Sandy Friggin' Hook

[thesummerqueen]

There are morons that still think 9-11 was a government conspiracy.

The people who continue to espouse it or Sandy Hook conspiracies, or Holocaust denial, are fucking scum.

[Regina]

I don't understand deniers. It's just stupidity.

With 9/11, to a point, I get the sentiment that some of these nutjobs think it might have been set up, to give an excuse to go gallivanting in the Middle East. I don't believe it myself, too much evidence says otherwise, but I get the sentiment is what I'm saying.

Sandy Hook though... why? What benefit to the US government or military would killing a load of innocent school kids and pinning it on a crazy teen bring? There's no rational explanation for making a conspiracy theory out of that.

[Thumpalumpacus]

People want explanations for events. The more tragic the event, the more urgent the need for explanations. Inexplicable evil frightens people, because it may well strike them too.

[Jacob(smooth)]

People want explanations for events. The more tragic the event, the more urgent the need for explanations. Inexplicable evil frightens people, because it may well strike them too.

True.

You know what I’ve noticed? Nobody panics when things go “according to plan.” Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all “part of the plan.”"

It's more comfortable to imagine a dark horrifying plan, hatched in an office by men in dark suits, than just some random nutter fucking up a whole town.

People are more afraid of chaos than evil.

[Fendon]

I just want to take the time to thank Americans and your politics. Seriously, in New Zealand, political debates are pretty boring and dull, completely devoid of conspiracy theories. We tend to research American politics to excite ourselves. Not even kidding, the only exciting thing that happened here was when the FBI got involved because they wanted to arrest Kim Dotcom.

In other words:

[Elskidor]

There are morons that still think 9-11 was a government conspiracy.

The people who continue to espouse it or Sandy Hook conspiracies, or Holocaust denial, are fucking scum.

People that harass the victims parents and vandalize memorials really make me sick. They belong in jail. That type of mentality is beyond paranoia, and is straight up dangerous.

[Brian37]

I don't understand deniers. It's just stupidity.

With 9/11, to a point, I get the sentiment that some of these nutjobs think it might have been set up, to give an excuse to go gallivanting in the Middle East. I don't believe it myself, too much evidence says otherwise, but I get the sentiment is what I'm saying.

Sandy Hook though... why? What benefit to the US government or military would killing a load of innocent school kids and pinning it on a crazy teen bring? There's no rational explanation for making a conspiracy theory out of that.

I understand them, not in the way you think.

The natural explanation is in evolution. The reality of nature and the universe is that it is messy and imperfect. So is biological life.

Our species evolved to pattern seek. The flaw in that natural evolution is that our species will gap fill to explain why they see the patterns they do. That does provide the real benefit of group cooperation and more opportunity for resources and potential to make offspring. But that forming of a group can be centered around a flat out false idea.

The Egyptians were successful for 3,000 years falsely believing in a sun god. Dawkins describes this evolutionary flaw in his book "The God Delusion" as "the moth mistaking the light bulb for moonlight".

It is the same gap filling an antelope on the African plane might make in having to make a sudden guess as to if the swaying grass is a stalking lion or if it is merely the wind.

[Crossless2.0]

There are at least two people in my office who still think Sandy Hook was a government conspiracy. I've long since stopped trying to reason with them. They insist on their own facts and dismiss anything that is inconvenient to their paranoid conjectures.

[Elskidor]

There are at least two people in my office who still think Sandy Hook was a government conspiracy. I've long since stopped trying to reason with them. They insist on their own facts and dismiss anything that is inconvenient to their paranoid conjectures.

It is the conspiracy hoax that is overall accepted by their crowd is what I find insane. I could humor the idea of a small number of people being in on a top secret operation that carried out a tragedy, but to involve thousands of actors, extras, hiding children that never really died, along with paying off cops, the FBI and the hospital staff to fake this incident and you are reaching an unhealthy level of insanity.

[Bad Wolf]

Conspiracies don't exist. Or at least the popular ones like 9/11 aren't true and couldn't be true. Our world is far too connected, information moves too freely for any significant secrets to be kept.