Conspiracy Theorists: No longer harmless

Up until a couple of weeks ago I use to believe that most conspiracy theorists were just a bit nutty, and perhaps hostile online towards skeptics and people who debunked conspiracy theories, but were relatively harmless, except for those who are violently mentally disturbed (example: Jared Lee Loughner), and that at the most were more likely to alienate themselves from friends and family then anything else, and thus do more harm to themselves then to others.

I no longer believe this.

The reason I no longer believe this is because of the massive amount of illegal harassment being done by conspiracy theorists towards the parents of the children who died in the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, and towards the heros who's efforts helped saved the lives of many more children.

While the claims made by conspiracy theorists that the attack was staged, or didn't even occur in the first place, wasn't something that fellow skeptics and debunkers like myself were not expecting (in fact, due to the predictability of conspiracy theorists we would have been more surprised if these claims were not made at all) what did surprise us was the sheer amount of slander and harassment (bordering on outright stalking) that has begun to occur.

Because of the actions of some conspiracy theorists in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre I feel that I have been forced to re-examine my view of conspiracy theorists and their behavior, and that view is even more negative then it once was.

It appears that over the last few years as more and more conspiracy theories get debunked, the hostility of conspiracy theorists who continue to hold on to the beliefs continues to rise.

Online threats and even emails towards those who disagree with conspiracy theorists (and don't even try to debunk their claims, just say they don't agree with them and/or don't believe them) have become common place.

Some blogs and vlogs that are dedicated to debunking conspiracy theories are sometimes attacked, and even forced to be taken down by what can only be presumed to be the actions of conspiracy theorists.

Many conspiracy theorists have been purchasing large amounts of weapons for what they very seriously believe will be the coming of the New World Order, in which they will (in their minds) have to fight and defeat.

Now, they are harassing and possibly stalking people who have gone through an extreme trauma, and they do not care that they are causing even more grief and trauma because they don't believe anything happened.

As much as I hate to suggest it, I am seriously starting to believe that we should start sending at the very least the most hostile conspiracy theorists to mental health hospitals, as many of them are appearing to have serious mental health issues that is causing them act out in such and extremely hostile manner towards total strangers, and might cause to to eventually engage in violence.

Why I'm remaining silent on who I'm voting for

The next presidential election is less than a month, and I'm pretty sure many of you have already decided on who you are going to vote for, myself included.

Now some of my friends are voting Barack Obama, and some of my friends are voting for Mitt Romney. I even have one friend who is voting for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

As for the person that I am voting, I have decided to keep that to myself.

I have learned over the years that telling people who you are going to vote for can usually cause only one of two things: it will either make that person happy, or it will make that person very angry at you (especially if the person you vote for wins, and the person they vote for loses).

While some people might be okay with whomever I choose to vote for, even if the candidate isn't the person that they are voting for, there are some people out there who are just way to sensitive about politics, and have a great amount of difficulty handling the fact that someone isn't voting for the person that they are voting for, even at times taking it personally. Sometimes they make comments in an attempt to get that person to go over to their side, but usually ends up becoming nothing more then long and obnoxious rants that are full of propaganda and even conspiracy theories. Most of the time no one really reads these rants. Sometimes these rants end up become nothing more then flame wars filled with fear mongering, personal attacks, insults, and sometimes even threats.

I do not wish to get into any of that with anybody, be it a friend, or just a random person on the internet.

In all honesty I don't really care who you are voting for in this election, just as long as you are voting for the person that you feel is best.

I do care about the reason why you are voting for the person you are voting for, especially if those reasons are based upon conspiracy theories about the person you are not voting for, which I consider to be a very poor reason to vote for someone. In my opinion that is a very ignorant way to vote, but even then I will be silent, because I know it will probably not do any good, even if I feel you should have better reasons for voting for someone.

I also do not wish to influence someone's vote as well.

I feel that a person should vote for a candidate that they feel is the best person for the job after reviewing the issues, where the candidates stand on those issues, and whether or not you agree or disagree with them on their stances.

I do not however believe that a person should vote for someone simply based on who else is voting for them.

My blog might not be the most popular blog in the world, but people do read what I post here, and I don't want people to vote for someone simply because I plan on voting for that person. I want people to vote after making an informed choice.

People need to vote for who they want in office, and not because someone else told them who to vote for in this, or any other election.