Halls of illusion
Some Dare Call It Conspiracy: Manchester Arena Bombing On Trial review
Rating – 
***SNEAK PEEK SPECIAL***
You will by now be well aware of my love of SDCIC. So much so that they won an entirely virtual trophy at the Podcastgeek awards at Christmas (or a nobody gave a nobody nothing, as some wag on Twitter described it). Whatever, your words don’t hurt me (honest). But anyway, back to the point.
One of the highlights of my Wednesdays is getting a new episode of SDCIC in my podcatcher. As I was halfway through the first episode, I had a message from Brent asking if I wanted the whole 8 part series in advance to review. Obviously I leapt at the chance.
So without further ado ladies and gentlemen, here is my spoiler free review of SDCIC’s deep dive into the Manchester Arena Bombing.
So what’s it about?
In this 8 part series Brent and Neil are once again joined by Australian podcaster Joel Hill. They are investigating claims made by conspiracy theorist Richard D Hall’s book and film, Night Of The Bang. This covers the controversial idea that the Manchester Arena Bombing on 22nd May 2017 was a false flag event that was used to mislead the public. That the bomber was some kind of MI6 agent, and that the casualties fatalities were all faked.
If you’re a fan of the show, then you’ll know what to expect. If you’re new to the show then these deep dives play out like this. The first half of the series looks at the opinions and “evidence” of the conspiracy theorists. As you would expect, these guys are very thorough, and despite your brain (hopefully) telling you otherwise, they do make compelling cases. I mean, that’s why people believe them, isn’t it?
The second half of the investigation picks apart the previously made statements with the usual forensic care. This is where the podcast comes into its own. You have essentially spent 4 hours listening to reasons how and why people are convinced to participate in false flag events. How a few people are somehow more intelligent than the shadowy protagonists, and how despite having unlimited money and resources they will overlook small details such as EXIF data on mobile phone photos. But gloss over those last two sentences for now. The conspiracy theorists are convincing, albeit slightly.
You now get to have the rug pulled out from underneath you.
Is it any good?
Obviously, despite the fact that the only people who have listened to the whole lot so far are patreon subscribers and freeloaders like me, so I won’t go into any details past episode two. I reckon that’s fair, as today should that episode appear on your mobile devices.
What I will say is that as the conspiracy mounts, I defy anyone not to feel increasing anger and incredulity. I still have a stiff neck from shaking my head in disbelief. More than once I was muttering about how I’d be in jail if someone published something like that about my family. But that’s by the by. My reviews need to stay relatively neutral, so I apologise for that.
Episode 5 comes around all too slowly, and the flip side of the case is literally a welcome breath of fresh air. By the end of the series, I suspect you will be emotionally drained. As you should be. These events are tragic, and should not be taken lightly. Maybe this resonates more because it was on British soil. Growing up in the 80s, I remember the car bombings by the IRA making the news all the time. I was too young to appreciate that back then though. Now, as an adult, these events hit home in an entirely different, more visceral way.
Brent and Neil dig so deep into answers for each theory put forward in the book. As you should do. You do get the impression that some of the “research” was deliberately tailored to suit his “facts”. Especially seeing as some was so easy to find out that it’s bordering on negligence not to have included it.
Final thoughts
The discussions about Scientific Content Analysis or SCAN in episode two shows some of the most ridiculous semantic pedantry I can imagine (and I’m a total semantic pedant). How anybody can think that this is a legitimate form of finding anything out is beyond me.
As always Brent and Neil have done an excellent job here. In his message to me, Brent said they were rather pleased with this one, and I’d have to agree. If you’ve never heard a single episode of this podcast before then here is a great place to start. If you’ve listened to the whole series already, then I hope you enjoyed it. Should you only be on episode 2, then buckle up, it’s a hell of a ride.
You can get Some Dare Call It Conspiracy: Manchester Arena Bombing On Trial here:
For more great reviews, I recommend GreatPods