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Fake News Prompts Gunman To 'Self-Investigate' Pizza Parlor (arstechnica.com) 789

Posted by BeauHD from the self-investigating dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A rifle-wielding North Carolina man was arrested Sunday in Washington, DC for carrying his weapon into a pizzeria that sits at the center of the fake news conspiracy theory known as "Pizzagate," authorities said Monday. DC's Metropolitan Police Department said it had arrested 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch on allegations of assault with a dangerous weapon. "During a post arrest interview this evening, the suspect revealed that he came to the establishment to self-investigate 'Pizza Gate' (a fictitious online conspiracy theory," the agency said in a statement. "Pizzagate" concerns a baseless conspiracy theory about a secret pedophile group, the Comet Ping Pong restaurant, and Hillary Clinton's campaign chief, John Podesta. The Pizzagate conspiracy names Comet Ping Pong as the secret headquarters of a non-existent child sex-trafficking ring run by Clinton and members of her inner circle. James Alefantis, the restaurant's owner, said he has received hundreds of death threats. According to Buzzfeed, the Pizzagate theory is believed to have been fostered by a white supremacist's tweets, the 4chan message board, Reddit, Donald Trump supporters, and right-wing blogs. The day before Thanksgiving, Reddit banned a "Pizzagate" conspiracy board from the site because of a policy about posting personal information of others. Alefantis, the pizzeria's owner, told CNN, "What happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories comes with consequences. I hope that those involved in fanning these flames will take a moment to contemplate what happened here today, and stop promoting these falsehoods right away."
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Fake News Prompts Gunman To 'Self-Investigate' Pizza Parlor More

Fake News Prompts Gunman To 'Self-Investigate' Pizza Parlor

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  • Spinning even now (Score:5, Informative)

    by ThatsNotPudding ( 1045640 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:24PM (#53429023)
    The pizzagate psychos are now being told this was clearly a 'false flag' operation to cover up and discredit a world wide pedophile ring... running out of a fucking pizza place.

    Jesus wept, this country is doomed.

    • Re:Spinning even now (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:35PM (#53429079)

      Almost all "pizzagate" supporters do not actually believe it. They promote it because they think it's funny.

      This is 4chan, after all. They do it "for the lulz".

      People who actually believe it are in the minority and are simpletons or mentally ill.

      • Re:Spinning even now (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Geoffrey.landis ( 926948 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:39PM (#53429103) Homepage

        Unfortunately, Poe's law.
        There is nothing in the way of satire any more that is outrageous enough that some fraction of the people won't believe it's true.

      • Michael Flynn Jr believes it (Score:5, Informative)

        by haruchai ( 17472 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:40PM (#53429107)

        The son of Trump's likely National Security Advisor is one of those gullible simpletons

        http://www.independent.co.uk/n... [independent.co.uk]

        • Re:Michael Flynn Jr believes it (Score:4, Insightful)

          by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:54PM (#53429215) Journal

          Even worse, Michael G. Flynn, member of the Trump transition team and son of the next National Security Adviser might be a 4chan shitstain and is spreading this story just for the keks.

          Either way, it does not speak well of the Trump transition team. I see this morning Trump nominated a medical doctor who thinks dietary supplements can cure cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis to be the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

          • doesn't the hard-working small business owner, who is now getting death threats and business disruptions, have a really good libel case?

            • doesn't the hard-working small business owner, who is now getting death threats and business disruptions, have a really good libel case?

              I don't know how you go about suing a Reddit user called, "u/DumbScribblyUnctious" but there have already been legal actions filed against certain websites that pushed the stories.

      • Re:Spinning even now (Score:5, Informative)

        by AK Marc ( 707885 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:52PM (#53429199)
        The 4-Chan guys may have made it up as a joke, but I've seen it in the media (mainstream and alt-right) as a serious story. Proof the Clintons are dealing in child trafficking, based on some pizza emails.
        • The *REAL* story here is how you manage to Email a pizza. That is news for nerds that REALLY matters.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by jrumney ( 197329 )

          but I've seen it in the media (mainstream and alt-right) as a serious story

          Perhaps your notion of mainstream is a little off there. Even Fox News don't seem to have covered this as anything other than a conspiracy theory.

      • Re:Spinning even now (Score:4, Insightful)

        by youngone ( 975102 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @09:11PM (#53429627)

        People who actually believe it are in the minority and are simpletons or mentally ill.

        Who can own guns in North Carolina apparently.

      • Re:Spinning even now (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @02:39AM (#53430793) Homepage

        People who actually believe it are in the minority and are simpletons or mentally ill.

