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The guardian reports on a sobering event in Washington DC.
US police have arrested a man wielding an assault rifle who entered a pizza restaurant that was the target of fake news reports it was operating a child abuse ring led by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her top campaign aide.
[...] The suspect entered the restaurant and pointed a gun at a restaurant employee, who fled and notified authorities, police said. The man then discharged the weapon inside the restaurant. There were no injuries.
[...] [Police] said the suspect during an interview with investigators revealed that he came to the establishment to "self-investigate" Pizzagate, the police statement said. Pizzagate is a baseless conspiracy, which falsely claims Clinton and her campaign chief John Podesta were running a child sex ring from the restaurant's backrooms.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday December 06 2016, @01:41PM
I am of the opinion that stories like pizzagate are new forms of electronic warfare. The trolls are taking it to the next level. I'm betting who ever is behind this is ecstatic that they got the crazies riled up to the point where a mentally disturbed person went into a family pizzeria and fired a gun. It's either a sick game someone is playing or we are looking at something bigger and well organized (conspiracy alert!).
This nation has lost its fucking mind.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 06 2016, @01:54PM
Then you haven't bothered to do your own investigation and fact-check anything. You just assumed that because it sounds outrageous that it must be fake. Remember "the NSA is spying on everyone"? Yeah, not so fake even though you were a tinfoil-hat-wearer if you mentioned it pre-Snowden.
Yes, there is a lot of confirmation bias and even more supposition. There's also a fuckton of coincidence in the provable facts if nothing shady is going on.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:20PM
Ever heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon [wikipedia.org]? I bet someone as high profile as Clinton will connect to everything well under six degrees. Especially if you're going through online social networks where every tweet, post, like and event makes thousands of connections.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:23PM
Not the same at all. These are people the Clintons hire and socialize with regularly rather than someone who someone's brother's girlfriend's former roommate went to grade school with.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday December 06 2016, @08:04PM
Guilt by association is tricky. DC is pay-as-you-go social club. Industry, commerce, politics, crime... There so many people running in the same circles that you just can't judge the nature of a relationship based on a paycheck or social gathering.
The Bushs and the Bin Ladens ties are a good example: Very big families with lots of money and politics going back 40 years.
The Clintons and Trumps aren't immune from this. It's simply statistically more likely the more ties you have to associate yourself with corruption. Take a police officer: All their friends are cops. Hence, they're more likely to be friends with a corrupt cop. Now, multiply this over border crossing trades, dealing with foreign dictators, assassinations, regulations... It's a dirty game filled with dirty players.
Specifically regarding Clinton, there's already have enough to convict her over the leaks. All this child-abuse nonsense smells like a calculated attempt to divert resources and prolong the investigation into dead-ends. Just enough breadcrumbs to have the police running in circles until the masses forget about her real crimes. Now that, that's a conspiracy theory I can believe.
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @09:50PM
... and if it turns out that the original cop was friends with a corrupt cop and was aware of the corruption without taking steps to correct it, then both are culpable.
The sheer number of convicted pedophiles in Podesta's social circle is alarming.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:44PM
How do you fact check bullshit?
Iv'e looked at the evidence and so far it goes like this: "Look at this email. It makes no sense without context. So we superimpose supposed child rape context and it looks like it fits. So it must be true." For all we know, the emails are completely fake. There isn't any hard such as video, pictures or audio. Nothing but easily faked emails and people reaching really fucking hard to try and connect the dots. It's all hearsay based on easily faked evidence.
Lets look at some other "evidence" shall we?
"Someone used the word farm which must make them pedos because some documentary back in the 80's referred to a child trafficking operation as the farm."(I'm paraphrasing) By that logic, every farmer in the USA must fuck kids. Hell, I guess my friends parents who started a little farm must be pedos too since they now refer to their property as a farm.
But wait, it gets better! "Look at the star and moon on the pizza sign! there is a star and moon on this picture of Satan so they must be devil worshipers!" I'm surprised they didn't connect the star and moon to Islam. Would have been much better since Muhammad was supposedly a pedo himself. That would have been much more lulzy.
Then we got to a spiral triangle symbol, one I've seen in art and earrings, is linking another pizza joint which happens to have a spiral triangle logo. As if the fucktards forgot the shape of a fucking pizza slice.
And crossed ping pong paddles look like a butterfly child love logo?
Or how about James Alefantis sounds like J’aime les enfants which means I love children in French. By that logic, Dick Butkus is a butt sex freak hiding in plain sight.
This whole thing is a sham and I cant believe you would consider such flimsy evidence. What ever happened to innocent before guilty? Seems no one gives a fuck about proper and fair justice. It's all torches and pitchforks. Salem witch trials all over again. Have we learned nothing?
