Tornado Alley (PROG)

[Maria56]

Are we living in an "end time"?

This is, for me, a serious question (and not a religious one). Since the election, the news has become even more disturbing on nearly every front. That scientists believe there is a need to copy decades of research to other servers to protect it from the incoming administration is horrifying. That "fake news" rules the day is beyond belief. What the f--k has happened to this country?

This is what prompted me to write this.

This is the false courage of conspiracy theorists: that only they have the guts to question literally everything, and only they have the wisdom to understand what no one else can see. It’s a powerful form of self-medication, a way to feel unimpeachably righteous in their groundless skepticism. The more terrible the tragedy, the more potent the effect. After all, only someone with real valor would have the fortitude to stand up against the whole world and wonder aloud whether 20 kids were really gunned down or the government staged the whole thing, right?

When the evidence proving them wrong becomes too overwhelming, or the condemnation becomes too pointed to ignore, conspiracy theorists have a readymade escape hatch that enables them to maintain their ill-gotten sense of moral superiority. It’s the same one Jones deployed in his “final statement” on Sandy Hook: They don’t know the truth, they’re just asking questions. The fallacy in all this, of course, is that the “questions” they ask all spring from the pre-formed conclusion that a conspiracy is afoot. It’s an insidious deflection that projects irrationality onto anyone who questions their motives — who could possibly be against asking questions?

"It’s a powerful form of self-medication, a way to feel unimpeachably righteous in their groundless skepticism."

Wow. Just, "Wow."

Okay, I'm done. I'll go back to my knitting now.

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/14/sandy-hook-conspiracy-watch-four-years-after-the-massacre-lunatic-ravings-become-even-more-sinister/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter