7 Things About The Boston Marathon Bombing

I'm at a loss to compose a full article about all the things I feel and think about the recent Boston Marathon bombings. So I'm going to just list them, so at least these ideas can be sorted.

1. Are the Boston Bombings the "New" 9/11?

The Boston Marathon bombings are NOT the first case of "real" terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11. Americans have been continually terrorized by highly publicized mass-killing incidents -- especially since the Aurora CO "Dark Knight" shootings, after which we seemed to have been treated to one gory tale every week. How is what happened at Newtown not terrorism? When Lanza said to be inspired by Norway's Anders Breivik -- a TERRORIST?

That said, the trend in the media seems to be to officially make this the "second" 9/11. Which, no matter how tragic the Boston bombing was -- and I am not minimizing the tragedy -- it was not a "second 9/11." In a sense, 9/11 has never stopped; it does not seem to be a finite event, but one whose ripples through time informs everything that has happened (certainly domestically in the U.S.) since.

2. News Media Amplifies Horror

The news media unnecessarily amplifies the horrific impact of the terrorist acts in question, using such methodology as endlessly repeated video loops of destruction, and needlessly gory photos for their newspaper headlines.

For example, one news station kept playing the same "Vine" video clip of the initial bombing as B roll over and over again while their talking heads blathered. We are talking a clip less than 30 seconds long, capturing the very moment that lives were horribly changed forever. Seen a few times, it is a historical document of an event; played 20 times in a row, it is mind-warping pornography, its ultimate purpose not to inform, but to numb into accepting a "new normal."

News photos of gore have been around since the Civil War, but placed front-and-center of a daily newspaper they form a mosaic of horror and hopelessness, further accelerating the numbness to violence. Take the front page of Tuesday's "NY Daily News":

A handsome "foldout" cover (perfect for commemorative framing), the front image is of a beautiful blond woman splattered -- SPLATTERED -- in blood. One must wonder what the editorial process was to pick this image. How is this image different than sensationalistic VHS box art from the 1980s, depicting gore + a pretty lady? It's an instant seller. Endless copies of this image gets distributed all over the city -- a city still haunted by its own terrorist attacks -- and a population grows more numb and hopeless. (Update: turns out, this photo was doctored)

3. Social Media Misinformation/Disinformation

Once again, we see how frighteningly easy it is to use social media like Twitter and Facebook to send fake stories and viral ideas to the masses. What happened to the NY Post's story about the "Saudi" who was a person of interest in the bombing case? Was it even a fraction real? No matter, and no additional sourcing necessary; already the lynch mob against Muslims gets put together within a matter of minutes. It's easy. If it turns out to be not a scrap of truth to the Post story, you have to wonder what the real purpose of it was...

So then you have rumors like the Saudi suspect twinned with fake "glurge" stories about victims of the bombing -- like the photo of a little girl (much alive, it turns out) who "died" in the attacks that was all over Twitter. So here is a two-pronged approach to manipulation: false/unsourced info on the (Muslim) suspect, plus a heart-tugging tale which turns out to be a fake. It's an ancient technique, worked great for the Nazis.

4. Alex Jones

Good GOD. He really needs to STFU. I mean, at least wait until the bodies are cold before declaring this was a "False Flag." Even if you think it is a false flag, at least wait a few friggin hours to mourn the dead before publicly launching into these diatribes. It's like the Newtown thing -- how in god's name do you expect people to take your position at all seriously when you do not even have the common decency to wait a whole goddamn day before yelling "THE GOVERNMENT DID IT! THEY ARE GOING TO TAKE OUR GUNS!"

I'm all for getting to the truth of matters, regardless how uncomfortable those truths are. But if you yell "FALSE FLAG! OUR GUNS!" immediately after a tragedy such as this -- rather than take a moment and meditate on the loss of life -- then you look like an asshole. Seriously. You look like you don't give a shit about anything but your own theories. It's a lack of social grace so egregious that it's no wonder the public looks at the antics of someone like Jones and then points and declares: "Conspiracy nut!" and then suggests anybody questioning the govt. story be locked up. Because look who has made himself de facto "mouthpiece" for the alternative news community: Alex Jones.

Further, it is completely disingenuous for him to go on his show and talk about how this is an act of the "Shadow Government" and all this crap and not admit ANY culpability in "home-growing" the sort of maniac that would take what he says literally and possibly blow shit up. Because it's looking every day more and more that a domestic terrorist did this; and if it is, I can guarantee you they are going to shut his show down on YouTube, which his recent video on "If this is my last message" might be presciently about.

