

The same conspiracy theories pop up every single time there’s a mass shooting in the United States, with minimal variation. There are a couple of ways to look at this. On the one hand, maybe the conspiracy theories are right, and the Powers That Be, the ones who are really behind the mass shootings, like to use the same playbook over and over again. On the other hand, maybe it’s a combination of factors: common behaviours in unusual situations, fishing for connections, and recycled logic from previous incidents. At any rate, let’s run through the commonalities, and you can see for yourself what I mean.

  1. Multiple shooters

Ever since the Columbine shootings, where there were reports of more than two shooters, nearly every mass shooting has given rise to rumours that there were more shooters than officially acknowledged. I can’t actually find a single shooting that this hadn’t been true of, from the Virginia Tech massacre to the Aurora Batman incident to the Sandy Hook tragedy. Some theories of this type are more popular than others, but the multiple shooter motif is pretty consistent.

Usually, the conspiratorial explanation for this is that the conspirators want to have just one person take the fall for the shooting. However, they have a whole team of agents actually go around shooting people. The reason why they’d want to do this is not always particularly clear. Surely, if you want to blame a single shooter, it’s easier to just have a single shooter than to use multiple shooters and then engage in a no doubt massive cover-up of the others. To keep multiple shooters quiet you’d have to wipe out forensic evidence, intimidate eyewitnesses, scrub media coverage, make sure the other shooters stay quiet, and so on. Essentially, you need a much bigger conspiracy. Does the benefit (say, to the number of casualties inflicted) of having extra shooters justify all that hassle? Who knows.

The non-conspiracy explanation is that things get pretty chaotic in mass shootings, scoop-hungry media sources pick up and run with unconfirmed reports, and people are generally lousy eyewitnesses. Random people in the area might be misidentified as additional shooters (as happened at Sandy Hook). People who are known associates of the actual shooter or shooters might be lumped in with them, under the assumption that an entire clique is simultaneously shooting the place up (as happened at Columbine). Police, security guards, or intervening bystanders might be misidentified as additional shooters, or there might be incidents of friendly fire when the shooter and others get into a gun battle. From the psychological end, we know that people tend to massively overestimate the effectiveness and accuracy of eyewitness accounts. People will misperceive and misremember events, particularly if they’re being shot at or simply having a gun waved in their faces. It takes considerable work to piece together what happened in a given situation based on eyewitness accounts, and some accounts will inevitably end up being wrong.

  1. Crisis actors


This didn’t properly get going until the last five years – it really kicked off around the time of the Boston Marathon bombing and the Sandy Hook massacre. These days, a mass shooting in the news is basically a guarantee that in the next 24 hours at least 100 different people on the internet are going to use the red paintbrush tool in MS Paint to put meaningful circles around pictures of people’s eyebrows.

Usually, this is all in aid of the idea that some people involved with a mass shooting are “crisis actors” – fake victims generally used in disaster preparedness drills, but co-opted by the conspirators in order to act out roles in fake mass shootings. The supposed presence of crisis actors is generally used to argue that the incident in question was an outright hoax and that no one was killed, or, in a weaker version, that the shooting happened but that certain people were “planted” in advance in order to shape the narrative somehow.

Sometimes this is based on resemblances between people in different crises, as seen below. Some seem to have fallen victim to the so-called “other race effect” in face recognition: when someone is looking at a face of someone of another race, they’ll often confuse them for other members of that race. This is sometimes called the “they all look the same to me” effect.

“Bad acting”

Another facet of the “crisis actor” theories, the “bad acting” gambit point to victims, victims’ families, or witnesses displaying inappropriate emotions in interviews following the tragedy. They might appear strangely calm or flat, or even laugh despite what they’ve supposedly been through. If these people had really been victimized, surely they’d be sobbing uncontrollably. They’re not, so this proves they’re faking it – they’re crisis actors rather than real victims.

Grief is a pretty complicated thing. Research into the psychology of grief and mourning shows that people don’t always display the emotions that we expect them to in the aftermath of a tragic event. Crying is common, but strangely, so are paradoxical emotions like laughter. Research shows that there’s a tremendous variety of ways in which people respond to loss. Some laugh, some cry, some enter a dissociative state and display reactions that are out of step with reality. Beyond that, the media frenzy around mass shootings is hardly an ideal coping environment. Who knows people’s reactions could be affected when someone is thrust into a bizarre situation of bright lights and TV cameras everywhere?

