The hipsters are invading

My friend MR told me about Vox Pop, a trendy coffee spot in his quickly becoming gentrified neighborhood of 'Ditmas Park' (it was always just called Flatbush but fine, 'Ditmas Park' it is, despite, of course, being no where near any park whatsoever), that is peddling 9/11 conspiracy theories. This is like blocks from where I grew up, a place I saw as too realistic to breed the sort of people that take themselves seriously enough to believe crap like this.

The cafe is owned by the intense and hyperactive Sander Hicks, who wrote "The Big Wedding" — a reference to the code word terrorists supposedly gave the 9/11 attacks, and our government ignored. It sold out its 3,000-copy first printing in days.

Hicks does not like the term "conspiracy theory" because, he says, "That assumes it's wrong or not credible."
...
"The Arab community didn't benefit from 9/11. It was Bush and Co."

Does Hicks prefer 'you're a moron'?

I do take issue with one part of the NY Post story about this place. They write: 'But here is a news flash that has been living under the mainstream radar: The community that believes 9/11 was a U.S. government plot is large and it is diverse. And it is growing.' Actually, though, according to the article and my own general experience, the people who believe that 9/11 was an inside job tend to fall into 2 categories: Muslim kooks and liberal kooks. That fact that these kooks can be, say, teachers, is more than a little unfortunate.

The best part of the piece is this:

Down the street from Vox Pop sits the FDNY's Engine Co. 281. I ask a firefighter what he thinks of the cafe that's founded on the belief that the government killed his brethren on 9/11.

He just snickered between clenched teeth.

"We have our own coffee," he said.

Now that's my Brooklyn.