Zeitgeist: The Movie
Zeitgeist: The Movie is a 2007 internet "documentary" which claims to tell the truth about Christianity, 9/11, and the Federal Reserve. 99% of the people who watch this film are not smart enough to realize those topics are unrelated.
Just The Facts
- Zeitgeist was one of the most viewed videos on Google.
- A vast number of people who watch this film feel as though they have had their eyes opened to the awful truth of the world.
- An early version of the film tried to liked Christianity to Sun-worshipping religions because Jesus is believed to be God's Son, and that word is [in English, exclusively] a homophone for "sun."
- A vast number of people who watch this film are idiots.
- Zeitgeist de-contextualizes a monologue from Network. That is a great movie. Zeitgeist is not.
Handling the truth
Zeitgeist: The Movie is a film that, first and foremost, advocates free-thinking and an inquisitive nature. If there is a general thesis to this movie (and honestly, there may not be), it is that people are too trusting, placing a large amount of faith in the establishment. Anyone with a desire to explore the mysteries of the world and learn the truth about global events should listen to multiple sources and seek out well-documented, skillfully researched articles which represent the unheard voices of legitimate scholars who can expose the lies which run rampant through society.
On an unrelated note, Zeitgeist is directed, produced, written by, edited by, and scored by Peter Joseph (sorry, no meaningless letters like Ph.D or anything after his name). For those at home without a calculator, that is one (1) man.
It's a damn good thing for the world that we know we can trust him. A damn good thing, indeed.
A crusader for truth and justice in a maelstrom of lies and deceit, Peter Joseph's contributions to our cultural knowledge have allowed him to join the esteemed ranks of Charlie Sheen, Rosie O'Donnell, and Fox Mulder. But his quest has not been without its obstacles. Zeitgeist has only been translated into a mere 21 languages (the Illuminati/NWO/Freemasons/Weinstein Brothers cannot allow more nations to know the truth), and just as there are those who have not read such critical texts as The Da Vinci Code, it is possible to encounter a few poor souls who have not been exposed to this internet phenomenon.
Some bastards will do anything to suppress the truth.
Part I: Religion and the Tyranny of Vague Similarities!
Peter Joseph is a fearless man, and fearless men know that the best way to get someone's attention is to shock them (nude scenes are also helpful). Knowing this, Joseph grabs the viewer's attention from the beginning with the disturbing and horrible fact that he does not subscribe to the beliefs of Christianity.
Actual yearbook photo of Peter Joseph.
However, Joseph thinks his viewers should reject this religion, as well. He may be attempting to refute the traditions and culture of a large group of people, but it's totally not bigotry if he's right about it (he isn't).
To prove he is right, Peter Joseph advances thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories in the hopes that his viewers will believe anything if it is said in an ominous tone of voice and accompanied by cliche movie thriller music. Research is lame, anyway.
Zeitgeist first asserts that every early civilization ever worhsipped the sun and considered it to be both the creator and savior of mankind. Tried and true conspiracy theorists will know that images of pagan sun worship have survived even in today's cultural iconography.
Now, the notion that the sun was universally worshipped in this way back in the day is not exactly, well, right, but as viewers will soon discover, Zeitgeist is not concerned with the facts. It's concerned with the truth. There's a difference.
So...whoa...wait one second here. Isn't Jesus, like, God's son? Doesn't that sound an awful lot like "sun"? No...
NOOOO!!!!! HEAVENS NOOOO!!!!! IT'S ALL A LIE!!!!!!! WE'VE ALL BEEN SO BLIND!!!!!
Oh, right...not everyone spoke English back then. Moving on...
The film also tries to compare Jesus to the Egyptian deity Horus. God of the Sun acording to the film, and God of the Sky according to the scholars. But nevermind their meddling. Joseph goes about his comparison by taking the story of Jesus' life (born on December 25, had 12 followers, was crucified, etc.) and inserting the word "Horus" in place of "Jesus". This story proceeds to blow the minds of viewers. Professors have a different reaction...
Zeitgeist sures tells an interesting story there. Stephen King tells interesting stories too, but research suggests that there may not be an evil clown living in the sewers of Derry, Maine. Research further suggests that there may not even be a Derry, Maine.
As far as Zeitgeist goes, research suggests that Peter Joseph never read a book on world religions. Horus wasn't crucified, a conclusion drawn by hard-working scholars when they considered the fact that Horus never officially died. He was also born in July or August, depending on which calendar you use. And his mommy wasn't a virgin. And there are no valid, primary sources to indicate that he had twelve followers, or was like Jesus in any way, shape or form.
