Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Weekend Contributor
I’m sure the readers of this blog remember the Newtown massacre that occurred in Connecticut on December 14, 2012, when twenty students and six adults were shot and killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Not long after that tragedy, conspiracy theorists began to spread stories about the massacre being a hoax. In January of 2013, Gene Rosen, a man who had sheltered six children during the massacre, began receiving calls from people he didn’t know accusing him of lying about what had happened that day…and of his being a “crisis actor.”
At that time, Rosen didn’t know what to do. He said, “I’m getting hang-up calls, I’m getting some calls, I’m getting emails with, not direct threats, but accusations that I’m lying, that I’m a crisis actor, ‘how much am I being paid?’” Someone even posted a picture of his house online. It was reported that Google+ and YouTube accounts were created in his name. Messages about him appeared on white supremacist messages ridiculing him as the “emotional Jewish guy.” In addition, in dozens of blog posts and videos, people claimed that Rosen was a fraud. He even received an email that purported to be a business inquiry, which taunted him asking, “How are all those little students doing? You know, the ones that showed up at your house after the ‘shooting’. What is the going rate for getting involved in a gov’t sponsored hoax anyway?”
Rosen admitted that he had done a lot of media interviews following the tragedy at Sandy Hook School. He said, “I wanted to speak about the bravery of the children, and it kind of helped me work through this. I guess I kind of opened myself up to this.”
Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon reported that there were “many flavors of conspiracy theories surrounding” the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He added that one thread that united many of the theories was “the notion that this was a government hoax aimed at taking away people’s guns.” Similarly, Tom Boggioni of Raw Story said, “Sandy Hook ‘truthers’ believe that the Newtown shooting never occurred or was part of a ‘false flag’ operation designed to open the door to the confiscation of all guns by the government.” Ben Smith and CJ Lotz wrote that the “leading version of the ‘Sandy Hook Hoax’ theory, such as it is, holds that the incident was staged by the White House as a prelude to disarming America. Many of its claims are rooted in contradictory and confusing media statements that came out of the chaos of the first hours of the shooting, and which are virtually always present in such chaotic moments.” They added that similar “confused media reporting served as the basis of the 9/11 Truth movement.”
Robert Goldberg, a historian at the University of Utah who has written a book and lectured extensively about American conspiracy theories, said, “Whether it’s the Oklahoma City bombing, or the Waco incident, or Ruby Ridge, or 9/11, or Sandy Hook, the idea is that these are modern Reichstags (the event that occurred in Germany in 1933), which is an excuse that the government is going to use to declare an emergency to take the guns away from the patriots, and then confine the patriots.”
One might have hoped that the Sandy Hook truthers would have moved on by now…and maybe found a new conspiracy theory to wrap their warped minds around. Unfortunately, it appears that hasn’t happened because one of the truthers recently stole a sign from a playground in Mystic, Connecticut. The sign had been displayed at a playground dedicated to the memory of Grace McDonnell, one of the Sandy Hook shooting victims. The vinyl sign, which weighed 50 pounds and featured a peace symbol, was based on a drawing done by seven-year-old Grace. The man who claimed that he stole the sign called Grace’s home. He told Lynn McDonnell, the dead child’s mother, that he had taken the sign because he believes that the shooting at Sandy Hook was a hoax. McDonnell said that the caller taunted her by claiming that her daughter Grace never existed. How heartless and cold can a person be?
Peace Sign Stolen From Conn. Playground Honoring Sandy Hook Victim Grace McDonnell
Tom Boggioni said that the Grace McDonnell playground is “one of 26 planned playgrounds being built by the Where Angels Play Foundation in honor of all 26 victims.” He added that the theft of the peace sign came ‘two weeks after another playground sign, located in Hartford, was vandalized with someone spray-painting ‘Peace to Sandy Hook,’ a peace sign, and the numeral ’2′ on it.”
I can’t begin to imagine what kind of delusional, sick individuals would steal or vandalize signs displayed on playgrounds dedicated to the memories of innocent young children who died in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012.
Note: There are plans to replace the signs at both playgrounds.
