Page 1 of 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 365
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    a poop plant
    Posts
    3,363

    WWMD?- My co-worker thinks the Vegas shooting was a hoax

    He works for me. Super smart network guy. Really cool. Couple of weeks ago he texts me on a Sunday night that he can't believe what he has discovered- the Vegas shootings never happened. It was some sort of government conspiracy. The motive part he seems unsure of, but he is, as he says, 100% convinced that no one died and it was all staged.

    I must admit, I'm a little rattled. This guy seems otherwise completely rational. I tried and tried to counter his points, but it just lead to more and more links to videos and bizarre theories. Everything he's showed me, I see absolutely zero evidence of anything he says he sees.

    Anyone ever dealt with something like this? I have told him he needs to leave that shit at home and I don't want to hear another thing about it, but I overheard him talking to another guy about it and I can hear the other guy trying to refute him.

    It just blows my mind that an otherwise normal guy would believe something so crazy.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Posts
    19,201
    Fire him. Tell him to come up with theory to explain why he has no paycheck.
    Is it radix panax notoginseng? - splat
    This is like hanging yourself but the rope breaks. - DTM
    Dude Listen to mtm. He's a marriage counselor at burning man. - subtle plague

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    a poop plant
    Posts
    3,363
    Civil service.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    A wretched hive of scum and villainy
    Posts
    1,958
    I would consider that disruptive behavior, especially after he's been warned off it. Time for performance counselling and/or a change of scenery for him.

    Edit: Civil service? Good luck.
    "...no hobby should either seek or need rational justification. To find reasons why it is useful or beneficial converts it at once from an avocation into an industry, lowers it at once to the ignominious category of an exercise undertaken for health, power or profit."
    -Aldo Leopold

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    33,546
    Start a poll?

    DS style.

    Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
    Quote Originally Posted by Downbound Train View Post
    And there will come a day when our ancestors look back...........

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    SLC
    Posts
    5,846
    yeah just can the moron

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    The Cone of Uncertainty
    Posts
    49,306
    People do actually go crazy sometimes. In college I was walking home from rugby practice with this friend of mine who was on the team, everything was perfectly normal. Then he shakes his head, kind of amused but bothered it seemed, and he says, "Well, there they are again, dammit." I was like "who?' because there was literally no one around but the two of us. He goes, "That film crew over there. They've been following me and filming for days now. I thought I had lost them but they're back, dammit."

    He was dead serious. Not ranting, just kinda amused and annoyed. There was no one there but he saw a whole film crew with a director, a couple cameramen, lights, everything. A few seconds later we came to a split in the path and he went his way home and I went mine. I honestly thought it was some joke I didn't get, and that he was fucking with me, but he next day he was locked down in the psych ward. He stayed there for a while. I visited him once there and he was way the fuck out there by then. He withdrew from school and that's the last I ever heard of him.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    you see a tie dye disc in there?
    Posts
    4,651
    Been warned, write up every event. Fully document outlining conspiracy theories not welcome at work as it is a distraction to others.

    Fire if continues.

    And for the record, he may be able to do his job, but he is FAR from a super smart guy.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    10,097
    If you fire him its only going to serve as confirmation that the illuminati will stop at nothing to silence him/the truth.
    That's how Alex Joneses get made.

    Thanks in advance for continuing to work with him.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    8,318
    I know a guy who takes a very similar position on 9/11. Inside job, controlled demolition, yadda yadda. Seems that community has worked itself around to claiming all the family members who got calls from the air are just paid liars. (And of course none of the actual paid liars are anything but honest.) It's a pretty short step from there to this and unfortunately the 9/11 "truthers" have been given enough credibility to make that seem reasonable to some people.

    It's a cancer on reasoning. Not restricted to any political or religious bent, and yet unlikely to cross those boundaries. We're all gonna die.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Couloirfornia
    Posts
    8,871
    Tons of California victims, GiBo. And survivors or families live near you? Maybe they'll do you a solid and have a talk with the guy?

    Shit, I knew somebody who was murdered there. Went to my high school and we had overlapping circles of friends, though I didn't know her well. My wife's HS lost an alum too.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ernest_Hemingway View Post
    I realize there is not much hope for a bullfighting forum. I understand that most of you would prefer to discuss the ingredients of jacket fabrics than the ingredients of a brave man. I know nothing of the former. But the latter is made of courage, and skill, and grace in the presence of the possibility of death. If someone could make a jacket of those three things it would no doubt be the most popular and prized item in all of your closets.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Not in the PRB
    Posts
    32,778
    Quote Originally Posted by hawkgt View Post
    Been warned, write up every event. Fully document outlining conspiracy theories not welcome at work as it is a distraction to others.

    Fire if continues.
    this. dot your i's and cross your t's.
    "fuck off you asshat gaper shit for brains fucktard wanker." - Jesus Christ
    "She was tossing her bean salad with the vigor of a Drunken Pop princess so I walked out of the corner and said.... "need a hand?"" - Odin
    "everybody's got their hooks into you, fuck em....forge on motherfuckers, drag all those bitches across the goal line with you." - (not so) ill-advised strategy

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Posts
    19,201
    Quote Originally Posted by Danno View Post
    this. dot your i's and cross your t's.
    Those are not dots, or crosses. I don't know what you are talking about.
    Is it radix panax notoginseng? - splat
    This is like hanging yourself but the rope breaks. - DTM
    Dude Listen to mtm. He's a marriage counselor at burning man. - subtle plague

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    10,901
    Quote Originally Posted by flowing alpy View Post
    some people will lie with no guilt attached
    Someone still owes this community an apology.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    a poop plant
    Posts
    3,363
    I've tried everything- showed him victim's families at memorials. Reputed everything's said with what I think was very sound logic. I think that's what rattles me- how can a person be seemingly sane and intelligent in every other way and then be this devoid of logic.

