9/11 Trutherism and what I just can't figure out about the conspiracy crowd

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > 9/11 Trutherism and what I just can't figure out about the conspiracy crowd

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dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Shbobdb posted:

Conspiracy theory of the day: Things like the feud with Dippin' Dots are a cutsy cover to distract people from more meaningful news stories.

This one has been going around on my friends' feeds, too.

And there's two parts to my own response...

(1) Yes, public figures - Donald Trump is an expert here - can indeed do a "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" distraction ploy. It can work, too - again, see Trump.

(2) No the media is not creating or driving it in order to hide the important facts. That would require incredible amounts of collusion between separate organizations. And when it comes down to it, a distraction is only distracting if it's attention-grabbing, and news organizations love anything that get them more eyeballs.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2017 19:22

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 06:07

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

I mean, really, ask yourself this - "What if every news organization really wants your eyeballs and/or ears tuned to it? What kinds of news do you expect they would cover - complicated, in-depth things like the nuances of the TPP, or dumb stuff like Trump arguing about crowd sizes? What would the news look like?"

And the answer, near as I can see is, "Basically exactly what it looks like." No secret society of Illuminati and Bilderbergs required, just independent organizations flocking to whatever can help keep them afloat.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2017 19:56

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Yeah, burial at sea has the added bonus that there's no grave site for pilgrimages, etc.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2017 14:46

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Funniest thing about pizza gaters is that they all gathered up in DC to protest, literally blocks from the place they were convinced was a hive of child sex trafficking, and they didn't - I dunno - raid it or something en masse.

Because in their hearts of hearts they don't even believe it themselves, I think.

Tortured connect-the-dots-but-only-in-the-way-that-confirms-the-crazy images like the one above are just further proof.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2017 16:31

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

smoke sumthin bitch posted:

yes you would have to be an unhinged lunatic to believe elite paedophile rings rings exist

Completely not what anyone is saying.

But you are an unhinged lunatic.

So tell me - why didn't the heroic pizzagaters run down to the pizzeria and do something? They'd be heroes! Unless it's all bullshit and they know it. Which it is, and which they do.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2017 01:41

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Poe's Law is a killer when it comes to pizzagaters.

I saw a guy on a Facebook thread explaining that Alefantis's name was definitive proof he's a pedo.

I still don't know if he was sincere or trolling.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2017 04:44

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

The Chairman posted:

That is a 100% sincere theory, I've seen it pop up multiple times

I don't ... I mean, what - do they think the guy changed his name to be a subtle wink for conspiracy theorists? How can you be this disconnected from reality?

# ¿ Mar 31, 2017 14:24

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

smoke sumthin bitch posted:

the one thing we can all agree on is that they are hiding something extremely illegal behind all the coded talk. i would say that the probabilities its some kind of child trafficking ring is about 50/50. it could also be drugs or bribes or some other poo poo.

Actually, we cannot agree on this at all.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2017 14:29

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

smoke sumthin bitch posted:

so you believe podesta really owns a hot dog stand in hawaii? you believe he carries handkerchiefs with pizza related maps on them just because?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-conspiracy-theory-director/

quote:

1. Proof of the conspiracy supposedly emerges from a pattern of �connecting the dots� between events that need not be causally connected. When no evidence supports these connections except the allegation of the conspiracy or when the evidence fits equally well to other causal connections�or to randomness�the conspiracy theory is likely to be false.
2. The agents behind the pattern of the conspiracy would need nearly superhuman power to pull it off. People are usually not nearly so powerful as we think they are.
3. The conspiracy is complex, and its successful completion demands a large number of elements.
4. Similarly, the conspiracy involves large numbers of people who would all need to keep silent about their secrets. The more people involved, the less realistic it becomes.
5. The conspiracy encompasses a grand ambition for control over a nation, economy or political system. If it suggests world domination, the theory is even less likely to be true.
6. The conspiracy theory ratchets up from small events that might be true to much larger, much less probable events.
7. The conspiracy theory assigns portentous, sinister meanings to what are most likely innocuous, insignificant events.
8. The theory tends to commingle facts and speculations without distinguishing between the two and without assigning degrees of probability or of factuality.
9. The theorist is indiscriminately suspicious of all government agencies or private groups, which suggests an inability to nuance differences between true and false conspiracies.
10. The conspiracy theorist refuses to consider alternative explanations, rejecting all disconfirming evidence and blatantly seeking only confirmatory evidence to support what he or she has a priori determined to be the truth.

I see ... what, 9/10 at least?

