‘So Pathetic’: Left And Right Join Together to Slam Cenk Uygur Going Full 9/11 Truther
Cenk Uygur, the left-wing host of The Young Turks, sparked a wave of criticism over the weekend by fully embracing the conspiracy theories surrounding the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people.
Uygur posted to social media last Friday, “I no longer believe official 9/11 story. Two paper passports did not burn and were found on the rubble but it was so hot WTC7 burned down across the street. Nonsense. It’s time to look for who gained from 9/11. Our government doesn’t work for us. They’ve been lying whole time.”
He later added two subsequent posts, including one connecting his 9/11 “conversion” to the Epstein files and another addressing the backlash he received:
To my normie friends who’ll be outraged by this, we have been brainwashed by corporate media all our lives. They said that anything that isn’t the official government story is a “conspiracy theory” only insane people believe, to gaslight you into never questioning the government.
Why am I questiong this now? That’s obvious. We just found out our goevrnment was lying to us for decades about a child rape ring inside America. And “our” government protected the predators instead of American children. You’d have to be an idiot to trust the US government now.
Uygur’s post caught the attention of journalists, fact checkers, and political leaders from across the political spectrum, with the vast majority accusing him of embracing conspiracy theories for attention and catering to online audience capture.
BBC Verify’s Shayan Sardarizadeh shared another of Uygur’s posts defending conspiracy theories and noted, “Holding power to account and asking difficult questions of governments are both vital in free democracies. They are completely different to baseless conspiracy theories that merely help the powerful to delegitimise real accountability and lead some down a radical path.”
The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson added, “I worry that the social penalty of announcing that you believe in nonsense is going down. It’s not so much that people are more conspiratorial than ever. That’s clearly not true. Believers in make-believe are an ancient tribe.”
Thompson concluded:
It’s more like … a falling social cost to high-status folks saying insane shit and protecting themselves from accusations of insanity by saying all they’re doing is opposing “the mainstream media” or “corporate media.”
The Dispatch’s Jonah Goldberg added, “This is so pathetic. I particularly love the implied notion that this putz’s (alleged) change of mind matters to anyone. ‘I didn’t believe the joooooz were behind 9/11 but then Cenk said we have to ask questions because of some passports blah blah blah. And now I’m not so sure.’”
Moderate House Republican Don Bacon (R-NE) added, “Crank Uygur is officially in the tinfoil hat club.”
Uygur did find some allies on the far right, with former InfoWars host Owen Shroyer weighing in, “How anyone can believe the official story is beyond me. No one goes from not believing it to believing it. Most went from believing it to not believing it. This trend only goes one direction and is not stopping.”
Below are some more reactions:
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The post ‘So Pathetic’: Left And Right Join Together to Slam Cenk Uygur Going Full 9/11 Truther first appeared on Mediaite.
