The recent Parkland school shooting was the deadliest school shooting since 26 people were killed at Connecticut school Sandy Hook in 2012. And just like with Sandy Hook, the professional conspiracy theorists begin their insanity and grift, declaring the victim’s families are “crisis actors”. This is exploitation of dead, injured and traumatized children and is poisoning the public debate on guns as well as a number of other political issues. If nothing is ever real how do we ever deal with reality?
In the fever swamps and extremist fringes of the internet, the outspoken student survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are depicted as mouthpieces of the FBI, pawns of left-wing activist billionaire George Soros, stooges of the Democratic Party — or all of the above.
The students, who have called for stronger gun control measures, are now the subject of conspiracy theories that have spread far and wide, even reaching cable news and spurring the firing of a Florida lawmaker’s aide.
The speed with which these groundless claims spread points to a troubling digital ecosystem in the era of fake news. In this shadow media network, unfounded information shows up on dubious sites, churns through the news aggregation site Reddit, and works its way into Facebook feeds — and to the mainstream media.
How the internet’s conspiracy theorists turned Parkland students into ‘crisis actors’, NBC News, Daniel Arken & Bob Popken
David Carroll, associate professor of media design at New York’s New School stated in the same piece,
…a supposed secret cabal that orchestrates the liberal conspiracy against the American right-wing would have to involve paid actors, who allegedly appear at staged school massacres, as an elaborate hoax performance to justify gun confiscation.
David Carroll, Professor at the New School
As the National Rifle Association is under fire, they have gone on the offensive after the Parkland shooting, assailing media, calling for more armed school security.
I was personally told of this “solution” by a friend with a large number of cops in her family; very republican. The LAST thing I want is for my children to go to a school with armed teachers!
This is America, and we have the Second Amendment. This fear of guns being taken away, this insane delusion that people have that somehow there will be law enforcement at their door taking away their guns, it’s quite obvious that there is propaganda involved by gun lobbyists and right-wing media outlets.
I always go back to Sandy Hook with this. Without getting into detail, I have a personal affiliation with one of the parents. I can tell you firsthand the pain the professional conspiracy theorists have caused. I can tell you that conspiracy idiots like Alex Jones, who had Wolfgang Halbig on his show several times, Halbig who at one time was an administrator in a Florida school district, had his own grift. He raised thousands of dollars in his quest to “prove” Sandy Hook didn’t happen at all. He convinced the gullible that he would get FOIA documents to (finally!) show Sandy Hook Elementary School wasn’t even open at the time of the event in December, 2012.
But don't take my word for it here is a great video captured by Media Matters that encapsulates the InfoWars insanity regarding Sandy Hook:
An obvious lie, the school was open and Halbig and the conspiracy profiteers made a lot of cash pushing this ridiculous narrative. The LA times did a great write-up of this scam last year,
Halbig, Jones and the countless conspiracy kooks all spewed the nonsense, claiming Sandy Hook children had been taught to play victims that day, and frequently cruised into town with cameras to "expose" the "child actors." None of this is benign. Aside from not factual, this incites threats and violence from the audience of conspiracy “news” personalities,
“An unemployed waitress was arrested in December in Florida on charges of making death threats against Pozner, with repeated phone calls to his home in which she muttered ethnic and racial slurs and profanities. Another man is in Rikers Island prison in New York fighting transfer to Connecticut for a deluge of harassing phone calls to the home and office of the medical examiner who signed the coroner reports for Sandy Hook victims.
At a memorial run in 2015 in honor of slain teacher Vicki Soto, a 33-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., man was arrested after police said he shoved a photo in the face of the victim's younger sister, Jillian Soto, and demanded to know whether her sister really died.”
In an age of 'alternative facts,' a massacre of schoolchildren is called a hoax, LA Times, Barbara Demick
Now, it’s happening to the families of Parkland, Florida. There will be countless YouTube videos, endless tweets and a well-spring of Facebook groups devoted to telling the world that they are acting as “truth-tellers” by saying this event wasn’t real and that the media is lying to you. The kids are paid to play the part of victims.
I’ll just close with this: it’s been FIVE YEARS since Sandy Hook, the parents still have videos made about their “fake kids”. In addition of losing their child, the families will face years of harassment of claims their loved ones didn’t exist.
My heart breaks not just because we MUST have gun control; reform immediately, it breaks because I can say without reservation, the victim’s family and friends of Parkland will go through years not only of grief but campaigns of hate, death threats and intimidation.
This has to stop.
