Posted on 08/15/2019 4:04:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
This week, convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was found unresponsive in his jail cell from an apparent hanging, the day after a court unsealed a cache of documents from a lawsuit against his alleged procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell. Those documents included affidavits from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the plaintiff, that allege Epstein trafficked her to major figures including former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Prince Andrew of Britain and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.
Epstein had allegedly attempted suicide in late July, when he apparently tried to hang himself in his cell. He was removed from that cell and placed on suicide watch. Only 11 days before his successful suicide, he was removed from suicide watch.
The failures were systemic. According to the Associated Press, guards on Epstein's unit were "working extreme overtime shifts to make up for staffing shortages." Epstein's jailers were supposed to check on him every 30 minutes but didn't do so, according to The New York Times. Epstein was also supposed to be housed with another inmate so he wasn't alone; that never happened.
Given the public scrutiny on Epstein -- he was the most famous federal inmate in custody -- it's no wonder that so many Americans are deeply suspicious of his suicide. Epstein had publicly associated with both President Donald Trump and ex-President Bill Clinton; Clinton had flown on Epstein's plane multiple times. Within hours, dueling hashtags #ClintonBodyCount and #TrumpBodyCount trended on Twitter. President Trump, seemingly bothered by the hashtag targeting him, even retweeted Terrence K. Williams: "Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE WATCH? Yeah right! How does that happen ... #JefferyEpstein had information on Bill Clinton & now he's dead ... I see #TrumpBodyCount trending but we know who did this! ... RT if you're not Surprised." Conversely, MSNBC's Joy Reid suggested that Attorney General William Barr, "Trump's consigliere ... whose prime directive is to protect Donald Trump no matter what," might be covering up Epstein's murder.
None of this is good for the country, obviously. But the question is why Americans seem so apt to believe conspiracy theories these days. Some of that certainly has to do with social media, where small pockets of fringe opinion can merge together to create larger pockets of fringe opinion.
Much of it has to do with generalized distrust of the media -- distrust that is largely justified by media unwilling to question conspiracism from one side of the aisle. The same weekend Trump idiotically retweeted the Clinton-Epstein conspiracy theory, no less than three Democratic presidential candidates suggested that Michael Brown, the 18-year-old shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015 while charging that officer, was actually murdered. Not a single reporter apparently bothered to ask why these candidates were ignoring the report of Barack Obama's Department of Justice, which found no evidence of murder.
More of it has to do with the human inability to accept widespread incompetence. Conspiracies are notoriously difficult to pull off. There are simply too many moving parts. Those who believe in conspiracy theories tend to attribute far more control to human beings than they generally have. Better to believe in conspiracies than to accept the difficult truth that those who are supposed to be able to handle their business often fail at it.
In political terms, though, conspiracism turns up the heat radically. That's because every failure becomes evidence of malevolence on the part of your opponent; every oddity becomes yet another data point in favor of the all-powerful evil of those with whom you disagree.
Better, then, to abide by Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." We live in a deeply stupid time. And here's the good news: Stupidity can be handled. Evil is another story.
1/ Occam’s razor
2/ To quote an ex-NSA friend: “Americans are satisfied with simple, clean cut explanations.” To wit: The killing of Lee Harvey Oswald after the JFK assassination; TWA 800, etc.
Is it sad that Americans know their government and media lie or is it sad government and media lie to Americans ???
What else can you expect when people who can think are treated like mushrooms*?
*.......kept in the dark and fed $#!t
Better question: why is Ben Shapiro so gullible?
I compare this to a bunch of teenagers steeling the presidential limo, that was parked on a side street in south chicago, unlocked, unattended, with the keys in the ignition, the guys that were responsible for it were simply overworked and at a McDonalds two blocks away and, for some reason, the GPS tracking had been left off.
“Mistakes happen” doesn’t explain it. Only a fool would believe it was just incompetence that led to the theft.
Same thing here. The most important man in police custody in the entire nation, and this happens? And it’s just because someone was overworked? Ludicrous. Only a fool would sincerely believe that.
Shapiro is a believer in his own conceit.
How do you know each photo shows the same side of the face? For most people each side is actually a bit different.
They told us that Epstein hanged himself. With what? On what?
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." We live in a deeply stupid time."
Well Ben, we also live in a deeply malevolent time.
Yep, good point. My nose is hooked from the right but straight from the left.
Come on man!!
More chipmunk-speed BS spewed by the Littlest Chickenhawk.
The series of things that happened in this event are a real stretch.
no guard checking....short staffed and they fell asleep
suicide watch removed....standard procedure after a set amt of time
cell mate is transferred out....happens all the time in jail
no video....tech breakdown
was given regular sheets rather than paper ones....not sure how this was explained
anyhow there are other oddities to this as well. Maybe he did commit suicide but there is enough here to question that for sure.
What an idjit. Why would anyone not think murder with all the people wanting him dead?
Causation; Causation is the "causal relationship between conduct and result". That is to say that causation provides a means of connecting conduct with a resulting effect, typically an injury. In criminal law, it is defined as the actus reus (an action) from which the specific injury or other effect arose and is combined with mens rea (a state of mind) to comprise the elements of guilt
Oh my..!! I think Hillary Clinton has "mens rea"..!! :)
Are there powerful entities who would benefit from this? Are these entities mentally and financially capable of making this happen? Are there possibilities that these entities have done it before? Do these entities egotistically consider themselves above the law?
Then it’s not a theory and occam’s razor applies.
A government which LIES to you 24/7/365 does nothing but enhance the efficacy of conspiracy theories.
“But the question is why Americans seem so apt to believe conspiracy theories these days.”
Scolding and ridicule are no substitute for honesty and transparency, Ben. In this case, motive and means, combined with the limited information released, make a “conspiracy theory” plausible. If you want to put an end to the theory, put out the facts that contradict it.
I bet he believed the Russian Collusion hoax.
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