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# How Conspiracy Theories Are More Personal, More Cruel, And More Mainstream After Sandy Hook Shootings
January 31 2022
Written by AMANDA J. CRAWFORD.
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COMMENTARY - Conspiracy theories are powerful forces in the U.S. They have damaged public health amid a global pandemic, shaken faith in the democratic process and [helped spark](https://abcnews.go.com/US/qanon-emerges-recurring-theme-criminal-cases-tied-us/story?id=75347445) a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.
These conspiracy theories are part of a dangerous misinformation crisis that has been building for years in the U.S.
American politics has long had a [paranoid streak](https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/), and belief in conspiracy theories is [nothing new](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/qanon-expert-joesph-uscinski-1242636/). But as the news cycle reminds us daily, outlandish conspiracy theories born on social media now regularly achieve mainstream acceptance and are echoed by people in power.
As a [journalism professor](https://journalism.uconn.edu/amanda-j-crawford/) at the University of Connecticut, I have [studied the misinformation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHxDoAykbQ8) around the mass shooting that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. I consider it the first major conspiracy theory of the modern social media age, and I believe we can trace our current predicament to the tragedy’s aftermath.
Nine years ago, the Sandy Hook shooting demonstrated how fringe ideas could quickly become [mainstream](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/bensmith/sandy-hook-conspiracy-theories-edge-toward-the-mai) on social media and win support from various establishment figures — even when the conspiracy theory targeted grieving families of young students and school staff killed during the massacre.
Those who claimed the tragedy was a hoax showed up in Newtown, Connecticut, and harassed people connected to the shooting. This provided an early example of how misinformation spread on social media could cause real-world harm.
**New age of social media and distrust**
Social media’s [role in spreading misinformation](https://theconversation.com/misinformation-on-social-media-can-technology-save-us-69264) has been well documented in recent years. The year of the Sandy Hook shooting, 2012, marked the first year that more than half of all American adults [used social media](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/10/08/social-networking-usage-2005-2015/).
It also marked a [modern low](https://news.gallup.com/poll/157589/distrust-media-hits-new-high.aspx) in public trust of the media. Gallup’s [annual survey](https://news.gallup.com/poll/355526/americans-trust-media-dips-second-lowest-record.aspx) has since showed even lower levels of trust in the media in 2016 and 2021.
These two coinciding trends — which continue to drive misinformation — pushed fringe doubts about Sandy Hook quickly into the U.S. [mainstream](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/bensmith/sandy-hook-conspiracy-theories-edge-toward-the-mai). Speculation that the shooting was a [false flag](https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/false-flags.php) — an attack made to look as if it were committed by someone else — began to circulate on Twitter and other social media sites almost immediately. Far-right commentator and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and other [fringe voices](https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-professor-of-denial) amplified these false claims.
Jones was recently found [liable by default](https://theconversation.com/alex-jones-loses-sandy-hook-case-but-important-defamation-issues-remain-unresolved-171914) in defamation cases filed by Sandy Hook families.
[Mistakes in breaking news reports](https://www.npr.org/2012/12/18/167466320/coverage-rapid-and-often-wrong-in-tragedys-early-hours) about the shooting, such as conflicting information on the gun used and the identity of the shooter, were spliced together in YouTube videos and compiled on blogs as proof of a conspiracy, as [my research](https://youtu.be/PHxDoAykbQ8) shows. Amateur sleuths collaborated in Facebook groups that promoted the shooting as a hoax and lured new users down the rabbit hole.
Soon, a variety of [establishment figures](https://www.salon.com/2013/01/14/is_it_okay_for_reporters_to_question_the_official_narrative_of_sandy_hook/), including the 2010 Republican nominee for Connecticut attorney general, [Martha Dean](https://ballotpedia.org/Martha_Dean), [gave credence](https://www.nhregister.com/editorials/article/Editorial-Martha-Dean-who-gave-voice-to-Sandy-11371486.php) to doubts about the tragedy.