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday December 06 2016, @04:40PM
I posted AC? This is what happens when you post and have a an awful head cold. Two fuck ups in a row and an unclosed block quote. Sheesh. I should go home.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:12PM
I've read it. There are verifiable facts presented. Some I've even verified. Is it a solid case? Hell no. Is there a verifiable state where either something fishy as hell going on or one massive string of coincidences happened? Yup.
I get that you don't want to believe all the guys supporting you are rotten sons of bitches but if you're closed to the possibility that they are you're a fool.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:35PM
I agree with your analysis.
"Look at the star and moon on the pizza sign! there is a star and moon on this picture of Satan so they must be devil worshipers!" I'm surprised they didn't connect the star and moon to Islam. Would have been much better since Muhammad was supposedly a pedo himself. That would have been much more lulzy.
I'll do a little groundwork on this theory. The image depicted is of Baphomet, which is derived Pan, the fertility god and according to the link I'm about to put Cernunnous, another nature/fertility figure. I went to Wikipedia which gives a cite of 1098 for the first use of Baphomet, but I found this page [pneumatikos93.com] that attempts an etymology:
…There has been quite a lot of speculation as to the origin of the name of Baphomet. Indries Shaw, a Sufi scholar claimed it originated from the Arabic term abu fi ‘hamat, meaning ‘father of wisdom’ or ‘father of understanding’, explaining also that the Arabic term Ras el ‘fahmat means ‘head of knowledge’. And according to author Joshua Seraphim the Arabic word for father also translates into ‘source’ or ‘chief seat’, relating it to the great Sufi healer and martyr, Husain ibn Mansur al ‘Hallaj, who was crucified and beheaded in 922 A.D.
Both Wikipedia and that page give alternate etymologies, so it's not completely concrete, but it would seem plausible given Wikipedia's reference from 1098 [wikipedia.org]:
The name Baphomet appeared in July 1098 in a letter by the crusader Anselm of Ribemont:
Sequenti die aurora apparente, altis vocibus Baphometh invocaverunt; et nos Deum nostrum in cordibus nostris deprecantes, impetum facientes in eos, de muris civitatis omnes expulimus.
As the next day dawned, they called loudly upon Baphometh; and we prayed silently in our hearts to God, then we attacked and forced all of them outside the city walls.
I could see “Baphometh” being a corruption of “abu fi ‘hamat.” So we have a good link to Islam via the Crusades, even though the image shown with the moon iconography wouldn't show up until 1856 during a revival of occult interest. From the first link:
The image above [of Baphomet] was created by Alphonse Louis Constant under the pseudonym of Eliphas Levi Zahed, and published in a two volume book titled Dogme et Ritual de la Haute Magie, in 1856. The English title is Transcendental Magic: It’s Doctrine and Ritual, as translated by Arthur Edward Waite, a Freemason and esoteric author. But the literal translation is The Dogma and Ritual of High Magic.
That's good enough for a wild-eyed theory about devil-worshipers sexually abusing children in rituals meant to bring about the anti-Christ and New World Order, etc. (Organized through a pizza place!)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @01:56PM
> I am of the opinion that stories like pizzagate are new forms of electronic warfare.
Well over a year ago I submitted a story about "fake news" to this site:
Fake ISIS Attack on Louisiana Chemical Plant [soylentnews.org]
Looks like they were just learning the ropes and have now significantly upped their game.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @01:58PM
Essay test -- how is this "Pizzagate" different from swatting?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting [wikipedia.org]
> This article is about the act of fraudulently calling emergency services to another person's address. For the killing of houseflies, see Flyswatter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @07:42PM
I leave somebody else to write the essay. I think it constitutes online harassment. There's also a difference between a group of people in combat armor, fully authorized by the government, breaking down the door of a private residence and one guy firing one shot in a business open to the public.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:03PM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:04PM
God dammit. I posted instead of previewing.
Anyways, the reason I say electronic warfare is simply because you can rile up people to the point of inciting violence using so-called "fake news". Don't like someone or something? Spread false rumors until someone passionately insane enough gets angry and does your dirty work for you. You get off scot-free because you didn't directly incite violence. You find a story and set it on fire, it may smolder out or it may turn into a fire storm. Just keep pumping this feedback loop until something big like a shooting happens. It's a goal, a bragging right. "We got someone to fire a gun in a pizza joint! LOL!" Whats the next level of Lulz? Arson? Murder? Mass murder? Terrorism? Full blown war?
