The exploitation of tragedy.

Every time we think the cesspool of today’s conspiracy culture can’t get any worse, it finds a way to sink even lower, to show a heretofore level of unseen callousness and heartlessness.

For several days now, various media outlets have been reporting on the quick spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories about the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent protests and riots. This is a fairly detailed story about the conspiracy theories from the BBC.

As we are witnessing an American tragedy, the reminder of how fragile our culture is because of race relations, the second tragedy is to see its exploitation by individuals in order to spur even more division, even more distrust and fear among Americans. At a time when the culture needs to come together, to find common ground, to communicate with each other and find a way to live together as one nation and one people, individuals who take this unrest as an opportunity to encourage more suspicion and distrust are little better than murderers themselves.

But as we've seen the handiwork of those who traffic in unsubstantiated conspiracy fantasies before, their behavior should be of no surprise now.