Some Common Sense Thoughts on the #Madeleine #McCann Conspiracy Theories

So after a few days of dipping my toes into the strange world of the Madeleine McCann conspiracy theorists, I've come to the following conclusion. These people are unhinged. Seriously, batshit crazy unhinged. It would almost be funny were it not for the fact that at the heart of it is a missing girl, and a couple who have had to deal with not only that living nightmare, but then one of the most shameless hate campaigns in social media history.

The starting point for the hate campaigners is a presumption of the McCanns' guilt. Through that prism, there is nothing the couple can do or say that does not confirm their guilt in the eyes of their accusers. 'Facts' are regurtitated and repeated ad nauseum building a narrative that requires superhuman feats of mental contortion to believe. More of which later. The only true fact is that many of these so-called 'facts' either came from a botched investigation, or leaks from the PJ, who were being paid handsomely for information - regardless of its veracity - by the UK gutter press, who realised in 2007 there was mileage to be had from increasingly hostile coverage.

Don't forget that all of those papers have had to pay vast amounts of compensation to the McCanns, and admit their stories were simply not true.

Not that this has stopped the antis, who for 6 years have been repeating and adding to these lies to the point where it has now taken on some kind of cult-like hysteria. You thought scientologists were nuts? They're the font of reason compared to these people.

What I really don't get though, is how a narrative which is so patently absurd has taken in so many people. The gist of it is this: Madeleine McCann was not abducted. She was murdered, by her parents, in their apartment. Her body was then hidden for around three weeks, before being moved in the McCann's new hire car to another location, presumably to be disposed of.

The antis are, it seems, somewhat divided on the issue of whether Madeleine's death was an accident or planned. And here's where it gets really crazy.

If it was an accident, they are asking us to believe that Kate and Gerry McCann - an ordinary, average sort of couple until the 'accident', were suddenly able to pull off one of the biggest acts of deception in criminal history.

This couple, with presumably little experience of leading coppers up the garden path, were able to endure police interrogations and months of intense global media coverage, while undergoing a crushing, crippling guilt of having killed their own kid and denied her a decent burial, without cracking.

Not only that, but they would somehow have needed - in a very short space of time - to have hidden Madeleine's body. And hidden it well enough to be missed by the biggest search operation in Portuguese history. In a town they were visiting on holiday.

But then three weeks later, they were somehow able - with the world's media camped on their doorstep, to retrieve Madeleine's body, which would have been in an advanced state of decomposition by then, and transport it in their new rental car to dispose of properly. If true, the whole thing would make the McCanns the biggest criminal masterminds since Moriarty and Kaiser Soze.

Since then of course, in an effort to cover their tracks, they have mounted a huge, global publicity campaign to help keep Madeleine in the public eye and try and find her.

If all that sounds a bit iffy, then don't worry - you're not alone. Some of the antis think so too. A deception like that, they say, could only occur with the collusion of powerful vested interests.

And so the idea that Madeleine was sacrificed to the Illuminati was born. Because Gerry is a Freemason after all.

Or...

Their theories are the outpourings of people with serious issues.

People have a right to ask questions. Free speech, free world, yade-yada. But it's the brutality of it. It's the relentless hatred, it's the Facebook groups and the baseless accusations against a grieving family. It's frankly disgusting. And it needs to stop.

It won't of course. They could find a culprit, completely exonerate the McCanns, and still these monsters would be spitting their hate. Because to do anything else would require the antis to acknowledge the fact they've spent 6 years being the worst kind of people in the world. And that's probably too much for them to deal with.

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