Califan007 The Constipated

I don't really think that matters. What Smollett did was give the racists/homophobics/etc more ammo to use. It would be like being at war and the enemy was shooting at you, and one of your soldiers walked over to them and gave them guns and ammo...they were already shooting at you, so they're not gonna shoot at you more or become even more your enemy, but at least before there was the hope and belief they were starting to run low on ammo, figuratively speaking...

He didn't say Smollett was going to...he said he was willing to. This stems from the report that Smollett was told the police had found the suspects and was willing to press charges until he found out the men in custody were the two brothers that he knew, at which point he changed his tune. What if they weren't the brothers, and instead were two other guys? Since Smollett already knew there were no attackers, being willing to press charges against ANYONE is severely ****ed up and an admission of sorts that he was ok with sending innocent people to jail. During his GMA interview, he states rather plainly and directly that the two men from the surveillance video capture were his attackers and that he never had any doubt. I mean, he didn't even hedge his words or say "It would be impossible for me to say for sure just from that image"...

2...3...baybay...

This one isn't brutal (well, not in the way I think you're meaning)...it's just flat-out bizarre. There are several moments where you go "Wait.......WHAT?!?!?!?" lol...

This isn't a series, but "Abducted In Plain Sight" is ****ing nuts...I can barely process it lol. Just bizarre and surreal as hell. Not sure if it was mentioned already.

Even more details....damn.

Anyone hoping this "non-story" just goes away now....don't hold your breath lol...jeebus.

NSFW (language)

My assumption is that he wanted video of the attack. That's why he pointed out the camera to the police when he took them to the scene...it even struck the police as odd that he seemed to focus on the camera. He also didn't think anyone would actually catch the "attackers." There would just be images of dark, blurry figures throwing punches at another blurry figure. Jussie would be the only one who knew it was him on the tape. It's just to his amazingly bad luck that the camera lens was facing in the opposite direction lol...so none of it was caught.

Everyone move on because you're bored? lol... Seriously, though, you're right that it's his celebrity status that makes this more newsworthy...but that's how it is with everything. 30 year old woman shoplifts a shirt from some store, nobody hears about it or cares. At all. Wynona Ryder shoplifts a shirt from some store, you get 2 years of media coverage.

I had never even heard of Jussie Smollett before this fiasco...my sister emailed me and my brother about it and the subject just said "Jussie"...I thought it was a typo lol. She said she didn't buy it, so I googled the story to see what happened. After reading the initial account I wrote back and said "yep, sounds like complete bull**** to me, too", and we started going back and forth on all the reasons it didn't make sense. And we both despise Trump as president. That emotion didn't keep us, though, from seeing the flawed logic in Jussie's account. I was somewhat surprised to see that a LOT of other blacks were questioning it right off the bat as well. Posted this in the Stadium a few months ago, seems equally appropriate here:

True, but office politics usually involves taking credit for someone else's idea, spreading rumors about a coworker, sleeping with a higher-up to get a promotion over someone else...stuff that's unethical but still legal. Office politics isn't usually planting cocaine on a coworker and then calling the cops on them so that they get arrested as they leave for the day lol...

"The defendant intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country."

That was me for about 2 weeks lol..no hurry to watch episode 2. But then saw a few more "You need to watch 'You', it's so creepy" comments online (not to me, but to others), so I went and watched episode 2. It was about like episode one, maybe a little funnier and I guess had a twist of sorts, maybe. haven't rushed to watch episode 3.

Started watching "You"...it's good, although I'm not caught up in it like so many others are, I guess. I'm only two episodes into it, though. A few too many "Yeah, right' moments for my taste. But it's definitely watchable. If anyone has been watching it, does it get better/creepier as season one goes on? Or does it stay about where it is during the first 2 episodes?

I already suspected that if this is a hoax, then the threatening letter addressed to Jussie and sent to the tv studio was a hoax as well, and that he was behind it in one way or another. I knew that would involve the FBI since it involved the postal service. What I had not thought about was the crushed-up aspirin in the letter that was meant to convey anthrax powder being sent to him. That goes way beyond mail fraud. read that the FBI treats anything meant to resemble anthrax powder the same as if it was anthrax powder...meaning, this could get even uglier for Smollett. And ironically, one of his tweets on Jan 27th was: "Frauds are everywhere y’all. Protect the mind, heart and spirit of you and your people at all costs. Just remember... Salt, cocaine and anthrax can all appear to be sugar..." Apparently, aspirin can as well lol...there is so much irony in that statement that I'm almost starting to believe that he just wanted to troll everyone lol...

There does seem to be some evidence of the possible hoax not being done for political reasons until after the fact. I think TMZ was the place that first put out that the attackers either wore MAGA hats or said "This is MAGA country" which caught the police off-guard because Smollett didn't tell them anything about the attackers saying that or wearing any MAGA hats. Smollett added that in later during a follow-up interview (which they held the follow-up interview precisely because the whole MAGA angle was news to them).

