“Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report” and “The Conspiracy Industry: Afterword to PM Expanded Investigation” are two articles both written for the Popular Mechanics magazine by James B. Meigs, the latter being written in 2006, one year after the former. “Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report” is an in-depth analysis of conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks and the factual evidence that refutes these theories. “The Afterword” is a reflective piece that describes the uprising of the conspiracy theory community after the first article was published, and then poses the argument as to why conspiracy theorists have an “illusion of coherence”. The first article published by Meigs garnered a lot of attention from the conspiracy theory
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Meig makes this argument easier to understand not only through the clearly labeled structure, but through his strong, focused deductive argument. He does an excellent job of getting straight to the point and not dancing around the issue so that readers can easily identify his argument. For example, when Meig discusses circular reasoning, he states the conspiracy theorists’ point of how the security footage at the Pentagon, “didn’t show the cruise missile or small aircraft”. Meig wastes no time to state that the cameras on the border of the Pentagon, “recorded data at a glacial rate of one frame per second”, far too slow to catch a Boeing 757 traveling at 780 feet per second. He immediately links this to his thesis of how the reasoning of conspiracy theorists is flawed, stating that they leech onto any evidence that supports their claim, and that they attack the people who disprove their claims.
This style of argument is continued throughout the article, linking his thesis of conspiracy theorists having distorted beliefs to evidence of their ridiculous claims and thought processes. Basically, Meig is saying that since the conspiracy theorists believe this, that means that they are unreasonable; and that dictates a deductive argument. His convincing premises are stated clearly and often, making his thesis stronger as one delves deeper into the
Meig makes this argument easier to understand not only through the clearly labeled structure, but through his strong, focused deductive argument. He does an excellent job of getting straight to the point and not dancing around the issue so that readers can easily identify his argument. For example, when Meig discusses circular reasoning, he states the conspiracy theorists’ point of how the security footage at the Pentagon, “didn’t show the cruise missile or small aircraft”. Meig wastes no time to state that the cameras on the border of the Pentagon, “recorded data at a glacial rate of one frame per second”, far too slow to catch a Boeing 757 traveling at 780 feet per second. He immediately links this to his thesis of how the reasoning of conspiracy theorists is flawed, stating that they leech onto any evidence that supports their claim, and that they attack the people who disprove their claims.
This style of argument is continued throughout the article, linking his thesis of conspiracy theorists having distorted beliefs to evidence of their ridiculous claims and thought processes. Basically, Meig is saying that since the conspiracy theorists believe this, that means that they are unreasonable; and that dictates a deductive argument. His convincing premises are stated clearly and often, making his thesis stronger as one delves deeper into the