Presentation given by Fran Shure and Marti Hopper for the Truth Action Project on February 11, 2025
Cognitive dissonance refers to the internal anxiety or discomfort that people experience when presented with information that conflicts with their existing beliefs, thoughts, or attitudes.
Most people will take a variety of actions to reduce this discomfort, such as rejecting the information or the person presenting it.
As 9/11 truth activists, we have experienced our own cognitive dissonance when challenged with new information, as well as being on the receiving end of negative reactions by others.
Colorado 9/11 Truth core team members Fran Shure and Marti Hopper were invited by the Truth Action Project (https://truthactionproject.org) to give a zoom presentation to help activists navigate these challenges.
Topics covered included reasons people resist alternative information, effective ways to approach others, reasons people don’t have these skills, and what keeps us from discussing these topics.
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes. The first hour and 25 minutes are the presentations followed by one hour of questions and discussion.
Bios
Frances Shure is a licensed professional counselor who is now retired from her private practice and work as an adjunct instructor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She holds a B.S. and an M.Ed. from the University of Texas and an M.A. from the University of Colorado.
In her 20 years as a psychotherapist, she focused on “depth psychology,” which involves
both the psychodynamic and transpersonal aspects of psychological healing, with a specialty in pre- and perinatal psychology.
She has brought her expertise to the study of 9/11 by authoring the groundbreaking series, “Why Do Good People Become Silent—Or Worse—About 9/11?” In these essays, Shure examines the psychological resistance to information that contradicts the official account of 9/11 or to any strongly held belief, and she examines the reasons for media failure to report on that information.
Shure is a member of the 9/11 Consensus Panel as well as the Medical Professionals for 9/11 Truth. She is one of the co-founders of Colorado 9/11 Truth and was featured as one of the group of psychological professionals who contributed to the video 9/11 Explosive Evidence: Experts Speak Out and helped to produce the video The Demolition of Truth—Psychologists Examine 9/11.
Shure has long worked for world peace and a sustainable environment, including helping to manage the Colorado Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Freeze in the early 1980s and participating in publishing a local newsletter in the late 1990s on the World Trade Organization, neoliberalism, sweatshop labor, and related topics.
Fran is the mother of four and grandmother of 10 beautiful grandchildren and is an ardent lover of nature and gardening.
Marti Hopper, Ph.D., is a retired clinical psychologist based in Boulder, Colorado. For over 25 years, she served as a management consultant on effective leadership, team building, conflict resolution, and interpersonal communication.
She worked for 12 years for Boulder’s rape crisis center, where she counseled sexual assault survivors and oversaw the agency’s community education efforts.
Marti is part of the core leadership team for Colorado 9/11 Truth and has been a 9/11 Truth activist for the past 19 years, appearing in such films as 9/11 Explosive Evidence: Experts Speak Out and The Demolition of Truth: Psychologists Examine 9/11.
From 2015 to 2017, she served as the Western Region Coordinator for the 9/11 Truth Action Project, helping to develop 9/11 TAP’s initial mission statement, strategic objectives, and action plans.
Marti enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, singing in two barbershop choruses, riding her bike, and playing as much pickleball as aging joints will allow.
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