SOURCES
Newtown truthers: Where conspiracy theories come from (Salon)
This man helped save six children, is now getting harassed for it (Salon)
Beware of Conspiracy Theories About Sandy Hook (Lewis Rockwell)
Sandy Hook Truther Tells Mother of Deceased Child One of the Most Awful Things You Can Imagine (The Blaze)
Sandy Hook ‘Truther’ Tells Victim’s Mother Her Daughter Never Existed (Huffington Post)
Peace Sign Stolen From Conn. Playground Honoring Sandy Hook Victim Grace McDonnell (CBS)
Sandy Hook truthers more hated than Westboro idiots? (Daily Kos)
Sandy Hook truther steals memorial sign, tells victim’s mother her child never existed (Raw Story)
Sandy Hook truthers claim the Newtown massacre was a hoax (America Blog)
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
I note how YouTube calls the reading of a now declassified document by the joint chiefs of staff from 1962 as ‘Wacky Conspiracy Theories’, making You Tube guilty of collusion by false labeling. When you consider the content of that video, its pretty scary. What don’t we know about today’s events, fifty years before declassification?
traveling limey – one of the British newspapers, the Daily Mail, always titles some articles as ‘hilarious.’ One, some of them are not even funny, much less hilarious. Two, none of the rise to hilarious. Three, hilarious is the only word in their vocabulary to describe these articles.
My point is that the people that caption are rarely the people who do the actual work.
Dredd,
I retrieved three of your comments from the spam filter.
So Paul,
Are you a truther now? 😉
Paul Schulte
Dredd – you are right I am going to back off what I said about them all being liberals. There are some liberals in the mix, Van Jones for one, but there are also a number of wacko wingnuts on both sides.
==================
Fair enough.
No more comments on that from me.
Paul Shulte,
RE: your history teaching up-thread “the ‘truthers’ on 9/11 are exclusively liberal and progressive”
Wrong again: “Paul Craig Roberts … is an American economist and a columnist for Creators Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration and was noted as a co-founder of Reaganomics. He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service. He has testified before congressional committees on 30 occasions on issues of economic policy.
…
I will begin by stating what we know to be a solid incontrovertible scientific fact. We know that it is strictly impossible for any building, much less steel columned buildings, to “pancake” at free fall speed. Therefore, it is a non-controversial fact that the official explanation of the collapse of the WTC buildings is false …”
(Wikipedia, “Paul Craig Roberts”).
Honesty matters to most people, so try to get a grip on honesty will you?
Your oil-slick hands have loosened your grip on reality sir.
Paul Schulte
Sandy Hook truther leader Alex Jones is a republican, a conservative, perhaps a t-bagger:
“In early 2000, Jones was one of seven Republican candidates for state representative in Texas House District 48, an open seat swing district based in Austin, Texas. Jones stated that he was running “to be a watchdog on the inside”,but withdrew from the race after a couple of weeks.” (Wikipedia, Alex Jones radio host).
Elaine,
Word press is eating comments.
Paul Schulte
… the ‘truthers’ on 9/11 are exclusively liberal and progressive. …
================
The opposite is true.
For example: “History: Michael Craig Ruppert was born in Washington, D.C. His father was an Air Force officer and later an aerospace executive who worked on projects which included the Titan III. His father’s cousin, Barbara Burges and her husband Sam, are both retired from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Mr. Ruppert’s mother was a cryptographer for Army Intelligence at Fort Myer, VA, during the Second World War. Ruppert was raised a Republican. He has jokingly said that from 1969 to 1973, he was one of two “living” Republicans on the UCLA campus.(World People Blog, Ruppert).
Dredd – I am agnostic on everything.
Paul Schulte
neighbordave – the ‘truthers’ on 9/11 are exclusively liberal and progressive. They are some of the leading lights of the movement.
================
The opposite is true.
Your “history” fails you again.
For example:
(World People Blog, Ruppert).
Paul Schulte
neighbordave – the ‘truthers’ on 9/11 are exclusively liberal and progressive. They are some of the leading lights of the movement.
================
The opposite is true.
Your “history” fails you again.
For example:
(World People Blog, Ruppert).
Paul Schulte
neighbordave – the ‘truthers’ on 9/11 are exclusively liberal and progressive. They are some of the leading lights of the movement.
================
The opposite is true.
Your “history” fails you again.
