Faking It

December 7, 2016

It’s been a mere twenty-nine days since the conservative minority, once again, imposed their will on the country. And already we’ve experienced over nine hundred hate crimes, lost over five hundred jobs in Indiana and managed to provoke China. But, what’s really captured our imagination is Pizza Gate.

Pizza Gate is a fictitious online conspiracy theory. The theory claims that Comet Ping Pong pizzeria (in northwest Washington) is the center of a Hillary Clinton run child sex slavery ring. (Yeah, really!) Articles touting this theory have appeared on both Facebook and Twitter as well as the usual dark web sites.

So this week, a twenty-eighty-year-old white guy reads the about Pizza Gate, loads up his AR 15 rifle, drives six hours to the nearest sex-ring- pizzeria and opens fire. Interestingly, he was taken into custody unharmed. Did I mention he’s white?

The media then explodes with articles about fake news. The NY Times, Buzfeed, the Washington Post, everyone is talking about fake news. NPR even published a guide on how to self-check online facts.

While it’s important to be aware of this bullshit and note that dark ideas feed dark behavior, I think it’s equally important to look at the other side of the fake news equation – the fake news reader.

For some reason, this asshole (and many other assholes) is willing to believe a story as outrageous as Pizza Gate. I think it’s more about desire. To believe something this unlikely, the reader must really want to believe it. And therein lies the heart of the matter.

Some of us want to believe the bullshit. The crazier the better. If we were to remove all propaganda, take down all the TellMeWhatToThink.com web sites and burn all the hate posters – even then, these alt-people would remain.

They would just be regular republicans.

That’s all I got today. Take care of yourselves and each other,
osv

PS – The Donald still has not picked a Secretary of State. I’m thinking he may just skip it and take the job himself.  What the hell, as long as the republic stands.