MARCH 9 — As the MH370 tragedy unfolded, conspiracy theories were not in short supply. Nor were MAS-bashing and government-whacking comments. 

Government trying to cover up what happened? Check. An attempt to divert attention from the Sodomy II verdict last Friday? Check. God’s revenge for Barisan Nasional? Check. A C4 operation for God-knows-what reason? Check. Re-cracking Scorpene jokes? Check.

All these and more spread like wildfire as Malaysians and beyond kept a vigil for news of the missing plane and hoping it had finally been discovered, that the passengers are either alive or dead. And to find out how and why it happened.

But insensitive jokes aside, the problem with speculation along this vein is that they are presented with much emotional vigour but lack anything else. There is no supporting evidence to validate these arguments. There are just faulty leaps of logic.

Just tall tales, in the end. But there will be people who lap it all up regardless. 

They take it to heart and spread the misguided word. Confirmation bias steps in. People inclined to believe anything that lends weight to their prejudices would hop onto the bandwagon.

As the word spreads, such narratives are always likely to grow in the telling. The unfortunate result is a whirl of fallacious stories flooding our consciousness as we try to make sense of things. 

Many of us simply want to know what happened and why, the facts and the latest findings. But for those who rely on their social media feed for updates, the news reports from credible media sites compete with fanciful blog posts from random strangers who happen to have Blogger accounts.

What happens is that we had to sift through a mixture of real news and garbage disguised as news. Confusion inevitably follows.

On the face of it the theories are outlandish but persuasion sometimes operates independently of factual strength and straight logic. Those willing to make that leap in logic will do so eagerly. 

So how many will come away from this tragedy with a little bit of nonsense firmly planted in their minds as a result? I don’t know, but I pray not too many. I suspect otherwise.

Worse, these misplaced theories belittle the horror and pain of this nightmarish turn of events for the families of the 239 passengers and crew members on board MH370. 

Can you imagine, as you wait tearfully for the latest news on MH370, listening to a nameless Internet stranger saying, for example, that your son or daughter or parent who was on that flight paid the ultimate price because a court ruled a politician — whom you don’t know of or don’t care about or both — guilty in a sodomy case?

I can’t. 

So let’s show a little bit of sensitivity and respect to the families. Stop the silly talk. We’ll find out what happened soon enough, hopefully.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.