Of course, that doesn't stop Peter Joseph from continuing to make vague, inaccurate comparisons between Christianity and other world religions. After sifting through the inaccuracies in this section of Zeitgeist, one can still arrive at an honest, shocking truth about the nature of Christianity: Christianity involves the worship of a God. Other religions, also, involve the worship of gods. Cue minor key techno music.
9/11 was an inside job!
After making the controversial assertion that it is possible to find parallels between major religions if one looks hard enough, Zeitgeist takes the next logical step in the progression of ideas and tackles...9/11?
Like this. Except no facts.
This seems like a reasonable transition to make. If it hadn't been for Christianity co-opting other relgions (and, remember, the scholars say it didn't), then we'd all know the truth about 9/11. The topics are like conjoined twins, they're so connected.
In this section of the film, Peter Joseph contends that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job perpetrated by the American government. The theory is that shadowy forces within the government would stage an elaborate disaster, killing thousands, then turn around and blame it on terrorists from Afghanistan, all in order to gain support for a war in...Iraq. Hmm...
Not pictured: Afghanistan
To pull off a conspiracy of this magnitude on your own soil and get away undiscovered would take genius-caliber planning. The war in Iraq consists of less than genius-caliber planning. This disparity escapes a lot of people.
Unfortunately for Peter Joseph, there are a lot of statements out there which refute his theory. Fortunately for Peter Joseph, the magic of basic editing can make any statement support any theory.
Like the flight instructors claiming that Hani Hanjour was a poor pilot. Now, what they really complained about was his inability to properly communicate in English, but as we pointed out earlier, the concept of foreign languages is one which escapes Peter Joseph. He also failed to include the statements experts who mentioned that it wouldn't be difficult for someone with a little bit of practice to fly a large plane into a large building. Cuz those statements must be lies.
Then there is the guy saying that the building was constructed to withstand being hit by a 707. Interesting. Now what about a 767-200, the kind of plane that actually hit the building? One that was flown in the building on purpose, while full of fuel? Peter Joseph "forgot" to put the statements about those details in.
Luckily, viewers bought it, but Zeitgeist hadn't convinced everyone yet. So, when clever editing failed, Peter Joseph resorted to another strtegy to do the trick: lying.
The film claims that there is no mention of Building 7 of the WTC made anywhere in the 9/11 Commission Report.
In other, unrelated news, Peter Joseph is either a pathological liar or illiterate.
Way too many pages to actually read...
And thus, it was all made clear for the viewers. The people who recovered human remains from Shanksville? Conspirators. The families who claim to have spoken with their loved ones on Flight 93? Conspirators. The people who saw a plane crash into the Pentagon? Conspirators.
Peter Joseph? Hero.
The banks who owned everything!
The final section of this film deals with evil that is Central Banks. Apparently, a central bank that prints all the money for a nation is unfair, because they attach whatever percentage of interest they wish to onto their currency, but we can only pay off the debt created by this interest with money fom, you guessed it: the central bank.
Peter Joseph would prefer a world with free banking systems. Ya know, the kind we had in the 19th century where banks loaned you money, then went under, and the cash they gave you became worth less than Monopoly money.
Joseph backs-up his case with serious quotations from serious people. Quoations that were seriously taken out of context, and, on occassion, cobbled together from various sources over said serious person's lifetime. Oftentimes, the only available sources for these quotes are conspiracy websites. But what's more reliable: books, or www.lizardpeopleruletheearth.net?
He also makes a big deal about the Federal Reserve being a private organization, which is slightly true. He claims that it is unregulated by the government, which is more than slightly untrue. Congress often checks up on the Reserve to see what's going on with everyone's money.
The general thesis of this section is that somewhere, some greedy genius sits on his throne, controlling all the wealth of the nation. We're guessing it's Dr. Claw.
The idea in the subtext is that the money generated for the Federal Reserve via interest charges goes directly to the men behind the scenes; presumably, the American public is footing the bill for their massive cocaine addiction and spiffy "rich jerk" threads.
The sad, less scary truth, is that the money actually pays for legitimate government programs, none of which involve cocaine, although we're sure Peter Joseph is working on that documentary as we speak ( tentatively titled The White Powder Behind the White House).
Peter Joseph, still blowing our minds, lets us all know how profitable war was (primarily by citing quotations from conspiracy sites and throwing out random numbers that are completely incongruous with historical records). Apparently, the real reason we got involved in conflicts like WWII was to make some cash for the Monopoly Men. And you silly folks thought it was the Nazis.
