In April, my last blog (I know...!), I wrote about my personal feelings regarding one of the many victims at the Boston bombings, Jeff Bauman. More on that later. Now, I return with the longest blog title ever seen, and some stunning, often chilling observations.
What I'm writing about today, is both verging on the unbelievable, the disturbing and the downright infuriating. In the time since I wrote my last piece, many issues have come to light. Social media has become both a blessing, and at times a hateful, spiteful place. You see, there are groups of people that really do believe that the bombings in Boston, the victims and the terrorists are all fake, staged and the work of the US government.
Conspiracy theories are as old as the hills, and come hand in hand with pretty much any major event or atrocity worldwide. Pearl Harbo(u)r was staged. The Apollo missions were an elaborate hoax. You name it, someone has questioned it, no matter how irrational it may seem. Boston has been no different, and maybe because of my own personal views, it has been magnified like a pinhead at 150x. It seems that for every ten people with sound minds realise what an awful thing happened, there's one that doubts. But not doubts - they swear they are right, convinced they have irrefutable proof of victims being actors, or the bombers being innocent...at times, it's been tough viewing. (At other times it's been farcically surreal.)
I read with bewilderment about how the whole incident was staged, and every photo you saw of injured people was all a big hoax. Those horrific wounds you might have seen? Make-up. Missing limbs? They were already amputees, hired by authorities to make it look 'real'. I kid you not. YouTube videos popped up everywhere, with chilling stills festooned with red circles pointing out the elements of hoax, overlaid with tense synthesizer music.
You can stop laughing - these people are serious - stay with me here.
I think every element, every person there has been analyzed to a saturation point. All based on varying quality jpegs and ropey timelapsed videos. And so it went on. I observed for a few more days, until I couldn't help but start to respond to these people. Especially when they slandered victims. So, I set up a secondary twitter account, and became something of an activist for the innocent people. I wanted to stop these people and their lies; I'm sure many victims may have used twitter and I didn't think it was right that they might well come across such slander.
So I began to reply. Reservedly at first, with simply replies like 'you're wrong here', or 'please think about what you tweet' etc. But this was either ignored or mocked. I was accused of being close minded, 'conditioned by the media, shampooed by the government'. (They like that one a lot.) I engaged with many people who obsessed with looking for 'proofs' of the whole thing being a false flag. I've had sickening, sad photos thrown at me with captions of 'explain this, then'. I've seen laughable photographic 'evidence' using Photoshop skills in line with an eight year old on Microsoft Paint. I've even been accused of being a paid FBI agent, out to quell all naysayers. But this isn't laughable. This isn't merely impressionable young people being influenced by adults who really should know better. It's all down to something even more unbelievable to be really, quite worrying about the influences of social media at it's very worst. I shall explain this, in a second. For now, here are some genuine examples of tweets I've faced recently.
You get the picture, and I'm sure you'll agree, it's far from pretty. I could share literally hundreds, but they all boil down to much the same conclusions and speculations. So the reason for a lot of these fake-cryers? Their support for the bombing suspects. They firmly believe the Tsarnaev brothers are innocent pawns in a bigger government game, and that they were set up. Because of their relatively young years, it's perhaps almost understandable that a lot of teenage girls may well find the thought of 'bad boys' attractive. This form of hybristophilia is by no means uncommon, but social media can add much fuel to an already high octane situation. Just search twitter with the #freejahar hashtag, and you'll see the craziness I see every day.
I've watched this whole thing as it's played out, sometimes in the thick of it, sometimes as an observer. There's no doubt that a lot of young (and not so young) people have been completely sucked into this belief. Easily led, naturally rebellious youngsters have hopped onto a bandwagon, all part of a cast that you just couldn't script. The wannabe rap 'artist' who gathered thousands of followers by claiming he knew and supported the suspects...the creepy conspiracy theorists, living in their basements to avoid the chemtrails that brainwash the rest of us into believing government hoaxes...the countless teenagers, who cry out against the government, yet hide their accounts from their parents...and then, there are the good people. The people who have the morals and respect to go to much greater lengths than I have to protect the dignity of those truly affected. I have become acquainted with many over the last couple of months, and it's been wonderful to help these people, however small that help might have been, to highlight and confront warped minds. These people have received threats, abuse and continual fights with being reported as 'haters' - something they really are not. They just believe in what's right, as I do, and I shall continue to do what I can to get these mindless few off their soapboxes. I guess, I'm living out the person I wish I could be sometimes, fearless, almost outspoken. It's a good and productive way to let off steam.
So, the battle goes on; and whereas many would think it's better to just leave it be, or walk away from such crackpots, I can't right now. And, for as long as it takes, I won't.
Now, as promised some thought pertaining to my last entry. I sent Jeff his drawing, and I wrote a short letter wishing him well etc. I didn't want to harp on about the obvious, so I tried to make it humorous, respectful and to just say I understood that my letter was one of thousands he may see, but my well wishes were not to be diluted by that.
The response from my last blog was heartening, because it echoed a lot of people's thoughts (the good people, of course.) I received a lot of good feedback from that article, which was more than I expected.
And, if you haven't followed Jeff's story and recovery like I have, there are some articles out there that are far better than I can write. This one is one of the best. Needless to say, the man has been through an awful lot, but continues to be an example of what bravery, resolve and support can achieve. And that's the sort of thing that I've been defending the last couple of months.
My next blog, I promise, will be something less dramatic. and I will not leave it so long again (hey, I've been busy being a goodie!) - although if you're interested, I'll keep you updated with how my battles have been going...