Not only that, but many of the videos that claim to show “obvious lying” use cues for lie detection that work no better than chance. Humans simply aren’t very good natural lie detectors – even trained observers barely do better than chance levels of accuracy in favourable conditions.

  1. The motives

Gun control

Almost immediately, people speculate about the real motive for the shooting (as opposed to whatever the official story might be). In the US, gun control is usually put forward as the primary motive for mass shooting conspiracy theories. The idea is that a mass shooting will shock the population into giving up its guns, which will allow the final takeover of the country by the New World Order. This ties the individual shooting theories into a larger narrative about sovereignty, control, and the Second Amendment.


About a week after any mass shooting, there’ll be a slew of blog posts and Youtube videos about “what they did while we were all distracted.” Now maybe gun control is a motive, but maybe the REAL motive is to occupy the news cycle and distract everyone from things like trade treaties, new laws, disease outbreaks, and so on.

Connection to some other conspiracy theory

Gun control isn’t always where things stop. Usually, a bit later, some other possible connections come out that suggest other motives or methods for the conspiracy. For example, David Hogg, an outspoken survivor of the Parkland shooting, has come under suspicion since his father is a retired FBI agent. Since conspiracy theories about Parkland have gained traction in the Trump-friendly media, and Trump’s not too hot on the FBI lately, this has led some people to speculate that the FBI alumni network is part of a Deep State conspiracy to discredit Trump.

adam-james-holmes-lanza-aurora-sandy-hook-eyewitnesses-reported-more-11566713Similarly, James Holmes, the Aurora, Colorado shooter, had a couple of things come up. He was a grad student in neuroscience, which brought up suspicions of a connection to some sort of mind-control project.* His father developed software that could be used to detect point-of-sale credit card fraud, so someone came up with the idea that he was about to be deposed for a LIBOR hearing the next week, and the mass shooting was a way of keeping him quiet (never mind that there were no such hearings, his expertise had nothing to do with interest rate manipulation, and it’s not really clear how framing his son for mass murder would keep him quiet). Likewise, Omar Mateen, the Orlando shooter, worked for the security company G4S at some point. G4S has had government contracts. Therefore, it’s not much of a leap to say that Mateen works for the government. (it kind of is)

  1. X is controlled opposition, Y is the real story

There are contradictory conspiracy theories about most major events, and mass shootings are no exception. About a week after any mass shooting, the stickied post in the conspiracy-theory community on Reddit will be a list of suspicious things about the shooting, most of which seem to point to completely separate conclusions. It’s not possible that there were multiple shooters, a single brainwashed mind-controlled shooter, and no shooters at all. Likewise, it’s not possible that it was both a targeted hit on a particular person and a complete hoax in which nobody actually died. Most people seem content to let these contradictions go unexamined and repeat, Trump-like, “something is going on,” but every so often advocates of the rival theories will clash. And in any argument between rival conspiracy theories, as time goes on, the probability that one side will accuse the other of being a tool of the conspiracy approaches 1. The false-flag, multiple-perpetrator crowd will accuse the staged-hoax, nobody-died crew of being planted by the conspirators to make everyone else look crazy. Meanwhile the staged-hoax, nobody died faction will claim that the false-flag, multiple-perpetrator theory is a “limited hangout” – a half-truth meant to distract people from the far more shocking reality that the whole thing is completely made up.

  1. Predictive programming

Mass shootings are usually accompanied by claims of predictive programming – in other words, claims that the shooting was “predicted” in some piece of media, often by the name of the city or perpetrator appearing in a big-budget movie from the past few years. Often this comes up quite a while after the fact, as it takes a while for people to find something that seems to match the shooting. The alleged motive here is that by inserting clues into fiction, the psychological impact of the event is somehow enhanced. I went into the psychological side of predictive programming in another post, but suffice it to say that there’s good reason to think it wouldn’t particularly work and these parallels are probably just coincidences.

