The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Fire Can’t Melt Crazy!’

Posted on | June 20, 2013 | 66 Comments

Says Matt Bramanti, although certainly the craziness has been heated to its boiling point lately and . . . speaking of Alex Jones:

The revelation that Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings was working on a story about the CIA before his death and had contacted a Wikileaks lawyer about being under investigation by the FBI hours before his car exploded into flames has bolstered increasingly valid claims that the 33-year-old was assassinated.

What does “increasingly valid claims” mean in the InfoWars lexicon?

That’s another one of those Unanswered Questions, isn’t it?

There is a certain art to the paranoia racket: You begin with a far-fetched conclusion, and then scout around for “evidence” that can be asserted in support of the conclusion. Then if someone should (a) point to evidence that would tend to disprove your conclusion, or (b) explain that your “evidence” of a conspiracy doesn’t really add up, you accuse them of being willing to accept Establishment explanations when, as every kook knows, the Establishment is conspiring to cover up the conspiracy.

This is where the Unanswered Questions come in handy: No matter what answers actually turn up, the conspiracy theorist always has more questions that cast doubt on the obvious (non-kooky) conclusion, so that however clear the counter-kook explanation, the kook will say you haven’t debunked him. Far-fetched as his theorized conspiracy may be, you’ll never prove to his satisfaction it doesn’t exist, because he doesn’t accept ordinary facts and logic as valid.

A conspiracy theory is ultimately non-falsifiable, which is why there are still kooks claiming that Lee Harvey Oswald was a “patsy” and, by ignoring such kookery rather than mocking it as the shabby nonsense it actually is, we permit it to fester out there on the fringe, infecting our discourse like an undiagnosed virus.

“The way forward is not through enormous heuristic leaps, but
through painstaking investigation and cogently applied reason.”

The Drudge Report headlines:

WIKILEAKS: Michael Hastings contacted us
just before his death…

Said He Was Being Investigated By FBI…

Well, maybe he was being investigated by the FBI, but this doesn’t mean that A (the investigation) was the cause of B (his death), although I would be glad to entertain the theory that his worries about an investigation caused Hastings’ final paranoid freak-out:

Colleagues confirmed Hastings was “a nervous wreck” because of fear he was under federal surveillance:

 ”He was incredibly tense and very worried and was concerned that the government was looking in on his material,” said Hastings’s friend and Current TV host Cenk Uygur. “I don’t know what his state of mind was at 4:30 in the morning, but I do know what his state of mind was in general, and it was a nervous wreck.”

Uygur told KNX-TV: “Michael Hastings was a journalist who definitely gave the government trouble, the Pentagon trouble, so if they were surveilling him it wouldn’t be that surprising.” The Los Angeles CBS affiliate also quoted another friend who said Hastings had begun to be “paranoid” about his fear of government surveillance.

The CIA Killed Michael Hastings!

Not really, but the Google-bombing does help traffic.


I’m not afraid of “digging too deep” or “getting too close to the truth.” What I’m afraid of is getting too close to these paranoid kooks.

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Category: Conspiracy Theories, Journalism

Comments

66 Responses to “‘Fire Can’t Melt Crazy!’”

  1. SDN
    June 21st, 2013 @ 1:00 am

    It will be too soon when Hell’s a hockey rink.

  2. Adjoran
    June 21st, 2013 @ 1:55 am

    It’s an obvious set-up, a staged accident. The only witness told police and media the Mercedes suddenly “jack-knifed” and slammed into the tree.

    Think about it: in order for the Mercedes to jack-knife, it had to be ALREADY coming apart in the center of the frame! In the middle of the street, no less, nothing around. UNLESS someone planted small, discreet charges at just the right places to break that car apart at just the right moment to make it LOOK like an accident.

    How do we know the accelerator wasn’t stuck, or being controlled remotely? Conveniently, the police aren’t investigating this possibility at all. It was all tied up in a neat little package for them, bow and all, and they took the gift and went to write up their reports over donuts.

    It’s all there, between the lines. Can’t you see? CAN’T YOU SEE???!!!!!!!!1!???

  3. Bob Belvedere
    June 21st, 2013 @ 8:56 am

    Be patient.

  4. Bob Belvedere
    June 21st, 2013 @ 8:57 am

    I can beat that:

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281686/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ql_6

  5. Bob Belvedere
    June 21st, 2013 @ 9:01 am

    Come on, Adj! Have you ever tried to write a report over a donut?!?!?! You’d squish the damn thing and your writing would be illegible.

  6. rsmccain
    June 21st, 2013 @ 9:03 am

    BTW, have I ever mentioned that Alex Jones is a dangerous kook? http://t.co/3EeXLWNk5A Pretty sure I have. #InfoWars #Hastings

  7. JaharsCellmate
    June 21st, 2013 @ 9:12 am

    RT @rsmccain: BTW, have I ever mentioned that Alex Jones is a dangerous kook? http://t.co/3EeXLWNk5A Pretty sure I have. #InfoWars #Hastings

  8. JaharsCellmate
    June 21st, 2013 @ 9:14 am

    A pretty brilliant takedown of kook #1 by @rsmccain here:
    http://t.co/YSpMRacBAX

  9. Josh_Painter
    June 21st, 2013 @ 9:15 am

    RT @rsmccain: BTW, have I ever mentioned that Alex Jones is a dangerous kook? http://t.co/3EeXLWNk5A Pretty sure I have. #InfoWars #Hastings

  10. Garym
    June 21st, 2013 @ 9:28 am

    Bruce Campbell. Can’t go wrong with that.

  11. TimKPMan
    June 21st, 2013 @ 9:35 am

    RT @rsmccain: BTW, have I ever mentioned that Alex Jones is a dangerous kook? http://t.co/3EeXLWNk5A Pretty sure I have. #InfoWars #Hastings

  12. DJM1968
    June 21st, 2013 @ 9:44 am

    RT @rsmccain: BTW, have I ever mentioned that Alex Jones is a dangerous kook? http://t.co/3EeXLWNk5A Pretty sure I have. #InfoWars #Hastings

  13. FMJRA 2.0: Starface : The Other McCain
    June 22nd, 2013 @ 4:29 pm

    […] ‘Fire Can’t Melt Crazy!’ […]

  14. NotOnThisWatch
    June 23rd, 2013 @ 10:07 am

    RT @rsmccain: BTW, have I ever mentioned that Alex Jones is a dangerous kook? http://t.co/3EeXLWNk5A Pretty sure I have. #InfoWars #Hastings

  15. chuckcat2
    June 24th, 2013 @ 4:54 pm

    RT @rsmccain: BTW, have I ever mentioned that Alex Jones is a dangerous kook? http://t.co/3EeXLWNk5A Pretty sure I have. #InfoWars #Hastings

  16. chuckcat2
    June 24th, 2013 @ 4:55 pm

    RT @rsmccain: The CIA Killed Michael Hastings! http://t.co/3EeXLWNk5A (Not really, but why should Alex Jones get all that lucrative kook tr…