‘Fire Can’t Melt Crazy!’

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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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66 comments

  1. LMFAO Love it.. He may have been paranoid and thought the FBI was coming after him. That happens to lots of people and there are meds to handle that

  6. As I stated on your viralread piece… I feel bad for the I’ve but find it really weird that she would write a studious rebuttal to the NY Times obituary (less than 24 hours after her husband’s death) but make no other statement…like explaining why her husband was out at 4:00 am. I’m pretty sure she could say something to put the conspiracy theorists to rest…. But of course, my theory does sort of sound like a different conspiracy theory so what does that make me?

  9. And if it turns out that Hastings’ CIA story was about sexual harassment, how will the conspirators spin the story?

    Without any clue as to what Hastings was writing about, isn’t kind or hard to infer a motive?

  11. Hey, man, if they could kill Elvis just because he knew too much, then NO ONE is safe….

  13. Yeah, conspiracy theories are crap… so um, WHY, won’t Boehner and McConnell appoint any Special Committees?

  16. Conspiracies are hogwash. Therefore it is just the wildest coincidence that all of Hastings’ computers, disks, flash drive, digital audio recordings and written notes were in the back seat at the time of this completely random and tragic accident… I mean, honestly. what are the odds?

  18. Why would the FBI be investigating Michael Hastings? Man never even TOUCHED a tea bag…

  19. Alex couldn’t quite find the time to make any tea party meetings, but he certainly found time to show his support for the Occupy movement. He was front in center, showing his support. Mysteriously attending was also a para military group, a group that only showed up at the event that Alex Jones attended. Coincidence? Indeed.
    Alex is a big union lover, and a big Israeli hater. I like to watch his cons from time to time- he was a supreme Bush hater, spewed the progressive party line on a slew of issues, and was used effectively by the democrats to help divide the conservative base. Recently, Jones has stepped off the plantation a bit to his slave masters, as evidenced by Rachel Madcow’s repeated anti-Jones rants. Even a shill like Jones can’t avoid all the assaults on our rights by the Obama Regime, so he’s actually speaking up on a few issues. Which is why the progressive attack dogs are on him.

  21. If the body was burned beyond recognition, how do we know the body is Hastings?

    If the body was burned beyond recognition, how do we know he was drunk, or on drugs?

    CSI/NCIS TV miracles aside, isn’t there some time between corporeal remains spatula’d apart from the vehicle and when the lab results come in and the ME can make a legal determination?

    Personally, applause to RSM for the Hitch-like philippic. Hastings only claim to integrity was his professed identity as a prognazi activist.

  22. Rabid critters bite their handlers as quickly as they would bite anything else.
    Would you be referring to the so-called “Oath Keepers?”

  28. “Paranoia is a lucrative byproduct of the Military-Industrial Complex”? Pfui!

    Paranoia is a essential element of the Military-Industrial Complex! That’s why they call it a “complex”.

    😀

  31. Supposedly according Larry Elder the radio host, Harris believed the Feds were following him.

  37. A conspiracy so vast…and so profound…that the complete absence of even the tiniest shred of evidence is all the proof I need that this is one big mofo of a conspiracy.

  38. Did Hastings’ car just “explode into flames”? Or did it slam into a tree at a very high velocity? Well, we know trees can’t melt steel, so why are we turning a blind eye to the obvious, hmmm?

    Are you with me, people?

  39. You people are crazy! Here you are discussing the FBI and paranoia and the man’s state of mind, or his unexplainable friendship with Crank Uyghur (or whatever assumed name he’s using), and you keep missing the vital conspiracy of the automobile-hating trees!

    Wake Up!!

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