Posted on 11/16/2001 1:05:35 PM PST by MindBender26
This entire series of posts and threads on the loss of the AA flight is an amazing display of 2001 sociology. If we thought the internet was going to change peoples commercial activities but not our core behaviors and underlying thought process, we were certainly wrong.
Many of us have been following the crash aftermath here in FR. This is not an indictment or criticism of any one poster, not will this post attack anyone. It will ask the question, who are these internet people, and what are we all becoming because oft hem. Even more, it is certainly not a criticism of FR itself, JR, etc. He has done great work for America.
There is a certain suspension of rational thought process going on here. People are making, defending and angrily supporting crash theories based on some rumor someone else says a friend told them was heard on the radio. People are angry because others seek to apply basic rules of physics to an argument. Others propose the wildest theories, and defend them ad infinitum. Last year, some poster claimed TW800 was caused by ghosts of a 1948 Navy electronics experiment gone wrong, and other chimed in to agree!
At least eleven mutually exclusive theories as to cause of this weeks accident have been proposed, and if one is determined to be the real cause, the proponents of the other ten will all probably cry "foul" and "government cover-up."
People are accusing the government of fraud and murder because they haven't yet determined the cause of the crash, or grounded the Airbus fleet. Others demand an answer right now, before any laboratory testing is complete. This failure to deliver a verdict before bedtime is taken as further proof of negative government intervention.
This post is certainly NOT directed as criticism at any one person, but rather as an amazed wonderment of what is going on in supposedly Conservative society. Does the anonymity of the internet encourage people to suspend the rational judgment process? Did Clinton and Clintonism so skew American thinking on the issue of government dependency that anytime our government does not give us what we want, and deliver it to us gift wrapped and right now, we begin to have our little internet temper tantrums?
Another amazing observation is how there is little attempt to understand who is posting fact and who is posting mental masturbation stories. In ordinary conversation, there is a constant "reality checking" processing going on in our minds. It seems absent here. If we were down at the Grange Hall, high school homecoming, or even Harvard, we would be using all our senses to help us understand what is going on here. If some person joined the conversation and began to blame the crash on a weight and balance problem or wake turbulence, we might listen for a moment. But when we saw he was 9 years old, wearing adult diapers and had a throazine bottle in his hand, we might tend to discredit his theories! On the net, he will have a brigade of followers within the hour.
Old pilot's ditty: "Fish gota swim, planes gota fly; and sometimes they crash when they try!" Crashes occur, but this one seems to have brought out a demonstration of a change in the way we think.... or don't think. What do these post crash threads say, not about the crash, but about us
Again, certainly not a criticism of anyone, just a wonderment, that with all the technology in the world, have we again become the Clan of Grug, Druhr, Mogor and Allihia arguing by grunting over our cave fire, while the Cave Bear waits in the near distance recovering from his wounds of 1992?
Thank you for proving point of entire article. FBI is in scene of every FAA Part 121 (airline) and FAA part 135 (airtaxi/commuter) aircrash when there is loss of life.
So are the NTSB, the FAA, the CAB, representatives of the airframe manufacturer, the engine manufacturer, the pilot's union safety committee, the flight attendant's union safety committee, the fuel supplier, the airport authority if the accident is airport-related, physicians for post-mortums of crew and possible other significt people in crash, weather bureeu, navigational equipment manufacturers if accident is related to off course excursion and many more
The NTSB is in charge. The fact that you intimate that by being there FBI is in charge, is exactly what this post is all about.
True because so many sheeple cringe in fear, they need words of assurance from their leaders. Cant believe so many cry babys. Whether its terrorism or not, the same number of people died and they are just as dead.
The writing of Jefferson and Adams. Not much since, though.....
The rest of us desperately want to be be free-thinkers too. So, please set our limits for us so we can be as free as you are.
I would agree with your statements. I have not made any conclusions about this crash. We simply don't know yet why it happened. The problem with what the article/post puts forth is that it ignores problems that "We the People" have been experiencing for quite some time with the government, for its own reasons, not telling the truth to the people. We have become very aware of how spin works and can spot it a mile away.I don't ask or expect the government to be able to provide the reason for this disaster immediately. What I DO expect is an honest statement about the circusmstances. A statement that does not need to be parsed. A statement that is not intentionally misleading.
Other thoughts (based on anecdotal evidence, including mine personally):
There is an agenda with the government and governmental entities. There are individuals within these organizations/entitities, who have become adept at spin, misleading statements, and subversion. One such example: AIDS and the CDC. The CDC, because of the "politically correct" climate, refused to condemn a particular lifestyle which contributes to the ever-increasing numbers of infection. And because "political correctness" became more important than treating AIDS as a contagious disease, people were not isolated, as has been a method of containment in the past (i.e., polio). If there was an outbreak of polio today, it was not be "politically correct" to isolate these people because "they have rights."
That said as just one example of political decisions made rather than logical decisions being made, I am usually suspect of people who "parrot" a mantra (Clintonesque). If you say something over and over again, then it must be true. And that is what is most insulting to me. Apparently, being honest and saying simply: "We don't know and won't know for at least 30 days; nothing is ruled out in the meantime. We will not rule out terrorism nor accident. Because we will not rule out either, we will look to see what more safety measures can be put in place, and implement them, whether that refers to terrorist acts or more frequent maintenance measures."
The majority of us have simply suspended judgement, pending the disclosure of findings. (Personally, I tend to go with the mechanical malfunction theory. These things happen. Not every domestic accident during wartime is due to enemy intervention.)
Actually.... no.
In business, anyone making observations or reccmendations such some of what we see here would be sent to the EAP very quickly.
In business, there is focus. You know who is making the reccomendation. Their career depends on being right at least 51% of time.
Thinking outside the box is one thing. Some of this isthinking outside of rationality.
I hope that is true. I fear it is not.
I am simply critical of the paranoia and rushes to judgement we so often see, without any critical review.
10:00's "It could never have happened that way" becomes 11:00's rumor, and Noon's assmption. By 2 PM, those who do not believe it are "government stooges."
I've heard from others that watching the press conferences gave a different sense of what the spin was than seeing the quotes in black and white. Fair enough- I don't have a tv, so I haven't seen them firsthand.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.