Barely two days after cops apprehended Suspect #2 in the Boston Marathon bombings, supporters of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are rallying online. A flood of Twitter, Instagram and web postings are mirroring the crowdsourced effort to find the bomb culprit, except this time they’re out to exonerate him. Analysts of online extremism are watching closely to see if Tsarnaev becomes a cult figure. The #freejahar hashtag on Twitter is about what you’d expect after the most highly publicized manhunt in the country. It’s a mix of conspiracy theories, sympathy for Tsarnaev and skepticism of the official narrative surrounding the 19-year-old’s arrest. Much of it is consumed with an effort to crowdsource Tsarnaev’s exoneration, pointing to photos from the scene and speculating about them — similar to what took place on 4chan and Reddit to hunt the bombing perpetrators…. “He’s fucking innocent. If he were ‘guilty’, it wouldn’t take this long to fucking prove it, and there would actually be evidence,” says one supporter, although the government has yet to charge the incapacitated, hospitalized Tsarnaev with a crime.
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that there’s a vibrant and growing community on the Internet composed of allegedly lucid people who are unshakably convinced that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being framed for the Boston Marathon bombing. Despite the growing mountain of evidence against Tsarnaev and his late brother, and despite the fact that Tsarnaev has evidently admitted his guilt to investigators, there are those who’ve somehow convinced themselves otherwise.
Here in the reality-based world, facts and reality normally reign supreme. It’s what the rule of law is based on, after all. Yet, just as there are those absolutely, incontrovertibly convinced that 9.11 was an inside job, the Internet’s extra-special breed of crazy ignores facts that don’t comport with their convictions. It’s as silly as it is phenomenally, unbelievable stupid, but it’s the Internet; what else would you expect, right? When your world view is populated with various flavors of conspiracy theories, I suppose society at large can’t reasonably expect much in the way of intellectual rigor and/or agility.
Not surprisingly, there’s “proof” presented authoritatively by those who couldn’t distinguish a dog turd from a Tootsie Roll:
The victims are fake because…well, you know, there really SHOULD have been more blood (warning: VERY graphic picture)
There’s incontrovertible truth that the backpack containing the bomb was carried by someone other than Tsarnaev.
There’s more, of course, but I see no need to reward this sort of lunacy by displaying more of the unshakeable “evidence” detailing Tsarnaev’s innocence. For conspiracy theorists, attention is their oxygen; they wither and die without it.
I suppose those instinctively inclined to assume that the evil hand of a malevolent government is behind virtually every tragedy will believe what they believe. No one is going to change their mind, and I’m certainly not about to waste energy and brain cells on them. Those of us here in the reality-based world prefer to wait until more of the facts become known. That’s not something that’s going to happen immediately, and perhaps not even quickly. Investigations of this nature are of necessity a slow and painstakingly thorough process. That doesn’t mesh well with a culture which demands immediate answers; if they can’t get immediate answers, the conspiracy theorists will create their own…often out of whole cloth.
The ignorance displayed by those rallying behind the #freejahar hashtag is stunning in its depth and breadth, but it’s the Internet, where’s there’s no minimum IQ or grip on reality required. Just as no one knows you’re a dog when you’re on the Internet, no one will deny you the opportunity to embarrass yourself with inane conspiracy theories.
Party on, Garth….
