Right, and Marilyn Monroe's death is why people believe that the moon landing was faked? Or are we overthinking this?
I would suggest that people believe in Pizzagate because other people who knew better but had reasons to pretend not encouraged them to do so. Once you start from the premise that Hillary Clinton is the Queen of Night, and that clues to this truth are woven throughout the fabric of reality, then any old list of nouns--pizza, takeout, whatever--can be mapped to any other list plausibly enough.
(If I sound grouchy about this, I am--I sometimes shop or dine on the block where Comet Pizza is.)
The "winner take all" turn of the culture has hurt the legitimacy of the system and I think it feeds anti-vax, "the moon landing was a hoax", etc. It's just too transparent that the people in charge grade their own papers.
To counter it, the elite has to be held to a standard higher than we hold other people. Otherwise the erosion will keep happening.
> the elite has to be held to a standard higher than we hold other people
It's so infuriating when U.S. political pundits interpret the Impeachment Clause phrase, "high Crimes and Misdemeanors", as requiring ordinary criminal or even heightened criminal behavior. The qualifier "high" refers to the office, and reflects a notion that public officials in positions of trust should be held to a stricter moral standard than in private life--specifically, the moral standards we should expect of those entrusted with high offices. That is, behavior that wouldnot be criminal for a private individual couldbe a high crime or misdemeanor for a public official.
It's mostly Republicans who push this interpretation (though Democrats made similar arguments, albeit less vociferously, during Watergate). But Democrats remain silent because the Impeachment Clause is worded in a way that gives Congress an affirmativeduty to prosecute high crimes and misdemeanors, and for strategic reasons the Democratic caucus would prefer to shirk that duty.
I'm half-convinced of the notion that the "Pizzagate" idea was spread on the plan that "whatever our side is about to be accused of, make sure that the other side is accused of it first".
It's like projection, only not unconscious; it's deliberate deflection to make the real thing look less believable when it comes up.
What I am more certain of, is that in general in modern politics, disinformation has been weaponized to a high degree.
I think the majority of politicians in Western countries have at least one filmed child sex episode. Assume you're a very powerful politician and you need underlings in powerful positions, which you can help novices get, but once they get powerful they become independent and can stop being underlings.
Filming them having sex with an kid, or at least an obviously underage teen, is the single best blackmail material possible. Damage potential basically equal to murder evidence, but there's no hard to hide murder victim - and in child sex one victim can be used several times, as opposed to just one time in murder.
As every such cabal would be much more effective than a lone politician, eventually power would entirely shift to competing cabals bound by child sex blackmail - making it impossible to dismantle externally, because both the executive, the judicial system and the biggest media would be controlled by people in such arrangements. Media in particular would have the main job - in case of any genuine leaks, mix the truth with outlandish claims to discredit it as a dumb conspiracy theory.
The game theory works out so nice I don't see any alternative, it's the stable state of the political system. I can see it being murder though, if disposing a body is much easier than my estimate.
In non-Western societies it could be something else. In North Korea, being filmed shitting on a photo of the current leader would work much better I guess.
Most people have morals and wouldn't have sex with an underage person, nor murder someone, just because their boss told them to. They would tell their boss to go fuck himself.
I don’t think this is the case at all. I’m not sure what you mean by, “the game theory works out so nice I don’t see any alternative”. Our political system was in place long before the technology was here to do this sort of thing. The alternative is that voters just aren’t educated about every detail of a candidates personal life so some sketchy candidates get through.
Agreed. Why would a billionaire support a candidate he "believes in" when he can outright own the candidate? There is that saying, "a big lie is easier to sell than a little lie" -- average middle class people comprehend cheating on taxes and spouses, but they simply don't have the exposure to understand there are psychopaths in the world who have zero morals and would kill for a glass of water if they knew they could get away with it. Look at the leaders throughout almost every civilization in history, it's the NORM for those in power to have their political rivals murdered-- very often their own family members. Anyone who thinks this is crazy or surprising is woefully ignore of history and the human condition.
[+] [-] cafard|6 years ago|reply
I would suggest that people believe in Pizzagate because other people who knew better but had reasons to pretend not encouraged them to do so. Once you start from the premise that Hillary Clinton is the Queen of Night, and that clues to this truth are woven throughout the fabric of reality, then any old list of nouns--pizza, takeout, whatever--can be mapped to any other list plausibly enough.
(If I sound grouchy about this, I am--I sometimes shop or dine on the block where Comet Pizza is.)
[+] [-] PaulHoule|6 years ago|reply
To counter it, the elite has to be held to a standard higher than we hold other people. Otherwise the erosion will keep happening.
[+] [-] wahern|6 years ago|reply
It's so infuriating when U.S. political pundits interpret the Impeachment Clause phrase, "high Crimes and Misdemeanors", as requiring ordinary criminal or even heightened criminal behavior. The qualifier "high" refers to the office, and reflects a notion that public officials in positions of trust should be held to a stricter moral standard than in private life--specifically, the moral standards we should expect of those entrusted with high offices. That is, behavior that would not be criminal for a private individual could be a high crime or misdemeanor for a public official.
See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_crimes_and_misdemeanors
It's mostly Republicans who push this interpretation (though Democrats made similar arguments, albeit less vociferously, during Watergate). But Democrats remain silent because the Impeachment Clause is worded in a way that gives Congress an affirmative duty to prosecute high crimes and misdemeanors, and for strategic reasons the Democratic caucus would prefer to shirk that duty.
[+] [-] m-p-3|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SideburnsOfDoom|6 years ago|reply
It's like projection, only not unconscious; it's deliberate deflection to make the real thing look less believable when it comes up.
What I am more certain of, is that in general in modern politics, disinformation has been weaponized to a high degree.
[+] [-] bitlax|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] onemoresoop|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nootropicat|6 years ago|reply
As every such cabal would be much more effective than a lone politician, eventually power would entirely shift to competing cabals bound by child sex blackmail - making it impossible to dismantle externally, because both the executive, the judicial system and the biggest media would be controlled by people in such arrangements. Media in particular would have the main job - in case of any genuine leaks, mix the truth with outlandish claims to discredit it as a dumb conspiracy theory.
The game theory works out so nice I don't see any alternative, it's the stable state of the political system. I can see it being murder though, if disposing a body is much easier than my estimate.
In non-Western societies it could be something else. In North Korea, being filmed shitting on a photo of the current leader would work much better I guess.
[+] [-] jbarberu|6 years ago|reply
Most people have morals and wouldn't have sex with an underage person, nor murder someone, just because their boss told them to. They would tell their boss to go fuck himself.
[+] [-] tyleo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oldgregg|6 years ago|reply