Finally, a confession

I wrote most of this post a couple of years ago, around the time of the Orlando shooting, and never quite got around to finishing it. Almost nothing has changed. The crisis actor theories might have become more prominent in the last couple of years, and Trump is in the mix now, but otherwise this is just same shit, different shooting.

In other posts on this blog I’ve talked about the conspiracy mentality, or conspiracist ideation. I don’t think there’s a better example of a strong conspiracy mentality than the fact that there’s apparently a decent-sized crowd of people who think that mass shootings don’t happen – that all of them are fake, that if you peel back the curtain you’ll always find multiple shooters and crisis actors and MKULTRA. I don’t think there are any published psychological studies yet that look at why these events in particular attract so many of these theories. Of course, maybe that misses the bigger picture. Crisis actor theories aren’t restricted to mass shootings or terror attacks – there’s a small community on the David Icke forums that comes up with crisis actor theories about bus crashes in the UK (as far as I can tell from their posts, all bus crashes reported in the media are staged hoaxes by Big Seatbelt).

This entry was posted in Social psychology, World events and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

42 Responses to Every mass shooting produces the same conspiracy theories (more or less)

  1. If “they” control the government, why do “they” need to stage a mass shooting to repeal the 2nd Amendment to take away the Freedom(TM) of the people? Surely a well-run collective such as the NWO would be able to do that without the mess of a mass shooting.

    Great post. It’s very depressing that large parts of it were written post-Orlando and yet still apply today.

  2. Pingback: The mass shooting conspiracy theory script – Spinneyhead

  3. Michael says:

    And then again:
    I cite:
    When the fire alarm rang near the end of the school day on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, teacher Ernest Rospierski assumed it was a “code red” drill.

    Earlier that day at a staff meeting, teachers had been told there would soon be a “code red” or “lockdown” drill — in which teachers and students practice their response to an immediate threat — but they hadn’t been told the date.

    So who is not telling what really happened here? You? Them?


    • Mike Wood says:

      So, the school was planning to run a school shooting drill at some point. Then a school shooting happened. This doesn’t strike me as that suspicious? These drills are depressingly common. I’m also not sure what the point of a drill would be, besides… the usual things that drills are for.

      • Julian Henriquez says:

        You don’t shit old man lol there was a shooting drill on that same day! And many kids/teachers said that they saw swat men in gear shooting blanks at kids. Above all that there was a girl who said she and Nicholas Cruz were walking in the hall way during THE shooting! And that he carried no gun (according to the witness) and she was convinced there was “defenitly another shooter”

        Check it out for yourself! Also did you know David Hogg was caught on tape after the shooting, rehearsing his lines on what he will and won’t say before a CNN interview?? If the shooting was real than why did David Hogg rehurse his lines before a CNN interview?? Why not just tell it as it is without the media giving him tips? Why not just interview him and ask what happened?? There is much more information believe me but one more thing I would like to mention is that the kids were told it was a drill number 1 and 2, many were locked in class and simply just talked and played with their phones while the shooting was going on!! Haven’t you seen that video clip of David Hogg recording his classmates inside of a closet while the shooting was going on and interviewing this girl and asking her about gun control and how we need more diversity no joke literally while the shooting was going on before they “were told it was not a drill” but guess what? Even after the kids were told it was not a drill, David Hogg kept recording and talking about gun control!!

      • Mike Wood says:

        I seriously do not understand why it’s significant that some people thought it was a drill. How does this fit into a conspiracy story? And if they wanted to frame Cruz for the shooting, why would they have cops dressed in SWAT gear run around shooting blanks? That makes less than zero sense. Not to mention misrepresenting evidence – there was exactly one witness, out of hundreds, who claimed to see someone in SWAT-type gear shooting, and she may have just mixed up the original shooter with the later entry of actual SWAT teams.

        This is the classic shit that happens after every mass shooting- pointing out any inconsistency like it’s proof of someone’s favourite conspiracy theory while discounting any other evidence or the need to square individual ideas with some kind of larger, internally consistent narrative (or at least one that isn’t “everyone who contradicts what I say is lying”).

        As for Hogg? I’ve done interviews for documentaries where I flub what I want to say and ask for another take. I don’t see the issue with someone doing the same thing in a news interview.