        Sadly I know a guy who really full-on believes this... and that Roswell was real, 9/11 was faked and a bunch of other conspiracies. Wouldn't be surprised if he believes in chemtrails and owns a tin foil hat either. But he's pretty good with words and is neither retarded nor obviously crazy. It's like he's just decided the world is a sham, we're all puppets dancing according to some agenda and that warps his perception of everything else. It's like he's just waiting for Morpheus to show up and offer him the red pill. Even if you manage to push back and disprove one little bit of his ramblings it's like okay maybe that was wrong but the other 99.9% is still on.

        It reminds me of some of those otherwise seemingly functional people who've been in ordinary jobs but end up fixed on some crazy idea that a Nigerian prince is offering them money or that they have an online girlfriend they never met who totally loves them and totally lose it. Many of these don't fit the "simpletons or mentally ill" who could never hold down a job profile. I saw someone else here mention Ben Carson, brain surgeon but thinks ancient aliens built the pyramids. No matter how smart you are, you see what you want to see. You believe what you want to believe. Then you use your brains to wrap reality around your beliefs, not the other way around.

        That's how you end up with scientists with a religion full of facts science has refuted. It turns out people don't have to have one coherent set of thoughts. We actually live quite well doing a day job and believing in the first woman was made from a rib bone at the same time. It's just that for some the last kind of "facts" take over and consume them, to the point where they can't accept reality as reality anymore. Mainstream media (MSM) is fiction, my alt-news is reality. Mainstream medicine is fiction, my homeopathy is reality. And Internet is the greatest boon to alternate realitys ever, here they all meet to agree on how right they are. Most are pretty harmless though.

        • Re:Spinning even now (Score:5, Insightful)

          by meta-monkey ( 321000 ) on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @10:47AM (#53432875) Journal

          Sure, but conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory keeps coming true. If 20 years ago you were rambling about government mind control experiments, the CIA letting crack into black neighborhoods and the government recording all your phone calls people would think you were crazy. All that stuff was true though.

          Doesn't mean this is true, of course. But I just think we're kind of past the point where one can say "lol conspiracy theory" and have that be an argument.

    • Re:Spinning even now (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Z80a ( 971949 ) on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @02:14AM (#53430717)

      There IS something weird on those emails.
      But people are jumping on too much conclusions or being pushed into too much conclusions.

      I bet its something boring like regular corruption.

  • Nah! (Score:5, Funny)

    by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:25PM (#53429037) Journal

    No one on Slashdot would ever promote right wing conspiracy theories! How absurd...

  • ...the pizzeria's owner, told CNN, "I hope that those involved in fanning these flames will take a moment to contemplate what happened here today, and stop promoting these falsehoods right away."

    If only.

  • Conspiracy theorists at work. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ASDFnz ( 472824 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:36PM (#53429089)

    This is fairly typical thinking from conspiracy theorists.

    They are the most gullible of people and just believe any crap that is put up on the internet. They like to believe that everyone else has no idea what is going on but in reality they are just eating the shit that other people make up.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by smooth wombat ( 796938 )

      The problem with conspiracy "theories" is there's usually a smidgen of truth to them such that the gullible and true believers will believe it without a second thought to any veracity.

      One can see all kinds of nutjob whackery over the 9/11 attacks, the most notable being "fuel can't melt steel beams". Which is true, the fire from jet fuel can't melt steel beams but what it can do is weaken the steel such that all the weight it's supporting causes the beam to warp. This has been shown in recent accidents inv

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by ASDFnz ( 472824 )

        Want a good laugh? Someone (who will remain nameless because I am embarrassed that I know someone that stupid) recently told me that all space travel is impossible and I am a fool for believing it. Astounded I asked him why he thought that and he pointed me to this website with "inconvertible proof";-

        http://heiwaco.tripod.com/moon... [tripod.com]

        I want to know where my €9.000:-/month for life is for lying about it?

        But yeah, like I said, conspiracy theorists are gullible.

        • Complete lack of understanding of simple Newtonian physics he should have learned in high school. He honestly believes that when you stop applying thrust to something in outer space, it stops moving. Amazing.

  • Deinstitutionalization + Social Media + Guns = ? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ErichTheRed ( 39327 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @07:55PM (#53429223)

    It's interesting how much these fake news social media campaigns are drawing out the nutcases. It makes sense, social media tools are designed to reinforce one's beliefs and continuously show you things that interest you -- as well as relevant ads of course! I could definitely see a conspiracy nut get hold of an idea from Facebook or Twitter, then have it keep popping up in his feed over and over again, then have his friends repost it, then see streams of tweets reconfirming their beliefs.

