Philosophy Now Forum

After the Sandy Hook shootings, where a man slaughtered young kids at school, the right-wing came unglued and started promoting conspiracy theories regarding the murders of these young children. Alex Jones, a man whom the current president of the USA has stated publicly is a reliable source for news information, claimed that the shootings never happened. Jones claimed that it was all a false-flag where paid actors pretended to be grieving parents, and no children died. Jones's followers who believe such nonsense have even made death threats against the grieving parents, accusing them of being paid actors. This conspiracy theory promoted by Jones and Trump is based on the idea that if kids are shot at schools, that this may provide a justification for restricting access to guns. Therefore, Jones and Trump believe that such incidents are never due to actual creeps shooting people because they are deranged, but are always some staged incident by some ruling elite --- typically this means Jews.

After the most recent slayings at a Florida school, we have the same conspiracy theory being alleged by the right. The claim is that it was staged, and that we are not hearing from grieving students and their family members about what happened, but are merely being presented with paid actors to take away people's rights to own guns.

There is zero evidence to support any of these conspiracy theories, and they are always made by the right-wing nuts after a mass shooting. They can never admit that any mass shooting is the result of allowing deranged people too much access to guns. No matter how many people are killed, and no matter how young they are, these right-wing nutters claim it is all a conspiracy.

These conspiracy theorists, which include president Trump by the way, are not just deranged mentally, they are hateful thugs. To treat the victims of any mass shooting as if they were paid actors trying to pull off a con to take away people's rights is despicable. But, here is the ironic twist here ---- the very fact that we have such a large number of crazed people making up such fantastical and obviously delusional claims speaks volumes on why we need gun control --- these nutters in particular show a complete lack of mental stability that should be required of any gun owner. Their very existence tells us we need to limit their access to guns, because they are off-the-wall crazy. In fact, one of them believed the claim from Jones that Hillary Clinton was running some child prostitution ring out of a pizza parlor and charged into the pizza parlor with an assault rifle.

Does anyone really want the tin-foil-hat brigade allowed to own assault rifles? I for one don't.

who else banned guns in 1938?

I don't trust any government

-Imp

Impenitent wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2018 12:58 am who else banned guns in 1938?

I don't trust any government

-Imp

Probably the same person who banned unions and free speech.

The conspiracy theories are being alleged by the fringe right, a group of individuals about as small as their mental capacity. The only reasons they seem as large as they are is because of how vocal they are, and the people who are just trolling blend in.

These conspiracy theorists, which include president Trump by the way, are not just deranged mentally, they are hateful thugs.

I don't think Trump actually buys into the idea that Alex Jones is a reliable source for one second. I think it's just that he doesn't want to alienate a large part of his supporters by specifically calling him out. If he legitimately believed in false flag events, it would be extraordinarily apparent.

I wish he would call out the conspiracy theorists, though.

Science Fan wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:16 pm But, here is the ironic twist here ---- the very fact that we have such a large number of crazed people making up such fantastical and obviously delusional claims speaks volumes on why we need gun control --- these nutters in particular show a complete lack of mental stability that should be required of any gun owner. Their very existence tells us we need to limit their access to guns, because they are off-the-wall crazy. In fact, one of them believed the claim from Jones that Hillary Clinton was running some child prostitution ring out of a pizza parlor and charged into the pizza parlor with an assault rifle.

I don't know that I necessarily agree with your assessment here. While it sounds right on paper, I'm not sure someone's mental capacity can actually be gauged based on their belief in a conspiracy theory. Perfectly reasonable and sound people accept ridiculous things all the time.

Imp --- You don't trust any government? That's simply not true. Without a government, you would have no laws protecting your rights, and would not be able to function. Also, we already have gun control. Little children are not allowed to carry guns to school are they? A person is not allowed to own any and all guns, so the idea that we can't have gun control is absurd, since we already have it. The only debatable issue is the extent we have gun-control.

Hitler also liked dogs, so according to the "logic" of your argument, we should hate people who love dogs.

Sir Sister: I'm just not a fan of political correctness, and call things as I see them. People like, let's say the European conspiracy theorist, David Icke, should never be allowed to own an assault rifle. He believes that people like the Queen of England are inter-dimensional shapeshifting lizard people. Someone like him may decide to shoot the Queen in the delusional hope that she will turn into a lizard before the public's eyes. And if not him, one of his followers. Icke's delusion is a dangerous one, and it should be recognized as such.

The same is true for anyone who thinks Sandy Hook and other mass shootings are false flags controlled by a conspiracy. Those people are so off-the-charts nuts that they lack the cognitive ability to safely handle an assault rifle.

Keep in mind too that people like Icke and Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists are not peaceful people by any means. They are very hateful regarding their delusional beliefs and one can see postings from such people all over social media where they discuss having a civil war, or race war, in the near future. These people are dangerous and should be recognized as such.

Sir Sister: Trump has endorsed a number of conspiracy theories from the White House, as president of the USA. The allegations of Obama having wiretapped him, for example, came from a conspiracy site. You can say that Trump doesn't really believe in the things he says, but based on what? Mind-reading abilities? While your claim may in fact be true, we simply have no rational way of confirming that Trump does not believe in the conspiracy theories he promotes.