WTC Policy: Physics Forums Global Guidelines

[jostpuur]

The comments about crackpottery in Physics Forums Global Guidelines seem to deal mostly with the personal physical theories, and not conspiracy theories. But this thread https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=177337 seems to indicate, that you do have some kind of policy conserning this.

The WTC conspiracy isn't really scientific crackpottery, but political instead. By this I mean, that even though some specific claims made by the conspiracy theorists are not very convincing, the big idea that explosives were used to bring buildings down, does not contradict laws of physics, it contradicts certain political atmoshpere.

Since the purpose of moderation is primarily to maintain certain scientifical quality in discussions (and to have some control over behaviour of the PF members), it is not obvious that conspiracy theories should be banned. In any case, if you have a well defined policy conserning WTC conspiracy, it could be mentioned in the global guidelines as well for clarity. It is easier to find it there than from years old threads.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We have tried time and again to moderate such discussions, but the fact is that WTC conspiracy theories are not only lacking good evidence, they also attract every crackpot on the net. Frankly, it was impossible to allow any discussion because many of those who promote the idea are unreasonable, and apparently incapable of having civil discussions [forgive the pun].

In fact it is so bad that I am closing this thread to avoid chumming the water. This discussion is all it would take for the thread to spiral out of control.

 

[russ_watters]

The WTC conspiracy isn't really scientific crackpottery, but political instead. By this I mean, that even though some specific claims made by the conspiracy theorists are not very convincing, the big idea that explosives were used to bring buildings down, does not contradict laws of physics, it contradicts certain political atmoshpere.

Ivan already locked this, but just to put a finer point on it, the use of explosives at the WTC does contradict the laws of physics and the scientific method in general, as the evidence available does not support/directly contradicts the assertions. It is scientific crackpottery.