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Washington, DC Pizzeria Falsely Attacked by Conspiracy Theorists, Assaulted by Maniac with an AR-15 Assault Rifle


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12 minutes ago, dcs said:

This stuff has real consequences.  This is some country we live in . . . <sigh>  Fact Check: This Pizzeria Is Not a Child-Trafficking Site, by Cecilia Kang, NOV. 21, 2016, on nytimes.com

Yes, thanks, I was just coming back to post a follow-up: what I initially thought was kind of funny in a sick way is now not funny at all.  Bad times.

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2 hours ago, dcs said:

This stuff has real consequences.  This is some country we live in . . . <sigh>  Fact Check: This Pizzeria Is Not a Child-Trafficking Site, by Cecilia Kang, NOV. 21, 2016, on nytimes.com

I've come to a conclusion about some of the idiots who are drawn to believe this stuff.  As younger kids they spent hundreds of hours finding exploits, glitches and easter eggs in their favorite video games in the belief that these discoveries were somehow meaningful or important. They were, literally, the most significant accomplishments they perceived in their lives, validated and shared online with a small cohort of like-minded obsessives.  And now as adults they apply that same thinking to real life in the hope to uncover some greater meaning or unlock a mystery that will prove them smarter than anybody else who is "blind" to these quixotic pursuits.  This is disordered thinking, a seamless merging of fantasy and reality.

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9 minutes ago, MsDiPesto said:

This is the problem with universal internet access. The crazies can mount an attack on innocent people based on their personal delusions. 

I talked with James Alefantis this morning - I mentioned this conversation, and he said, "Do they think we eat kids or not?"

Universal internet access is too quick to judge, but also has a way of correcting itself fairly quickly, and ultimately, the truth comes out - it's the old-fashioned, print-style journalism that would run a damning story on Page One, and then a retraction a week later on Page Twelve, after public opinion has already been formed; things are different now. One person no longer calls the shots, and that's a vast improvement over the artificial world of newspaper "journalism," which is too often controlled by incompetent egomaniacs.

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1 hour ago, DonRocks said:

I talked with James Alefantis this morning - I mentioned this conversation, and he said, "Do they think we eat kids or not?"

Universal internet access is too quick to judge, but also has a way of correcting itself fairly quickly, and ultimately, the truth comes out - it's the old-fashioned, print-style journalism that would run a damning story on Page One, and then a retraction a week later on Page Twelve, after public opinion has already been formed; things are different now. One person no longer calls the shots, and that's a vast improvement over the artificial world of newspaper "journalism," which is too often controlled by incompetent egomaniacs.

The distressing thing is that there is now serious disagreement as to what constitutes "truth." Mainstream media have been so widely demonized that there is apparently a critical mass of people who do not consider the sourced, fact-checked traditional type of journalism a standard-bearer of truth.  Even conservative talk radio host Charlie Sykes made this point (with regret) in the later part of this past election campaign.  Everybody's word is as good as everybody else's, whether you're talking about an obscure blog with 12 readers or The Los Angeles Times.

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3 hours ago, Pat said:

The distressing thing is that there is now serious disagreement as to what constitutes "truth." 

I think the distressing thing is that before, there *wasn't* serious disagreement as to what constitutes "truth." Things were automatically assumed to be factual, and opinions were assumed to be "expert," when they were often anything but - checks and balances were limited to the "Letters to the Editor" column, *if* publications decided to print them. Keep in mind that we're in the early stages of the internet (in terms of the big picture of the world), and many things will sort themselves out in the upcoming years, decades, and centuries - assuming the human race is still around.

One thing of incredible irony is that, at least in the world of restaurants, chefs used to lick the boots of restaurant critics and publications; now, restaurant critics and publications lick the boots of chefs, who used TV as a medium to leap-frog them in terms of power and popularity. Unfortunately, the wrong chefs are the ones having their boots licked, but that's due to the ignorance of the masses; nevertheless, it shows how unethical and self-serving certain people and organizations are: They're not out seeking the "truth"; they're out seeking personal gain.

Pat, think about this: You would have never had a chance to say what you just said twenty years ago.

---

We obviously have two completely separate conversations going on - this having nothing to do with what Poivrot Farci posted.

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On 11/22/2016 at 10:51 AM, Poivrot Farci said:

A conspirator's obsessive opus, implications of underground construction and the now obvious (to me) sexual innuendo of "pizza". Enjoy, perverts. 

Subsequent to this piece I saw something on FB that looked crazy similar;   some nut case effort to "connect the dots" with no substance at all.  The entire thing manufactured to create a false reality.

1 hour ago, Pat said:

Sadly, the situation continues to worsen. It's fortunate no one was hurt in yesterday's incident.  In their respective coverage, both The Post and NY Times mention that nearby businesses have gotten pulled into this mess as well.

Prior to the election I virtually never looked at FB or twitter for "news".  Since the election I've now learned a fair amount about this fake news phenomena.  This Comet Ping Pong situation has gotten out of hand, with some weak minded individual believing this garbage, then driving long distance to DC with 3 guns.  We live in a dangerous time.

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1 hour ago, DaveO said:

We live in a dangerous time.

Look at this bullshit. Fuck 'em. If they come after me, they'd *better* have a gun.

See this Facebook post I made on Nov 23?

There's one person who commented about that post whose name sounds a hell of a lot like PMMeAnnaKendrick, and I have *no* idea who that person is, or how we became Facebook friends.

That said, I don't know who half of my Facebook friends are - innocent until proven guilty.

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This conspiracy bullshit is outrageous. 

I'm really trying to not get political about this, but it's a political topic. Has anyone checked to see where this crap started? None other than Breitbart. And some of these nutcases believe that John Podesta's political operatives killed Andrew Breitbart.

