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[Rex Invictus]

I'm sure we're all fully aware of the new #IStandWithAhmed campaign. It's a big social media thing that's blown up over the past week or so.

The story goes thus: Ahmed is a really clever kid who built a clock at home and then brought it into school to show his teachers. One of these terrible racist teachers decided that since he was a Muslim, it must be a bomb and therefore rang the police who arrested him. They arrested him and it's proof that the education system is a failure and how evil and backwards Texas is.

I'll give you one clue: Almost all of that is a misinterpretation of the truth.

Here's what I'll be addressing:
1. Ahmed Built a Clock
2. Ahmed Was Arrested for Building a Bomb
3. Ahmed's Just An Average Muslim Kid Who Didn't Know What He Was Doing

1. Ahmed Built a Clock
Just to get this out of the way: He built nothing. The clock is a commercially available clock from the 1980s that has been moved into a new casing (a pencil case shaped like a briefcase). In computer terms, this would be moving something into another folder and claiming I created something new.

The end result was this:


Well, that sure doesn't look anything like what a 14-year-old would imagine a bomb looks like! It doesn't look anything like a movie prop of a bomb or anything. I'm sure no one would be worried if something that looked like that was ticking.

Source.

2. Ahmed Was Arrested for Building a Bomb
Is this: True or false?

If you guessed: True. You're wrong!
If you guessed: False: You're correct!

Ahmed was arrested under suspicion of "creating a hoax explosive or incendiary device for the purpose of intimidation" which is a crime under Texan law. The ONLY reason he was arrested for it was because when questioned by police on why he'd brought it in to school his sole passive aggressive response was: "It's a clock." He refused to tell them why, exactly, he'd brought it to school or anything else.

So they arrested him. They took him out of school and once they determined he wasn't doing anything wrong with it... They released him! What a shock. Truly this is the worst thing that has happened to any human ever.

One of the things I've seen going around is the fact that they didn't evacuate the school. This is true. They did what's known as a "soft lockdown" which is where they request all teachers to stop students leaving classrooms whilst they escorted Ahmed out. Probably for as much his safety as anything else.

Source

3. Ahmed's Just An Average Muslim Kid Who Didn't Know What He Was Doing
Ahmed's just like any other student who has an interest in engineering. He's just your average joe blogs on the street, there's nothing that makes him stand out.

Did you see that? That's what's called not checking your facts.

Ahmed's father is a real media star. He routinely heads back to Sudan to run for president in the elections and he's participated in mock trials of people who've burned the Quran.

On top of that, Ahmed's sister was the one who "leaked" the photo. To Anil Dash, a person renowned for trying to get as much media attention on himself as humanly possible because he's an "entrepreneur".

Source

End Note
I was initially suspicious of this whole thing after I found out Anil Dash was the one who brought it to the media's attention. This entire thing has been a media set up from the start. A Muslim student brings in a ticking briefcase with a bunch of wiring in it to school and no one expects anything to go wrong?

Keeping in mind that Steve Wozniak was once arrested for building something very, very similar and no one made a media fuss out of that and you start to see the extent of things.

So, to summarise, if you want free things all you need to do is:
1. Build something very similar to a bomb
2. Be a Muslim
3. Have a family with media connections
4. Cry about how unfairly you're treated even after you're released quite fairly

[Rex Invictus]

No one's interested in my fool proof guide to get to go the White House and get offered a job by major tech companies?

[smjjames]

Are you trying to make a conspiracy theory out of the whole thing? Because it sounds like you are.

No one's interested in my fool proof guide to get to go the White House and get offered a job by major tech companies?

Or maybe I'm totally misreading you.

[Rex Invictus]

Are you trying to make a conspiracy theory out of the whole thing? Because it sounds like you are.

There's no conspiracy theory.

Don't you want to know how to make the media conveniently ignore all facts and go for a nonsense narrative?

[Reelya]

Nobody is discussing it because the story isn't all that interesting.

And it's nowhere near fool-proof if people have a raft of evidence that it's bullshit within the week. See the Bill Maher video in your link.

It's actually more of a sign of the way social media works for this sort of thing than it is about mainstream media gullibility. These days forwarding internet stories has replaced investigative journalism because it's cheaper and budgets have collapsed due to declining advertising dollars. Those tech companies that signed-on are probably doing it for the PR dollars more than believing the kid. You can do pretty much anything SJW-ish and get the same reaction.

[Rex Invictus]

Nobody is discussing it because the story isn't all that interesting.

And it's nowhere near fool-proof if people have a raft of evidence that it's bullshit within the week. See the Bill Maher video in your link.

