Why is "We don't know" unacceptable?

[RudynJack]

I read DU and people have no compunction about claiming the Boston bombings were caused by right-wing tea-baggers. FR is convinced it was a muslim jihadist.

Why draw ANY conclusions? We DON'T KNOW WHO DID IT!!! Why is it so important to stake a claim on this issue? Will it change the truth when we know it? No, it won't.

I don't even understand the need to speculate. Early reports are always suspect in times like these. Why is it so hard to just wait before making a judgment?

We have no idea who's behind this. We're not likely to know the answer for awhile. But I find the impulse to blame "the other side" pretty distasteful. Blaming anybody is ridiculous in the absence of any real information.

Whether on DU or FR, jumping to conclusions willy-nilly doesn't make you a better American. I say it makes you a worse one.

[JI7]

1. i think speculation is ok and good, but some of it comes off badly

more in a "i hope it's them" kind of way than "based on this info i think it points to .................".

remember the snipers ? many thought it was some right winger maybe white supremecist type because the victims were mostly minorities .

and there was some guy who crashed i think a small plane into a building some time back(not 9-11). many rumors about him being muslim/arabic etc. but a bunch of right wing crap was discovered about him and he was some anti tax anti govt type.

[liberal N proud]

4. A rush to judgment is not the answer

If speculation is simply looking for a scapegoat, then it is directed inappropriately.

[graham4anything]

2. As Ben Franklin said "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".We need security.

What is known is that the 2nd amend. is needed to be reinterpreted and then
guns/bullets in the hands of private citizens need to be made a no-no.

There are ways we can stop these incidents.

Getting rid of guns/bullets in the hands of private citizens should be a bipartisian way to make America safer and is a good first step

And cameras from either the state or a private person will locate the perps in this case.

If only there was better security in the past.
Tim McV could have been stopped
The Son of Sam definitely could have been stopped
The Boston Strangler


One good thing people should do- if you see something suspicious, no matter how mundane REPORT IT AND DO IT QUICKLY

ALSO-NYC has some great things they do-
For one- NYC removes the mailboxes, removes the garbage/trash cans all along the routes.
NYC seals the manhole covers.

It should be mandatory all through the lands to do so.

But most important is- every single person should be the eyes and ears for law enforcement everywhere. And if you see someone leave a weird looking package- photograph it, photograph the person, the place, and quickly call it in.

And we should not name any of these asssassins, terrorists, extremists or fameseekers.
That is perhaps the worst we can do.
And then prevent copycats, or blameshifters.

Good detective work will solve this, and people calling in tips and all will find those clues.
Everyone who had a cellphone camera, should immediately give it to the FBI and HS so they can examine the photos.
An innocent crowd photo might have the murderer in it.

And vigilantes, or a terrorist, extremist, or a group or a McV, or a gun shooting, all are wrong, and all should have zero tolerance.

Hillary Clinton was 100% correct when she said it matter little who, what matters is that
it never happens again.
And we can contain it.

But how many more will die for some inanity causes both in doing these events, and in attempting to stop security from stopping these events. How many more will die?

[House of Roberts]

3. I really don't have a theory as to who was motivated

to pick this specific venue for an attack. But its value to influence a change in behavior by way of terrorizing the population is diminished if we aren't informed by the perpetrators as to why they acted.

[HereSince1628]

5. In part it's unacceptable because of the way society copes with such problems

Although most of us are adults we still use stories to make us feel better. And just like childhood stories they are structured to reduce the problem to something simple and understandable--even if the problem is carnage beyond our understanding.

The basic framework of the society soothing narrative is that the event is over, those being harmed are being treated. It becomes a struggle of the good against the bad, US against THEM. Knowing who they are, and especially knowing 'they will pay for this" gives us closure. And out of the experience we walk away with a bit of a lesson about who and what is dangerous so we can be safer in the future,

The narrative struggles with an ambiguous and unresolved THEM. It's unsatisfying because we can't be sure any unknown villain(s) aren't still around us. We don't know how to separate the bad people from us, and there is no satisfaction in knowing culprit(s) are not identified and not being tracked down.

As you look at the language in the reports, even President Obama's statements you'll notice they are full of praise of 'us' the good people, our heroic first responders, our best surgeons in our best hospitals, the best of our moral fiber rising to meet the evil of the occasion. The exact opposite sorts of descriptions, of course, are being constructed about the unknown perpetrators...so we fill in the blanks, unfortunately often invoking our existing prejudices from previous life experiences with other narratives of this same type.

[KharmaTrain]

6. The Nature Of The Beast...

...it's easy to hop onto a keyboard and tap away. Sites like this have become internet water coolers where gossip and speculation mix with personalities and thus the frantic reaction to any breaking news story. It's how DU rolls these days...