Long post here but I'm earnest in my hope that pizzagate skeptics will give it a read and comment. There needs to be an actual debate rather than just snarky dismissals. The media isn't doing its job. They keep going on about "conspiracy theorists" and "alt-right Trump supporters" while failing to mention any of the relevant information. That alone is suspicious to me.
Please feel free to post this on skeptic boards.
I really don't want to believe in Pizzagate. Perhaps you can convince me I shouldn't.
I think there is too much pedo hysteria in general. It's tragic that men no longer want to work with children. Unlike, say, the relative lack of women in STEM (science doesn't care what gender you are) the lack of men in teaching creates real life harm. Children need both male and female role models, especially at a time when so many mothers are single. Social scientists are increasingly becoming aware of just how crucial men are to early childhood development. I'm not sure what the solution is but clearly something needs to be done. Anyway, long and short is that I'm not remotely interested in spreading false news about pedophilia.
I don't support either the Democrats or Republicans, so I don't have a dog in this fight. Actually, from what I gather most Pizzagate researchers believe this to be a bipartisan scandal.
I also take false accusations very seriously. It would horrify to me learn that I was engaged in a witch hunt. I support the Men's Rights Movement's attempts to draw attention to the plight of men falsely accused of sexual crimes.
One thing we know for certain: there are elite pedo rings currently operating in the United States. Pedophiles make up at least 4 percent of the population, and billionaires are not excluded from that statistic.
Another thing we can say with reasonable certainty: high ranking individuals in intelligence agencies are aware of these rings and probably using them for blackmail purposes. A more horrifying possibility is that pedophiles are deliberately being placed in power because they are compromised.
Bad arguments against Pizza Gate:
It's a "conspiracy theory" and can therefore be dismissed. Apparently the corporate media thinks this is an actual argument. It isn't.
Snopes said it isn't true. See above.
Pizzagate is made up of alt right Trump supporters who hate Hillary Clinton. This is obviously true in some cases, but based on my reading of the Voat forum there are plenty of left wing people involved as well.
if it were true the perps would have been busted. Unfortunately past cases involving elite pedo rings, whether the Fraklin Coverup, the Dutroux Affair, Jimmy Saville etc. display a clear pattern of LEO's covering up for the perps. Why they do this is uncertain. Some of them may be involved. Blackmail may be an issue (there is widespread suspicion that elite pedo rings are run by intelligence agencies). Some LEO's may fear for their lives or those of their families.
There are too many women being singled out for this to be plausible. Pedophilia is a male thing. This is a myth. Some studies have the percentage of female pedophiles as high as 40%.
Parents and grandparents wouldn't pimp out their own offspring. Another myth. Unfortunately busts of low level pedo rings show people doing exactly that.
Politicians are fine upstanding people. I only include this argument because it's a common one for X politician of choice. "Trump's a good man!" "Obama's a good man!" These are emotional arguments. People project their own value systems onto their rulers. This is unwise, since according to Dr. Robert Hare, the world's leading expert on psychopathy, politicians and business leaders are significantly more likely to be psychopaths than the rest of the population.
We have no witnesses. Someone would have spoken out. Pedo rings are often busted by computer divisions in LE. Oftentimes none of the children will have said a word. Pedophiles tend to be quite good at ensuring silence through shame and fear. This is especially true of powerful pedophiles. Nor is it outside the realm of possibility that some of these children are being killed. It's a terrifying thought, but we're talking about people who have no problem killing millions in unnecessary wars of aggression.
Coincidences all?
I don't necessarily agree with the following arguments but for the sake of narrowing things down I'll pretend as though I do:
The pedo symbols on the two business next to and across from comet, one of which works with "at risk youth", are a coincidence.
MeatballPizza ago
If it's true the criminals would have been busted?
Like Denny Hastert? Saville with the BBC? Jerry Sandusky?
What a stupid statement to make.
lugobambogo ago
**PART 3: **Edit: I should also point out that at this point, Pizzagate is no longer just about the Podestas, the Clinton Foundation and Comet Pizza. People are pursuing a lot of interesting leads. One of the really disturbing things so far revealed is that an abnormally large number of groups specializing in work with "at risk" youth and child trafficking have pedo symbols for their logos and links to sketchy individuals (naturally people are also drawing unwarranted conclusions and seeing stuff that isn't there). At minimum that should evoke concern.
Edit 2: Two people so far have attempted to refute two of the four points I ended with.
Re: Luzatto. The statement reads, "you can spend some time with her online, raw and uncut." It has been suggested that she was proud of the baby (described as the "future ruler of the world") and was offering to show people "raw and uncut" footage of this future leader. Still sounds weird as hell. Perhaps she's just gotten a little loopy in her old age?
Re: Podestas and McCann. It is claimed that the police sketches are of one person. Others claim investigators later revised their first impression and believe multiple people were involved.
Edit 3: I should stress that I'm not here to "prove" pizzagate. I was serious when I said I would rather be proven wrong and that I take false accusations very seriously. If people make compelling arguments I will revise my current position, which is basically at least some aspects of pizzagate are real.
Edit 4: Two posters have challenged the "cumulative evidence" point. One suggests that "autists" are finding patterns that aren't there. I think this is definitely true of people who think every symbol or food reference is a tell, but false on the specific points I listed. It is also claimed that people are shocked by the punk rock and gay BDSM scene. I have found this to be true of some of the youtube Christian posters covering the story, but not for pizzagate researchers in general. It is specifically the pedophile stuff that people are concerned about, not kinky sex.
The other poster claimed that the cumulative evidence is largely based on art and innuendo. I responded with what I think is a relevant point: if the intention of eg Abramovic and Kleinman was to shock people and engender discussion about cannibalism and the torture and rape of children through their art, they have responded to these allegations in a very odd way. Instead of saying "I wanted to provoke discussion of X, Y and Z and how pedophilia and child predators affect society etc." or even just "I wanted to piss people off" they have simply claimed that everything is "fake news" by Donald Trump supporters. Alefantis likewise.
MeatballPizza ago
Don't bother debating CTR shills.
Focus on the investigation and not the trolls.
lugobambogo ago
**PART 2: ** The pedophilic artwork created by Sasha Lord for rock performances at Comet, of which there are at least three examples (including a deeply disturbing painting by Kim Noble showing adults raping children) are perhaps inappropriate for an "all ages" venue, but these are just hipsters trying to be edgy. "All ages" isn't meant to be taken literally. The night performances usually just involve adults and teens.
Okay. So as you can see by my not-so-subtle sarcasm I'm not entirely convinced by all of the above arguments. However, believe it or not, I'm still willing to entertain the notion that these are all coincides. I mean, fantastical coincides do happen in life.
Here's what I'm having a hard time getting past:
pizzathrowaway ago
There's no evidence that Kim Noble artwork was ever up at Come Ping Pong.