      • Julian Henriquez says:

        First of all it wasn’t just one teacher out of hundreds of witnesses lol and second of all again the reason why it’s significant when I said that kids were told that day it would be a drill and like I said many kids were thought it wasn’t real that’s why they said “everybody was just calm in the class” see what I’m saying? The kids were just put in classrooms and nothing was going on. Now about Cruz listen! Cruz was walking down the hallway with a girl during the shooting ok?! Yes during the shooting Nicholas Cruz walking in the hall way with no weapon that’s why the girl said she wasn’t afraid beacuse “there was defenitly another shooter for sure” dies that seem normal?? And how was Nicholas Cruz able to escape the school so quick without being seen??


        Again the fact that students were told it was a drill than remained in class talking and playing with their phones as if nothing is going on is crucial to understanding this event beacuse that means that it wasn’t a real shooting! No real shooting would involve blanks and school chicks walking down hallways with the shooter himself. Do you understand??

      • Mike Wood says:

        This is really interesting because it plays into a lot of what I’m talking about – first, there’s the reshaping of evidence. On the one hand, the teachers were told that morning that there would be an active shooter drill at some point, and the kids were used to them. On the other, there’d been a fire drill that morning. This got mutated into “kids were told that day it would be a drill.” Likewise, one teacher (Stacy Lippel) said she saw someone in a SWAT uniform shooting, and actually got grazed by a bullet (clearly not blanks unless she almost got Brandon Lee’d). Meanwhile, some students said that when they heard gunshots they assumed it was someone firing blanks to make a drill more realistic. These two pieces of information mutated together into “hundreds of people saw a SWAT guy shooting blanks.”

        Then all of this is bound up in the sort of “connect the dots sheeple” style of argument that avoids explicitly proposing anything, because the supposed anomalies point to mutually incompatible conclusions.

    • Julian Henriquez says:

      You should have told Mike wood that there were kids saying “there were cops shooting blanks but some of them was real when you hear the gun shots” blanks huh? There’s much more than just that! Believe me! We can talk about the blood if you want but you could have done better

      • Joseph Blowseph says:


        Um, yeah.

        Check the stats: the Rotary club and other “good guys” are there, before, during, and after these events. Every single case shows that.. the evidence is clear: these so called drills hapen just BEFORE these events.

        This is all irrefutable. Its a fact, case after case. The Rotary clubs, which are full of current, and retired cops,, are integral in these “mysterious” events.

        No mystery, once we connect the dots. Thesr tax-dollar sucking pigs would kill their own mothers for chump change.I Personally know a few who have, metaphorically sppeaking.

        What has happened across the US is that the AntiDefamation League and AIPAC, have used publuc funds to blackmail cops, and now, even sworn officers are compromised.

        Now, every mass shooting is predicated by Israeli,s and others intermediating at the internet dwitch, and as agents provocateurs, inciting these events.

        Local cops just go along with it, and participate in harassment of these .men and boys, because most cops are Christian or Jewish stooges.

        But case after case, from the Tsaernev brothers, to Minnesotas Dahir Adan, Mathew Riehl, to Omar Mateen, to the San Bernardino shooter and more- we see the clear path of zionist provocation working with SWAT and FBI CVE “programming”. MKULTRA had nothing on these zionazis and their enablers, much as history saw during Hitler.

        Mateens mosque burned by zionists, San Berdoo shooter harasssed by zionist Nicholas Thallasinod, and every other case mediated by militaristic zionism for a paycheck-AIPAC doesnt just spend its wealth in Israel- they use it to target, and harass key speakers and opponents in the US.

        Mateens father- an FBI asset, is one of many proofs.

        But every mass shooter will indicate MORE PROOF, if any psychologist worth shit is interested….

  4. Jennifer Scott says:

    You’re a good technical writer. The piece was boring. And…. I’m living thru the devastation of a real conspiracy. My guess would be that there are others. The bigger a group of abusive assholes make their game the less plausible it becomes to those not living the dream. Gang violence understand this to be a key component in their victimization of others. Shooters…I. too focused on dealing and combating political cointelpro-like participants in my own saga to take the time to consider how many shooters are shooting in any given sick and sad shooting incident. There are plenty of real conspiracies in which to roll up ones sleeves and dive in. I know I could use a hand. Use that beautiful writing skillset for good please.