Six months later, as gun control legislation [stalled in Congress](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/us/politics/senate-obama-gun-control.html), a [university poll](https://portal.fdu.edu/newspubs/publicmind/2013/guncontrol/final.pdf) found 1 in 4 people thought the truth about Sandy Hook was being hidden to advance a political agenda. Many others said they weren’t sure. The results were so unbelievable that some media outlets [questioned](https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/rebellion-poll/315697/) the poll’s accuracy.
Today, other conspiracy theories have followed a similar trajectory on social media. The media is awash with stories about the popularity of the bizarre [QAnon conspiracy movement](https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-qanon.html), 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 publicly denied [Sandy Hook](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/22/marjorie-taylor-greene-parkland-sandyhook/) and other mass shootings.
But back in 2012, the spread of outlandish conspiracy theories from social media into the mainstream was a relatively new 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 theories and their targets. Before Sandy Hook, popular American conspiracy theories generally villainized shadowy elites or forces within the government. Many 9/11 “truthers,” for example, [believed the government](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14665953) was behind the terrorist attacks, but they generally left victims’ families alone.
Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists accused [family members of those killed](https://www.npr.org/2019/12/14/788117375/his-son-was-killed-at-sandy-hook-then-came-the-online-harassment), survivors of the shooting, religious leaders, [neighbors](https://www.salon.com/2013/01/15/this_man_helped_save_six_children_is_now_getting_harassed_for_it/), and first responders of being part of a government plot.
Newtown parents were accused of faking their children’s deaths, or their very existence. There were also allegations they were part of a child sex cult.
This change in conspiratorial targets from veiled government and elite figures to everyday people marked a shift in the trajectory of American conspiracy theories.
Since Sandy Hook, survivors of many other high-profile [mass shootings](https://theconversation.com/why-do-mass-shootings-spawn-conspiracy-theories-155017) and attacks, such as the [Boston Marathon bombing ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/us-news-blog/2013/apr/24/boston-marathon-conspiracy-theories) and the [Charlottesville car attack](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/witness-sues-infowars-for-claiming-he-caused-charlottesville-protesters-death/2018/03/13/4af0b4ee-26ca-11e8-b79d-f3d931db7f68_story.html), have had their trauma compounded by denial about their tragedies.
And the perverse idea of a politically connected pedophile ring has become a key tenet in two subsequent conspiracy theories: [Pizzagate](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/5/13842258/pizzagate-comet-ping-pong-fake-news) and [QAnon](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/).
The kind of harassment and [death threats](https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/crime/fl-reg-sandy-hook-death-threat-guilty-20170606-story.html) targeting Sandy Hook families has also become a common fallout of conspiracy theories. In the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, the owners and employees of a Washington, D.C. [pizza parlor](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/5/13842258/pizzagate-comet-ping-pong-fake-news) alleged to be part of a pedophile ring that included politicians continue to be targeted by adherents of that conspiracy theory. In 2016, [one man drove hundreds of miles to investigate and fired his assault rifle](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2016/12/04/d-c-police-respond-to-report-of-a-man-with-a-gun-at-comet-ping-pong-restaurant/) in the restaurant.
Some people who remain skeptical of the Covid-19 pandemic have harassed front-line [healthcare workers](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/idaho/articles/2021-09-28/misinformation-leads-to-animosity-toward-health-care-workers). Local election workers across the country [have been threatened](https://www.npr.org/2021/02/05/963828783/you-better-run-after-trumps-false-attacks-election-workers-faced-threats) and accused of being part of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election.
The legacy of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook is a legacy of misinformation — the start of a crisis that will likely plague the U.S. for years to come.
*([Amanda J. Crawford](https://journalism.uconn.edu/amanda-j-crawford/) is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut. This article is republished from [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/how-conspiracy-theories-in-the-us-became-more-personal-more-cruel-and-more-mainstream-after-the-sandy-hook-shootings-172015) under a Creative Commons license.)*
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