromysticism." Here's an exemplary post on the subject. "9/11/2001: A Space Odyssey - Another synchromystic post about 9/11, exploring the buildings surrounding Ground Zero and tying them to the stargate ritual/alien contact/cosmic consciousness." And here's a rough definition of the concept. "Synchromysticism is a state of mind in which dynamic context is attributed to phenomena, allowing patterns, themes and insight to arise out of a web of connections."

Fascinating. But that doesn't sound like it has anything to do with 9/11 truth or more generally with demonstrating to people that they are committed to logic and justice.

That bring us back to what they are conveying and how people may respond. Here's my take on it. I think that the site they have up will primarily appeal to a small minority of those who share their interests and priorities. It will also be useful to those who would like to paint the 9/11 truth movement in a negative light. I do not think that the site offers any significant motivation to take action, read about facts, or contribute to the movement in a constructive way. And it certainly frustrates participants like myself who would very much like to see only the best we have to offer promoted by groups associated with the movement.

In my opinion the best thing that WeAreChangeNJ could do is pull the site, stop what they are doing, and read a few books about promotion, marketing, education and political action, before they get back work. Countering the 'big tent' means asserting that every demonstration of intent to promote our cause is not necessarily welcome. There are both effective and detrimental ways to promote 9/11 truth. And I don't think what we see here helps at all.

Wasted Time - Citizen Investigation Team

I have fully reviewed the eyewitness testimony, videos, and other contents of the Citizens Investigation Team website. I've had a very extended online debate with Craig Ranke about his work. I have heard the opinions of many who support the efforts of the organization. And I have come to a conclusion.

CIT offers the movement no significant benefit and in fact does a great deal of damage.

Now it's not my intention here to retread all the reasons for my having reached that conclusion. That would be a waste of our time as most of those reasons are clarified elsewhere. Reasons that are recognized by a large number of the most thoughtful and committed of movement veterans.

Instead I want to convey my direct experience of having seen CIT create an unproductive distraction that wastes people's time and undermines our ability to recruit new participants and maintain our optimism.

Public distraction

Since the release of their online video "The Pentacon," CIT has continued to garner a fair amount of attention. That's particularly true when you compare how much more attention they have received than more factual resources such as "The Truth and Lies of 9/11." And with the support of various movement figures CIT has become a lot better known than the quality of their work would otherwise merit.

As a result, those newly investigating the problems with the official story are more easily lead away from the solid facts and distracted by speculation. And that speculation gives people who don't support our efforts even more reason to dismiss the solid facts we promote. That has been particularly evident to me during street action when the first thing out of people's mouths is, "So you are those people who think no plane hit the Pentagon." With such a bias in place those people are far less likely to explore the evidence.

The prominence of poorly founded speculation can also lead to new participants getting overloaded and confused. With all of the 9/11 truth media available it's very challenging for the uninitiated to get their head wrapped around what is and is not worth their attention. For that reason any prominent promotion of poorly founded speculation can really undermine our ability to recruit and retain new participants.

Movement distraction

While we might not expect the average person to get that far into analyzing or debating what CIT presents, those in the movement who hope to have a broad view of it's nature or who are invested as I am in upholding certain standards are more likely to research the matter, think about it's merits, and talk about it with others.

That is certainly productive to a point. As I said above, I took the time to examine the information presented by CIT. I wanted to determine it's merits and weaknesses so that I could share that with others. That in itself is no waste of time. You can't support what's good or counter what is bad without knowing about it first.

However, there is a threshold of time invested beyond which further discussion is very definitely unproductive. And I've passed it many times. As much as I enjoy discussion forums and e-mail, arguing in circles for hours is not a worthwhile endeavor. I feel fairly guilty when I consider how many hours I've wasted arguing with people unwilling to change their mind in any way. I could have been doing something more beneficial for the movement.

I've had my share of interaction with Craig Ranke, Aldo Marquis, and others, who have argued in a similarly inflexible manner. They are totally sold on the merits of CIT's work. Arguments with Ranke were circular, only superficially rational, filled with subtle manipulation, and ultimately totally without much benefit to either of us.

I feel the same is true for much of the discussion that goes on in the movement on this topic. As I don't believe that the eyewitness testimony is of any great importance when compared to better established facts, I am very concerned that the movement not be wasting time the way I have on this matter. We really do have more important things to be concerned with.

Personal distraction

Finally, and related to the concerns above, are we letting our ego get involved? Are we thinking about how to win an argument when we should be concerned with other things? Are we allowing ourselves to be baited into wasting our time? Or arguing because it's something to do? Are we having a debate because we are bored?

This movement requires a certain amount of personal discipline. I've certainly been guilty of all of the above. I understand that our feelings and ego and personality can't be totally disassociated from these concerns. Pursuit of 9/11 truth is a very personal experience in some ways. And yet the scope of the movement is international. The goals are based on fundamental principles of justice. And the stakes are really high.

We have to be able to see past ourselves as we involve ourselves in this concern. We have to be able to shelve our personal desires from time to time for the sake of what is best for others. There aren't nearly enough people truly committed to this movement. We need everyone who is to try their best to keep their wits about them and stay focused on the big picture. We need to keep asking ourselves if what we are doing is good for us or for the movement. Hopefully both. But that's not always the case.

Ultimately I'm suggesting that we should all simply take CIT for what it's worth. Even if you happen to support their research I hope you will agree that there are more important lines of inquiry in the movement and more important things for us to be promoting. Don't allow a speculative concerns to dominate your time, energy, or concern for this movement.