A terrorist attack is a very tragic event where a smaller group targets to harm a country. One of the most famous terrorist attacks in the United States would be the events on September 11th, 2001. History reports that “On September 11, 2001, at 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.” This had a devastating effect as the impact from the attack led to around 3,000 deaths and even more wounded. It’s hard to forget a tragic event that directly impacted so many lives. Although many Americans believe in conspiracy theories revolving around the attack, such as the planes being edited or CGI, possible government involvement, and explosives being planted in the buildings. These are just theories, not facts, but conspiracy theories can be extremely influential. With research, these ideas can be proved false, although this does not stop nearly half of the U.S. from believing them. Many content creators will use conspiracy theories to obtain views or to spread awareness of certain theories they believe. One of these creators is known as Shane Dawson, who is a popular creator known for his conspiracy videos in the early 2010s. In just a small section of one of his videos, he shared his beliefs around the attack on 9/11, including multiple untrue claims. Shane Dawson portrays in his video that the people have been lied to on the terrorist attack on September 11th. While he shows his evidence, it can easily be fact-checked.

“The clips we saw in the news of planes flying into the towers are CGI” (16:06)

The belief that the planes are CGI was one of the bigger claims that Shane Dawson focuses on, although this is just theory as there is evidence that the planes exist. Dawson questions the existence of the planes by describing the video clips as a badly edited plane crash. He uses an unnamed CGI creator to support his claim as the CGI editor shows how the plane crash should have looked. The CGI editor claims, “a good special effect should have exploding parts bouncing off and tumbling into the street below.” Except when the planes crashed into the towers they went straight through. Although this idea of the planes being fake or edited would be false as there is clear evidence that the planes existed. Proof that the planes existed can be seen through evidence of the FBI reports as “Airplane wreckage, including the black boxes, were recovered from the scene and they were cataloged by the FBI.” this also does include the remains of the crew and passengers being verified with DNA and the witnesses directly seeing the planes crash into the towers and the Pentagon. A report from History stated that “the impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors.“ The fact that many believed the planes were CGI and that the fires were from bombs can be proved false through the evidence of the people on the planes’ DNA. Also can be falsified by plane parts found at the site of the attack. 

“Bush and the Government actually coordinated [the attack] themselves” (14:00)

The claim that the government set up the attack can be proved wrong based on the evidence of the Islamic group’s devotion to their cause. Shane Dawson claims that “Bush and the Government actually coordinated [the attack] themselves.” He stated this as he believes the United States already wanted to go to war in Afghanistan, which is a false claim. The United States did not want to go to war, they only did so when provoked by the terrorist attack. Also when Bush declared war he declared it on terrorism, not directly to Afghanistan. The terrorists did not have enough force to fully attack and destroy the United States military, so the Islamic terrorist group targeted symbolic pieces instead. This would include the towers as they were a symbol of the United States economy, and the Pentagon as well. 

According to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum this group “claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks since the early 1990s,” making this not one of the first attacks from the Islamic group. Osama bin Ladan was the leader of the terrorist network and led the charge on the attack of the Twin Towers, Pentagon, and possibly the White House on September 11th. The Taliban’s acts of terror have inspired other groups to carry out attacks. The Taliban have been a part of the 2002 Bali bombing, the 2004 Madrid train bombing, the 2005 London bombings, and the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, among many others. The 9/11 Memorial and Museum cites these events and relates them to the group’s horrific history. This terrifying group also claimed responsibility for all their attacks including 9/11. The devotion to their cause is extreme as a letter was found written by a former hijacker the night before the attack, persuading other hijackers that they are doing the right thing in the name of Allah. Lines in the Letter such as “Embrace the will to die and renew allegiance,” and “Take prisoners and kill them. And if you kill, then rob those you kill,” will show that they would have no mercy during the attack. They believed they would be saved in the end for their deeds when they die. So through their past foreign domestic assaults, it would be an obvious action for them to attack the symbolic parts of the United States.

