Malawian man gets 6months in jail for wrongly predicting the end of the world!

reply to post by ColoradoJens


So then Charles Manson should not be held responsible for the Tate-La Bianca murders? He merely told his followers that there was going to be an apocalyptic race war and it was their role to start it. They didn't have to do what he said. And Marshall Applewhite should not be held be responsible for the actions of Heaven's Gate? He merely told his followers that the world was ending and the only way to survive was to escape the planet. It's not his fault 38 people took their own lives.

reply to post by Xcalibur254


No. Different argument. Crazy doomsday guy on street corner yelling the world is coming to an end...he's just that. I am a loon like manson or jim jones, etc. I conspire, with others, to commit crimes. I hide this and fool people, but it ends in crime.

Larry the Crazy man says "The sky is falling" which, everyone knows is not true. 99.9% of all humans keep walking.

You are influenced by a someone, regardless of who or how, and you commit a crime. different. Words vs actions.

CJ

reply to post by ColoradoJens


What about Harold Camping? I'd say his apocalyptic prediction was very similar in style to most of the 2012 charlatans. Should he be held responsible for the people that died or were seriously injured due to his prediction? He didn't tell anyone to take any specific actions, but it still lead to suicides and accidental death, as well as a mother who slit the throats of her children with a box cutter. These tragedies happened specifically due to Camping's words. Shouldn't he be held responsible in some way?

reply to post by Xcalibur254


Nah, there has to be a modicum of personal responsibility or you could blame everything on everything. It was the tv that said so, it was the bald guy in tennis shoes, etc. Yes, cult behavior is scary. Stay away from cults.

CJ

reply to post by Xcalibur254


I'm a little confused by your post.
What cataclysmic prediction was the Manson family involved with ?
Was that during or after the murders ?
I am not being sarcastic. (well perhaps a bit but...) If there was some sort of conspiracy or prediction wrapped up in the Charles Manson mess I have never heard about it.

reply to post by Mercurio


Minor correction
Heavens Gate was during Comet Hale-Bopp a couple of years after Halleys comet had come by.
No predictions from that group. Just grab your new nike sneakers your roll of quarters. (must have thought there'd be tolls along the way) take a sip of this Koolaid and wait for the mother ship hiding behind the comet to pick up your soul. ( I guess just the soul cuz the physical body stayed here )

Originally posted by Mercurio

Originally posted by Xcalibur254
reply to post by Mercurio

 

This whole 2012 thing is becoming a cult in its own right. Just look into the 2012 forum and see how many people are vehemently defending an End of the World scenario despite mountains of contradictory evidence. We have already had at least one leader of this cult (Nancy Lieder) tell their followers to do something extreme (kill their pets) because the world was coming to an end. These people should at least be brought up on charges of fraud, as they are financially benefiting from their false predictions.

So you want to imprison thousands of people who make predictions, or just the ones who make money? Should we jail scientists who say "The Big One" in L.A. or the Yellowstone eruption could happen at any moment?

Not to mention the stock brokers. They make predictions all the time too. And their mistakes cost folks a lot of money ! Wait... maybe they should be in jail. LOL. As long as we have a tomorrow someone somewhere will be saying thats the day it will all end.

Never mind....

Same thing should be done to Harold Camping,IMO. 6 months for each time he has predicted the end to come.

The world can never end, its continuous creation and will
simply reboot so all these idiots need to get a life

reply to post by karen61057


Manson predicted an apocalyptic race war. That was the entire driving force behind the murders. They were designed to ignite the race war by staging them to make people think that they were committed by African Americans.

reply to post by karen61057


The entire belief system of Heaven's Gate was that the Earth was going to be recycled. In other words wiped clean and started anew. The only way to survive would be to escape Earth in some way. The UFO behind Hale-Bopp didn't really come into being until they decided to commit suicide. The group was actually very against suicide, but there came a point when they knew they wouldn't escape Earth, so Applewhite told them that the only escape would be to kill themselves and then their souls would be retrieved by the passing UFO.

I dont know why, but I find it kind of funny... maybe they should have a law like this on ATS, it would remove a few threads...

There are always excuse makers. They ask what would a reasonable person do and then offer an off the wall response.

Would a reasonable person know that there is no fire in the crowded theater?
Would a reasonable person know that the destructive race war was a fabrication?
Would a reasonable person know that Harold Camping is a huckster?
Would a reasonable person know that the photos of Hale-Bopp did not show a following spaceship?

I suggest the following answer:
1. It really does not matter if there is an actual fire or not. The time between the announcement and the need to react is so short that it is reasonable to speed to an exit.
2. With racial tensions running hot it would seem that it were possible, yet the riots of the 1960s were localized events that did not spread.
3. Apparently not seeing how some people reacted.
4. In at least one group the answer to that was no.

Then again #4 was discussed right here at ATS
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Did they get to hitch the ride they wanted? Did the ufo come near enough?

I thought OMG! there was a UFO with Hale-Bopp!!
I NEVER new that!