Jussie Smollet: or, How Narratives Unravel

[Western Vale Confederacy]

Who commits a hate crime during a polar vortex when being outside for 20 minutes would've been deadly to all parties involved?

Idiots who want to die of frosbite?

No sane human being would wear a fucking cap in winter temperatures.

[Washington Resistance Army]

CNN says their sources are saying that police are now working on the hoax angle and the brothers are fully cooperating with them.

oof

[Internationalist Bastard]

CNN says their sources are saying that police are now working on the hoax angle and the brothers are fully cooperating with them.

oof

Sounds about right

[Kowani]

CNN says their sources are saying that police are now working on the hoax angle and the brothers are fully cooperating with them.

oof

Welp, that’s a career down the drain.

[Confederate States of German America]

CNN says their sources are saying that police are now working on the hoax angle and the brothers are fully cooperating with them.

oof

> inb4 Vass returns to citing an incident in Oregon to discredit this after jumping back on the wagon of CPD because they didn't declare it was a hoax till now

[Western Vale Confederacy]

CNN says their sources are saying that police are now working on the hoax angle and the brothers are fully cooperating with them.

oof

Welp, that’s a career down the drain.

Karma shall smile upon this man if he gets fined the entirety of the cost of the investigation.

Career ruined, credibility ruined, and hopefully his wallet nuked into fucking oblivion.

[Gravlen]

Why would you fake a hate crime? I'm not going to buy your stuff or watch your show because you were the victim of a hate crime.

A possible motive, as reported on by CBS Chicago:

–“Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, upset after a racist letter sent to the show’s studio didn’t get a “bigger reaction,” is suspected of paying two men to attack him a week later, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the investigation.

“When the letter didn’t get enough attention, he concocted the staged attack,” a source told CBS 2 Investigator Brad Edwards. Other sources corroborated that information.

The investigation is still ongoing, but it seems like the pieces are falling into place.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

Why would you fake a hate crime? I'm not going to buy your stuff or watch your show because you were the victim of a hate crime.

A possible motive, as reported on by CBS Chicago:

–“Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, upset after a racist letter sent to the show’s studio didn’t get a “bigger reaction,” is suspected of paying two men to attack him a week later, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the investigation.

“When the letter didn’t get enough attention, he concocted the staged attack,” a source told CBS 2 Investigator Brad Edwards. Other sources corroborated that information.

The investigation is still ongoing, but it seems like the pieces are falling into place.

At this point, the direction the needle is pointing is becoming painfully obvious.

Innocent until proven guilty still remains, but eventually it becomes obvious before the conviction.

[Dumb Ideologies]

First the main narrative unravelled, then the hoax narrative was starting to unravel, and now the narrative that the hoax narrative was unravelling is itself unravelling.

A very good value story, unusual to get so many hearty servings of unraveoli.

[Scomagia]

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/02/18 ... ttack/amp/

Apparently Smollett's alleged motivation for staging the hoax, which he almost definitely did, was because he was upset at the response to the racist letter he received in January....which also seems like it was a hoax.

“When the letter didn’t get enough attention, he concocted the staged attack,” a source told CBS 2 Investigator Brad Edwards. Other sources corroborated that information.

The note was crafted with letters apparently cut out from magazines to form words. The pieced-together message contained racial and homophobic threats directed at Smollett. A magazine is one of the pieces of evidence retrieved from the brother’s home last week during a search conducted by CPD. Investigators also recovered a book of stamps.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/02/18/jussie-smollet-motive-staged-attack/amp/

Apparently Smollett's alleged motivation for staging the hoax, which he almost definitely did, was because he was upset at the response to the racist letter he received in January....which also seems like it was a hoax.

“When the letter didn’t get enough attention, he concocted the staged attack,” a source told CBS 2 Investigator Brad Edwards. Other sources corroborated that information.

The note was crafted with letters apparently cut out from magazines to form words. The pieced-together message contained racial and homophobic threats directed at Smollett. A magazine is one of the pieces of evidence retrieved from the brother’s home last week during a search conducted by CPD. Investigators also recovered a book of stamps.

Maybe the few remaining skeptics might consider it wise to begin doubting Smollett’s credibility.

[Valrifell]

The lack of a clear motive just confuses me.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

The lack of a clear motive just confuses me.

Pure attention, methinks.

[Grater Tovakia]

The lack of a clear motive just confuses me.

I can't confirm this but someone said he was auditioning for a play part in which his character his assaulted based on race. I guess you could make the argument that he thought getting assaulted would help him win the part. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Washington Resistance Army]

The lack of a clear motive just confuses me.

Some people really crave attention.

