Can we please hold off on the conspiracy theories?

Within a hand full of hours after the Boston Bombing I saw my social network flooded with conspiracy theories. I am not talking about the normal wondering most of us do, the side comments on posts, I am talking about the full on horrible head lines with photos and red circles and fear mongering. It is the middle east, N.Korea, someone from Newtown, it is our Government AGAIN, no it is some guy in his basement, is it church nuts, lets blame the NRA, lets blame anti-gun groups, lets blame….. aliens. Really… Aliens? All the finger pointing didn’t do a darn bit of good but it sure helped stir the pot, added to the chaos. It was sad to see and so I said something about it that evening on my personally wall. The responses where interesting.

 ME – It has not even been 24 hours, can we hold off on the conspiracy theories please?

• Anna — Someone did this. It took coordination. Therefore, there was a conspiracy to commit this crime. There are many factions that would benefit from this in one form or another or at least they might believe they would whether ultimately it is to their or their causes’ benefit. And when there are no clear answers, people like to speculate. Unfortunately, this particular event points in a lot of different directions, so people are gonna talk.

   
• Greg — stupid people have to do something with their time

   
• ME – I don’t think it is wise to speculate at this point, it is no better than fear mongering by the popular media.

   
• Greg –  Just think. By the time you wake up tomorrow there will already be three good theories on how this is Obama’s fault.

   
• Kaylene – And there will be a movie and a book about it.

  ME – There are already at least 10 already Greg, with photos that have circles on them even! LOL I have to laugh at how sad it is.
• Katie – i think sooner or later somebody or some organization will claim responsibility for it. they dont do these things just because. they want people to know who to fear and spread their message.

   
• Greg – This wasn’t a ‘they’. This feels like a ‘guy in his basement’ job.

   
• Katie – i meant they in a general way. he,she,it,them,they.

   
• Michelle – That’s exactly how I felt as people were speculating within 20 minutes of the bombs going off…for cripe’s sake!! I was completely irritated by the ignorance!!!

   
• Amy –  I speculate. I’m on a conspiracy board. The point is to process the event and talk it out. I wouldn’t dare tell anyone to NOT speculate, just to stay within reason.

   
• Michelle – I agree with you, Amy…speculation, very often begets truth, but the things I was seeing posted were nothing but unsubstantiated, mindless assumptions. People weren’t even out of harm’s way before the fodder started!

   
• Amy – A lot of soon-after reactions are/were knee-jerk. It’s just the way humans respond, especially when something is jaw-dropping enough.

   
• ME – Not everyone responds by spouting off speculation based on 2 second information though. It really is thoughtless and while it might make them feel better, it isn’t actually helpful and I think spreads more chaos. Again, no better than big new media fear mongering.

   
• ME – We don’t have to say everything that comes to mind but beyond that, there are some big fringe media pages pushing conspiracy within hours and ironically they all seem to be “guessing” or looking at small pieces and putting them together to push their common conspiracy theories, for further their own page agenda without thinking of how it might effect others or add to panic. Really rather disappointed to see it. If they really cared about the truth, they wouldn’t be doing it like that.

   
• Amy – Are you going out there cruising the web looking for this stuff? If not, I assume this is on your feed? Then hide those people. If it’s boards, articles, comments on articles, then don’t read them. If it’s the TV or radio commentators, turn the channel, or turn it off. I’m of to one of those boards to check one of the 97-page threads I left this morning to see how it’s progressed since. Sorry if I grind your gears being part of the speculation reaction that irritates you.

   
• ME –  OR I could share my opinion about it on my own wall.

   
• Amy – You sure can. And unless you state no advice needed in the opening comment, I can suggest other coping routes, can I not?

   
• Isabella –  Kim, I’m trying to figure out why people have to turn every tragedy into a conspiracy. It was a tragic and uncalled for event, but for the love of the Goddess, not every horrible event in US history was caused by the Illuminati, or the Government, or terrorists, or even aliens. Some human beings are just singe unstable entities, and they cause mayhem as an outlet.
• Amy –  Not exactly, Isabella. More like the more unstable cling to their theories trying to validate their own thoughts and feelings. More rational posters/commenters look at them, refute, and be done with it. It’s not a desire to create “mayhem” so much as it is they cannot comprehend that they might be wrong, that there might not be some ulterior motive for such darkness.

   
• Sabrina –  While I admit I have my thoughts on the potential culprits/reasons, I tend to preface all my comments with the caveat “this is solely my opinion based on the current evidence” to let people know that I can change my mind if new evidence comes in. Conspiracy theorists, as I understand it, were yapping about it being a “false flag” attack by the government not five minutes after the actual attacks, and they don’t bother to listen to any new evidence as a general rule, which means they end up looking like utter idiots. Right now it’s been almost twenty-four hours, and some of the reports have already been retracted (for instance, I’ve now been hearing that there were no unexploded bombs found, and the Saudi national who was listed as a “person of interest” by some news agencies has now been determined to simply be one of the many spectators who was injured in the blasts); I wouldn’t dare to make any kind of determination this year. I do have an opinion on who may have been behind it based on the current evidence as well as speaking with persons who, like me, are analysts of one sort or another in fields related to this sort of thing, but I would never in a million years say that my current theory is the correct one. I agree with Amy and Kimmy; the CT’s need to stop until we have more evidence. Unfortunately… *sigh* They won’t.

   
• ME –  You can suggest things Amy, but the issue is not with ME, the issue with people using this event and pushing “crazy” in the chaos.

   
• Isabella – Silly me, I’m just a nefarious black magic witch after all.

   
• EM –  I asked of we could hold off on the conspiracy theories in light of the event and now I am the called the “thought police” thanks…. that helps.

   
• Sabrina – For what it’s worth, honey, I agree with you; I don’t think we should be making ANY definitive statements until we know more about what’s going on. There’s so much conflicting information that it’s just silly to even try to come up with any theories.

   
• ME –  Am I the only that can see the difference between what some are doing with some conspiracy theories right after the event, and that not everyone who considers themselves conspiracy theorists are who I am talking about?

           Thankfully friends understood what I was talking about. Sad though that I ended up creating an argument with a friend. I am reminded not everyone can get along all the time, what a boring world that would be. I trust though her and I will get over it.

  I am NOT the only one thinking about respectful space, real reporting and facts, as some wise person went and bought the URL for bostonmarathonconspiracy.com

  

  The site when I just checked no longer contains the top line. I wonder how it will change over time and if it will be sold to a conspiracy group. At least given time more facts can be flushed out about this tragic event.

  For now, I think that space is respectful of those hurt and scared.

  Those using this bombing for attention to push their own agenda should be ashamed.