Look: if you tell people over and over again -- in the most charismatic, over-the-top, inflammatory way possible -- that they need to "take back the government" and there needs to be a "Second American Revolution," what the hell do you think these people are going to do? How exactly are they going to have this new American Revolution? Will they get together little "action groups" that sends letters to various Senators? Well yes...I guess if you count ricin-laced letters, sure (and surprise: President Obama has just received one as well).

Go read the comments on Jones's YouTube and Infowars, and then think about how the fine individuals who wrote them would go about carrying out instructions to start a new revolution and "take back" the govt. That's the problem right there. And Jones is partially responsible for creating the Frankenstein monsters that are the result. And it looks like he's going to take the whole alternative news/history community -- a broad, broad spectrum of people from numerous reality tunnels, methodologies, ideologies, etc. -- down with him.

5. Family Guy Hoax

From what I can gather, this "viral" clip supposedly showing Peter Griffin blowing up the Boston Marathon is actually edited together from two unrelated sequences from the episode "Turban Cowboy."  Still, that the two sequences are there containing this imagery -- a death at the marathon, and blowing up a bomb using a cell phone -- is kind of creepy. I have no doubt that there are "echoes" of what happened in Boston to be found in all sorts of pop-culture. I think this is what happens preceding any major event of this magnitude.

Recent comic books, at any rate, are FILLED with stories of domestic terrorists attempting to "take back" the country by blowing stuff up. Also, the TV show "The Following," about a "sleeper cell" type cult who carry out grisly crimes for their guru, might be of interest here and bears a closer look.

As for Seth MacFarlane's declaration that he finds the Family Guy edit "abhorrent" -- well that's pretty rich coming from a person who makes a living continually putting out "over the top" offensive material.   Heat, kitchen, and all that.

6. Unanswered Questions

It's obvious that there are a whole host of unanswered questions at this point about the bombing -- I mean, as of this writing they don't seem to have a solid lead at this point.

However.

Some weird stuff to keep an eye on:
* The stories that there were bomb-sniffing dogs at the marathon before the explosions, and that there might have been a bomb threat called in beforehand.
* The story about a homeless/crazy/old/etc. woman allegedly warning people days before to not go to the marathon, or they would die.
* Did the thing about the JFK library ever get sorted? Where officials said that the "fire" at the library was "unrelated" to the other bombs?
* All the Patriot Day/Waco/Oklahoma City Bombing etc stuff, which can be read about over at the Twilight Language blog.
* A weird sync: the Earthquakes of Oklahoma and Iran/Pakistan happening shortly after the bombings. I'm not claiming any causation there, but it seems like these are the two areas "resonating" the most regarding the possible perpetrators of the crime.

7. What Happens Now?

Well, if it turns out to be a person of Middle Eastern descent, we are probably going to go to war with Iran -- regardless of whether the person is Iranian or not. This is just the way the "narrative" is going to go, dovetailing nicely with the ramping up of "The New Patriotism" meme currently being played through pop-culture. The war will provide a nice distraction from America's economic woes, and hey -- it might even goose the economy a bit!

On the other hand, if the perp is a home-grown conservative/libertarian/"they won't take our guns" type -- which I think is most likely, though certainly it's not set in stone -- things are going to change in our country. Free speech is going to be more difficult. Being an alternative news/history theorist is going to be more difficult. Publicly questioning the government is going to be more difficult. White Christian conservatives and libertarians are going to be more profiled as potential "dangers" to the U.S. In fact, all the things Alex Jones has "predicted" on his show will probably start to happen -- in part because HE HELPED CREATE THE SITUATION!

This means that ALL alternative/fringe thinkers in the U.S. are going to be screwed and lumped together as "part of the problem." Which means that, whether or not we go into Iran, the "New Patriotism Narrative" is going to move forward -- "True Patriotism" being defined as never questioning the media, government, or various "authorities." And so we go back to a 1980s/post-9/11 viewpoint, which I've already written about.

This also means that the extra pressure applied to the already-volatile Jones contingency will only make them more paranoid and crazy -- ironically, completely validating what Jones has said. And thus the cycle continues.

POSTSCRIPT: As of today, Alex Jones has totally stepped up the rhetoric, telling listeners/viewers that "this is a life or death situation" and "it's time to pick a side":

"WE'RE IN TROUBLE, FOLKS! THEY GREASE LITTLE KIDS (makes a gun gesture) BOOM! RIGHT IN THE HEAD! TO GET OUR GUNS! ISN'T IT OBVIOUS?!"

This is starting (starting?) to look like a cult leader type scenario. And it's really unfortunate, because this is somebody who can and does bring up important topics to people who might not otherwise encounter them(GMOs, laws that limit free speech, just the idea of doing research in general) -- but also is dragging scores of "followers" (the "awakened") down with him, stirring them up in a "spirit" of unspecified "rebellion" that, in their inarticulateness, some can only understand with violence.