photo: Reuters
Among the cacophony of lies, downright errors and rush to explain or gain notoriety out of serious or tragic events, the internet has long become a source of income for those people who are not interested in telling the truth, but who have found a profitable niche by constructing elaborate conspiracy theories and peddling outright lies.
Just last week, news surfaced that one of the Boston bombers, the elder Tsarnaev, had been radicalized by the internet. And one of his favorite sites was Alex Jones' Infowars, long a standard bearer for hallucinatory emissions and fantastical lies.
And it seems that Infowars' conspiracy theories against the U.S. government, appealed greatly to the elder Tsarnaev. As a loner, who had trouble finding a connection with other Americans, the bomber frequented sites that were inimical to the U.S.
The starting point of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's radicalization seem to have been the 9/11 conspiracy theories, which come in different color and variety, from it being a government plot that allowed the invasion of two countries, to a plot hatched and executed by Israeli intelligence, among others Many of these theories were sowed by Alex Jones and his sites. And they appealed greatly to troubled teens like Tsarnaev.
Tamerlan in fact, was known to listen avidly to Alex Jones' popular looney radio broadcast under the Infowar banner.
Of course Jones said the Boston bombing was a government conspiracy and that the bombs were detonated by no less than federal agents. He's even conjured up a last minute theory: that the government is trying to take him down for his show and his 'truth telling' by building a spurious connecting between him and bombing. Odd, isn't it, how the shoe feels on the other one's foot.
But we must think of our responsibility when using the internet. There has to be a rendering of the accounts for those who hurt people with their lies. This writer remembers when conspiracy theories floated about the Pentagon attack being simulated.
It beggars belief that people who do not live in the Washington area could believe such stories. And yet how must the victims have felt, and their families, to hear such lies? Can we continue to hurt people with lies, for profit, without it being in the end punished in some way? Is our freedom of expression a justification for those who wish to hurt or sow discord and hate?
If we can ridicule Nazi groups or KKK supporters or idiotic church sects with their rallies and if we can condemn loudly overt racism or even the mention of the 'N' word, why can we not raise our voices against the lies that travel the Internet?
Just yesterday the site Redditt apologized for having named an Indian national as a suspect in the Boston bombing. In fact, the suspect has been missing for weeks. And if he had not been missing, chances are that his family and himself could have been in danger.
So in the end, we must condemn the lies, the rushes to judgments, the people who hurt other people by sowing lies for profit. If we do not do so, we are with the liers, and the sowers of hate and discord and the racists people who, like a senator on the Congress floor, just yesterday, had the temerity of using Glenn Beck's use of Alex Jones' conspiracy theories to insult our President and our country by accusing him of being responsible for the Boston bombing.
Proof must be proffered by these liars, proof that must be in black and white, incontrovertible and supported by numerous witnesses.
I say enough is enough.
OP-ED
Partial Source: the Atlantic 4.23.13
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