An Imagined Conversation (short story)

So I was watching a few conspiracy videos on what some people think "really" happened in Boston. One video in particular, voiced by what sounded to be a Muslim women in her mid to late 30's, made some pretty spectacular claims: that the entire Boston Marathon bombings were staged. That there were actors. In the video she expertly analyzed, a man appears to be throwing dust into the air. This piece of "evidence" clearly establishes that the entire thing was staged.

I think the entire thing is disturbed - to engage in such shoddy reasoning, to ignore 98% of the picture, the hundreds injured, those who lost their lives, the relatives and friends mourning, the hospital visits to children, mothers, fathers, in short, to make a series of massive assumptions - that everyone of these people is a sickening liar - is not only coarse, but obscenely unreasonable. The more probable explanation is the simple one, that this was (yet another) terror attack, that the people injured are not automatons who act out tragedies on large scales, but real human beings that got caught in the crossfire.

That said, I was reminded of the girl in the video, and I imagined how she would react to a CNN segment with Anderson Cooper interviewing people injured in the bombings. How would such a person likely respond to that interview? For sheer psychological enjoyment, I think it would be fun exploring the mind of the extreme conspiracy theorist. It's a scary look into how dysmorphic our perceptions can become when we interpret reality according to a (uncriticized) general premise. If the world is according to ___________ , then this means ___________. Following such a form, reality can become grossly unrealistic, populated by people, thoughts, feelings, and actions that don't actually exist.

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Anderson Cooper: The blast was so powerful that they said that they were flown about 5 feet.
Women injured in Bombings: And I said, I think were OK, and I couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe it [she turns her face towards the floor), that we survived, and weren't hurt at all, and I didn't feel any pain, an I didn't know what had happened, then, I sat up and, he said we had to get out of here or something like that and I sat up and tried to move and I got up and said oh my gosh my foot, theres something wrong with my foot, and he lifted up my leg, and, we just lost it, we just started screaming bloody murder, it was really bad.
Anderson Cooper: What did you then, after you realized what had happened to your foot
Women injured in Bombings: I just went into survival mode, I just went into, I have to do something about this, I can't lose my foot.
Anderson Cooper: She couldn't lose her foot because Adrian is a dance instructor, its her passion, her life. And as she was wheeled into the operating room, Adrian remained optimistic. When she awoke, she remembers feeling her toes.

When did you realize you didn't have it.

Women injured in Bombings: I was...when I woke up my parents were there and I said mom can you help me I feel like my foots falling asleep [begins to cry], it feels like my ankle is falling off of the pillow and my foot is half on, and now that I realized that that was phantom pain because she looked at me and said "Adrian....you dont have a foot..........your foot is gone" and I just, lost it....it was really hard to hear."



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Muslim woman's response to friends in the room: Can you believe this?? Can you believe how far they are willing to go to sell these lies?? They literally found actors with amputated limbs to claim they were in the blast. Unbelievable.

Friend 1: They're trying to convince the world that Islam is evil.

Muslim woman: Yes. The evidence is all there. They were throwing dust and soot around to give the impression that an explosion had occurred and that the people were covered in dust from the blast.

Friend 2: But what about the girl on TV? You think she's lying about all that? That's a fake cast? Fake husband who's hugging her? Fake tears she is crying? Why don't you consider this counter evidence? It's seems the assumption you're making is a bit extreme.

Muslim Woman: Oh please, Tariq, you know the West is conspiring against Islam. 9/11, Al Qaeda, the Mujahadin, the west controls those radical elements. Osama Bin Laden was an asset of the CIA.

Friend 1: Even more importantly, they know the truth of Islam, which is why they oppose it, which is why they are creating evidence to justify their attacks against Muslim countries.

Friend 2: None of that is proven.

Muslim Woman: It is proven!

Friend 1: What are you talking about Tariq? It's true, the evidence is everywhere

Friend 2: If I were to go through all this evidence, I could show you piece by piece, how it would be unjustified. Furthermore, your willingness to ignore evidence contrary to your general assumption shows how unreasonable you're being. When probability is taken into account, there's a higher probability that this was an authentic terror attack committed by radical Muslims.

Muslim woman: No, No......That's impossible. What about the dust? The people on the ground without lacerations??

Friend 2: what about the people without limbs, the 8 year old who got killed!?

Muslim woman: they could all be actors; there are satanists in America. For all we know, they could be part of those underground Satanic groups. Have you see the picture of the boys mother? Is her face not creepy?

Friend 2: LOL! Are you serious? Her face is irrelevant. I think I have a scary looking face in pictures: does that make me a likely psychopath?

Muslim Woman: Whateverrrr....

Friend 2:, Honestly, Fatima, what you're saying is ridiculous.

Friend 1: You just don't realize how far this goes...the Media, the police, the military, the government, their all in on it. This is an agenda of theirs.

Friend 2: And why do they follow it, pray tell?

Muslim Woman: Cause their sick in the head! Why else would they do what they do?

Friend 1: I bet you a 100 bucks that if they took off that woman's cast, you'd find a perfectly healed stump. She's simply acting.

Friend 2: I'm sorry, thats just not reasonable. I can't look at the world that way. If someone loses their leg, chances are, they don't incline towards diabolical acts of deception. More likely, they'll look at life in a more spiritually meaningful way. The struggle of losing a limb, the recognition of all that you would lose, you would tend to look at the world far more positively. And did you see her face? Those were real tears. Her positivity seemed like a genuine desire to take control of the rest of her life. I can't ignore that. I refuse to the world as cynically as you see it!