Given that the name “Pisa” comes from the Greek word for “marshy land” you would think that the cathedral’s architects would have taken the subsoil into account while building a very tall bell tower. In fact, the bell tower was meant to be the tallest of its age and probably would have been if circumstances hadn’t thrown a wrench into the works. After sacking Palermo in 1063 the city government needed a place to display all of the treasures that adventurers had brought back from Sicily so they decided to construct the “Field of Miracles” which would eventually be home to a Cathedral, Baptistery, cemetery, and one very tall bell tower. Like any prosperous medieval Italian city, Pisa began to invest its new wealth in the construction grand buildings. The 12th century was a good one for Pisa the city’s military, commercial, and political importance grew as their once small seaport became a regional powerhouse. The tower was built to show off (with stolen money)

The Allies intended to destroy the tower during WWII.

Mussolini hated the tower and made it worse.

The seven bells at the top have not rung since last century.

Wars and economic strife may have saved the tower.

The lean creates some interesting imbalances.

The tower has leaned in multiple directions.

It’s not the only leaning tower in Pisa.The tower was built to show off (with stolen money).The tower is still verifiably there, standing, as it has been for hundreds of years. What makes the Leaning Tower prank funny and relatively harmless is that it is an easily disprovable lie, and that the entire prank can last, at most, a couple seconds or minutes.

It isn't even a matter of what feels true or doesn't feel true-we can no longer sense the truth by touch. Hell, when the Capitol was stormed in January, for a second I thought it was a sick joke. More often than not, I feel like I'd be a bigger fool for disbelieving something than for believing it. Reality, at this point, feels completely fungible. This culminated in conspiracy theorists storming the Capitol last month. The issue of misinformation spreading rapidly on the internet has been a constant issue and talking point over the last decade or so, exacerbated by four years of a President who actively courted conspiracy theorists and amplified them himself. What's interesting is what makes this act specifically a prank rather than a wild spread of disinformation.

Lean tower pizza meme