[Des-Bal]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47287308

This is a pretty good example of how the Smollet story lack versimilitude. Compare the two stories

That guy's assault was someone walking up to him while he was waiting outside a theatre racially insulting him, punching him with a ring, and running away before the cops show up. The cut from the ring may have caused permanent damage.

Smollet says some guys with ski masks, bleach, and a noose as props staged an ambush in the middle of a polar vortex and then accosted him by referring to him by the name of the show he was on. Smollet, a man of honor, defiantly and proudly replied "that's not my name!" The racist homophobes of course recognized him from the show "Empire", a musical drama about a hip hop mogul and his entertainment company, and they hated him for his art. Like all haters they were knew enough about the show to identify it's cast by sight and they know both where they live and their sexual preferences. They proceeded to pour bleach over him, and put a noose around his neck, then beat him while yelling "this is maga country" in his very gay and very black neighborhood. Despite going through all of the planning necessary to stage their attack outside his home with props and face concealing masks they thankfully did not bring weapons and had no real capacity to injure him. When Smollet got his own punches in they knew the time had come to beat a hasty retreat. Thanks no doubt to the strength of his body Smollet's injuries were totally superficial.

It's totally possible Smollet is telling the truth and we should allow ourselves to be moved by evidence. That said, his story sounds like something an attention seeking asshole would write.

[Yusseria]

The lack of a clear motive just confuses me.

Pure attention, methinks.

Well, in a way he got what he wanted. There's certainly a lot of attention on him now. *cackles*

[The Huskar Social Union]

The lack of a clear motive just confuses me.

Wanting attention, which is often a double edged sword.

[The Republic of Fore]

It's obvious this guy's full of shit. Two people in MAGA hats walking around during a polar vortex when being outside for more than 20 minutes can kill you looking for a black man to jump?

Bullshit.

You'd think after the Covington case the media would wait before jumping to conclusions...

Remember, basing reporting on evidence available at the time is jumping to conclusions and is bad.

At least until it's going a way conservatives like.

Remember, fear mongering and blowing a story out of proportion when you don't actually know anything is bad. You'd think professional journalists would know to wait until there's actual evidence to report. But then again, they knew it would generate some outrage clicks. And that's what really matters.

[Des-Bal]

Remember, fear mongering and blowing a story out of proportion when you don't actually know anything is bad. You'd think professional journalists would know to wait until there's actual evidence to report. But then again, they knew it would generate some outrage clicks. And that's what really matters.

They handled this perfectly fine, someone reported an incident and they reported that the person reported it. "Actual evidence" has yet to materialize, we only know the apparent direction of the investigation because it's be reported on.

[Hanafuridake]

There doesn't seem much room for doubt that the whole scenario was arranged by the man for media attention. It was a shameless ploy and one that should lead to legal consequences for falsely reporting a crime, it would be fitting if this permanently ruined his career too. At the same time, neither people nor the media is blameable for assuming that he was telling the truth. The sole fault lies on the man and the people he bribed to fake a hate crime.

[The Republic of Fore]

Remember, fear mongering and blowing a story out of proportion when you don't actually know anything is bad. You'd think professional journalists would know to wait until there's actual evidence to report. But then again, they knew it would generate some outrage clicks. And that's what really matters.

They handled this perfectly fine, someone reported an incident and they reported that the person reported it. "Actual evidence" has yet to materialize, we only know the apparent direction of the investigation because it's be reported on.

They could've sat on the story for a little bit to see if it turned out to be a hoax, like most of these do.

[Des-Bal]

They could've sat on the story for a little bit to see if it turned out to be a hoax, like most of these do.

It would have been to no benefit, they reported the facts they had you're not suggesting they didn't do their dilligence you're just saying wait and if they waited 10 days and it seemed legit till day 11 the situation is exactly what we have now- they report something and in the face of evidence it seems it was a hoax. This was not an error.

[Uiiop]

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47249574
Looks like someone got the "Other source" they wanted.
It's a shame that people these days can only respond with counter-jumping to conclusions but c'est la vie.

[Bezkoshtovnya]

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/02/18/jussie-smollet-motive-staged-attack/amp/

Apparently Smollett's alleged motivation for staging the hoax, which he almost definitely did, was because he was upset at the response to the racist letter he received in January....which also seems like it was a hoax.

Maybe the few remaining skeptics might consider it wise to begin doubting Smollett’s credibility.

Yeah I just heard about the stamps and magazine being recovered. Coupled with the fact the brothers apparently left for Nigeria immediately after the reported incident, and were only just returning to the US when they were picked up really adds alot more to the likelihood this was a hoax.