A right wing conspiracy theorist gets to pay a billion dollars….

….to the families of the Sandy Hook children killed in the massacre. The jury almost quadrupled the $250 million the plaintiffs’ lawyers were asking for. These are crazy numbers and likely to be revised. But it’s a wake up call for all the conspiracy nutters. And a timely reminder that grieving people aren’t a fair target.

We have had so many misleading conspiracies….the Russia hoax, the ballot machine hoax and many more. Both sides are culpable. It’s time to sideline these angry misleading voices who cause untold damage.

It would be good to see this nonsense, from left and right, fading from our discussions.

Yes, a good verdict. Everyone has the right to freedom of speech, but even in a free society. the freedoms of others would limit our freedoms. 

We have freedom of movement, but we have to respect that if someone else is already in the space- we can't just push them out of the way because their freedom of movement outweighs our own in that situation. 

Slander and defamation of character happen daily, but when people make money out of it, it is breaking the law. 

It is amazing that Alex Jones has such a large audience. Why do people want to be deluded?
DumbMike and Beeno love his stuff.  

Sharktwat c annot resist the opportunity now can you.

Add Farter to that list...

SB

\Who is Alex Jones - never ehard of him before?     So how can I love his stuff?    

If there is anyone believing the fake news and conspiracy theory stuff look no further than you.   By the way if the US uses the FBI to silence  and ban real news - what about freedom of s peech then.             

Even a stopped watch is right twice a day.

What he put those parents through is beyond forgiveness.

Show the ego of a cunt that began to believe his own madness, no excuse no matter if he was right about something in the past.

We need to validate that Jones did in fact say this, long ago. We cant base an argument on this until we have established it is fact. 

Also, it did appear to be common knowledge amongst many and was conveniently brushed under the carpet by the mega-rich so there were already people saying this long before Jones.

Epstein was tightly connected with the richest 3% of the population. Both the left and the right.
Prince Andrew was one of his best pals, and that woman with black hair Maxwell, who is from an aristocratic background. The left can take claim of Epstein's friendship with Bill Gates and Bill Clinton.

It's got to the stage that the madness has infected the masses. These conspiracy nuts are their own worst enemies, that make up so much bs that any truth is drowned in layers of obvious crap and the average Joe just blocks it all out.

Personally I have reached the stage where I take it all as bs, simply because of the fact so much of the shit they claim is obviously made up.

Idiots like beenshit and mad Mike are so far down the rabbit hole no one can take anything  they say as fact even if 1% of it is actually true.

Anything these morons claim I automatically write it off as lunacy.

Which in some ways is good as I know I am right 99% of the time by taking the opposite view

SB

Conspiracy theories are more often used by both the rightwing and leftwing elements.    In essense the theories are based on real events and some unfounded interpretations.

What cannot be a conspirascy theory is the Russian Hoax used by the Democrats to undermine the Trump Administration, since it was based on lies concocted by the Democrats themselves - and lapped up by idiots on this site as well.   

I( do not react to conspiracy theories like the Jones one since they are normally not factual interpretations of real events.    However, media and political lies are what I react to and you tend to publish on site,       

aCF

Becauae I differ on issues from you like SB you dragged me into the rat hole in this case.   I  did not even know about this case and agree Jones made many people who lost children grieving afresh.   

What I am against is media and political propaganda lies and that is really not conspiracy theories - what I wrote on site I have real proof of and I use many sources to verify my statements on site.   It differs from the BS you people write on site and when you are asked about sources it turns out to be falsified and lying newspaper propaganda reports.

I am not a fanatic like Beeno  who thrive on the same kind of sources you and SB use - but in his case extreme rightwing sites - which I never visit.         

I don't care what sources you use, you are so fucked up about the democrats that you will swallow any bs that suits you.

Sorry mad Mike but I take any claims you make as bs simply because you claim anything as fact that supports your warped view on the world.

If you could take a step back and try to look at things in a rational light I might believe some of your claims but you just come across as a brainwashed moron with a blinkered viewed on the world. 

Have you ever posted anything but negative comments on the left. According to you they are Satan in man's clothing that have never done one thing right or in the interest in people.