In fact, just about every war the United States was involved in during the 20th Century was provoked by some elaborate, 9/11-esque conspiracy. Pearl Harbor, sinking of the Lusitiania...all planned by the US Government. Or so Zeitgeist would have you believe.
History, on the other hand, says otherwise. So, maybe after watching this film, it would be helpful to go read a book, possibly by someone with more qualifications than "being really good with Windows Movie Maker."
in the end it all comes back to the same old right wing VS left wing debate. this article looks like it was written by some religious or military dude, so in the comments you got all the hippies and anarchists complaining, maybe next time it would be the other way around.
ReplyEvery single person on Earth that ever existed and every single thing that has ever happened, ever, is a conspiracy. Exept me. I'm the only good person in the universe. Or I'm the conspiracy and everything else is normal. You choose what to believe in. :D
ReplyYou are the apotheosis of escapism
Once again cracked bows to its corporate masters to avoid losing ad revenue. The article wasn't even funny...
ReplyIt's funny if you're not a conspiracy theorist, and think conspiracy theorists are retards.
And since conspiracy theorists do tend to be retards, it's very funny.
The argument trying to debunk the federal reserve section on this movie is a little weak. What Peter Joseph said about that is pretty true, in essence, that's why we have inflation. You cant really regulate an entity if you rely on them for the lifeblood of your whole nation, you just kindof have to bend over and take it. Thats why we have inflation, national debt, unemployment, economic contraction, and homeless masses of starving people in the "greatest country in the world" The system sucks, but so does every system based on a medium of no value that is worth exactly what a small body of bigwigs tell us it is. You dont see any of THEM suffering from the recession though, which is suspicious. Instead the government mysteriously "loses" a s**t ton of money, which didnt exist in the first place, and fumbles around trying to lay the blame on some nonexistant party whom they can string up without pissing off anyone of the higher ups.
Replyyes peter joseph kindve sucks, so did the jaque guy proposing the "resource based economy" but most of the information was accurate in the film. i know this is a humor site but gee wiz its pretty evident the government was involved in 9/11. a child can see that when presented with the evidence. wtc7, evidence of thermite, eyewitness accounts of willy rodriguez and others, the larry silverstein interview, the fact that military deliberately ignored all standard protocol that day and dick cheney just happened to be in control of norad and ordered a stand down..i mean it just goes on and on and on. yes alex jones is crazy, and yes alot of conspiracy sites arent credible. but at least research this stuff for yourself. or you could just believe the government and media, i mean hey, they wouldnt lie.
Reply Hide All See All 3 Repliessure, they are all a little crazy, Moore, Jones, Fresco... but no more so then the goons on the other side. Has anyone ever LOOKED at Dick Cheny? He looks like he wants to chew your eyes out. So those who say, aw he wouldnt do that to a bunch of poor americans, cant remember that he likes to kill for fun, and even shot his good buddy Dan Quail (accidentally?) while they were hunting. All the upper class political snobs DONT CARE about us at all. not one little bit. In fact, if the Running Man were legal as a punishment, they would line up and cheer for our deaths.
All the 'science' being presented as evidence for controlled demolition comes from people who are not trained in the field. That should tell you something about how credible it is. Is the official story a bit spotty? Sure. Is the case being made by conspiracy theorists sound? Not in the least. Just because a lot of people are harping on something, it doesn't make the point legitimate.
Yeah, the official story might have a few small holes but it's a damn sight more plausible. f*****g conspiracy theorists.
Hilarious and insightful.
Replywww.prisonplanet.com
Replyview: Fall Of The Republic, The Obama Deception, Truth Rising, & Endgame, Debunking 9/11 Debunking, & one pertaining to the banking- Loose Change Final Cut.
Take care.
view 9/11
haha, great article!
Replyyes, everything said in the mockumentary on central banks is horseshit.
yes, everything said on 9/11 is the work of an isolated loser.
but i kinda liked the religion part. and although parts 2 and 3 discredit him quite significantly, i found that most of what he said about christianity evolving from pagan sun worship to be true. christianity was something the rulers of the time embraced b/c they could not defeat it. eventually, as with most popular things, they realized they could use it to control those petty masses. and what made it easier was that the people wanted to be controlled by it. it's a phenomenon anthropologists like to call "normative control."
as for the comparisons b/w religions and there being other profits suspiciously similar to jesus, i haven't looked into that. but i'm going to agree with you that it was more than likely embellished...
