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Fake News Prompts Gunman To 'Self-Investigate' Pizza Parlor (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A rifle-wielding North Carolina man was arrested Sunday in Washington, DC for carrying his weapon into a pizzeria that sits at the center of the fake news conspiracy theory known as "Pizzagate," authorities said Monday. DC's Metropolitan Police Department said it had arrested 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch on allegations of assault with a dangerous weapon. "During a post arrest interview this evening, the suspect revealed that he came to the establishment to self-investigate 'Pizza Gate' (a fictitious online conspiracy theory," the agency said in a statement. "Pizzagate" concerns a baseless conspiracy theory about a secret pedophile group, the Comet Ping Pong restaurant, and Hillary Clinton's campaign chief, John Podesta. The Pizzagate conspiracy names Comet Ping Pong as the secret headquarters of a non-existent child sex-trafficking ring run by Clinton and members of her inner circle. James Alefantis, the restaurant's owner, said he has received hundreds of death threats. According to Buzzfeed, the Pizzagate theory is believed to have been fostered by a white supremacist's tweets, the 4chan message board, Reddit, Donald Trump supporters, and right-wing blogs. The day before Thanksgiving, Reddit banned a "Pizzagate" conspiracy board from the site because of a policy about posting personal information of others. Alefantis, the pizzeria's owner, told CNN, "What happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories comes with consequences. I hope that those involved in fanning these flames will take a moment to contemplate what happened here today, and stop promoting these falsehoods right away."
The problem with conspiracy "theories" is there's usually a smidgen of truth to them such that the gullible and true believers will believe it without a second thought to any veracity.
One can see all kinds of nutjob whackery over the 9/11 attacks, the most notable being "fuel can't melt steel beams". Which is true, the fire from jet fuel can't melt steel beams but what it can do is weaken the steel such that all the weight it's supporting causes the beam to warp. This has been shown in recent accidents involving fuel trucks running into bridges where the steel beams sag and give way.
At least if these folks would latch on to something not posing as a government conspiracy, such as when Trump was married to Marla Maples, had an affair and forced the woman to have an abortion, they might be taken a bit more seriously.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
The problem is that Jon Stewart was literally the most trusted name in news despite being a comedic take on current events. If that's the best the fourth estate has, of course democracy is going to fail.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
There IS something weird on those emails.
But people are jumping on too much conclusions or being pushed into too much conclusions.
I bet its something boring like regular corruption.
People who actually believe it are in the minority and are simpletons or mentally ill.
Sadly I know a guy who really full-on believes this... and that Roswell was real, 9/11 was faked and a bunch of other conspiracies. Wouldn't be surprised if he believes in chemtrails and owns a tin foil hat either. But he's pretty good with words and is neither retarded nor obviously crazy. It's like he's just decided the world is a sham, we're all puppets dancing according to some agenda and that warps his perception of everything else. It's like he's just waiting for Morpheus to show up and offer him the red pill. Even if you manage to push back and disprove one little bit of his ramblings it's like okay maybe that was wrong but the other 99.9% is still on.
It reminds me of some of those otherwise seemingly functional people who've been in ordinary jobs but end up fixed on some crazy idea that a Nigerian prince is offering them money or that they have an online girlfriend they never met who totally loves them and totally lose it. Many of these don't fit the "simpletons or mentally ill" who could never hold down a job profile. I saw someone else here mention Ben Carson, brain surgeon but thinks ancient aliens built the pyramids. No matter how smart you are, you see what you want to see. You believe what you want to believe. Then you use your brains to wrap reality around your beliefs, not the other way around.
That's how you end up with scientists with a religion full of facts science has refuted. It turns out people don't have to have one coherent set of thoughts. We actually live quite well doing a day job and believing in the first woman was made from a rib bone at the same time. It's just that for some the last kind of "facts" take over and consume them, to the point where they can't accept reality as reality anymore. Mainstream media (MSM) is fiction, my alt-news is reality. Mainstream medicine is fiction, my homeopathy is reality. And Internet is the greatest boon to alternate realitys ever, here they all meet to agree on how right they are. Most are pretty harmless though.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Violent crime is down significantly from the 1970s. How does that jive with your theory?
The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. - B.F. Skinner