It's kinda sad that you (and possibly others) feel there is nothing to this story other than a Nelson-from-the-Simpsons "Ha Ha" fingerpoint moment for Smollett. There is so much more going on--and at stake--than that. I mean, if this is indeed proven to have been a hoax, the whole "willingness to possibly send two innocent people to jail" aspect is just one of dozens of repercussions from his actions. At what point is that something we should all be yawning at and brushing off as a "nothingburger"?

So basically, people here at ES didn't start talking about it until more facts came in, possibly because it seemed too fishy from the get-go and no one wanted to present the possibility of a hate crime being a hoax until there was more info. I mean, that's definitely a possibility...one that speaks rather positively of the political temperament here surrounding this one particular event, anyway. I'm not sure what the right-wing rhetoric has to do with anything, unless you're saying that their silence in the beginning means they didn't seem to have a problem with a racist and homophobic attack taking place..which I'm hoping that's not what you're saying since apparently the left-wing also remained silent, which by that logic means both sides of the political spectrum had zero problem with a racist and homophobic attack.

Jussie Smollett and a Perfect Crime An object lesson in what happens when people in positions of political and cultural authority indulge their biases by suspending disbelief. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/opinion/jussie-smollett-attack.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it 'The details of the Jan. 29 attack on the “Empire” star Jussie Smollett were horrifying...These details also strained credulity from the very start. "[...]If you are inclined to believe that America — especially in the age of Donald Trump — is plagued by racism and homophobia, none of these extremely fishy details seemed to register. Indeed, many politicians and journalists seemed to suspend all critical thought in a campaign to indict not just Mr. Smollett’s attackers but the country as a whole. "Indeed, Mr. Smollett himself implied that anything other than deference to his claims was evidence of prejudice. “It feels like if I had said it was a Muslim or a Mexican or someone black, I feel like the doubters would have supported me a lot much more,” he told ABC News. “And that says a lot about the place where we are as a country right now.” "This case is an object lesson in what happens when people in positions of political and cultural authority abandon critical thinking and pressure those who don’t abandon their circumspection under pain of being smeared as bigots... "[...]All of these [fake stories of threats of racial violence] occasioned deep dives by the press into the forces of racial animus Mr. Trump unleashed during his campaign. But there was no chastened soul-searching when the deceptions were exposed. And few entertain the possibility that the attention these allegations generate has created an incentive structure for prospective hoaxers. "The real tragedy in all of this is that hate crimes are, in fact, on the rise in the Trump era, particularly against Jews and Muslims. It is natural and noble to want to respond proactively to that condition. But well-intended observers risk indulging their biases by suspending disbelief. Whether it is Donald Trump implying that the criminal acts of one illegal immigrant are indicative of a plague of migrant violence, or establishment Democrats citing one dubious story to indict half the country, there is no justice in treating individuals not as individuals but as representatives of their tribe. "False claims of victimization taint legitimate episodes of violent bigotry and discrimination, which is perhaps why those who are honorably committed to confronting prejudice seem loath to acknowledge hoaxes when they occur. But those who are inclined to dismiss prejudice in America as a manufactured crisis will only be emboldened by episodes like these. That is why it’s incumbent on responsible Americans — especially those with large platforms — to treat alleged crimes as just that: alleged." If he really did pull off a hoax with this, I have zero problem saying he is indeed a threat to society. Those actions have major repercussions beyond his embarrassment and our temporary entertainment from it.

Jussie Smollett Case: Clues Into Potential Motive Behind The Attack “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 blockbuster revelation into at least part of Smollett’s potential motive comes two days after CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar reported Smollett and two brothers — Ola and Abel Osundairo — staged the attack on Jan. 29 in Streeterville. De Mar spoke on the phone exclusively with the Osundairo brothers Monday afternoon. In a joint statement, they said: “We are not racist. We are not homophobic, and we are not anti-Trump. We were born and raised in Chicago and are American citizens.” https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/02/18/jussie-smollet-motive-staged-attack/ Photo from the video of the two men suspected of attacking Smollett:

My assumption is that he thought he did lol... Send a threatening letter in advance to further strengthen the story of being attacked -- check Have two friends perpetrate the attack, and rehearse it ahead of time -- check Make up a...um...believable (lol) story as to why you were out at 2:00 am -- check Make sure the attack occurs when there will be almost a zero chance of any witnesses -- check Wear ski masks so that attackers can't be identified, and if the police really push for some sort of description or identifier give them something that points them far away from looking for two burly Nigerian men -- check To be on the safe side, have the attackers leave the country within hours of the attack -- check Don't have the attackers be driven home directly from the site of the attack, have them driven to a secondary location, and then driven home from that location -- check Make sure the police see you with the "noose" around your neck -- check Tell yourself that the po-po won't care if a black man is attacked anyway, even one that is famous, so they won't put that much effort into finding the attackers -- check

So? That doesn't negate that saying it in connection to this incident was a rush to judgment.