# ¿ Mar 31, 2017 15:55

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Oh we got to the "Satanic Rituals" portion of today's dose of conspiracy theories. Cool.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2017 18:01

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

boner confessor posted:

it's also the ultimate in slacktivism, you get super fired up over something that matters a whole lot (kids being assaulted) and you get to feel morally superior that nobody cares as much as you do about kids being assaulted but at the end of the day you never have to leave your posting station

Again, witness how a few dozen people were in DC literally blocks away from a place where they were convinced there's a sex trafficking ring. And they didn't do anything beyond further spreading conspiracy theories and listening to literal crazy people.

I mean, not only is actual (dis)proof right there, but if they're actually sincere in this string of crazy beliefs, they could be rescuing kids!

But of course, they're also convinced the guy who shot up the place was actually an actor, so....

# ¿ Mar 31, 2017 20:29

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Illuminti posted:

We're not going to have much luck here if you can't even parse basic English.

He thinks magic is real.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2017 14:39

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Data Graham posted:

I love how right in the middle of all the coded language there are clear references to actual children and grandchildren, which they clearly want to "demolish".

Maybe even pizzagaters know that he's talking about "demolishing" the tasty cheese with his kids by eating it all really fast.

Or he's going to actually demolish them. Has anyone checked to make sure his kids are un-demolished? :eek:

This all reminds me of when Glenn Beck thought SA was some kind of secret CIA thing.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2017 01:30

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

smoke sumthin bitch posted:

id like to see you deniers try to rationalise this one https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/46736

You can't be loving serious.

This is the best you got?

An email where some kids are coming over to play in the pool? And where we know the kids' names?

# ¿ Apr 4, 2017 04:28

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Modrasone posted:

I don't think it's an accident that there's a lot of crossover between this stuff and the nu-atheism crowd.

...really?

I think I need some examples, because I've mostly seen overlap in the skeptic and atheist crowds.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2017 13:39

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Lager posted:

I think he's referencing fedora corps types. A very specific type of atheist that annoys the hell out of other atheists.

Yeah, ok, that makes more sense.

Thanks.

I am not hip to the new lingos with the Kids These Days.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2017 13:48

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

504 posted:

I'm friends with a guy that makes pizza for a living, am I suppost to be loving kids?

He talks about Katy Perry a lot, what's that mean?

The Katy Perry episode of Sesame Street is notable for having the only segment a non-pedophile could masturbate to, so I think he's sending you a message.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlBuur3DJE4

# ¿ Apr 6, 2017 12:48

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

I always thought most Flat Earthers were making some kind of ironic philosophical point about epistemology, but I guess that was too much to ask for.

e:

It looks like Guy Fieri is in on pizzagate. Of course.

http://www.avclub.com/article/pizzagate-conspiracy-theorists-question-how-no-one-253304

quote:

�Guy Fieri is an Illuminati Kodiak king who has an immortal wife who lives inside Kim Kardashian.�

Sounds legit.

dwarf74 fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Apr 6, 2017

# ¿ Apr 6, 2017 14:31

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

WampaLord posted:

I would love to get smoke something bitch back in here to explain why Pizzagate is real.

Please not again.

It's basically just the word "sheeple" 10,000 times and random emails about pool parties.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2017 04:02

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

smoke sumthin bitch posted:

i highly suggest you guys watch the movie Vaxxed

gently caress you and gently caress the people who made that trash.

Which old-timey disease would you like my kids to catch?

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 06:24

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

smoke sumthin bitch posted:

actually global warming is a hoax popularised by maurice strong(discliple of the desmarais family and chinese connection) and the club of rome. China just got onboard because the U.N. promised to give the communist party HUGE money transfers directly from the pockets of the common folks and to let them emit as much CO2 as they want and build 2 coal plants a week for the next 25 years.

Explain literally thousands of climate scientists across the world. Explain our unbroken sprint of hottest years and months ever. Explain the opening of the Northwest Passage.

You're an idiot. Literally everything you believe is the opposite of reality.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2017 02:25

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

FecLives posted:

Typical baboons. The idea that there are multiple ways a steel frame building can collapse is dumb. There is only one way, demolition.

You lose points for failure to use "sheeple."

# ¿ May 17, 2017 05:46

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

smoke sumthin bitch posted:

right its jsut another one of these darn coincidences that he was in conrespondance with assange and that he was the one who leaked the dnc emails. also a coincidence pedosta said he needed to be made an example of. all coincidences

Show me where he was in correspondence with Assange.

# ¿ May 18, 2017 05:42

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

So this shooting in Virginia this morning...

It was against Republicans, so that would make this not a false flag, in Infowars-land, right?

