The Failure of Truther

By: Myles Power Edited by: Rach

At the beginning of this year I came up with the idea of investigating the underground British conspiracy movement. My plan was to find these people and to ask why they think what they think and why they are not as vocal as our transatlantic friends. Unfortunately after working on the project for over 4 months now I have decided to call time on the project for various reasons which are discussed below.

Refusing to allow me to use footage

To get conspiracy theorists to agree to be interviewed I gave them my word that if they no longer wanted to be part of the project I would not use the footage. I gave out my card and told them how to find me. I was also completely open about the objectives of the project and my experience with conspiracy theorists in the past. I talked about my previous 9/11 videos and how I don't personally believe in any of the mainstream conspiracy theories. Unfortunately a few key players who I interviewed contacted me saying that I no longer have their permission to be included in my video in any way. I was accused of using "nefarious covert tactics" and profiting of the deaths of the people who died on 9/11 (even though none of my 9/11 videos have any ads on them). Others accused me of working with the BBC to make an anti-truther video.

People unwilling to meet up

One of the hardest things I found to do was to try and convince people to meet up with me in real life to discuss their theories. I found this incredibly surprising as one of the main complaints on the net by conspiracy theorists and the people at the “We are Change” Manchester group was that no-one was listening to them. But when given an opportunity to talk to thousands of people nearly all declined. The reasons they gave varied from people thinking it would be a waste of their time to some actually worried for their life….I am not kidding. Some people actually thought I was part of a government scheme going around the country “bumping off” conspiracy theorists. Other simply just insulted me rather than taking me up on my offer for an interview. “some folk ain’t worth the effort…. they just don’t want to believe…..uneducated and brainwashed ! Myles probably still believes that the world is flat….” Although 99% of people I contacted refused to meet me there were some who were willing to take time out of their day to talk to me. These include someone from Critical Mass Radio, Charlie Veitch and a few people I met at conspiracy meet ups. Unfortunately I don’t think interviews from so few people would be a fair representation of the British conspiracy movement.

Money

Unfortunately since January the amount of disposable money I have decreased to the point where I can no long afford to visit sites of interest and people at short notice. I also underestimated the cost of this project which led to problems when trying to organise meetings.

The work I have done so far has not been a complete waste of time as I plan to release some of the footage as independent stand-alone videos. I have also learnt a lot attempting this project which I believe is going to help me in the future with my YouTube channel.