Talking to a InfoWars fan at work.

[underpants]

He has a Hillary for Prison 2016 InfoWars bumper sticker on his car.

We've have a good relationship but I knew he was a crazed conspiracy theorist. He sent me an email about chemtrails once.

He says to me "So do you think it was a single shooter?"

I knew he was talking about Vegas. I replied that the investigation is ongoing but there doesn't seem to be anything to suggest a second shooter.

I refuse to talk politics at work save for a very few people who agree with me but this was conspiracy theory time so we talked for a few minutes.

He brought up some things I'd seen or heard of and some that I hadn't:
No closed circuit video footage of him - Me: well it is still an ongoing investigation. Do you really think there are no cameras in a hotel let alone a casino?
The footage that supposedly shows shots from the fourth floor (already been debunked)
He was at a poker table 10 minutes before the shooting started - Me: he played video poker not at the tables
He didn't buy that the shooter scoped out other venues. He thinks it was the Israelis going after "Trumpians" (he doesn't like Trump either) for some reason I forgot.

He then ventured into 9/11. I was laughing at this point. He thinks there were no planes at all. It was a CIA operation.

Back to Vegas
I said I thought it was hubris - he wanted to "show how it's done" because he was soooo smart and he may have thought he could get away.

His take was a jaw dropper. The shooter was a CIA "gunrunner" who had his hotel room set up as a sales exhibit and it went bad. The buyers were trying to rob him.

I knew the guy was out there from the bumper sticker but good grief.

[SoCalNative]

1. This is what happens

when republicans close down the mental hospitals....

[RKP5637]

2. Really!!! I was also reading awhile back that some people have bonded together on the

internet around their mental disorders, such as delusional paranoia for one example. They feed on each other and the shit becomes established and even more real to them as there is so much concurrence with few reality checks.

[physioex]

3. Don't engage in this discourse at work.....

Your professional life should be that, your political views are here at DU. Not a good idea to discuss those topics esp. on company email.....

[underpants]

6. I agree but

He sent me the email about chemtrails. I didn't respond.

I was laughing but we kept it so quiet that someone standing 20 feet away didn't hear it.
I've been there a few years and this is the second time I've had this sort of conversation with him.

At one point in the 9/11 part he brought up Cheney not releasing the fighters and I cut him off "I don't want to talk about politics here".

[ThoughtCriminal]

21. Chemtrails

Try this.

[underpants]

35. I love that

Thanks

[Hortensis]

23. Lol. You know the ads "What they don't want you to know"

on the right margins of sites like Infowars? Our closest neighbor lived there. He'd open those, then their links to occult secrets, and then theirs'. Far, far down those rabbit holes are where he found the real truths only a few know. He kept inviting me to check them out but I truly did not dare.

Now they've moved and we actually miss them. Not boring. But we all stepped very carefully around politics. He couldn't resist insulting Democrats, we couldn't resist tossing a word or laugh back, but kind of like sprinkling a drop or two of water in a hot skillet to watch a seconds' dance and sizzle before it disappeared.

[Yupster]

17. Good advice

Talk politics and religion on your own time, not at work.

[tulipsandroses]

4. Conspiracy nut!

I have heard all of those save for the gunrunner theme. I have a friend that is conspiracy nut, I suppose its a matter of time before he brings that one up. LOL! Its so frustrating speaking with him. These days I just say hmm hmm, and change the subject. Trying to add reason and logic to his arguments is futile.

[underpants]

10. Welcome to DU

We were never combative but he did say "Do you listen to NPR or watch NBC?" When I asked for his sources he said "the internet".

[tulipsandroses]

24. Thanks for the warm welcome

[madokie]

5. Are we neighbors and don't know it?

Because you're describing my neighbor to a T
LOL

Peace

[underpants]

36. They're out there

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. THe gun runner one has a few variants, the customers are sometimes

Antifa, Isis .... what is never explained in this narrative is why all those people were shot.

[underpants]

12. So you're familiar with it

I hadn't heard that one but I can see how it was constructed. It makes since to those willing to believe it.