The section on Christianity is by far the worst in the film, which says a lot. Most scholars of religion would balk at Section I, and for good reason. Consider that Joseph has actually started to back away from the claims he made in this film after being confronted by legitimate religious scholars who debunked all his arguments, which were based on research from one source - Acharya S.
Acharya is a new age cultist who has a B.A. in Classical Studies and no extensive formal training in textual criticism, comparative religion, or Christian history and philosophy. All her sources are outdated on the order of decades, and when she's confronted on this, she insists that her arguments are not her own, but the product of the people whose works she cites in making her arguments.
This is not the mark of a good scholar of anything.
Not to mention that there is no official proof that Acharya even went to university. That woman's a f*****g fraud.
mspsy, thank you for portraying non-theists in such a negative light. You're no better than a loud-mouthed Bible Belt preacher barking about the "facts" of Noah's global flood. You watched "The God who wasn't there" and now you feel like an authority on the subject.
ReplyI do think the author of this article is unfairly dismissing generally agreed-upon historical curiousities. The story of Jesus is similar to various older dieties. Christianity shares many traditions and mythologies with the pagan religions of that area.
On the question of Jesus' historicity, we do not have a definitive answer one way of the other. The vast majority of historians do lean toward accepting his existence.
As for the 9/11 stuff, why not join a religion while you're at it? There ARE scientists who believe in the inerrant nature of the Bible. They're usually marginalized by the rest of the scientific community, but they EXIST. Similarly, some experts do believe the towers should not have fallen by themselves. Not many experts mind you. There practically exists a consensus among scientists that the buildings should have fallen. But if you are willing to accept the most extravagant claims with so little evidence, why not Jesus?
And I apologize if I too write like a 13 year old girl. I think I'm quite the capable writer under normal events. But I am severely intoxicated.
I liked this article and consider the two refutations below to be poorly written.
Reply"In fact, just about every war the United States was involved in during the 20th Century was provoked by some elaborate, 9/11-esque conspiracy. Pearl Harbor, sinking of the Lusitiania...all planned by the US Government. Or so Zeitgeist would have you believe."
ReplyThis is something I was taught to be true while I was in high school. World history, the U.S. wanted to be a part of certain wars and made sure they had reason to be by taking certain action. i.e. Pissing off Japan during WW2 and sinking the Lusitania. There is also the question of WW1 and some royal guy being killed which started everything, "on purpose".
I highly doubt that a teacher in a renowned private high school was lying.
The topics in the movie are directly related. There is on basic subject, zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, which today is a question of who is in power. Those who had the power in the past, those who have power now and what that power will be used for in the future. Power.
ReplyThe only thing in the film that isn`t well researched or factual is the end.
There is no way to prove the future.
I have studied religion in University as well as doing a lot of independent research in libraries, not the Internet. Zeitgeist the movie is one hundred percent correct in it`s analysis of religion.
Jesus never existed. Many other myths have existed before the myth of Jesus and they were exactly the same. He is an anthropomorphic personification of the sun and it has nothing to do with the similarity between the words sun and son.
9/11 was an inside job. 3 buildings in New York city were demolished using bombs that were put inside them before airplanes ever crashed into them. Jet fuel cannot melt the kind of metal that is used to build the skeleton of a sky scraper. (Ask anyone who has studied chemistry, it`s a question of elements only being able to burn at a certain temperature.) This is scientific fact.
Whether any airplanes were present or not is irrelevant.
You are obviously someone who believes in religion. I hope you keep your biased opinions to yourself instead of posting them on public forums but if you continue, I comfort myself with the idea that you write with as much talent as a 13 year old girl.
I once was one, so I know how badly they write.
Actually, Mspsy, all of those religious texts that Christianity "stole" from? They were written *after* Christianity had taken over the areas those texts came from. Christianity didn't steal from Paganism, Paganism stole from Christianity. As for your little tirade about melted steel, you're not even smart enough to be wrong on that. Steel weakens when it gets hot, so while the fires in the Twin Towers could not have melted the structures of the buildings, the fires could have brought the buildings down. You fail, and you need to go read a book.
Funny topic, dude. Hope you get a graphic up soon.
ReplyThe person who wrote this article clearly does not understand how our society function, 911 was an inside job, and the reason they got away with it is because of idiots like yourself, yes I'm calling you an idiot, no I won't give you facts they are all over the internet for you to find out the truth, and no... I don't want to argue with you I just wanted to let you know how stupid you are