How many of you have ever cross-referenced claims made by conspiracy theorists?

I do it quite often. Problem is that even these books rarely cite original documentation. Usually the trail ends after a series of books citing other books which cite others, and so on.

Once in a while, I come across a real gem that purports to have access to secret, confidential documents. Of course, these are so secret, I can't see them for my self.

If a researcher is lucky, a public figure is quoted, and sometimes these quotes can be verified in newspaper archives or the Library of Congress. But all they are is quotes, that do not, themselves lead to any source documentation.

As example, I refer you to senator Joseph McCarthey's infamous "list of card-carrying comunists and communist sympathizers" in the US military. When asked, by the army and the press to produce the list, or even name a few names on the list, he refused.

By the way, I will not claim that I have read all the books and documents in their entirety. A lot of wasted effort if even a tenth may prove uncomfirmable.

You pose a good question and ask it well.

It's a dull, boring, repetitive existence - they all quote each other and use each other as references, to make it look like they have a ton of references... One parrots the other, who parrots one that parrotted somebody yesterday - they have about 4 sources, and the rest is all sketchy, second hand crap that they get off the internet. I am not a fan of Time Magazine, but in their 9/11 remembrance issue they dissected this practice pretty thoroughly. All the 9/11 "alternate" explanations just don't stand up to rational thought or explanation. If a cruise missile hit the Pentagon - what happened to the 64 people that were on the flight that everyone saw actually hit the Pentagon? The plane lost its wings before impact, so that's what makes these sheep think it was a missile.

They can't understand or fully grasp the total picture, so they create an alternate reality, based on misinformation, subterfuge, lies, and hatred (because most of them have an ax to grind) - and they shake it all up and it suppose that it makes better sense than the truth. They never let the truth interfere with a good story.