Stop just posting that anyone from the centre or left has done nothing but evil. People like you are trying to lead everyone into 1984 (as long as it fits your world view).

Why is it always the Christians that love the idea of shitting on everyone with a different life outlook. I am sure I am closer to your supposidly Jesus teachings than any of you.

All you seem to do is spo ut hate to everyone that doesn't agree with your narrow minded views?

Politics is an open game, but targeting parents that have lost a child is disgusting. 

Well in the good old days a publication like The NY Times could be relied upon to give you factual news. Now they are so politically infected they are almost as unreliable as the bloggers. Fox the same.

So in today’s world it’s up to the consumer to make some critical judgements. That means even if the message is music to your ears, coincides with your own biases, you have to force yourself to be critical. 

If you don’t you are simply a pawn out there. About 15 years ago I was embroiled in a very public corporate controversy, for a while I was talking to the press every day. I found the Wall Street Journal reported the real facts far more faithfully. In part I believe because their readership is comprised of a diverse audience.

So there’s one test that may make sense….get your information from sources whose customers come from both sides of the aisle.

Trouble is its getting harder to know the truth from the bs.

In my day the news reported the facts but now I question every news source.

It's got to the stage I question  all sources and it's getting  harder to sift through the bs.

I try to take a central view and ignore the far right along with the far left.

Is everything I think is true even I can't  tell these days.

To many brainwashed fools and people with agendas to really know.

CF

I agree with you on this comment.   I am also confused at times - but I also like to see what opposition views are.   However, when an organization like the FBI leaked info to the newspapers or approach Zuckerman to bury the Hunter Biden Laptop story by calling it Russian Disinformation it stinks to High Heaven.  

The involvement of Hunter Biden in Ukraine corruption is factual - so there can be no doubt about it.   What was appalling was when Hunter and his father operate Joint Bank accounts and Hunter complained about having to share his takings  with his father - it gives me the creeps.

Some of the Bi den and Democrats policies are at best ultra-leftwing - like the Open Border policy and the  defunding of the police initiative is causing massive rises in crime in the USA. The USA Government has to borrow massive amounts of money to finance their spending sprees on current expenditure - their deficit spending accounts on average the equivalent of $6 billion per day.   In the Biden Presidency the debt of the US Government increased from $23,5 trillion to $31,4 trillion in only 20  months - that means inflation is inevitable  and that effect all people worldwide.    Reason - the Democrats has moved so far to the left they can be regarded as ultra-leftist.   

CF

I agree with you on this comment.   I am also confused at times - but I also mlike to see what opposition views are.   However, when an organization lioke the FBI leaked info to the newspapers or approach uckerman to bury the Hunter Biden Laptop story by calling it Russian Disinformation it stinks to High Heaven.  

Th e involvement of Hubnter Biden in Ukraine corruption is factual - so there can be no doubt about it.   What was appalling was when Hunter and his father operate Joint Bank accounts and Hunter complained about having to share his takings  with his father - it gives me the creeps.

Some of the Boden and Democrats policies are at best ultra-leftwing - like the Open Border policy and the  defunding of the police initiative is causing massive rises in crime in the USA. The USA Government has to borrow massive amounts of money to finance their spending sprees on current expenditure - their deficit spending accounts on average the equivalent of $6 billion per day.   In the Biden Presidency the debt of the US Government increased from $23,5 trillion to $31,4 trillion in only 20  months - that means inflation is inevitable  and that effect all people worldwide.    Reason - the Democrats has moved so far to the l eft they can be regarded as ultra-leftist.   

I still don't  understand  why so many people (Americans especially)  seem so anti helping their fellow man.

They appear to have some warped belief about the rich have special status and any average Joe is just there to be treated as a slave to make the rich even richer.

I ran my company for nearly 30 years and would never got to where I am today without the people that worked for me. This far right bs that the USA seems to follow is just so far beyond my understanding, yet for some reason the workers think the top 3% have a right to fuck the 97% over.

And for some reason the majority on here think that is a good thing.