I though it was bad enough when I read that our future National Security Adviser's son tweeted:

“Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it'll remain a story. The left seems to forget #PodestaEmails and the many ‘coincidences’ tied to it.”

Then I saw a tweet from the future National Security Adviser himself:

"U decide - NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes with Children, etc... MUST READ!"

I'm sure we'll see more dangerous behavior from these conspiracy morons. I just hope no one gets killed.

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27 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

This conspiracy bullshit is outrageous. 

I'm really trying to not get political about this, but it's a political topic. Has anyone checked to see where this crap started? None other than Breitbart. And some of these nutcases believe that John Podesta's political operatives killed Andrew Breitbart.

I though it was bad enough when I read that our future National Security Adviser's son tweeted:

“Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it'll remain a story. The left seems to forget #PodestaEmails and the many ‘coincidences’ tied to it.”

Then I saw a tweet from the future National Security Adviser himself:

"U decide - NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes with Children, etc... MUST READ!"

I'm sure we'll see more dangerous behavior from these conspiracy morons. I just hope no one gets killed.

Would Flynn and his son, who have both helped spread this fiction, be open to lawsuits from the affected parties?

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1 hour ago, Al Dente said:

This conspiracy bullshit is outrageous. 

I'm really trying to not get political about this, but it's a political topic.

[It's not a political topic. You can be the most conservative Republican in the world, and not condone these acts of stupidity and barbarism. 

Do you think William Buckley, for example, would approve of this? (Please *don't* answer that - it was strictly a rhetorical question.)

(Yes, the loons seem to end up in the rightmost of two pigeon holes, because that's the one which tends to favor less government - that's pretty clear - but you just can't paint 40 million people with this brush. This is why I'd be all for abolishing the two-party system that we've fallen prey to, and have everyone forced to run as an independent.)

I'm going to go ahead and move all conspiracy-related posts to the Current Events forum, so as not to condemn this restaurant by association.

BTW, our own Jon Karl published this book 20 years ago. It is a *great* read, and can be read in a day - it looks like an "airport book," but is actually surprisingly good. "The Right To Bear Arms: The Rise of America's New Militia" (1997).]

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10 minutes ago, MsDiPesto said:

Would Flynn and his son, who have both helped spread this fiction, be open to lawsuits from the affected parties?

From what I've briefly read, it would be very tough. Something about the focal points of the theories being public figures and having to prove that those spreading the lies didn't believe them to be true. 

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21 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

[It's not a political topic. You can be the most conservative Republican in the world, and not condone these acts of stupidity and barbarism. 

Our soon to be National Security Adviser isn't condemning the conspiracy-- he's fanning the flames. I'm not saying he'd condone the actions of the gunman, but he sure seems to condone the motive.

The. National. Security. Adviser. I look forward to hearing about what he advises in the White House situation room when the shit hits the fan.

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11 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

Our soon to be National Security Adviser isn't condemning the conspiracy-- he's fanning the flames. I'm not saying he'd condone the actions of the gunman, but he sure seems to condone the motive.

The. National. Security. Adviser. I look forward to hearing about what he advises in the White House situation room when the shit hits the fan.

[You'll notice I didn't delete you discussing his actions - you did it fairly, and with no condemnation towards an entire group of people; nor did you call him any names. I'd rather not have to moderate this, but it's either this, anarchy, or total censorship, and this is the lesser of those three evils. I'd make a good judge; unfortunately, I have no desire to be one.]

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30 minutes ago, Tweaked said:

and now Roberta's in Brooklyn.

This whole phenomena is so stunning, and prior to the election, with my partaking minimally on FB and twitter I was completely unaware of it, its depth, size and scope.  Subsequent to the election I tweeted a few comments, one of which went viral  (viral for me...not big time viral) it saw 30-50 retweets and 10's of thousands of "impressions".  It was interesting to follow.  There were a slew of positive and negative comments, a few from twitter followers I recognized but most from a world wherein this thing went viral and whom I wouldn't know from Adam.

Next from those I follow, who had primarily been chosen 4-7 years ago and represented people in the search engine optimizing and web marketing world....I found endless tweets and retweets about political topics with pizzagate dominating. 

Astonishing.  I followed some of it.  Trails to hundreds of retweeters.  The creation of a story based on no substance but the continuing contribution of retweeters with no connection to the events but blasting out fantasy connections from thin air and then seeing them retweeted to the huge volume of followers.  The story only got worse.

Possibly others of you have witnessed this.  I hadn't.  To the extent this creation has now resulted in dangerous consequences its a terrible social creation.   Lord knows where its going but its not healthy.  Its now scary and dangerous.

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So, General Flynn is out. His former adviser, his son, was part of the Comet Ping Pong debacle.

"Son of Trump Security Adviser Spread Baseless 'Pizza Gate' Conspiracy" by Tai Kopan on cnn.com

Quote
Lt. Gen. Flynn himself tweeted a link to a story that helped fuel and generate the theories about the Clintons, which again contained no credible evidence, days before the election. According to Buzzfeed, that discredited story was part of what spurred the invention of the pizza restaurant theory.
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

 

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13 hours ago, DonRocks said:

"Pizzagate Shooter Apologizes in Handwritten Letter for His 'Mistakes' Ahead of Sentencing" by Spencer S. Hsu on washingtonpost.com

I'd rather see an apology after sentencing, but I'm willing to forgive if people are willing to learn.

Awww. Isn't that sweet. 

Alex Jones apologized too. Though he needs to apologize for a million other things including the 9/11 and Sandy Hook bullshit he peddles.

We apologize to the extent our commentaries could be construed as negative statements about Mr. Alefantis or Comet Ping Pong James Doubek on NPR

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