[The_Casual_Observer]

18. Yes, unfortunately I can't help but read responses to various

democratic themed Facebook pages. It's sort of a sick obsession, this is where you can see every form of degenerate alt-right theory or nonsense distilled down to a sentence or two.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Have the Supid Idiot go to

Greg Palace's web site and read the real truth behind Paddock. Real Facts real truth. Face it,there are plenty more of these very capable persons out there.

[underpants]

13. He'd never believe it

He mentioned Jeff Rense.

Rense?!?!? I said

Yeah, you know about him? He said

[Wellstone ruled]

29. Palace grew up and went to school with this Guy.

When a Genius goes off the Rails,it is not pretty. And again,how many more are there out there? With the stress's of life being what they are at this time in our Nation,there will be more.

Mental health and understanding what it really is,is a challenge at best.

[csziggy]

42. You mean, Greg Palast?

I went to school with the Vegas shooter

Friday, October 13, 2017

[Los Angeles] When we were at Francis Polytechnic High in Sun Valley, Steve Paddock and I were required to take electrical shop class. At Poly and our junior high, we were required to take metal shop so we could work the drill presses at the GM plant. We took drafting. Drafting like in "blueprint drawing."

Paddock. Palast. We sat next to each other at those drafting tables with our triangular rulers and #2 pencils so we could get jobs at Lockheed as draftsmen drawing blueprints of fighter jets. Or do tool-and-dye cutting to make refrigerator handles at GM where they assembled Frigidaire refrigerators and Chevys.

But we weren’t going to fly the fighter jets. Somewhere at Phillips Andover Academy, a dumbbell with an oil well for a daddy was going to go to Yale and then fly our fighter jets over Texas. We weren’t going to go to Yale. We were going to go to Vietnam. Then, when we came back, if we still had two hands, we went to GM or Lockheed.
More: http://www.gregpalast.com/went-school-vegas-shooter/#more-14229

[Wellstone ruled]

46. Yes yes,thanks for the name correction.

If you grew up in poverty or in similiar situations,you know or knew someone who fit Paddock profile. Not defending Paddock,but,have known two like people who offed themselves during the seventies. Both came back from Nam never being able to cope.

[kwassa]

9. I saw a car with Infowars bumper stickers last weekend.

I was astounded, I didn't know they existed.

Home Depot parking lot. A shiny black Dodge Charger with blacked-out windows, which made the stickers really stand out.

I was tempted to wait around to see a real live Alex Jones supporter, as this is a very blue area. But I had real things to do.

[Initech]

19. A couple of my good friends listen to Alex Jones.

When I first found out who he is I was like "holy shit". I can't believe they would think something as horrifying as Sandy Hook or Orlando was a false flag. Or that they believe what this gasbag says. It is fun to poke holes in their arguments though!

[Wellstone ruled]

30. The new Ride of the Alt-Right.

[Stallion]

11. I Love How They Were Pushing the "Fact" That the Shot Mexican Employee was MISSING!!!

...until he showed up on Ellen DeGeneres the next day on national TV

Lost and FOUND

[underpants]

15. I brought that up

That's when he changed it to 9/11.

That one cracked me up though. Posted on it a few days ago.

[lpbk2713]

14. Give him a roll of aluminum foil.

See if he knows what to do with it.

[underpants]

16. Ooh Christmas gift idea!

Thanks.

[Initech]

20. So let me get this straight.

He was trying to sell the guns to other buyers, and when the deal went south, rather than shooting them, he takes it out on the crowd of country music fans? To quote the movie Super Troopers: "I'll believe that when me shit turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbert!"

[underpants]

22. Yeah

That was part of the jaw drop. I just wanted to say "but... why would...." but I didn't.

Nothing is real. It's all a complicated series of connections that we can't know about. Oh but THEY know. The media is part of it (well) and lots of links between Israel and the CIA and whoever fits.

[Initech]

25. They never accept reality.

They can never accept that a loner with access to an arsenal of weapons goes to an elementary school, or a nightclub, or a country music festival, with the intent of killing as many as possible, as the motive. It always has to be an alternate reality. Or a conspiracy theory, or a false flag, or the deep state. They can never take responsibility for their own actions. I wonder what that must be like?