And I'm wondering if this truly is for teh lulz or if there is an organization behind it. Anonymous, alt-right, 4chan, etc. are all the same people and there is a possibility that they have been infiltrated by agencies, foreign or domestic, to purposefully manipulate people on a massive scale. They don't have to be government either. Yea, yea, sounds like another conspiracy but you can't rule out that possibility.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:14PM
Russia's "troll army" [soylentnews.org] has been well documented. They pay those guys scraps. It would be easy for them to throw a couple of people into sites like 4chan just to stir up shit.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:22PM
The Yellow Press gave us war with Spain 120 years ago.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:24PM
Anyways, the reason I say electronic warfare is simply because you can rile up people to the point of inciting violence using so-called "fake news".
Yeah, like the fake Planned Parenthood videos from about a year ago. 3 people are dead over that one.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:59PM
they got the crazies riled up
Speaking of riled up crazies, a week or two ago the memes of "open borders are the best" and "religion of peace" got nine people in Ohio run over by car and slashed up by knife and the dude doing it gunned down.
This week we got a riled up crazy with the memes of "pizzagate" shot a hole in the floor, probably ruining one expensive floor tile and scaring the hell out of a bunch of people, but nobody got hurt not even the shooter.
Now we can observe what the left wing media is freaked out about compared to observed actual societal harm.
This nation has lost its fucking mind.
I would agree with you, although apparently the "meme-itic" danger of pizzagate is pretty minimal compared to other toxic memes in the meme-o-sphere given that its right up there with, like, homeless guy pees in alley, or getting a parking ticket for illegal parking.
There are dangerous memes that hurt and kill people; not pizzagate, so far.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:19PM
Speaking of riled up crazies, a week or two ago the memes of "open borders are the best" and "religion of peace" got nine people in Ohio run over by car and slashed up by knife and the dude doing it gunned down.
It is amazing that you see how your own believed-in propaganda is exactly the same as ISIS propaganda. Both of them animate people who suffer from poor self-esteem and are poorly moored to reality and eventually the most susceptible of them take action in the physical world. That's exactly the point I've made on numerous occasions. Its the net of a thousand lies chewing up and spitting out the most gullible among us. It doesn't really matter what the specific conspiracy is, its like there is a personality type that is much more susceptible to propaganda.
Except somehow you see that identical phenomenon as an exoneration of the lies you believe in. It so damn weird how you practically rub your own nose in the falsehood of your conspiracy theory and yet come away believing in that conspiracy even stronger.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:06PM
This whole site is full of people with mental issues and poor self esteem. This is what and who trolls are. And I should know, I am the same person. I used to be angry, very angry. But I woke the fuck up after taking a good hard look at myself in the mirror. Why did I hate minorities? Why did I spread lies? Why did I troll? I hated myself. That's why. Sure I was robbed by blacks, it was just three of them. Three different people who all share the same thing: they're angry. I'm still angry but mostly angry at myself for allowing myself to simmer in hate for the better part of a decade and blame everyone else but myself.
The big mouthed ass holes on this site are still angry. And there are a hell of a lot of other people all over who are angry. I get it. I really do. But the anger has blinded many, including myself, into focusing it on the wrong subjects so as to distract us from the real issues. Wake up people. Wake the fuck up!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @07:27PM
Use the machine to spread the message: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wauzrPn0cfg [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @05:01AM
The worst type of zealot is the reformed.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday December 07 2016, @06:48PM
Eh, not a zealot. Just calling out bullshit for what it is.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:39PM
> The worst type of zealot is the reformed.
Er, no. That's literally the opposite of a zealot.
The actual saying is, "There's no zealot like a convert. [google.com]"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:24PM
"This week we got a riled up crazy with the memes of "pizzagate" shot a hole in the floor, probably ruining one expensive floor tile and scaring the hell out of a bunch of people, but nobody got hurt not even the shooter."
The only thing I can conclude from that fact, is that the shooter was white.
Now imagine the crazy shooter was not white. How many bullet holes do you think he would get?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:15PM
Full fucking stop. That kid didn't go nuts because people defended a majority of Muslims who aren't violent or immigrants. That kid was incited by the same kind of propaganda as pizzagate. He was convinced that people were out to get him because of his religion. This kid is not much different than the pizza shooter. He read into a false narrative, believed it, and acted on it.
You know its getting bad when you go out of your way to downplay a shooting in a restaurant because no one was hurt. You live in a really fucked up reality bubble, don't you? Hello! McFly! These are the same kinds of incidents incited by the same kind of propaganda.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @12:08AM
Where was the "good guy with a gun" that should have shot him?
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday December 07 2016, @05:28AM
Where was the "good guy with a gun" that should have shot him?
He was convinced that HE was the "good guy with a gun".
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @01:25AM
I'm betting who ever is behind this is ecstatic that they got the crazies riled up to the point where a mentally disturbed person went into a family pizzeria and fired a gun.
It was just an individual attacker. Most conservatives are peaceful and lovely individuals. The Qura...err subreddit does not advocate for this according to PizzaGate scholars. You are a racist against conservatives. #NotAllCoservatives