Bill Cooper and the Birth of 911 Conspiracy Culture | Tech News

0:00On September 11, back in June of 2001, a radio host named Bill Cooper was on air, talking about a news report he'd seen. He claimed a reporter had just walked right into Osama bin Laden's hideout, interviewed him and his top guys, and then came out saying an attack on. The US and Israel was coming in three weeks. Cooper thought it was fishy that the government's big intelligence agencies couldn't find bin Laden, but some reporter with a camera crew supposedly could. Cooper argued that the whole bin Laden threat was a setup, a false flag operation, and that anyone who believed it was being played, he believed the government was lying, and that whoever attacked would blame it on bin Laden. This idea of distrusting official narratives really took root, especially after the September 11 attacks. The aftermath of 9-11 changed so much about daily life, from airport security to how we think about surveillance. But one of the biggest impacts, often overlooked, is how it shifted our relationship with facts and truth.

1:00This story has roots in older conspiracy theories, like UFOs from the 80s and connects to more recent events, helping explain how figures like Alex Jones went from French host to major political influencers. Cooper's earlier work, a book called A.B. Holdet Pale Horse X, was a wild read that outlined vast global conspiracies. It became a cult hit, especially in malicious circles. He even had a brief connection with Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, and later became a sort of mentor to Alex Jones, who took inspiration, from Cooper's model of questioning authority and spreading alternative narratives. After 9-11, Alex Jones really leaned into conspiracy theories about the attacks, while Cooper eventually became critical Jones. Cooper himself died in a standoff with law enforcement in November 2001. This left the door open for Jones to become a dominant voice in spreading 9-11 conspiracies and other theories, eventually leading to his downfall. After lawsuits related to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, that's the story for today.

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