Blog Post 6

Although somewhat unclearly, "Loose Change" sought to present the argument that the US government was behind the attacks on September 11th, 2001. Through sowing distrust, challenging plausibility, and telling a better story, makers of "Loose Change" certainly made a convincing argument that whatever happened on September 11 is not what we are let on to believe.

Every time that evidence was presented in "Loose Change", they were planting a seed of distrust by presenting extremely undeniable facts that contradicted what is commonly believed about the attacks. This was the strongest side of the argument presented by "Loose Change", considering that they used almost all of the film to present these facts. A specific example of the many claims made, is the claim that it may not have been a plane that hit the Pentagon. By having professionals assess the damage to the building, they concluded that there is no damage where the wings of the plane should have left damage, the surrounding land is extremely un-harmed, and it was virtually impossible for the debris of the plane to be vaporized. There were also surveillance videos of the crash that were confiscated by the government and never released to the public. Through all these examples of their specific claim about the Pentagon crash, and for all other claims, they manage to always use credible sources, which raise extremely uncomfortable questions for the viewers about what really happened that day. By raising these questions throughout the film, they cause most people to doubt the information they received and believe about September 11th, this sowing distrust among the audience.

While presenting all their evidence of their claims, the language that us used in "Loose Change", is used to challenge the plausibility of the counterargument, or the original information given. Questions are asked like, "Do you really believe that….?", and "Does it seem true to you that…?", which makes the counterarguments seem like even more of unbelievable situations than the ones presented in the film. They manage to label what the media put out on that day, and what the government recorded as what happened as "mysterious", "unbelievable", and "implausible". 

During the presentations of evidence throughout the film, makers of loose change give different suggestions of what could have happened based on the evidence presented. Using what facts they have, they present different situations that make sense based on what fits the evidence. Although they do not go out and say that any of their more plausible stories are correct, they do present numerous possibilities for the specific examples of where the government failed to cover up their so-called mess. They do present many specific examples of what they believed small stories were in place of the original claimed facts, but I fail to see the big picture of what they are trying to claim happened on September 11. 

Overall, the evidence presented in "Loose Change" sowed a large field of mistrust, and challenged plausibility of the original and believed claims, but it lacked in presenting a better claim of what actually happened as a whole on the day of September 11, 2001.