Newtown Truthers Were Creating Their Conspiracy Theories before the Bodies Cooled
Newtown Conspiracy Theories: Obama, Iran, and Other Culprits
One of the horrors of the modern internet is that even as the country and the people directly affected are still shocked and grieving over a tragedy other insanely evil populist demagogues are weaving paranoid conspiracies that feed directly to the psyche of the sorts of people who perpetrate monstrous crimes like the Newtown Massacre.
A king toad in the “New World Order” fever swamps, Jones has become wealthy and influential on the loopy fringe, while occasionally poking his head into the mainstream media conversation: in 2011, New York magazine reported that Jones’s radio show boasts “upwards of 3 million listeners” a day; his website is frequently linked to on the Drudge Report, ensuring that he’s read by millions; he recently was a guest on The Joy Behar Show; his radio show features well-known guests like actor Charlie Sheen, Congressman Ron Paul, Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano, and rapper KRS-One. In 2009, the vacuous celebrity duo Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt revealed themselves to be Jones apostles, appearing on his program to “discuss their awakening to the New World Order.” For reasons that elude me, Jones is one of those trolls the media doesn’t mind feeding.
After the Newtown shootings, Jones, typically unencumbered by facts, contended that “Prozac and its family of psychotropic drugs are at the heart of 99% off mass murder shootings.” Another infowars.com writer warned that the Obama administration was stocking up on ammunition—because it was actively attempting to foment a civil war: “Why does the Department of Homeland Security—named after Hitler’s “Office of Fatherland Security” [sic]—need 1.6 billion rounds of ammo,” infowars.com wondered.
I’m convinced that America is indeed overflowing with people who need their heads checked out.
In a fit of extreme profanity, Jones even claimed that certain parents of Sandy Hook victims were involved—wittingly or otherwise—in the conspiracy (without enumerating the goals or perpetrators of the conspiracy). Citing “independent researchers,” Jones pointed his readers to a press conference held by Robbie Parker, father of murdered 6-year-old victim Emilie Parker: “It appears that members of the media or government have given [Robbie Parker] a card and are telling him what to say as they steer reaction to this event, so this needs to be looked into.”