# ¿ Jun 14, 2017 14:55

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

El Puerco posted:

Please educate yourself a little. Quickly, it means the energy held within the structure that keeps it standing cannot be overcome by it's energy itself. That means that an object like a post or a skyscraper cannot fall into its foot and instead will fall to the side or topple over on its side. I'm sure links have been posted here... somewhere.

You have absolutely no loving idea what you're talking about, here.

I mean, I'm used to creationists loving up the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Truthers doing it is a new one on me!

# ¿ Jun 20, 2017 05:47

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

El Puerco posted:

Wrong again homo

Even for a nutjob, you are really bad at this.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2017 13:05

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

El Puerco posted:

Hi fag, the building falls faster than gravity due to the lack of air inside the building. If the air remains in the building, there will be extra mass for the falling mass to overcome making it fall slower than it would fall in free fall state. The speed of gravity is the free fall state, retard, anything less is less than the speed of gravity, retard. By the way, it is about 120 MPH in our atmosphere near sea level, free fall, that takes about 3 seconds to attain rocket scientist. A building cannot fall faster than gravity without controlled demolition.

It is the vacuum created by the hi explosive chemical reaction that allows the building to fall faster than gravity.

THIS IS NOT HOW ANYTHING WORKS.

I am going to use my Illuminati contacts to report you to your high school physics teacher.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2017 23:32

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

BrutalistMcDonalds posted:

I'm less and less convinced of psychological explanations, though that might play a part, and I more believe that the root is the tribal/political affinities of the conspiracists.

Those who opposed the post-9/11 wars were more likely to believe in a 9/11 conspiracy, and this was true on the left and (paleocon/anti-war) right, and there were very few people who supported the wars and also believed in a 9/11 false-flag conspiracy at the same time, just as people who oppose U.S. intervention in Syria are more likely to believe Syrian chemical weapons attacks are false flags designed to justify an intervention. ...
Alex Jones is a great example of this at work because his conspiracy theories are purely relational and subject to change depending on where he's sunk his political loyalties at that given moment. The second Jones' preferred guy got into power, the terrorist attacks stopped being a conspiracy by the government and became a conspiracy against the government.

I think when you get this deep into conspiracy theories, the political spectrum bends itself into a circle.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2017 20:18

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Are UFOs topic-appropriate?

My wife for some reason put on this thing on Netflix called Extraordinary: The Stan Romanek story.

It's utterly baffling that people can believe this kind of poo poo. This particular hoaxer has obvious puppets, uses obvious laser pointers, and clearly synthesized voices. And oh yeah, child porn - but of course that's because the government put it on his computer to silence him.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2017 05:01

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Baronjutter posted:

I love how UFO poo poo has almost totally vanished from the conspiracy mainstream since cell phones became a universal thing everyone in the world pretty much has.

There's still plenty of it floating around - I mean, Ancient Aliens is probably in season, like, 11 by now, as are shows like UFO FILES EXPOSED and the like. It's always the same dozen or so people, but that doesn't stop them from churning them out.

UFOs and ghosts and psychics and cryptid-monsters have all been kind of mushed into a big ball of woo - in this particular "documentary", in addition to aliens, we have ghosts, shadow-people, 'orbs' (for real, have these people not seen laser pointers?), and random prank poo poo.

It's gotten to the point where - because of the undeniable lack of any convincing physical evidence of any of it - UFOs and Bigfoot have turned into spiritual entities for a lot of devotees. I mean, people are even swearing that SA-originated-meme Slenderman is a real thing, and that all of these are "tulpas" - figures from our subconscious and imagination made real by our beliefs in them. That's why people talk about "experiencers" these days instead of abductees or contactees. I mean, if they are just experiencing it, who's to say it's not real, eh?

# ¿ Jul 7, 2017 05:51

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

QuarkJets posted:

That's an interesting point. I guess Bigfoot is somewhat human-sized hiding in a forest, vs a space ship flying around in the sky. And well... ghosts. Anything that you can't easily create recordable evidence for sticks around as a popular myth. So we can expect Ancient Aliens to stick around basically forever since you can't outright go back in time

One thing that I've heard is that a whole lot of these sorts of folks you'll see on H2 and the like are young-earth creationists on the down-low.

You see, the existence of Bigfoot something something disproves the theory of evolution. (A lot of cryptids do, somehow - Mokele-Mbembe is a favorite for this crowd. So is Nessie. Because you see dinosaurs being alive today means that ... uh ... they didn't all evolve or something? I honestly don't get the connection.)

Giants? That's pushed almost entirely by young-earth creationists, because there are giants in the Bible, so if we find giants, the Bible is true.

