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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
As the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaches, terror-related urban legends are running rampant. Luckily, Snopes.com is on the case.
Sep 3, 2002 | Osama bin Laden lives in Salt Lake City, because his many wives aren't conspicuous there.
Terrorists fund their operations using a telemarketing scam peddling information about an upcoming nuclear attack.
And, if you drink Coke after Labor Day, well, I hope your will's up-to-date.
A year after Sept. 11, rumors like these still circulate on the Net, threatening to turn a vigilante mob of telemarketing-phobic Coke boycotters loose on Salt Lake City.
It's all the husband-and-wife team of Barbara and David Mikkelson -- who run Snopes.com, the Urban Legends Reference Pages -- can do to keep pandemonium at bay with their levelheaded debunking of these well-meaning but often goofy warnings and too-good-to-be-true stories.
Late last year, in an interview with Salon, Barbara Mikkelson discussed what the rumor frenzy said about our fragile psyches. Today, even though the constant threat of terror appears to have abated, she explains why the Sept. 11 rumor mill still churns on.
What are the biggest terrorism rumors circulating right now?
A version of the "helped terrorist" tale. The one we're seeing now features Coca-Cola and sometimes Pepsi.
A fellow of Middle Eastern appearance is in a grocery store or a convenience store or a McDonald's or a Wal-Mart, and he comes up a couple of dollars short in his purchase. And the woman standing behind him in line simply ponies up the two or three dollars that he needs to finish his business. And he meets her outside of the store, and says: "You did me a good turn. I'm going to do you one. Don't drink Coca-Cola after the 15th." Or "Don't drink Coca-Cola after Labor Day." Or "Don't drink Coca-Cola after July 4th" was also heard.
And this is a version of a rumor that we were seeing last fall in cities all over the country: Stay off the bridges on the 12th, don't be in the subways on the 24th, don't go to the boat show, or whatever.
The story itself actually dates back almost two years prior to Sept. 11, where a version of it first appeared in England.
It had to do with an Irish fellow presumed to be IRA warning against Christmas week in a large shopping mall in Britain.
What do you think is the significance of this particular legend? Why does it have staying power and keep morphing?
The major reason is that it makes the threat of terrorism something that can be dealt with and combated. The harsh reality of terrorism is that it is anywhere, anytime and in any manner.
And that is a very frightening thing. It's completely beyond our abilities to deal with.
So rumors like this tend to simplify things down for us. It makes keeping your family safe simply a matter of not drinking Coca-Cola after Labor Day, right? And that is so much easier to deal with than constantly looking about you everywhere you go. And that's one of the reasons such legends have a great appeal: because they take something that is just too large and reduce it down to something that can be handled.
As the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaches, has there been any uptick in these rumors at all? Has there been any change in the kinds of rumors you're seeing?
Right now, we're seeing a surge of "slack-tivism" requests. That's the joy of participating in something without doing anything -- slack-activism.
An example: the idea that everyone should turn on their headlights on Sept. 11, as a way of mourning the dead and showing solidarity throughout the land.
How much effort does it take to turn on your headlights, as opposed to going out and buying a flag and actually flying it that day?
Basically, it's an attempt to find some way of recognizing the importance of the day, but at the same time not doing anything that really takes you out of your armchair.
There is a need to mark the day. People are confused as to what they should do or how they should handle it. And this seems to offer a very simple easy solution.
