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The Great Fireworks Conspiracy
Jun. 29th, 2020 06:17 pmSo according to the internet, the reason for the fireworks being such a thing is because the police are distributing fireworks to people in order to make lot of noise so we won't notice when they start their armed assault on... the protestors? I think? It's vague on that point. We will by that point be so used to the pounding of fireworks that we won't hear and therefore won't notice guns mowing down the protestors by the hundreds.
Also saw one with "If we know and believe the feds and narcs distribute firearms and drugs in the hood, is it really such a leap to fireworks?" Which I suppose it might not be if one believed they were in fact *distributing* either firearms or drugs. (Planting them on people, sure, but they're not running around *distributing* such things. What would be the point? If you want to arrest someone for drugs and you have some drugs you can come up with a pretext to search their car and "find" the drugs, and this is much less risky for you than just... distributing them.)
Now, several news organizations have looked into this and found that there are lots of people buying and reselling on Instagram in the fireworks stores and even gone out and talked to some of the illegal fireworks dealers selling stuff out of the backs of their cars. Gothamist had a story about the ridiculous amount of fireworks before George Floyd was killed and the protests were even started.
(Also, "calling 311 sends you to 911 and 911 sends you to 311" is... the sort of thing that would be REALLY REALLY NOTICEABLE if it were actually happening and definitely marks the person saying it as consciously spreading lies rather than being a paranoid dupe.)
But even without the news organizations debunking this, it's ridiculous. Because the majority of people don't actually react to noises that sound like an aerial assault in the moment; they wait and see what the news told them it was anyway. And the news is all out at the protests, so they would notice and report it if the police started just opening fire.
I didn't actually get into any arguments with anyone about this one; I'm just sort of staring at it like "Y'all do realize this is the sort of thing that leads to no one believing you when the government actually *does* do something that sounds like a conspiracy theory, right?"
(Also, in a bit of hilarity, while looking up news articles about this I came across an online fireworks store that's selling a "conspiracy pack" full of their most elaborate bangs and booms.)
Also saw one with "If we know and believe the feds and narcs distribute firearms and drugs in the hood, is it really such a leap to fireworks?" Which I suppose it might not be if one believed they were in fact *distributing* either firearms or drugs. (Planting them on people, sure, but they're not running around *distributing* such things. What would be the point? If you want to arrest someone for drugs and you have some drugs you can come up with a pretext to search their car and "find" the drugs, and this is much less risky for you than just... distributing them.)
Now, several news organizations have looked into this and found that there are lots of people buying and reselling on Instagram in the fireworks stores and even gone out and talked to some of the illegal fireworks dealers selling stuff out of the backs of their cars. Gothamist had a story about the ridiculous amount of fireworks before George Floyd was killed and the protests were even started.
(Also, "calling 311 sends you to 911 and 911 sends you to 311" is... the sort of thing that would be REALLY REALLY NOTICEABLE if it were actually happening and definitely marks the person saying it as consciously spreading lies rather than being a paranoid dupe.)
But even without the news organizations debunking this, it's ridiculous. Because the majority of people don't actually react to noises that sound like an aerial assault in the moment; they wait and see what the news told them it was anyway. And the news is all out at the protests, so they would notice and report it if the police started just opening fire.
I didn't actually get into any arguments with anyone about this one; I'm just sort of staring at it like "Y'all do realize this is the sort of thing that leads to no one believing you when the government actually *does* do something that sounds like a conspiracy theory, right?"
(Also, in a bit of hilarity, while looking up news articles about this I came across an online fireworks store that's selling a "conspiracy pack" full of their most elaborate bangs and booms.)
