Author Topic: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour  (Read 6927 times)

Offline twik

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Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« on: December 05, 2016, 12:03:15 PM »
This is something I think we'll be seeing a lot more of, as the tinfoil hat people believe they have one of their own in the White House.

http://www.newsweek.com/pizza-gate-sex-trafficking-children-john-podesta-fake-news-comet-ping-pong-528207

The saddest thing (since he didn't manage to hurt anyone) is that a good pizza place will probably eventually be driven out of business by these wingnuts. Who'd take their kids to a place knowing that gunman are likely to come rampaging through?

Offline gillianren

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2016, 10:49:21 AM »
This is demonstrable harm from believing ridiculous conspiracies.  The more so had someone died.  (Yes, there are apparently already claims of "false flag.")  I haven't been tracking this one, because it's silly even by conspiracism standards, so I don't quite know why they've settled on that location.  But does it matter?  For one thing, as several of my friends pointed out, the children of people who believe this garbage are at higher risk of not being taken seriously if they actually are molested, as pedophiles don't work anything like this.
"This sounds like a job for Bipolar Bear . . . but I just can't seem to get out of bed!"

"Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labour-saving device in the face of complexity."  --Henry Louis Gates

Offline Peter B

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2016, 07:20:08 AM »
The thing for me is - a guy walks into a shop with an openly drawn firearm...what sort of conclusion are shoppers and staff going to draw? Naturally, people scattered and took cover. Just imagine if one of those shoppers had been carrying a firearm of his/her own and drew an incorrect conclusion?

In other words, how can people - police or civilian - tell the difference between a criminal with an openly carried firearm and a law-abiding citizen with an openly carried firearm? I know that calling out something like, "It's all right, I've got an open-carry licence!" isn't going to comfort me.

Offline gillianren

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2016, 11:24:41 AM »
Given the roommate I once had with a concealed carry permit, I'm not much reassured by that, either.
"This sounds like a job for Bipolar Bear . . . but I just can't seem to get out of bed!"

"Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labour-saving device in the face of complexity."  --Henry Louis Gates

Offline sts60

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2016, 02:00:17 PM »
It's not really in my commuting path, but I'm going to have to go there and buy a pizza, just as a gesture of support (and a different kind of gesture towards the conspiracy peddlers).

Offline twik

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #5 on: December 08, 2016, 10:18:53 AM »
If I were anywhere near Washington, I'd definitely check them out.

Offline gillianren

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #6 on: December 08, 2016, 12:53:25 PM »
Alas, I'm in the wrong Washington.
"This sounds like a job for Bipolar Bear . . . but I just can't seem to get out of bed!"

"Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labour-saving device in the face of complexity."  --Henry Louis Gates

Offline bknight

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #7 on: December 08, 2016, 02:28:54 PM »
Alas, I'm in the wrong Washington.

Lucky you.
Truth needs no defense.  Nobody can take those footsteps I made on the surface of the moon away from me.
Eugene Cernan

Offline darren r

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #8 on: December 08, 2016, 03:50:44 PM »
Two things I noticed about that story. The guy is reported to have fired shots into the floor. The floor, beneath which are the 'secret tunnels' where children are supposedly being molested. Nice work, hero.

Secondly, he's an actor with his own IMDB page. Expect the tinfoilers (tinfools?) to jump hard on that, probably putting 'crisis' in front of it, while denying it was anything to do with them.
" I went to the God D**n Moon!" Byng Gordon, 8th man on the Moon.

Offline gillianren

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #9 on: December 09, 2016, 12:25:45 PM »
Alas, I'm in the wrong Washington.

Lucky you.

It's beautiful here today, if you like snow.  Which I do.
"This sounds like a job for Bipolar Bear . . . but I just can't seem to get out of bed!"

"Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labour-saving device in the face of complexity."  --Henry Louis Gates

Offline bknight

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #10 on: December 09, 2016, 01:41:39 PM »

It's beautiful here today, if you like snow.  Which I do.
Not for me, grew up in Wyoming.  Walked in knee deep snow drifts to school[not up in both directions :)]
Truth needs no defense.  Nobody can take those footsteps I made on the surface of the moon away from me.
Eugene Cernan

Offline Trebor

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #11 on: December 09, 2016, 01:51:05 PM »
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pizzagate-from-rumor-to-hashtag-to-gunfire-in-dc/2016/12/06/4c7def50-bbd4-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.66988391d163
There is a good summery here if like me you were unaware of this. Even considering how ludicrous many conspiracies are getting it is still stunning that this could get to this level.

Offline gillianren

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #12 on: December 10, 2016, 12:39:24 PM »
Not for me, grew up in Wyoming.  Walked in knee deep snow drifts to school[not up in both directions :)]

I think we've had knee-deep drifts a handful of times in the entire time I've lived here, and that was twenty-odd years ago.  Right now, Simon is lamenting that the sun is melting all the snow, because he wants to play in it.
"This sounds like a job for Bipolar Bear . . . but I just can't seem to get out of bed!"

"Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labour-saving device in the face of complexity."  --Henry Louis Gates

Offline Obviousman

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #13 on: December 11, 2016, 04:29:15 PM »
I saw snow once. Really.

Offline Allan F

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Re: Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour
« Reply #14 on: December 13, 2016, 05:28:03 PM »
I skied onto the roof of my school once. From the yard to the first-and-a-half floor flat roof.
Well, it is like this: The truth doesn't need insults. Insults are the refuge of a darkened mind, a mind that refuses to open and see. Foul language can't outcompete knowledge. And knowledge is the result of education. Education is the result of the wish to know more, not less.