Gunman inspired by fake news to "investigate" pizza parlour

[twik]

This is something I think we'll be seeing a lot more of, as the tinfoil hat people believe they have one of their own in the White House.

http://www.newsweek.com/pizza-gate-sex-trafficking-children-john-podesta-fake-news-comet-ping-pong-528207

The saddest thing (since he didn't manage to hurt anyone) is that a good pizza place will probably eventually be driven out of business by these wingnuts. Who'd take their kids to a place knowing that gunman are likely to come rampaging through?

[gillianren]

This is demonstrable harm from believing ridiculous conspiracies.  The more so had someone died.  (Yes, there are apparently already claims of "false flag.")  I haven't been tracking this one, because it's silly even by conspiracism standards, so I don't quite know why they've settled on that location.  But does it matter?  For one thing, as several of my friends pointed out, the children of people who believe this garbage are at higher risk of not being taken seriously if they actually are molested, as pedophiles don't work anything like this.

[Peter B]

The thing for me is - a guy walks into a shop with an openly drawn firearm...what sort of conclusion are shoppers and staff going to draw? Naturally, people scattered and took cover. Just imagine if one of those shoppers had been carrying a firearm of his/her own and drew an incorrect conclusion?

In other words, how can people - police or civilian - tell the difference between a criminal with an openly carried firearm and a law-abiding citizen with an openly carried firearm? I know that calling out something like, "It's all right, I've got an open-carry licence!" isn't going to comfort me.

[gillianren]

Given the roommate I once had with a concealed carry permit, I'm not much reassured by that, either.

[sts60]

It's not really in my commuting path, but I'm going to have to go there and buy a pizza, just as a gesture of support (and a different kind of gesture towards the conspiracy peddlers).

[twik]

If I were anywhere near Washington, I'd definitely check them out.

[gillianren]

Alas, I'm in the wrong Washington.

[bknight]

Alas, I'm in the wrong Washington.

Lucky you.

[darren r]

Two things I noticed about that story. The guy is reported to have fired shots into the floor. The floor, beneath which are the 'secret tunnels' where children are supposedly being molested. Nice work, hero.

Secondly, he's an actor with his own IMDB page. Expect the tinfoilers (tinfools?) to jump hard on that, probably putting 'crisis' in front of it, while denying it was anything to do with them.

[gillianren]

Alas, I'm in the wrong Washington.

Lucky you.

It's beautiful here today, if you like snow.  Which I do.

[bknight]

It's beautiful here today, if you like snow.  Which I do.

Not for me, grew up in Wyoming.  Walked in knee deep snow drifts to school[not up in both directions ]

[Trebor]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pizzagate-from-rumor-to-hashtag-to-gunfire-in-dc/2016/12/06/4c7def50-bbd4-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.66988391d163
There is a good summery here if like me you were unaware of this. Even considering how ludicrous many conspiracies are getting it is still stunning that this could get to this level.

[gillianren]

Not for me, grew up in Wyoming.  Walked in knee deep snow drifts to school[not up in both directions ]

I think we've had knee-deep drifts a handful of times in the entire time I've lived here, and that was twenty-odd years ago.  Right now, Simon is lamenting that the sun is melting all the snow, because he wants to play in it.

[Obviousman]

I saw snow once. Really.

[Allan F]

I skied onto the roof of my school once. From the yard to the first-and-a-half floor flat roof.