9/11 truthers rip into the 'ridiculous' QAnon conspiracists they helped inspire

In an interview with the Daily Beast, one of the leaders of the 9/11 "truther" movement that believes there is more to the tragedy that struck America twenty years ago than the government has let on, took shots at the QAnon conspiracy movement that he believes has gone well beyond anything he ever suggested.

Speaking with the Beast's Kelly Weill, filmmaker Korey Rowe, who along with childhood friend Dylan Avery, produced the viral "Loose Change" documentary that made the case that the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 attack, expressed dismay that he and other so-called "truthers" are to blame for the out of control conspiracy movements that have swamped America and now dominate the headlines after four years of Donald Trump.

According to the Beast's Weill, "neither 'Loose Change' nor 9/11 were inevitable conspiracy superspreaders. Instead, the success of 9/11 conspiracy theories was a symptom of disintegrating trust in institutions, and the new profitability of trutherism online. Today Rowe, who made 'Loose Change' following his disillusionment in Iraq, is a vocal critic of new theories like QAnon. Meanwhile, the conspiratorial energy that inspired 'Loose Change' has spiraled deep into American politics, with big-name truthers like Donald Trump both stoking distrust and reaping its rewards."

With Weill writing, "The film, which falsely claimed the 9/11 attacks were actually orchestrated by the U.S. government, became one of the first viral internet videos, despite extensive debunkings by experts," Rowe explained, "It was just huge. It was just crazy. And, you know, we were young, we were 21, 22 and we just kind of were handed the button and we put it on and did the best we could with it."

According to Rowe, the conspiracy movement in the U.S. took a radical turn under Donald Trump, telling the Beast, "We saw the movement kind of splinter in half because there were some people who wanted to look into things like satanic lizard people, and the moon landing, and flat earth and all this nonsense."

Admitting that he has worked with Infowars host Alex Jones, Rowe went on to say that the rise of Donald Trump, working in conjunction with people like Jones, has created a toxic brew that is crippling America -- with an assist from the national media.

"Trump went on to Alex Jones's radio show and used that platform to raise a base, which essentially brought him into office," Rowe suggested. "President Trump went on national television and every couple of weeks for four years proposed a new conspiracy theory about how the deep state was out to get him, or that COVID is not a problem or that he didn't lose the election: all these huge, really ridiculous conspiracy theories that were being propagated by the United States president and were being broadcast on international television by our national news organizations."

"So if you want to blame two kids who made an internet documentary 20 years ago for what a president did in the last four years, I don't think that's really fair," he complained.

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