cabal theoriesare powerful military group in the U.S. They have damage public health amid a spherical pandemic , shaken religious belief in the democratic process andhelped sparka trigger-happy rape on the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 .
These cabal theories are part of a severe misinformation crisis that has been building for years in the U.S.
American politics has long had aparanoid streak , and belief in conspiracy theories isnothing new . But as the newsworthiness cycle reminds us daily , outlandish confederacy theories born on social spiritualist now on a regular basis achieve mainstream acceptance and are echoed by masses in power .
As ajournalism professorat the University of Connecticut , I havestudied the misinformationaround themass shootingthat study place at Sandy Hook Elementary School Dec. 14 , 2012 . I take it the first major conspiracy possibility of the mod social media old age , and I conceive we can delineate our current predicament to the tragedy ’s backwash .
Nine years ago , the Sandy Hook shot demonstrated how fringe ideas could quickly becomemainstreamon societal media and acquire financial support from various establishment anatomy — even when the conspiracy possibility aim sorrow families of vernal students and schooltime stave killed during the massacre .
Those who claimed the tragedy was a hoax demonstrate up in Newtown , Connecticut , and harassed masses link up to the shot . This leave an early illustration of how misinformation open on social medium could induce real - reality harm .
New Age of Social Media and Distrust
societal media ’s role in spreading misinformation has been well document in late years . The year of the Sandy Hook shooting , 2012 , marked the first twelvemonth that more than half of all American adultsused societal media .
It also marked amodern lowin public trust of the medium . Gallup’sannual surveyhas since showed even lower levels of confidence in the medium in 2016 and 2021 .
These two coinciding tendency — which continue to drive misinformation — pushed outer boundary doubts about Sandy Hook cursorily into the U.S.mainstream . surmisal that the shot was afalse flag — an blast made to search as if it were pull by someone else — began to circulate on Twitter and other societal medium sites almost immediately . Far - right commentator and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and otherfringe voicesamplified these imitation claims .
Jones was recently found liable by default in defamation cases file away by Sandy Hook families .
Mistakes in breaking news reportsabout the shooting , such as conflicting entropy on the gun used and the identity element of the shot , were splice together in YouTube videos and hoard on blogs as substantiation of a conspiracy , asmy researchshows . Amateur sleuth collaborated in Facebook groups that promoted the shooting as a hoax and tempt raw users down the cony hole .
Soon , a variety ofestablishment figures , include the 2010 Republican campaigner for Connecticut attorney general , Martha Dean , give credenceto doubts about the disaster .
Six month later , as gun control legislationstalled in Congress , auniversity pollfound one in four people think the truth about Sandy Hook was being hidden to advance a political docket . Many others said they were n’t sure . The outcome were so incredible that some media outletsquestionedthe poll parrot ’s truth .
Today , other conspiracy theory have followed a similar trajectory on social media . The medium is awash with tale about the popularity of the bizarreQAnon conspiracy movement , which falsely claims top Democrats are part of a Satan - worshipping pedophile ring . A member of Congress , U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene , has also publically deniedSandy Hookand other mass shootings .
But back in 2012 , the spread of outlandish conspiracy theory from social media into the mainstream was a comparatively Modern phenomenon , and an indication of what was to come .
New Breed of Conspiracies
Sandy Hook also marked a turning point in the nature of conspiracy theory and their targets . Before Sandy Hook , popular American confederacy theories generally villainized shadowy elites or force out within the governing . Many 9/11 " truthers , " for lesson , believed the political science was behind the terrorist attacks , but they generally get out victims ' kinfolk alone .
Sandy Hook confederacy theorists accusedfamily member of those killed , subsister of the shooting , religious leaders , neighborsand first responders of being part of a government secret plan .
Newtown parent were accused of faking their children ’s deaths , or their very universe . There were also allegations they were part of a baby sex cult .
This change in conspirative target from veiled government and elect figures to casual people nock a shift in the trajectory of American conspiracy theories .
Since Sandy Hook , subsister of many other high - profile mass shooting and flak , such as theBoston Marathon bombingand theCharlottesville motorcar blast , have had their trauma combine by defense about their tragedies .
And the reprobate idea of a politically connected paedophile anchor ring has become a cardinal tenet in two subsequent conspiracy theory : PizzagateandQAnon .
The kind of harassment anddeath threatstargeting Sandy Hook families has also become a vulgar fallout of conspiracy theories . In the Pizzagate confederacy theory , the owners and employee of a Washington , D.C. , pizza pie parloralleged to be part of a pedophile ring that included political leader continue to be target by disciple of that confederacy hypothesis . In 2016,one man beat back hundreds of miles to investigate and discharge his assault riflein the restaurant .
Some people who remain skeptical of the COVID-19 pandemic have harassed front - linehealth workers . Local election workers across the countryhave been threatenedand impeach of being part of a conspiracy to slip the 2020 presidential election .
The legacy of the batch shooting at Sandy Hook is a bequest of misinformation — the start of a crisis that will likely plague the U.S. for years to derive .
Amanda J. Crawford is an assistant professor of news media at the University of Connecticut . She conduct inquiry for this clause as a 2020 - 21 beau with the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute . She is a national card member of the Journalism & Women Symposium .
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