    On Feb 22, 2018 1:51 AM, “The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories” wrote:

    > Mike Wood posted: ” The same conspiracy theories pop up every single time > there’s a mass shooting in the United States, with minimal variation. There > are a couple of ways to look at this. On the one hand, maybe the conspiracy > theories are right, and the Powers That Be, the” >

  5. Pingback: Mass Shootings Attract Conspiracy Theories Because the Reality Is Too Bleak to Accept | Bonafide News Source

  6. y0d4a says:

    in this book, there is good informations how ARPA and other agency work on psychological warfare, there is tons of psychological work fact which they used to change governments, s`tarting from late `60 (playing with uncritical mind)

    he have all clues/data/fact, getting from FOIA and BBG (Broadcasting Board of Governors) to interview with ex. US officers.

    p.s: internet is created as weapon! from project AGILE! to defeat communist and all others…

    i know is hard to believe which tactics they “play” in that years… if that was then, what is now… i cannot imagine how far that goes today…

    • researchorganizedgangstalking says:

      Hey, y0d4a-

      Its nice that you stoppedin here at Dr. woods blog.

      Maybe you can explain how hackers work with agencies to stalk, harass, blackmail, coerce, and.leverage people online and off?

      I mean- writers who talk about gang stalking, mass shootings,and more seldom touch on how hackers, both paid, and unpaid, collaborate with these agencies, frequently for years, targeting individuals hard drives.

      And, exfiltrating data, or, worse:


  7. Joseph Blowseph says:

    Yeah….hard to deny the FACT thatt nearly ALL shooters share the folowing traits:

    1. Extensive contact with the FBI/DHS BEFORE the shooting
    2. Their social media presence is scrubbed/ deleted AFTER the event to hide evidence of contact with FBI/DHS provocateurs
    3. Contact at some point with gray area policing schemes that utilize hearsay evidence in domestic violence/ child support/ college campus ALJ hearings as oposed to rule of law trials

    These cases are nearly all examples .of how NGOs are allowed to harass and bully local, private individuals online and off, who challenge the globalist/ UN/ NWO.

    COPS LOOK THE OTHER WAY because their salaries are dependent upon it.

    • Joseph Blowseph says:

      Mike: read http://www.researchorganizedgangstalking.wordpress.com

      Regardless of what you want to imagine pissible-the sad fact is that Israelification has paid for SWAT teams to quash the Constitution in the US.

      The evidence is irrefutable:

      Rotary clubs are integral to crafting narrative

      SWAT performs Israelu styled black ops and psyops

      DV gray area policing drives narratives of boogieMEN while absolving psychopathic wome, such as we saw with Jennifer Hart, who derived income from foster care/ baby farming, and then drove six kids off a cliff in california


      Read up on it. Gangstalking is real, and SWAT in America is its bitch.

      • Joseph Blowseph says:

        Also: it is impossible to understate the FACT that in nearly EVERY CASE of a mass shooter, we se close contact with military, security, and police elements who are in close, regualar contact with the shooters.

        This is not cohencidental, as history has also documented socalled terrorists in Palestine since the Palestinian exodus of 1948. Sure, Rothschilds are imaginary…

        The IMF, and the WTO vie for space on the stage. Each buys and sells agendas. It cannot be missed that NGO activity in the US is unmonitored, and in most cases, sanctioned and encouraged.

        Soooo….. read http://www.researchorganizedgangstalking.com
        Its all there.

        I have met and spoken to SWAT members. I have been shot, shot at , harassed, internet”redirected” and much more.

        It is purely stunning what a “soft war” is in practice, and in media.

        But make NO mistake: SWAT is the hidden hand of these attrocities. They currently train in Gaza, sniping like cowards at the poor, and disenfranchised.

        I have met, and interviewed SWAT members from several nations- they DO NOT agree on all things, least of which is who is Ich, and who is Du..

        You see, these men and women are tasked with illegal action, by supervisors who demand illicit results.

