By now, you probably know that the $20 bill is getting a momentous and much-overdue redesign, with Harriet Tubman replacing Andrew Jackson on the front of the bill. It’s a historic and important change — but there are many unanswered questions, chief among them: “What does the new bill look like, and can I use it to make elaborate YouTube videos perpetuating 9/11 conspiracy theories?”
On the internet, 9/11 conspiracies are so prevalent that they’ve become a meme unto themselves. Phrases like “Bush did 9/11” and “Jet fuel can’t melt steel beams” get traded around every day, mostly ironically but occasionally not. YouTube documentaries like Loose Change fan the flames for true believers.
My favorite (or, not “my favorite,” “the most fascinating,” I guess?) 9/11 conspiracy theory has to do with the $20 bill, and anyone who entered a school cafeteria between 2002 and 2006 probably knows it. As a popular version of the theory goes, in 1996, the federal government revised U.S. currency to hint at the impending attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. By folding the bills in certain ways, one can reveal secret imagery that resembles the Twin Towers billowing smoke and collapsing.
At the same time, on the $20 bill, making accordion folds in certain locations allows woke currency handlers to spell out “Osama,” clearly a reference to al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden.
This video spells it out pretty clearly.
Will the new $20, $10, and $5 bills contain further proof that 9/11 was an inside job, and that the Treasury Department knew in advance? We’ll have to wait and see.
