Conspiracy Theorists

I realize this is nothing new.. Conspiracy theories around since the dawn of time, Adam never fucked Eve, he fucked Joe.. Etc, etc, etc.

But to me, they've intensified, gotten much more outlandish, and most concerning of all-- seem to have more followers than ever. Yes?

After watching the Seahawks-Falcons game Sunday, I had to wake up to hear people on talk radio saying Pete Carroll never called timeout and Matt Bryant, who quite obviously heard the whistles and took a practice kick-- which he's done before, btw... Matt Bryant actually missed his field goal attempt.

This, after cameras quite clearly show Carroll calling timeout.

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Infinitely more disturbing:

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/15/this_man_helped_save_six_children_is_now_getting_harassed_for_it/

A man who sheltered 6 scared kids during the Newtown massacre is now being harassed -- badly-- by conspiracy theorists who say the massacre never happened.

This shit's not just confined to some crazy professor in Florida.

What the fucking fuck, folks? Has CSI-SVU-CRAP completely distorted most people's reality?

 

It's amazing how people will believe anything.

Of all the nutty conspiracies, this is the nuttiest.

 

This is a good spot to say that Webby , Boom and 21 are three different people.

 

This particular theory was completely predictable from the moment of the shooting. The last several mass shootings, in fact, have played into the Technicolor gun nut paranoia over the UN and Obama and 'Agenda 21.'

 

Mickey Mouse hopes those harassing that guy in Newtown either die slowly in a fire (not talking about passing out eventually from the smoke, but enduring the pain throughout), or die a slow death from cancer.

 

Still the one I want to see explored is the idea that Jeffrey Dahmer was living in that area of South Florida and had access to the same kind of van that police were looking for when Adam Walsh -- John's son -- disappeared. It seems to have at least some basis in fact.

I love conspiracy theories. Just read a book called "Voodoo Histories" that dispels the great ones of the 20th/21st century, but it also piqued my interest. The Marilyn Monroe one is a good one, abetted all these years by the FBI's refusal to release documents that should by law be publicly available.

 

But the Aurora shooting conspiracy theories, if I recall, were more along the lines of that the government supplied Holmes with the guns in an effort to bolster its case for gun confiscation. I don't know that people were denying that it actually happened - more like it was a Dem conspiracy gone horribly wrong.

The Newtown conspiracy theorists actually believe that the crime did not occur.

 

It's not so much that there are conspiracy theories. It's that they seem to gain much more traction these days. Certainly, the Internet is a part of that, because it's a lot easier to spread a conspiracy online than mailing all-caps typed letters around the country. But the other part of it is that people just don't seem to check out anything. My Facebook feed is filled with viral photos about jack-booted thugs taking your guns, and jack-booted thugs making you get a flu shot, with narratives that fall apart the moment you hit Google to verify the information.

 

As if there were awards shows back then to imply such things.

 

Jesse Ventura and Alex Jones think there's more to this thread that 'they' don't want you to know.