        In a healthy persons mind, this would cause questions, and cause moral conflicts…..but in Twitterworld, causes only consensus, or binary non consensus……

        Edward Bernays/Hitler/Buber at work.

  8. Pingback: Is organized gang stalking a modern day witch hunt? – Research and data about organized stalking, gang stalking, multi stalking, community mobbing, and community policing.

  9. researchorganizedgangstalking says:

    Hey, Dr. Mike-

    Google THIS, below, and tell me if the Las Vegas shooting “theory” is a bit state sponsored

    Organized gang stalking and monitoring and BOLO
    March 23, 2017 ~

    Note that the posting is dated, and that later, after Padfocks alleged actions, the MSM runs narrative that twists and morphs~but that I DESCRIBED the 5 man team at the door, EXACTLY as it was .later revealed.

    Then, notice that I updated the post after the event. Its getting harder and harder to shill these DVIC sponsored gang stalking events, huh? And, I have photis, annd witnesdes that LV stalks activists and dissenters.

    Is that enough proof of gang stalking for you? The key element is that I also described a hacker being present as well.

    These are ling term and actual ploots, not by the CIA but by cowards who work under the DHS scema of using security as blackshirts and thugs. Or, in Las Vegas, pretty YELLOW shirts, as if the whole cities security bis trusted to “men” washed .in a Russian hooker golden shower.

    Hope that helps!

  10. Secret Police and disinformation says:

    Journalists are learning to ask the right questions now…and look! Washington State Fusion Center inadvertently releases mind control materials!

    Via Techdirt.com, and ThinkProgress:


    The cats out of the black bag job now, as reporters are learning to ask the RIGHT questions.

  11. Secret Police and disinformation says:

    Hey, how about THIS conspiracy theory: Cass Sunstein, who headed up Obamas information warfare, and who sat on the NSA oversight comittee recomends that conhttps://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1084585spiracy theorists be mobbed online and offline in what he terms “cognitive infiltration.”

    Of course, that process is REMARKABLY similar to organized gang stalking IN EVERY WAY.


    Meh….all the same, those crazy conspiracists online…

    • researchorganizedgangstalking says:

      Are Directed Energy Weapons real? Some mass shooters~and MS are extreme outliers, and an anomaly in the data- claimed they were being abused with such weapons.

      Now, even MSM is picking upthe story, Mike:

      CBS, and every other MSM news reported on thecase of the Cuban Embassy, and now, the story of highly respected deep stater Mark Lenzi being evacuated from Guangzhou,China.

      He and others sustained traumatic brain injury~concussions~ from such weapons:






      The CIA Director Mike Pompeo has discussed it too.

  12. Pingback: Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally – Headlines

  13. Pingback: Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally - DJG Blogger

  14. Pingback: Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally | Page 1 | The Independent

  15. Pingback: Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally – Etech Grow

  16. Pingback: Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally - Tips Finder Guy

  17. Pingback: Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally - The Apopka Voice

  18. Pingback: Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally – Complexity Digest

  19. Pingback: These are the three types of bias that explain all the fake news | Anti Corruption Digest

  20. Pingback: Biases Make People Vulnerable to Misinformation Spread by Social Media | EScience Times

  21. Pingback: Biases Make People Vulnerable to Misinformation Spread by Social Media - DiscoveryCampus

  22. Pingback: Biases Make People Vulnerable to Misinformation Spread by Social Media -

  23. Pingback: Biases Make People Vulnerable to Misinformation Spread by Social Media - Tips Finder Guy

  24. Pingback: Biases Make People Vulnerable to Misinformation Spread by Social Media – Etech Grow

  25. Pingback: Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally | Modern Scientific

  26. Pingback: Yanlış bilgi ve yanlılıklar sosyal medyayı kasıtlı ve kazara istila ediyor - teyit.org

  27. Pingback: Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally – Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia and Filippo Menczer | Inforrm's Blog

  28. There are patterns all around us, if you look for one, you will find it.

  29. Pingback: Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally | Media Psychology

  30. Pingback: Social circles creates "echo chambers" | ai4k

  31. Pingback: Misinformation and Biases Affect Social Media, Intentionally and Accidentally

Leave a Reply to y0d4a Cancel reply


WordPress.com Logo


Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s