[jberryhill]

33. It's the Lone Nut Anti-Defamation League

Honestly, these people are simply deflecting blame from like minded people.

[tulipsandroses]

26. But wasn't this a false flag with crisis actors?

They confuse me.

[underpants]

40. It's many things

That we just can't understand and will never know but buy this product to help this website continue to sell you doubt.

[sarah FAILIN]

27. This is their new theory

CIA gunrunner in a bad deal. No explanation why they tried to kill 500 people. I heard it today too, lol.

[bathroommonkey76]

28. The gunrunner conspiracy started a couple of hours after the shooting

Read the tweets about this on Twitter- There were about a dozen accounts pushing that bullshit.

[hedda_foil]

37. Sounds like a few Russian trolls might have been pushing the story too.

Damn! Did I just use a conspiracy theory to counteract a conspiracy theory?

[bathroommonkey76]

38. Or Mike Cernovich? InfoWars?

Could be any of those propagandists.

[ProudLib72]

31. I believe this

Space travelers from the future find a time travel device and go back to JFK's assassination. They get in Oswald's way causing him to bungle the job. Now they have to find a way out. They travel a year in the future, find JFK and convince him to come back with them and be the shooter on the grassy knoll. So JFK is JFK's assassin.

BTW: Red Dwarf is the best sci fi tv series ever made.

[jberryhill]

32. Your comment here is one of the only times I've seen this perfectly reasonable explanation

he wanted to "show how it's done" because he was soooo smart

I tend to agree with that.

He now has the "single shooter high score", which the news organizations have made clear.

I am certain there is some other person somewhere thinking "I'll bet I can beat that."

It's like holding an Olympic record.

[underpants]

39. Yes there is a one-ups-manship element to these people

Some of them. Some are just disgruntled. I work in the public sector and we have regular "active shooter" training which i just find odd. My daughter has had regular training since elementary school.

The world we live in.

As horrible as this movie reference is I've found it helpful

"First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek? "

[Siwsan]

34. I had a co-worker who used to constantly try to engage me in political conversations

She was a crazy, born again right wing evangelical with a hair trigger temper, so I had no desire to discuss anything outside of work related issues, with her. She'd plop down on my spare desk and start yammering. It was always prefaced with "I have a friend who is a liberal, like you, and he told me....." then she'd start talking some sort of nonsense. I would tell her I was busy and didn't have time, but that didn't stop her. She'd keep yammering and I'd keep working.

But one day I had enough and asked her "Didn't you say that your friend is a Libertarian?" and she said yes and I followed with "Surely you must know that a Liberal and a Libertarian are two, very different political ideologies!" and I laughed. Yea, I couldn't help it. I laughed at her.

She turned bright red bed, stormed out of my cubicle, and never, ever tried to politically engage, again. Unfortunately, because other people heard the conversation, and laughed, too, she spent the next 6 or so years targeting me for revenge. Big price to pay, but also very satisfying take down.

[sharedvalues]

41. Send him this, blow his mind

Fox News actually pre-plans what their shows will say, to disparage liberals to get votes for GOP billionaire donors!

https://medium.com/@tobinsmith_95851/how-roger-ailes-fox-news-scammed-americas-la-z-boy-cowboys-for-21-years-1996ee4a6b3e

Shocking!


(and sadly, it's actually true. It's not a theory. But it will blow his mind)

[Takket]

43. "Talking to a InfoWars fan at work."

that was your first mistake.

next time face a brick wall and scream at it, and you will have a much more worthwhile and personally enriching discussion.

[underpants]

44. Eh

He's actually not a bad guy and I need, from time to time, things from him

He mostly needs things from me.

The politics of dancing

[KY_EnviroGuy]

45. Underpants - Question with different twist...

Does that sort of mind set in workers affect their job performance? One would think they would be trouble-makers for the company, perhaps inventing work-related conspiracies on the job.

A plant electrician in a power plant I did a field service job in tried to convince me that CFL (fluorescent) lamps were net-negative for the environment because of the mercury. Since he worked for my customer (and he was my assigned helper), I just let it pass.