Class beliefs started with the British, but maybe with the Indians or the Greeks. The US is only mildly class conscious and look at any international disaster you will find private American citizens are generous donators. 

The economy is in the hands of public companies who are built on generations of human resource development and chock full of benefits, savings plans and retirement plans. 

Sure there are always a few bad apples but no public company is screwing over their employees in the year 2022.

In do not think it in fact is a good thing,   What bothers me is that it can establish an alliance  between the Democratic Party and the top billionaires who runs the country at present and is similar to what happened in Nazi-Germany in the 1930's 

The problem is that in the case of the working and middle classes the Democratic Party was their main support base until the early 21st century,   However, the Party has abandoned the working and middle classes and is now the Party of the ultra-wealthy and the political and social elite.

One must see the effect of this abandonment in the media largely owned by the ultra-rich  and that is the biggest propaganda outlets for the  wealthy and their partners in the present Government.

There is another problem that came from a social survey and that is that there are close to a m illion people living on street pavements and in parks - while an average 17 million children goes to bed hungry in the USA.    The Government can and do spend billions on providing aid to Ukraine - yet there is no money available to assist the starving children.

No doubt you are getting your stats from one of the organizations like Feed America, whose existence and whose salaries is dependent on their being a problem. This is the official take from USDA:

• Children are usually protected from substantial reductions in food intake even in households with very low food security. Nevertheless, in about 0.7 percent of households with children (274,000 households), one or more child also experienced reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns at some time during the year.

That would say perhaps there occasionally isn’t always ample food for 500,000 kids assuming 2 kids per household. Not 17 million kids and not every night . And food insecure is a very low bar, hardly starvation.

Any hungry kid is not a good thing, but exaggerating the problem is typical of today’s weaponized advocacy. Obviously you never got my point about checking your source.

Do you really believe that inflation and price increases did not disrupt food supply to poor families?     Maybe I should clarify my statement - it did not mean that 17 million  children went to bed hungry every day of their lives - but are subject to it from time to time.    

Although the inflation rate are officially given as between 8 and 9% some food items and vegetables have gone up by as much as 22% and the real income of the people has not corresponded with the real incomes of the poor and a large sector of the working class.     Even when they got increases it never met the real price increases.

The situation is further bedeviled by shortages of certain products - like for instance baby formula - and dairy and vegetable products are under threat because of the increase in production costs by the increase in petrol and diesel prices.    There is a limit to what ordinary farmers can afford to invest in productive farming and if they cannot use the modern equipment for production purposes real production will not be sufficient to feed the USA,  

One of the side-effects of the Ukraine War is the fact that the USA used to import most of the  fertilizers needed for productive farming from Russia and that supplies are in short supply already and shortages have pushed up production costs as a result.   I saw something to the effect that the Biden Administration has removed fertilizers from the sanctions list - but the end result would be that it will come at a higher price that would result in reduction of food production on farms - which will cause further food shortages in shops and push up prices even further.

The real impact of inflation and shortages of agricultural produce is not as big a problem for the wealthy as it is for the poor and the working class.   

Although you discredit the findings of Feed America  and other similar organizations - the reports of US Federal Government Departments are also under question since they effectively had to produce false reports to cover up Governance inefficiencies  and the problem is clearly worse than the US Government pretend it is.   There are statistically 7 284 000 poor families in the USA based on Government statistics.    Why would only 274 000 of those be affected by food insecurity -ie 3.76% of the poor?    It seems to be another problem the Federal Administration  is trying to hide away and cover up.    

Do you really believe that inflation and price increases did not disrupt food supply to poor families?     Maybe I should clarify my statement - it did not mean that 17 million  children went to bed hungry every day of their lives - but are subject to it from time to time.    

Although the inflation rate are officially given as between 8 and 9% some food items and vegetables have gone up by as much as 22% and the real income of the people has not corresponded with the real incomes of the poor and a large sector of the working class.     Even when they got increases it never met the real price increases.

