nah, conspiricy theorists usually overthink things, because they can't fathom that others aren't constantly lying to them (probably a projection of their own behaviour)

and in a lack of things to be frightend of they adapt a Littlefinger-eque "what's the worst case for people to be saying what they are saying" attitude to seek out new things to fuel their paranoia

Here's an idea. Quit giving the few nutcases in the world their spotlight.

It's like 2-3 idiots out there spreading this, and writing articles about them only brings it further into the light for some more idiots to see it.

Also as someone said, it could be like an Onion article and made as a joke, but idiots believe it.

You can partly blame todays media for all of this. They have became so click baity, publishing unverivied stories, sensationalizing stories and untrustworthy in peoples eyes that conspiracy theories are getting a footing.

I live in San Marco... on River Road actually, which literally had the waves from the river crashing up against the front doors of our buildings.

NEW VIDEO | This was sent to us from River Road in San Marco. #Flooding #Irma pic.twitter.com/EgEsASBwN9

— News4JAX (@wjxt4) September 11, 2017

Honestly, as far as San Marco goes I count myself lucky... the water seems to have only risen to a little over two inches inside and didn't linger too long. It'll be a long time before the place is livable again, but I think I'll be able to salvage most of my stuff.

Our buildings are elevated so the subsequent floods from tidal factors and such after the initial surge haven't been getting back in, but a lot of the community is just sitting in a lake right now.

I'm about to head out and buy a bunch of supplies, and I plan to wade my way to the apartment tomorrow morning around 11:00 while the tides are low... gonna clean what I can and see if I can prevent a super destructive outbreak of mold (with no power for the foreseeable future the lack of AC is going to make mold an immediate problem). It's a ~100 year old building with mold and dry rot issues already, so it may wind up needing to be gutted.

Your neighborhood not getting it as rough doesn't necessarily equate to the media blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Besides, I do agree that the media tried to hype this up somewhat, but in this case they should. If they just released statements like "Hurricane Irma might, maaaybe ruin your home" no one would take it seriously. It's better to overplay things like this than underplay them.

Wow, the elipses really make a difference. Can I delete two of them, though? Five just seems a bit too much for me.

I think the age of the internet has led to people seeking out like minded mentalities to create echo chambers. If you're 1 in a 100 saying something, you may start to question your rationale. If you're the majority in a group it reinforces the view. Essentially there are hundreds or thousands of realities people in the world inhabit that makes cross discussion nearly impossible.

Some kids can't be vaccinated because of age or health reasons. Herd protection and the like: more people being immune is a shield for those people

This is nothing new, the majority of the world population believe what the want to believe or what has been dictated to them. Some even believe what they don't want to believe as in they will always believe the worst case scenario.

The amount of people that believe what the evidence dictates or what has by far the highest probability of being true doesn't seem as high as you would hope.

Of course this only relates to something that allows for an alternate view; space, the past and anything where a clear cut answer is not possible. Applying it in this situation with an actual hurricane and real locations seems a bit ridiculous. It's quite possible news sources might overplay the danger of the hurricane if they are unsure of the level of its destruction. This will save the maximum lives surely and hardly a conspiracy. If there is estimated range of possible power of the tornado going with the higher level for news reports seems a pretty good idea.

One thing I never understand is the naming of Tornado's etc. Some are so friendly sounding like 'Harvey' when surely it should be something like 'Death from above', 'Cobra Strike', 'Praying Mantis' and other non friendly names.

"... some island called Barmuda...", yeah, she's an f'ing genius.

You really can't think of a single reason why the media would make up a big event that draws a huge audience to their websites and channels where by mere coincident also all of their advertisers are? Not a single one?

There will always be people who question everything. They're the conspiracy sort of people. I don't really mind 'em. My power was out for 4 days so I know Irma was real.