Also a whoooole lot of that "hidden history of America" is specifically about putting ancient middle-eastern people like ... ohhh, I dunno ... a lost tribe of Israel maybe? ... in the Americas.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2017 13:58

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

BrutalistMcDonalds posted:

Also Mormonism.

Yeah.

It was kind of deflating when I learned how many of these anomaly-hunters aren't simply sincere kooks exploring their weird area of interest for its own sake.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2017 14:43

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

Tias posted:

Since at least UFO abductions are linked to sleep paralysis episodes, I can buy that. I used to suffer a lot from SP, and going to other dimensions were definitely on the table when I tried to explain what I had seen.

I have hypnogogic hallucinations myself. I've been convinced there were bugs all over my floor, that there were people in my room (usually sleeping), snakes, rats, etc. I'm totally convinced they're real until I touch them at which point the whole illusion just melts apart. It's weird how convinced I am, even though part of me knows it's absurd.

Scares the hell out of my wife, but I'm used to it.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2017 22:21

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

So that insufferably smug "God" account on Facebook posted something about flat earthers the other day.

And holy poo poo the flat earthers came out to argue

# ¿ Jul 13, 2017 02:14

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

GreyjoyBastard posted:

you can't just say this and not post screenshots / excerpts

I planned to but there was SO MUCH

# ¿ Jul 16, 2017 21:10

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

504 posted:

I met a genuine flat earther!!!

He has all sorts of "evidence" on his FB page, also believes vaccines are bad and fluoride is some kind of plot. I pointed out he has an "extreme climbing" video where you can clearly see the curvature of the earth in the background but he hasn't replied yet.

Very few people are just flat-earthers. Once you've adopted one of the dumbest and most sweeping conspiracy theories - that requires also being a moon landing hoaxer, no less - anything that's less insane will seem natural.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2017 13:57

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

twistedmentat posted:

Yea but Yahtzee sucks.

But what I was getting at is current internet mystery, horror and other weirdness that is created to entertain people in the future may be the source of Conspiracy Theories. Ancient Aliens exists because some french guy thought Lovecraft was writing was real and wrote Morning of the Magicians which tried to tie weird history and archeological mysteries into mystical stuff, with some fun Esoteric Nazism thrown in. Although most serious scholars of National Socialism believe that the mystical aspects of Nazism was limited to a few within the SS's upper echelons. That goes on to to feed Von Dannikan and then we get Georgio and Childress talking about how its impossible for people to cut stone without lasers and there's no air Egyptian temples.

Hell yeah, man. Have you been listening to the Archy Fantasies podcast? They go deep into the (rather surprising, IMO) ties between Lovecraft, Theosophy, Ancient Aliens, and other bad archaeology.

quote:

Like someone may see Poppy and not understand its a character and an performance and really believe there is some pop singer that is controlled by some shadow Illuminati group for some purpose and create an entire mythos surrounding it that goes on to influence people who have never even heard of her.

Or think there really was some mysterious tv show called Candle Cove that was involved with murdered and missing children and that becomes a thing; half remembered TV shows were connected to something more sinister. Like that dumb Shazaam theory. I swear in 10 years History will be running shows about the Mandala Effect, talking to people who remember things differently than they do, trying to suggest they're from an alternative world.

I do need to quibble that this is the Mandela effect - like as in Nelson Mandela dying/not-dying in prison. As opposed to the Mandala effect which would probably involve past lives.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2017 13:53

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

One of the worst loving things about truthers is that they've completely poisoned the well for any legitimate inquiries into intelligence errors surrounding 9/11.

For real though, I see no problem with the official story - except that there is an open question about whether our government could have done more to catch it.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2017 00:50

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

smoke sumthin bitch posted:

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40719743

but but but chemtrails/gmos/fluoride/vaccines are harmless!!!

Where the gently caress in that did your addled brain see anything about any of that poo poo?

(1) The study is not conclusive. I have no idea how the gently caress you could go with "no, vaccines/fluoride/gmos totally did this" but ignore, "this sperm count study may be jacked up!" Like, if you're skeptical of science, where's your skepticism of this paper?
(2) How about obesity, etc?

# ¿ Jul 26, 2017 03:29

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 06:07

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

smoke sumthin bitch posted:

LMAO taking public transport drastically increases your chances of suffering from major depression and committing suicide. FACT! Im going to make a post about agenda 21 a little bit later cause none of you sheeps seem to know the sinister truth of what its really about.

How many children were killed in Newtown, CT during the elementary school massacre?

# ¿ Aug 17, 2017 13:34

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > 9/11 Trutherism and what I just can't figure out about the conspiracy crowd

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