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Truther News, part of conspiracy theory site, Truther.org reports:

While initial reports state that the car split in two after striking a tree at a high rate of speed, one look at the crash scene (see photo below) and it’s evident that the tree (no more than 6 inches in diameter) was not solely responsible for cutting in half, exploding and completely destroying the 2005 Porsche Carrera GT.

A few inches of wood are obviously no match for thousands of pounds of forged steel allegedly traveling at an extremely high-rate of speed.. In other words, what is being alleged as the cause of death by authorities is scientifically impossible.

It goes on to indirectly suggest the US Government hit the car with a missile fired from a drone.

Is it true?

libby420
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    [Welcome to Skeptics!](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1505/welcome-to-new-users). This is a pretty half-hearted conspiracy theory, and it exhibits a number of basic fallacies. Just as a thought exercise, tell us what evidence could be produced in an answer that would convince you that it was total nonsense? If you can't give an example of what that might look like, we may well be wasting our time responding. – Oddthinking Dec 10 '13 at 00:14
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    Physics disagrees with almost all your statements in your second paragraph. – If you do not know- just GIS Mar 09 '19 at 01:51
  • Calling what truther.org does 'reporting' is an insult to every journalist, reporter and news agent in the history of journalism. – Shadur Mar 09 '19 at 12:35
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    From the report, "Walker was assassinated in order to highlight Operation Fast and Furious just prior to an unprecedented gun-related massacre in the United States stemming from one or more of the 2,000 assault rifles sold by the ATF to Mexican drug cartels. Since Walker’s death, the words “Fast and Furious” have been in the news non-stop and have been subconsciously programming the public in a psychological manner for an impending state-sponsored terror attack that will likely be connected to Operation Fast and Furious." my head hurts. – If you do not know- just GIS Mar 09 '19 at 13:57
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    Where is this "forged steel" coming from? The Carerra has stamped sheet metal body panels and an aluminum engine. Any forged parts are going to be smaller than the tree. – barbecue Mar 09 '19 at 19:23
  • Trivia sidenote: The harder types of wood measure about equal to the softer types of steel on the hardness scale. There's a tree at a country road near where I live where I considered putting up a sign: "Customers served, VIII..." You'd be surprised what "just a tree" can do to a car. – DevSolar Mar 11 '19 at 08:15

1 Answers1

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The quote makes several fallacies.

False premise

the car split in two

No, only the empty, front cargo compartment of the car was split in two. This is a false premise.

Argument from incredulity

and it’s evident that the tree was not solely responsible for cutting in half

Evident to who? Not to me. It looks pretty evident that the tree was solely responsible for cutting in half. This is an argument from incredulity.

Look at what trees do to cars.

(Tree stopped by engine.)

(Tree split this single car in half, fully.)

False analogy

a few inches of wood are obviously no match for thousands of pounds of forged steel allegedly traveling at an extremely high-rate of speed

Even if true, so what? This was 6 inches of wood, and a a few hundred pounds of a crumple-ready cargo compartment. This is a false analogy.