Why is the term "truther" used as a slur?

[panader0]

No matter what the subject is, I want to know the truth. Is it better to hide one's head in the sand?
Honesty is always the best policy.

[uppityperson]

1. When one does not believe the truth and continues to hold out for "their" truth, then they

deserve the name, imo. Rather like "birther".

[jp11]

2. Well put.

[SidDithers]

5. Exactly...

Sid

[panader0]

8. So the findings of the 9/11 commission are the "truth"?

[uppityperson]

10. Getting enough exercise there?

jumping to conclusions

[Voice for Peace]

4. I think the same reason "Tree hugger" has become a slur.

[Betsy Ross]

6. A truther is one who propagates truthiness.

Truthiness is a Stephen Colbert term for that which may only be true to the speaker.

[piratefish08]

7. I always suspected the truth was somewhere in the middle

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/the-bush-white-house-was-deaf-to-9-11-warnings.html

[uppityperson]

11. fwiw, here is what was written as you self deleted your other post.

edited to hide it. If someone wants to see, check edit history. Thanks.

[coalition_unwilling]

12. The literal answer to your question is that those who doubt the official narrative

have titled their movement the '9-11 Truth' movement. Hence the word 'truther' used as a perjorative is being used ironically for members of the 9-11 Truth movement. The implication is that 9-11 Truthers are not interested in Truth (with a capital 'T') but in some sub-species of it peculiar to their own psychological bents. As a rhetorical device, the perjorative 'truther' functions to shut off debate and shut down questions and dialogue. If I, for example, ask who stood to benefit from 9-11 (the age-old Latin question cui bono?), a Coincidence Theorist can shut that debate down and NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION by dismissing me as a 'truther.' So be it, but the QUESTION REMAINS!

I believe most professional historians would look askance at any claim to a single objective 'Truth' in history, seeing all historical narrative as highly conditioned and situated within larger macrocosms (or "substructures," if you go for Marxist terminology). The most historians can hope for is that various biases are rendered transparent and self-acknowledged by historians such that through a process of continual 'circling around' the event or epoch, one gets at closer and closer approximations of truth. (The German philosopher of history Wilhelm Dilthey gets credit for this idea of 'historicism,' IIRC.)

BTW, I consider myself agnostic on the question of conspiracy and 9/11. I do think a fuller inquiry is warranted, one not led by Kinda-Sleezy's confidante and colleague Philip Zelikow.

[Xithras]

13. Because most truthers aren't really interested in the truth, just in conspiracy.

Most educated people apply something akin to the scientific method to complex topics like this one. You have a problem, you develop a theory, and you look for evidence to support it. If the evidence doesn't support your theory, you abandon it and find a new one.

Truthers are the equivalent of the Zetetics of the past century. Though the mass of evidence and nearly universal consensus of both the population and scientists are against them, they still insisted that the world was flat. They were so wedded to proving their theory "right", that the defense of the theory became more important than the search for (and acceptance of) the "truth.

And that's why it's a slur. To most people, being a "truther" is the intellectual equivalent of being a flat Earther. Is there a possiblity that the world is really flat and our perception of both it and the universe is simply warped by spacetime? Sure it is. Is there a possibility that 9/11 was really an inside job planned by Mossad and the CIA, and was carried out by slamming remote controlled airplanes into thermite rigged skyscrapers? Of course there's a possibility. Is either theory very likely? Not at all. And most people know that.

[Speck Tater]

14. Any conspiracy, no matter how big, CAN be kept secret indefinitely.

All you have to do is react to every bit of leaked information by pointing, snickering, and saying the magic words "conspiracy theory". This automatically discredits the leaked information and conditions people to ridicule those who leaked the data.

If I believed in conspiracy theories that's how I would explain it. Fortunately, I don't believe in those wacky conspiracy theories. After all, I don't want people to think I'm a crazy nut job. Besides, what I actually believe makes more sense: Never resort to conspiracy to explain what can easily be explained by mass stupidity.

[coalition_unwilling]

15. Authoritarians are perfectly entitled to call me a 'conspiracy theorist,' provided

I can call them a 'coincidence theorist.'

[skypilot]

16. I've read through this thread and...

...I still can't figure out exactly who the term "truther" refers to as far as 9/11 goes. I'm getting the feeling that it gets tossed around about as carelessly as the phrase "conspiracy theorist". I've been referred to as a conspiracy theorist simply because I want the truth, which would probably also qualify me as a truther. I don't propose or advance any theories. I simply believe that I--and we--have been lied to regarding 9/11. I don't believe everything I've been told and I have questions--some of which I'm surprised have never (to my knowledge) been asked by anyone in a position to hold others accountable. Does that make me a truther?

[Posteritatis]

17. Truthers generally aren't seeking the truth; they've decided what it is. (nt)

[librechik]

19. people who demand an investigation--scientists, architects, engineers, victims

are demanding an new investigation not to bolster some fantasy they already are certain about, but to ask for a new investigation so we know better what to think about the facts.

It's the idiots who say 19 guys with box-cutters took the plane down who are sticking to a predetermined script. A script full of lies derived from torture and official coverups.

I don't know what happened. That's why I want the truth.

[librechik]

18. beats me. I want the truth too--and I have to suffer mockery and derision

from folks who seem to be programmed just to tear down anything that disturbs their preconceptions.