Is this another incredible coincidence?
You'll just have to take my word for this but on Wednesday while drinking coffee with a friend at Mr Donut, we were discussing the supposed definition of insanity that it is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result".
I was surprised to see that this formed part of the closing remarks of Joseph Stack's rambling suicide note/manifesto before he flew a plane into an Austin, Texas office building that housed a branch of the IRS:
I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Given the superficial similarities to the 9/11 attacks which I talk about a lot (too much!) maybe it proves that these happenings aren't coincidences after all!
Or maybe not.
Almost any theory can be confirmed by looking for "evidence" that verifies it. Simply looking for instances that offer confirmation is a bad epistemological habit that is often used by conspiracy theorists. This is one of the lessons of The Black Swan, a book I'm reading by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who, taking his lead from Karl Popper argues that a more honest way of forming a theory (or making a conjecture) is to think up what could possibly refute it.
Well, I hope to get back to talking about that - what counts as a good, epistemologically-sound theory and a theory that is derived from bad principles. But in the meantime, here's Russia Today's coverage of the plane crash in Austin, Texas. Perhaps unsurprisingly they ask Alex Jones to comment on what's going on.
As he's being interviewed, Alex Jones first starts out saying that it is likely that Stack did this act on purpose and that it hasn't been designated a terrorist attack, but then goes on to say that the Federal government is dreaming up ways in which to demonize states' rights groups and people such as Jones by conducting "false flag" terror attacks.
Er...Mr Jones, but haven't you already said the big bad government has declined from describing it as a terrorist attack?
He then says the Undabomber has been confirmed as a bit false-flaggy and that the Oklahoma bombing was a government inside job. And, presumably to confirm this he cites Joe Biden who warned about "lone nut" attacks saying that he was telegraphing a Reichstagian event!
Er...on the other hand, couldn't Biden have been referring to just those kinds of attacks, which, unless you're a conspiracy theorist you'll probably believe are lone nut attacks - the Unabomber, the Undabomber, the Shoe bomber, the Oklahoma bomber (sort of), Lee Harvey Oswald and, indeed, the Reichstag fire! Why is Biden's mentioning of such things so obviously an example of "telegraphing" an incident such as Stack's attack on the office block in Texas which Jones is variously describing as a fightback against the oppressive tax laws and a "false flag" incident!
I think there is something suspicious here! After all, wasn't it Jones' media outlets, according to him, the first to break this story and didn't Jones predict a "staged attack" in Austin and has been doing so "for months", according to him? Could this be an example of the very telegraphing he accuses others of doing?
Where was Jones on the day this happened? From what I can see he was either at the very city in which this terrorist attack happened, Austin Texas, or judging by the graphics on the screen behind him he was aboard Dick Cheney's Death Star!
Update: Good piece in Slate by Dave Cullen about Joe Stack's parting missive.
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12 comments:
This is an obvious case of a guy who was too pissed off to live anymore. He was angry at the government (for good reason) and the fact that corporations have taken over the world. His message resonates with a lot of us.
He was angry at the government (for good reason) and the fact that corporations have taken over the world.
Well, unfotunately he won't have made any different to the way the world is run but he will have changed the lives of the families of those he killed and tried to kill.
I can't really see how his message resonates. He hated paying taxes, as do many people, and seemed to pretend the suffering of others were his suffering. No one gained from what he did. He didn't appear to have helped the elderly couple eating cat food. Instead he seemed to think that the clamping down on security and the flight restrictions after 9/11 were personal attacks on him.
I can also say I don't like the way that the Catholic church gets tax examptions but I don't see how flying a plane into a building is the answer.
I'm not trying to justify what he did. I just understand it. And if you don't, well, that's your problem.
"corporations have taken over the world"
Well that's just silly and uninsightful and the kind of thing that an uninformed teenager would say.
What corporations have taken over the world?
Was this guy talking about the "corporations"?
Do you understand how your religion seems to dictate that you blame EVERYTHING on the corporations?
This guy tried to claim that he was a church to avoid paying taxes. The IRS wouldn't let him. That's the "tyranny" he's bitching about.
News flash: everyone hates the IRS but we pay our taxes because its the law. This guy was a nut who set his house on fire with his wife and 12 year old daughter inside. He was a nut who was wronged by no one but himself.
Part of me hopes he becomes a poster boy for the conspiracy "movement," hes seems to represent them well.
The ADL started listing "tax protesters" as an extremist group along side the Klan and neo-nazis. I thought it was somewhat unfair. I stand corrected; good call ADL.
I seriously can't believe that anyone is sympathizing with this asshole. He's not a victim, he's a narcissistic nut who thought he was above the law. I thought even those in the conspiracy crowd would realize that this guy doesn't deserve their sympathy.
Here's a good article on him:
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/devil-details/joe-stack-how-to-really-tick-off-the-irs/1543/
This guy was a nut who set his house on fire with his wife and 12 year old daughter inside. He was a nut who was wronged by no one but himself.
It seems like they weren't actually in the house when it happened according to this report although some of the earlier reports seem to have said they were.
I'm not trying to justify what he did. I just understand it. And if you don't, well, that's your problem.
Oh dear!
You mean his rambling screed about the IRS is exactly the thing that would make the average person burn down their family's house and fly their private plane into a building of strangers?
No Mark, there's nothing coherent or understandable about that. Not if what he wrote his any indication of his motives.
Apparently declaring yourself a church is a popular form of tax evasion.
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19417/irs-church-tax-scams
Marylander, I've deleted those two comments as you've duplicated the main one on the more appropriate thread.
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