The situation is further bedeviled by shortages of certain products - like for instance baby formula - and dairy and vegetable products are under threat because of the increase in production costs as a result of the increase in petrol and diesel prices.    There is a limit to what ordinary farmers can afford to invest in productive farming and if they cannot use the modern equipment for production purposes real production will not be sufficient to feed the USA,  

One of the side-effects of the Ukraine War is the fact that the USA used to import most of the  fertilizers needed for productive farming from Russia and that supplies are in short supply already and shortages have pushed up production costs as a result.   I saw something to the effect that the Biden Administration has removed fertilizers from the sanctions list - but the end result would be that it will come at a higher price that would result in reduction of food production on farms - which will cause further food shortages in shops and push up prices even further.

The real impact of inflation and shortages of agricultural produce is not as big a problem for the wealthy as it is for the poor and the working class.   

Although you discredit the findings of Feed America  and other similar organizations - the reports of US Federal Government Departments are also under question since they effectively had to produce false reports to cover up Governance inefficiencies  and the problem is clearly worse than the US Government pretend it is.   There are statistically 7 284 0000 poor families in the USA based on Government statistics.    Why would only 274 000 of those be affected by food insecurity -ie 3.76% of the poor?    It seems to be another problem the Federal Administration  is trying to hide away and cover up.    

@ButtPlug, Your problem is not social media, it is that your understanding of reality is different to the mainstream.

If you want to a social media platform that agrees with your ideology you can sign up for Truth Social. No one is forcing you to use Facebook etc.

Most people believe that vaccine disinformation should be banned from social media. If there were any valid basis for questioning the vaccine, it would be allowed. (e.g. A logical argument with proof). Not someone sitting on the toilet doing Covid vaccine research while on their laptop). 

Of course, Facebook should not be used as a platform for hate speech. The right feels they are being victimised, but people from the left would face the same consequences. Facebook would remove Antifa hate speech, just like they should do with 

The vaccine is backed by science. You may consider this left wing, but others consider it reality- and does not have any political connotations. 

As for your comments on black people, it just seems in inappropriate to do so on Facebook. Just like going on live TV, or in the newspapers.

I am not a fan of an African government or even their society with starving parentless children etc. However, I would not go on TV or Facebook and say the cause of this is they are stupid. 
It would not be very constructive to an already bad situation.

ButtPlug, the problems in African society are undeniable. It is the poorest continent in the world and probably the lowest IQ. 

I don't see how not calling them stupid is going to make them struggle for decades.
So, if I called Africans stupid, would that suddenly transform Africa into a smart continent? 

Africa needs a China dictator to run the place. Democracy wont work as the middle class is a tiny minority. 

China has a rapidly growing middle class even with a dictator CCP. They limited the number of children people can have, which was critical for such a fast improvement. If a nation has a majority of poor and unemployed people the only way to go forward is too slow population growth while the economy GDP catches up. That would not be considered liberal, but it is practical and proven. 

SB

Ignorance is bliss in your case.   The Maoist one-child policy of the Chinese  Government has been dropped since the late 1970's and is not applied in China anymore.    

The following report indicates clearly the impact of development of the Chinese  Middle Class - it has nothing to do with the development of a private sector middle class as applicable to so-called capitalist countries, 

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-chinas-middle-class-s_b_4143250#:~:text=SYDNEY%20--%20Much%20is%20expected%20of,the%20prospect%20of%20a%20democratic%20China.&text=SYDNEY%20--%20Much%20is,of%20a

Take for instance the middle class in the USA.    The traditional Middle Class in the USA is under constant attack by the present Regime.    Insofar as future middle class development  is concerned the USA Middle Class is based on the Chinese Model more than the traditional Middle Class concept where the economy is controlled by the Party and by a small ultra- rich  capitalists and the Middle class being the management  and the total system being State-and major capitalist controlled - the latter being based on the traditional Fascist model of an alliance between the Socialist Government in partnership with the 3% ultra-rich capitalists.

In other words the  Middle Class now being envisaged developed is nit based on businesses  being con trolled by private sector development of private ownership of business enterprises - but total control of such businesses being socialist style overall controlled by the Government,  

In Western Society the traditional middle class is a brake on Government control and excesses - in the case of  the USA - the whole economic system enviosaged by the present Regime is based on the Fascist model of State control of everything in life by a relatively small group of political and capitalist super stars acting as an alliance - which has nothing to do with   Democracy.   

