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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] Russians bots at work again?<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>…The guy who stormed the pizza restaurant (<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#202122;background:white'>Edgar Maddison Welch) </span>and fired shots said so and he went to jail and paid damages over it. See:<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/fruzsinaeordogh/2016/12/07/with-pizzagate-is-cybersteria-the-new-normal/#1ee527b02b68">https://www.forbes.com/sites/fruzsinaeordogh/2016/12/07/with-pizzagate-is-cybersteria-the-new-normal/#1ee527b02b68</a><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>This was widely reported at the time. Do you think it was made up? The simplest explanation here seems to be that Welch believed the conspiracy theory. He said so later in court and actually apologized for the incident.<o:p></o:p></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Regards, Dan<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Hi Dan, sounds like Welch was just crazy. This was clearly an internet joke that got outta hand. Our world is filled with crazies who believe anything they read.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In our world today, even mainstream “news” sources spew debunked conspiracy theories. Note we heard for over two years that there was some conspiracy involving Russians in our elections. Two years of investigation found nothing. That conspiracy theory still has not died. There are still plenty of people who believe in it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Meanwhile actual high-level conspiracies are mostly ignored or treated as unimportant, such as wrongdoing at the FBI.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>