“It wasn’t just planes flying into the buildings there were bombs planted” (13:51)

Many believe that bombs were planted in the World Trade Center which is false as the explosion was due to the fuel in the planes. Dawson provides a news interview taken after the attack, which showed a lady claiming to hear bombs before seeing the plane hit the buildings. Next Dawson shows a video of a fireman saying “Move out there are bombs in the building.” Although there were explosions, there were no bombs planted in the towers. An article posted by the BBC in August 2011 said The National Institute of Standards and Technology were involved in a three-year investigation that, “concluded that the building collapsed because of uncontrolled fires, started by the collapse of the nearby North Tower, and which burnt for seven hours.” The National Institute of Standards and Technology went into a 3-year investigation on 9/11,  reported that the planes damaged the support columns and dislodged the fire-proofing. Between the impact of the plane and the amount of jet fuel that spread inside, the building was bound to fall. It was said around 10,000 gallons of jet fuel was spread throughout the tower creating uncontrollable fire. The BBC also reported that “temperatures of up to 1,000C caused the floors to sag and the perimeter columns to bend, causing the sounds of explosions.” There were many different causes to why the building collapsed. Believing the planes were fake and the bombs did all the work is an outlandish claim especially with all the evidence. Therefore when Dawson shows a video of a witness appearing to hear a bomb it was actually due to the explosion from the high temperatures and from the impact of the plane. 

The Experts: Shane Dawson and Donald Trump?

Now it’s hard to see if Shane Dawson is a reliable source for information on 9/11 when many of his videos contain false information, leading to issues between him and the social media platform, Youtube. His conspiracy theories have made his fame skyrocket in the early 2010s. His followers will comment things on his videos like “this guy can make me believe I’m a horse” and “I really miss his conspiracy theories a lot.” His influence in the conspiracy world is large and a number of his conspiracy videos have over 20 million views. Dawson’s followers will believe several things that he tells them but it is important to know that he is not an expert in most of the topics, he is just theorizing. In fact, the amount of misinformation in Dawson’s video leads to Youtube restricting some of its guidelines. As in a New York Times article is stated that videos like Dawsons’ are “borderline content and content that could misinform users in harmful ways.” Therefore always make sure you finding credible sources for your information as false information is harmful and is often hard to restrict. Dawson also quotes Donald Trump. As Trump said, “I happen to think that they had not only a plane but they have bombs that exploded almost simultaneously.” Dawson is using Donald Trump to back up his claim due to his popular status in New York at the time. Although Trump believes that bombs were planted, which can be diminished as we already know the bombs did not exist. Trump’s accountability on this topic can be decreased, as in an interview after the attack, Trump seemed happy to claim that his building is the tallest, which wasn’t even true. Trump seemed to try to put himself and his company up on a pedestal during the tragic event and possibly trying to use certain claims to boost his popularity just like Dawson. Shane Dawson is not an expert on this topic, nor is Trump, but it is important to do your own research and find your own experts.

Conclusion

Shane Dawson portrays in his video that the people have been lied to on the terrorist attack on September 11th, while he shows his evidence, it can easily be fact-checked. Credible sources are constantly showing evidence of the events of 9/11 as that day has a large number of conspiracy theories revolving around it. From CGI planes and U.S. involvement conspiracy theories have spread throughout America. The CGI claim can be falsified due to the witness and evidence of the plane crash on the site. The idea of bombs being planted is not true because the explosions were due to the high heat and uncontrolled fires, and the idea of government involvement can be discouraged due to the devotion the Taliban has to their cause and the previous attack done by them before. Shane Dawson is not the only content creator who does this according to New York Times; “But the popularity of Mr. Dawson’s conspiracy theories illuminates the challenge YouTube faces in cleaning up misinformation.” Youtube struggles with fighting against misinformation as many videos such as Dawsons bring in a large number of viewers. Many others will use these theories to create their fame. So when researching a topic make sure to see if the publisher is making money from their ideas and if they are, always do your belief theories with credible sources. 

Featured Image Shane Dawson via Youtube

Featured Image Lars Mulder via Pexels