It's actually more of a sign of the way social media works for this sort of thing than it is about mainstream media gullibility. These days forwarding internet stories has replaced investigative journalism because it's cheaper and budgets have collapsed due to declining advertising dollars. They had Shirtgate for example. That sort of thing happens all the time, and blows out really quickly. Stories that spread within 1 week are not a good example of how the media story will play out long-term.

Who cares about the long term consequences as long as you get this sweet loot?

[smjjames]

Nobody is discussing it because the story isn't all that interesting.

And it's nowhere near fool-proof if people have a raft of evidence that it's bullshit within the week. See the Bill Maher video in your link.

It's actually more of a sign of the way social media works for this sort of thing than it is about mainstream media gullibility. These days forwarding internet stories has replaced investigative journalism because it's cheaper and budgets have collapsed due to declining advertising dollars. They had Shirtgate for example. That sort of thing happens all the time, and blows out really quickly. Stories that spread within 1 week are not a good example of how the media story will play out long-term.

Who cares about the long term consequences as long as you get this sweet loot?

Oh that, lol! XD

[Reelya]

Seriously, some kid got a couple of thousand worth of loot - that acts as free advertising for those companies, which you are now complicit in by spreading the corporate logos. So you're part of the system now, too.

It's not a big deal and you just validated the corporate decision to give him the loot, by doing exactly what such publicity stunts are meant to do - get their logos plastered all over the 'net.

[Antioch]

Well I would say that the underlying point is that media manipulation is a real issue. There are a lot of people benefited by "slightly" twisting stories to change public opinion. Not in the last place the media sector itself. The media BENEFITS from controversy, they get extra viewers translating into more income.

It's quite a powerful opinion they have has they can force people to take a stance on things they would otherwise not give a shit about. Once picture of a drowned Syrian child did more to impact public opinion than the months of debates and analyses about the Syrian War ever did.

public opinion = power

[itisnotlogical]

For corporations, freely-given good will is better than all the jingles, 30 second ad spots and celebrity endorsements in the world.

Remember when Oreo posted the rainbow cookie on Facebook in support of gay rights? That got them approximately all the attention, and probably made lifelong customers out of any teenager that supported gay rights and saw that post. It's something that corporations are getting good at lately.

[Reelya]

And even if it blows back, it still makes you look good.

1) Give free blankets to an orphan

2) Turns out orphan is not an orphan but is a dirty scammer

3) Your company still gave free blankets to an orphan (as far as you knew)

4) The pictures and story stays in the media for longer due to controversy and debate over the kid

So it's a win/win situation for the corporations no matter whether the kids story is true or false.

[mainiac]

Well I would say that the underlying point is that media manipulation is a real issue.

Yeah but it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.  How many people try to make an easy buck like this huckster?  A lot.  Very few of them succeed but a few hit paydirt.  It's just the way of the world.

Real media manipulation is on such a more grand scale then some kid walking away with a few thousand bucks of shiny.  You can make a shitty home video and shut down a 40 year old voting rights organization.  There are vain people in the world and sometimes they escape the toxic waste dump that is reality tv.  It's nothing new.

[SirQuiamus]

Who cares about the long term consequences as long as you get this sweet loot?

Someone's gettin' jelly! :V

Seriously, Rex: If you don't care about the consequences you should absolutely run a social media scam yourself! Seems like you've already got the plan worked out, but you don't even have to implement steps 1 and 3. All you really need to do is:

1) Convert to Islam.

2) Join ISIS.

3) Start tweeting furiously.


This plan will instantly gain you the sympathies of each and every Progressive and Cultural Marxist in the entire world, and you'll literally drown in tons of free loot and nubile Jihad Brides.

Try it!

[Antioch]

Well I would say that the underlying point is that media manipulation is a real issue.

Yeah but it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.  How many people try to make an easy buck like this huckster?  A lot.  Very few of them succeed but a few hit paydirt.  It's just the way of the world.

Real media manipulation is on such a more grand scale then some kid walking away with a few thousand bucks of shiny.  You can make a shitty home video and shut down a 40 year old voting rights organization.  There are vain people in the world and sometimes they escape the toxic waste dump that is reality tv.  It's nothing new.

Holy shit that Acorn story is despicable.

edit: another peculiar detail is that virtually all news coverage of that you STILL FIND TODAY while searching for information about that event is from the 2008/2009 scandal where they we accused of malpractice. There is VIRTUALLY NO coverage about the fact that they were completely cleared.

[alway]

Neat, a conspiracy theory reposted from /pol/ as truth. Do we get one from the onion next, OP?