Tuesday 19 December 2017

Truthers- When Conspiracy Meets Reality

It is five years since news broke of a shooting at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut USA. Since then researchers have looked into the facts surrounding the case and unearthed some very worrying anomalies. In the background links below I provide examples of mainstream media tactics for addressing... or rather not addressing, the points made by conspiracy theorists about various crimes and I've come across another very recent prime example; one that is so blunt that I thought at first that it might be a satire of official story-belief. It is by Newsy, an online video-clip news service, and is a short documentary entitled Truthers- When Conspiracy Meets Reality, see here for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NczrIkBGD3M. The first scene shows the local Newtown priest weeping with emotion as he describes the funeral of one of the children. It then interviews one of the parents, also grieving. There is moving, poetic imagery and sad music. The narrator refers to the people who question Sandy Hook... all of them, as "hoaxers". There is a hall of infamy giving examples of some of the atrocities committed by conspiracy theorists. The next part of the programme interviews the "hoaxers" themselves, showing them laughing, high-fiveing and looking smug and triumphant. When one of them is asked "What would convince you that the Sandy Hook shooting really happened?" He replies obstinately "Nothing... I know in my heart and soul that it's a lie." One of the parents says: "That's the type of people... the largest network of village idiots in the world." There is a brief segment on other topics such as the Pulse nightclub shooting and the Boston bombing. There are hints about the dangers of the unchecked First Amendment, Russian hacking, free speech online and "fake news".

At no point, not once, was there a single mention of evidence. The intention of Truthers- When Conspiracy Meets Reality is not to explain why the official story of the Sandy Hook shooting is true; its purpose is to declare that anybody who questions the official story is simply a #BadPerson. There are plenty of researchers that they could have spoken to, for example Jim Fetzer, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcrIoNfxyik; and Sofia Smallstorm, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w0DYRA6BUg. These two researchers have been left out of the production for two reasons: 1. They have real evidence to support their position. 2. They conduct themselves professionally and do not contact the parents or carry out personal attacks on them. The conspirasphere has an online thug element, just like the skeptic movement, atheist community and the New Age. This element is the official story-believers' great gift and ally. Truthers- When Conspiracy Meets Reality is a very concise and distilled version of the propaganda I describe in other articles, such as those in the background below. I was asked to take part in some of these TV productions myself... I declined.
And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-great-ufo-conspiracy-review.html.

4 comments:

Rachael said...

Most people, one-on-one, WILL weigh the evidence, in a conversation with me. BUT THEN if I talk to them about it in front of a third-party, it's like they've forgotten the thought-process they went through in the previous conversation!! In terms of conspiracy theories, I think being skeptical of the official JFK assassination explanation ranks as ground floor, conspiracy-theory 101. And even THAT attracts ridicule from some people I've talked to. If you break it down no one really believes what the government says, almost everyone would agree with the statement "Politicians lie"; and most everyone assumes that the security apparatus lies too. I guess the difference is, "Trusters" (as opposed to "Truthers") assume that the government is lying for benevolent reasons; the alternative logically becomes very complicated because, if one approaches weighing events with consistent skepticism it can effect one's entire life. Thanks for the article, Ben. Happy, happy Christmas!

Ben Emlyn-Jones said...

Hi Rachael. Thanks very much. Merry Christmas to you too :-)
This kind of thing is really depressing. I can really feel the gradient of this uphill struggle at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Convincing people that any, if not most of these events have been fabricated or been deliberately allowed to happen, is something most people just are not interested in. I've talked casually about subjects like this and I always feel like a complete outcast, someone akin to a loner who has no life and no real interest in anything in the material "real" world. Most people don't actually buy into the MSM as they know they cant be trusted (as well as our government), but at the sane time they're not open or even willing to consider the possibility that they can plan and perpetrate terror attacks and other atrocities.

Ben Emlyn-Jones said...

That's true, Anon. It's a very awkward situation.