    The only thing I can think of is that his whole life has order. His homelife is all routines. His work is complete order- firewall configs, switches, VM's- everything is rule based. Nothing breaks that you can't diagnose and fix. But not this. And this isn't some elementary school. This isn't a gay night club. This is a concert- something he can imagine being attending. So I think he's trying to make it make sense. Trying to find the firewall config.

    I will give him the week to pipe down. Then I think I'll have to get serious.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    10,901
    I would just stop. Can't reason with crazy. You're spinning your wheels for no reason reason. The guy may be book smart but not intelligent.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    slc
    Posts
    17,891
    Are you in an at-will employment state? That simplifies things if you need to fire him. Personally, I would have done it already since he ignored your direct request to put a lid on it. Remind him of that again, tell your other employees to inform you if he brings it up with them, and fire him if he continues.

    But, yeah, believing he was a patsy, CIA operative, etc is one thing. Believing it was a completely faked hoax is indicative of potentially serious mental health problems. Does he own any guns?

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    8,318
    Quote Originally Posted by GiBo View Post
    I've tried everything- showed him victim's families at memorials. Reputed everything's said with what I think was very sound logic. I think that's what rattles me- how can a person be seemingly sane and intelligent in every other way and then be this devoid of logic.
    That's the million dollar question. I wonder if anyone has ever come back from this kind of break and told an honest reconstruction of how it happened? (Been through the same with this 9/11 goon--also a logical thinker in other ways, but totally unable to see when he's being lied to. WTF?)

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    907
    Posts
    15,645
    Once you buy into one conspiracy theory, the next five are easy...

    OP: A lot of people can do network admin...Conspiracy Theory Guy has prob already subverted your network to his own ends in one way or another. Expect some downtime to rearrange things after you rm -r this doosh.
    Make sure your new guy is legit and capable of reconfiguring your network from the ground up. Better yet, do it yourself so you limit your exposure.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Fort Front Range
    Posts
    1,617
    Welcome to the post-factual era.

    Whatever you feel is right, reverse engineer a philosophy or history to accommodate your beliefs. The more people disagree with you, the more evidence that your 'truth' is so special that it transcends the need for conventional corroboration.

    It feels like the pendulum is still swinging towards crazy, its going to be a while until it swings back.
    In with the 9.

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Couloirfornia
    Posts
    8,871
    Quote Originally Posted by Dantheman View Post
    Are you in an at-will employment state? That simplifies things if you need to fire him. Personally, I would have done it already since he ignored your direct request to put a lid on it. Remind him of that again, tell your other employees to inform you if he brings it up with them, and fire him if he continues.

    But, yeah, believing he was a patsy, CIA operative, etc is one thing. Believing it was a completely faked hoax is indicative of potentially serious mental health problems. Does he own any guns?
    CA is at-will, for sure. (In fact, I'm not aware of any state where employment isn't de facto considered "at-will"...)

    But civil service protection (e.g. GiBo works for government) means that the employee must be found to be doing something that violates the rules, be noticed (called a Skelly notice in state and local government here), and then have an administrative hearing. Process is a PITA.

    GiBo, is the guy on the spectrum? (Doesn't mean one thing or the other, but you mentioned "order" and he's in the type of job where you often find ASD folks.)
    Quote Originally Posted by Ernest_Hemingway View Post
    I realize there is not much hope for a bullfighting forum. I understand that most of you would prefer to discuss the ingredients of jacket fabrics than the ingredients of a brave man. I know nothing of the former. But the latter is made of courage, and skill, and grace in the presence of the possibility of death. If someone could make a jacket of those three things it would no doubt be the most popular and prized item in all of your closets.

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    907
    Posts
    15,645
    Ewww...Several layers of additional complexity now introduced...

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Looking down
    Posts
    50,491
    I worked with someone similar. Everyday reasonable and functional, if a bit dumb and nerdy. The first hint was downtime at work one day during a power failure, and he initiated a conversation about how 9/11 was not necessarily fake, but, there was something going on. I don't know, I have zero tolerance for that shit, told him so immediately, and that was that. But, the really weird one is that he believed, truly believed, that aliens lived on the dark side of the moon. Lord knows what else he fell for, because he was told in direct and indirect ways to stfu. I've heard that he kind of went off about Vegas, too, from a co worker I keep in touch with on Facebook. Again, Mr. Pretty Much Normal, but, a real freak out of work, I bet. He's got a girlfriend, though. I'm not sure if they have sex. Or, how they have sex. Ewwwww.......that made me feel queasy.

    Btw, you better be working with HR on this one, and documenting everything. This is a real tricky one, and could come back to getcha, if you're not careful.

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    a poop plant
    Posts
    3,363
    LR is right. He's completely protected by a union as well as Civil Service rules. He could shit on my desk and they'd probably just send him to counseling. I don't want to fire him. The guy's a badass network/SCADA guy and otherwise awesome employee. And they aren't just hard to come by around here- they are impossible to come by.

    Plus, he's a good dude. I think I can handle the work place situation. I've just never experienced this before. Sure, Trump has exposed some kooks around me, but most of the people have been stupid. This guy is really bright.

    I do think he may be on the spectrum. Possibly slight Aspergers.

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Idaho
    Posts
    10,953
    Feed him. Illuminati artifacts around the office, fake spy cams where he can find them, get this dude really paranoid. Get some Brant Lee Gilbert vinyl and spin it backwards and see what the guy hears. He'll make his own bed.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •