9/12 | Episode 4: People Knew

The cultural impact and psychological origins of 9/11 conspiracy theories stem from a collective need to resolve the lingering "undone-ness" of the tragedy. Dylan Avery’s viral documentary, *Loose Change*, became a seminal text for these theories, not through rigorous fact-checking, but by articulating a widespread suspicion that official accounts were incomplete. This phenomenon reveals how trauma drives individuals to construct elaborate, sometimes contradictory, narratives to fill the void left by catastrophic events. The transformation of Ground Zero from a vacant, 16-acre hole into a site of national memory further illustrates this tension, as conspiracy theorists and observers like tour guide Mark Roberts vied to define the site’s meaning. Ultimately, these theories persist because the alternative—accepting that such destruction resulted from human error and arrogance—proves far more difficult to confront than the dark, yet structured, certainty of a conspiracy.