For example:
(9/11 truther Richard Gage). Same with M. Ruppert who recently committed suicide.
Chuck – Your video was entertaining up to the point where Mr. Bill shows he is no better than the first person he proclaims to be glad he is not like. His DMV person assumes all are guilty just as Mr. Bill assumes all rich people (Billionaires) aren’t honest. I refuse to accept this administration’s desire for me to feel like a victim of the rich (Frankly, I feel more a victim of the poor as they suck us dry). It’s too bad Mr. Bill doesn’t see his own hypocrisy. I guess I’d have to say, “Thank God I’m not Mr. Bill”.
Dredd – you are right I am going to back off what I said about them all being liberals. There are some liberals in the mix, Van Jones for one, but there are also a number of wacko wingnuts on both sides.
I’m sorry, “warped minds?” Are you implying that anyone who doesn’t swallow the government line is demented? Because the government has never deceived us, right? When you see how many of yesterday’s conspiracy theories turned into documented fact, you’d expect there to be more open minds in the world. But nope. Willful ignorance reigns and the marginalizing of expansive thinkers continues. Someday soon you may find yourself weeping as your last right is stripped away and through your snot bubbles, you’ll mutter “Why didn’t we see this coming? Why didn’t somebody warn us?” The blind acceptance in this thread troubles me far more than anything ever uttered by a conspiracy theorist.
RTC –
That’s exactly what the goal of “terror” exercises like SH etc. are for: to help scare the public into acceptance of giving up your Constitutional rights.
Maybe one day, you’ll realize you’re being snookered into believing lies and propaganda that will cause you to finally wake UP. Maybe. I doubt it because you seem too far gone – but I hope I’m wrong.
You seem to have a bad aversion to ideas like respect for views different than yours, and you definitely need to learn how to THINK and reason logically, so you don’t have to resort to insults when you disagree with someone who has taken the time to become more informed than the average Tea Partier here.
RTC –
So this is the vaunted Democratic War on Women? I knew it would really kick in when Hillary decided (kinda) to run for office.
Schulte: If you say Michelle Malkin’s a woman, I’ll have to take your word for it, but not before doing a little research first.
The problem with having discussions about gun control in between mass shootings is that the NRA never calms down.
There is a global epidemic of violence fostered, aided, and abetted by the arms industry. We the people must get a grip on it.
Billy Mac: Alert readers know there is no evidence to support any sort of government conspiracy surrounding the Sandy Hook massacre, therefore there is nothing to refute. Having scanned your so-called”evidence”, I find it’s based upon little more than porta-potties and punctuation. In other words, insignificant and meaningless details and fabrications.
It’s disappointing, to say the least, that there are people right here in America that would allow their hatred of our government to inflict emotional torture on parents who are suffering unimaginable pain.
I’d like to say that it is unAmerican thing to do, but there has probably always been a very low attitude among a segment f the population that takes a grim delight in the suffering of others.
Questioning the moon landing, or pushing conspiracies involving the Kennedy assassinations or 9-11 is a far cry from the cruelty we’re seeing in response to the Sandy Hook massacre. Having been agnostic on the issue of gun control, in my mind, it pushes me toward a belief that the 2d Am needs to repealed.
Paul was a history teacher?? Actually, it makes sense. History classes by whatever name were my least favorite classes (and I loved learning and most classes). It wasn’t a dislike of history since nearly all my reading now is non-fiction, mostly history. I didn’t like them b/c I knew they weren’t presenting the whole story and I didn’t want to clutter my brain with half-truths and falsehoods. I got good grades by regurgitating. I lived with it b/c I knew I was regurgitating for a good grade.
bettykath – history classes were my favorite because there was so much to learn. It all wasn’t structured in some book, they wasn’t always a ‘right’ answer. But I will agree, history is hard to make exciting to students. It is just one damn thing after another. 😉
We have had this discussion about dueling sources. And there is none that I think we can all agree on, all the time. Is Michelle Malkin too much woman for you?
Bill McW I don’t have much I can say to you that could be printed in a family newspaper or on this blog. In fact, this is what I think when I read stories like this one, or CT claims by Holocaust deniers. I’ll just let Mr. Bill of McCook, Nebraska make some observations that reflect my own thoughts.
“Thank God I’m Not You.”