    Social media in this case is kind of like conservative talk radio, in that the most devout listeners to it seem to get locked into a feedback loop over certain ideas, never to change them again. Their host is angry, gets the listeners riled up and the audience feeds on the anger.

    That said, this whole story is a pretty sad statement on how we treat mentally ill people these days. New York (where I live) is completing the process of shutting down almost all of their custodial-care institutions and dumping people out onto the streets. Basically, you'll need to be Hannibal Lecter to get an inpatient psych bed, so you'll likely end up in prison instead -- or if society's unlucky, you'll just sit there stewing for years until something makes you snap and shoot up a pizza place. I'm not saying we should go back to the bad old days of locking people up for depression, giving them lobotomies or abusing them...but I do think deinstitutionalization went way too far. People should be able to seek a diagnosis for mental illness without stigma, and get treatment if they need it. I'm convinced this is why we have so many mass shootings in the US. Look at Adam Lanza (the Newtown guy) -- according to all accounts, his mother basically hid his developing mental illness for years and refused to accept there was a problem. But, the sad thing is that even if she had sought help for him, she wouldn't have been able to get it.

    • reagan trashed the mental health system. kept too many republican voters locked up.

    • People should be able to seek a diagnosis for mental illness without stigma, and get treatment if they need it.

      They already do, depending on the "diagnosis". It seems like having aspergers, ADHD, or being on some part of the spectrum is almost a badge of honor in some circles, especially in tech:
      http://nymag.com/news/features... [nymag.com]

      And just think about the amount of people getting prescribed Xanax, Prozac, or Adderall nowadays.....seems like people are getting what they want (whether or not this is "treatment", or course, is debatable).

      Look at Adam Lanza (the Newtown guy) -- according to all accounts, his mother basically hid his developing mental illness for years and refused to accept there was a problem. But, the sad thing is that even if she had sought help for him, she wouldn't have been able to get itc

      Hogwash. She was fairly well-off financially, and it's been said that what set him

  • The Internet and dumb people (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @08:07PM (#53429287)
    As evidenced by this sad case (I hope the pizza shop owners sue this idiot and garnish his wages for the rest of his life), and the election, I think the case can be made that the Internet doesn't necessarily enhance society. It's an interesting turn of events, and certainly not one that I considered seriously. I had always thought that the Internet went to shit in the early-mid 90's, when the public-at-large started to use it in large numbers. I couldn't imagine how bad it would end up today, though. And, sadly, we have such a large amount of the world's population still not online, I fear that it's going to get that much worse. I'm honestly disappointed in humankind that something with so much potential as the Internet can go to such shit so quickly.

  • Fuck this guy (Score:3)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Monday December 05, 2016 @08:51PM (#53429523)
    Prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. Asshole's an idiot, I'd rather he be in prison than in the general population.

  • There should be an internet license (Score:3)

    by Sir_Eptishous ( 873977 ) on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @10:51AM (#53432903)
    I know this is completely untenable, but there should a license to get online.

    There should be training, perhaps like going through drivers ed or hunters ed, to get a license to get on the internet.
    These dipshits, these FB idiots who believe every bizarre and completely unverified story or anecdote they see online should not have the ability to even be there in the first place.

  • MSM still primary source for fake news (Score:3)

    by walterbyrd ( 182728 ) on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @11:35AM (#53433295)

    Is the mass media responsible for fabricating stories and inciting riots? Seems to me the media routinely fans the flames of racial division by releasing false information.

    Remember the Charlotte riots? The media first reported that Keith Scott was unarmed. This was a major factor that led to the riots. Turns out, Keith Scott was armed. Is this a case of media fabrications causing riots?

    In the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, the media first reported that Brown was on his knees with his hands up. Turns out, that was another media fabrication which also led to riots.

    In the Ahmed Mohamed clock incident, the media first reported that Ahmed was just building a clock, as a project for his electronics class, but the principal called the police because Ahmed was a Muslim. Turns out, that was another media fabrication. Ahmed used a clock that he bought at a department store, along with a briefcase and other props, to make a fake bomb. In a post-Columbine world, what should the principal have done? What if it had been a bomb? BTW: although he was richly rewarded for this stunt, Ahmed has been posting extremely anti-American rants: he called the 9/11 attacks self defence, he supports BLM, and much more.

    When George Michael Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin, the media first posted photos of an 11 year old Trayvon. Months after the incident, some people still believed that Zimmerman attacked a small child, which was not the case. Trayvon was an athletic 5'11" and 160 lbs. and was beating the snot out of Zimmerman. Maybe Zimmerman was not justified in shooting Trayvon, but Trayvon was not an 11 year child, and the media tried to insinuate.

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