The vaccine is backed by science.

Pfizer just admitted that they had no idea about whether the vaccine can stop transmission of the virus when they let it loose. That's not "backed by science".

Both Fauci and Biden stated that the vaccine provides full immunity, that the virus will stop at a vaccinated person and go no further. Lies that powered mandates that made people lose their jobs, prevented them from traveling, in some countries prevented them entering a shop for basic goods. Guilt tripped people not at risk into getting the vaccine "for the good of others".

All of that cheered on by the "backed by science" people like you.

@Pakie, Mozart answered a similar rebute about the vaccines on another post recently which summarised the status quo well.

E.g. The Covid vaccine is like the flu vaccine. It is not perfect, but it does reduce severe sickness and deaths - no one can reasonably argue with that.
It has failed as a tool to slow transmission, but it is not useless. 

Initially it was not clear how much Covid would mutate, but it has since been evident that it does mutate significantly. Not as much as flu, but still significant.

Their was always talk about the potential need for booster vaccines.

The viral load (infectiousness) of Covid has increased significantly- faster than science anticipated.
This has made the original vaccine almost useless at preventing the spread of Covid. 

So what Fauci said at the time (about reducing infections) was valid at that time, but certainly not against Omicron. 

I just had a booster vaccine that is bivalent, in that it was designed for both Omicron and the 1st version of Covid. This is a much stronger vaccine and will reduce transmission of Covid. Again unfortunately it will not guarantee to slow transmission - particularly as Covid continues to mutate. It will however be even better than the current vaccine at reducing deaths and severe sickness.

The latest vaccine will give people a few months at least, when they are less likely to get Covid. Useful over the winter season. 

SB

You must be kidding - nobody bar the Biden fanatics and their media arm ever claimed that vaccinations prevent the spreading of Covid by vaccinated people or other and that it prevents infections.     Your following comments are utter BS and totally unscientific:-

Sure DumbMike, sure...

Here’s the CDC view which has evolved from 90% protection,  to preventing serious  illness. Fairly similar to flu shots. The point is initially we were wide open to the disease and the vaccinations were critical in building up resistance. But it’s still sensible to be vaccinated:

COVID-19 vaccines were first authorized for emergency use in the U.S. in December 2020.  Studies following the use of the vaccines showed approximately 90% protection against symptomatic infection, severe illness, and death. By July 2021, we saw decreased vaccine effectiveness against infection as new variants emerged, and CDC put forward recommendations to continue masking, even for people who had received a primary series. Over the ensuing months and in the context of updated vaccine booster recommendations, more than 20 ACIP meetings have publicly reviewed data on vaccine effectiveness and have provided real-time data demonstrating COVID-19 vaccines and boosters remain highly protective against severe illness and death. Importantly, the rates of COVID-19–associated hospitalizations and deaths are substantially higher among unvaccinated adults than among those who have received a primary series and those who are up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccination, particularly among adults aged ?65 years. Protection provided by the current vaccines against symptomatic infection and transmission is less than that against severe disease and diminishes over time, especially against the currently circulating variants. For this reason, it is important to stay up to date, especially as new vaccines become available.

Mozart

Some people are in a jam as to vaccination.  I got the two initial shots  in June and August respectvely -  but not any further shots.   The Government borrowed R560 million from the IMF to fund new vaccines for follow-up vaccinations - but thus far they have despite persistent efforts been unable to convince the ordinary people to accept follow-up vaccination and the vaccines are not used and may go bad soon.

Not sure why - but the vaccinations are not popular.   Maybe it has to do with the fact that in the whole Western Cape there are only 246 active cases of infection in an area with a population of 4,7 million people - in areas outside of Cape Town there are only 48 active cases.    In the case of the Hessequa Municipality where I live with a population of 65 000 people there are only 2 active cases.    The trend was the same in winter and we are now entering the summer season when infections are lower than they used to be in winter.  

You may argue that the above may be due to poor medical services - but in the Western Cape   services are far better than in other SA provinces and their vaccination programs used to be very effective.