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: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 06 2016, @07:18PM
Conspiracy theories and people cooperating for their benefit are not even remotely the same thing.
The obvious rebuttal here is that all of the examples of cooperation given were conspiracies. Let's look at the actual definition:
1. A secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful:
1.1 The action of plotting or conspiring:
Now let's look at the examples:
Maybe two children conspired to trick you into believing they did their chores/homework/whatever, so that they could have their candy.
Covert plotting? Check. Not doing chores/homework/whatever might not be a great harm. Subverting the rule of the parental unit might not be greatly illegal. But this still meets the definition of conspiracy as advertised.
Doctors, nurses, and family often conspire to hide the facts from terminally ill patients.
Again with the secret plans. And while the rest of us might find the intent noble, the terminally ill patient might strongly disagree that concealment of their true medical condition is harmless.
Children conspire to cheat for better grades in school.
Again, fits the definition.
So you say "You fail vocab", but he obviously does not since at least two of his three examples fits the definition and the last could.
I get the earlier post about the "anti-scientific" nature of conspiracy theories. But the grandparent has a point. There are conspiracies. The question isn't whether they exist, but how big do they get? And there's just not much point to discussing any sort of scientific basis for conspiracies without some actual conspiracies of the appropriate scale to study.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @07:33PM
> The obvious rebuttal
I think I'm gonna start the khallow drinking game.
Every time you say "the obvious rebuttal" everybody takes a shot.
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=13985&cid=358591 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=15453&cid=400343 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=15259&cid=395330 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=15168&cid=393131 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=9968&cid=247750 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=16319&cid=422041 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=16518&cid=427099 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=10407&cid=257984 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=15451&cid=400237 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=6171&cid=146540 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=15790&cid=409076 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=13861&cid=354825 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=15899&cid=412132 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=10156&cid=252378 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=16621&cid=430615 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=16024&cid=414867 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=14796&cid=382957 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=14796&cid=382957 [soylentnews.org]
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=12649&cid=319100 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 06 2016, @07:57PM
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @08:12PM
> The obvious rebuttal
Drink!