The deplorables are at it again, calling shooting survivors crisis actors

[Clone]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/ampht...-he-was-fired/
A lawmaker’s aide called school-shooting survivors crisis actors. Within hours, he was fired.

A Florida legislator’s aide was fired Tuesday after claiming two survivors of the Parkland high school shooting were not students, but instead “actors that travel to various crisis when they happen.”

Benjamin Kelly, who worked as district secretary for state Rep. Shawn Harrison (R-Tampa), sent an email to a Tampa Bay Times reporter about Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg, two Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who had given an interview to CNN.

Gonzalez and Hogg survived the Valentine’s Day massacre at the school that left 17 people dead and dozens of others wounded. Appearing on CNN early Monday morning, the students called for disbanding the NRA and for stricter gun-control laws.

“The fact that you were in power for so long, that you had so much influence for so long in America just goes to show how much time and effort we still need to spend on fixing our country,” Gonzalez said of the NRA. “And gun control is just the first thing right now.”

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Kelly sent an email to the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief, Alex Leary, writing that the two teens “are not students here but actors that travel to various crisis when they happen.”

When the Times asked Kelly to support his claim, he sent a link to a YouTube conspiracy video about Hogg.

“There is a clip on you tube that shows Mr. Hogg out in California. (I guess he transferred?),” Kelly said in the email, according to the newspaper.

An article published in the Coral Springs Talk on Feb. 8, six days before the shooting, named Hogg as a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas and featured a documentary he made about efforts by astronomy students to launch a weather balloon and an attached craft into space. Gonzalez was featured in the video as the project’s tracking team leader.

After the exchange with Kelly, the Times contacted Harrison, who said: “If my aide disparaged a student from Parkland who is grieving then I will deal most strongly with my aide. … Clearly it was inappropriate for him to send that.”

Far Right Blogs, Conspiracy Theorists Attack Parkland Mass Shooting Survivor
https://www.snopes.com/2018/02/20/ri...ia-david-hogg/

On 20 February 2018, as a group of students from the Parkland, Florida mass shooting attack traveled to their state capitol to lobby for tighter gun safety measures, far right conspiracy blogs pushed increasingly hysterical claims that at least one of the survivors of the massacre was a “deep state” pawn.

For example, TheGatewayPundit.com posted a story calling it a “red flag” that David Hogg, a senior who survived the Valentine’s Day attack at the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, volunteered during a CNN interview that his father is a retired agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation as he criticized the Trump administration. President Donald Trump had accused the bureau of “spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign” and thus failing to follow up on warnings concerning the suspect, Nikolas Cruz.

Hogg, who has become a high-profile advocate for tighter gun safety legislation since the attack, said during the interview that: “I think it’s disgusting, personally. My father’s a retired FBI agent and the FBI are some of the hardest working individuals I have ever seen in my life.”

But according to the Gateway Pundit:

Anyone who has been following the news could tell you that many in the FBI have been working against the president from the start, with the most notable case involving collusion between the FBI, Obama Administration, and the Clinton campaign to push the false ‘verification’ of the junk Steele Dossier. It has also been widely reported that the FBI received tips well in advance of the Florida school shooting and decided, for whatever reason, not to act.

The fault for this tragedy lies squarely on the shoulder’s of the FBI, who could have prevented this back in January.

The site also accused Hogg of “not remembering his lines” while posting a video of him making statements and stumbling over his words prior to a pre-taped interview.

The Gateway Pundit is one of several blogs that was named in a federal defamation lawsuit filed in Michigan earlier in February 2018, accusing them of falsely identifying a teen as the driver that killed Heather Heyer during a counter-protest against white nationalists in Charlotesville, Virginia in August 2017.

Another blog published a story calling into question that Hogg would be interviewed by CBS News less than a year after his footage of a friend’s contentious encounter with a lifeguard was covered by the network’s affiliate in Los Angeles — although despite new rumors about the viral video, no guns were involved. Conspiracy theorists and trolls alike heavily implied that a months-old video (despite the facts that he readily identified himself with the same name, that people occasionally travel across the United States, and that his family moved to Florida from Los Angeles) is somehow “proof” that he is a trained “crisis actor,” a baseless rumor that is inevitably pushed after horrific mass shootings:

However, Hogg posted on Twitter last August that he was visiting Los Angeles, and Hogg, who runs his high school’s television station, made a video under his own name documenting the altercation afterward — hardly the actions of a “trained crisis actor” who needs to keep his identity secret:

A related rumor appeared later on 20 February 2018, when hoaxers tried to further sow doubt by claiming that Hogg graduated from a Los Angeles-area high school in 2015 — even going so far as to create a Classmates.com profile. However, the page’s source code clearly shows when the profile was created (highlighted):

This claim also appeared alongside an image purporting to show yearbook proof that Hogg graduated from the California school in 2015:

This was quickly debunked by Sarah Chadwick, another survivor of the mass shooting:
https://twitter.com/sarahchad_/statu...595584/photo/1
The president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., highlighted the Gateway Pundit story about the FBI and another by another far-right outlet, True Pundit, on his own Twitter account. Hogg described his actions as “immature, rude, and inhuman,” saying:

I just think it’s a testament to the sick immaturity and broken state of our government when these people feel the need to peddle conspiracy theories about people that were in a school shooting where 17 people died and it just makes me sick. It’s immature, rude, and inhuman for these people to destroy the people trying to prevent the death of the future of America because they won’t.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, an aide for one state lawmaker, Republican Rep. Shawn Harrison, provided this response to a picture of Hogg and fellow student activist Emma Gonzalez:

Both kids in the picture are not students here but actors that travel to various crisis [sic] when they happen.

We contacted Harrison’s office seeking follow-up comment or documentation supporting the remark from the aide, identified as Benjamin Kelly. In reply to a request for more information, Kelly reportedly sent the Times an e-mail containing a link to a YouTube video promoting the conspiracy theory against the two teens. The lawmaker told the Times:

If my aide disparaged a student from Parkland who is grieving than I will deal most strongly with my aide … Clearly it was inappropriate for him to send that.

Harrison later said on his own Twitter account:

I was just made aware that my aide made an insensitive and inappropriate allegation about Parkland students today. I have spoken to him and placed him on leave until we determine an appropriate course of action. I do not share his opinion and he did so without my knowledge.

Kelly later confirmed on Twitter that he had been fired:

I’ve been terminated from the State House. I made a mistake whereas I tried to inform a reporter of information relating to his story regarding a school shooting. This was not my responsibility. I meant no disrespect to the students or parents of Parkland. Rep. Shawn Harrison is an honest and respectable man. In no way should he be held responsible for my error in judgement.

He later deleted his account entirely.

Despite the presence of the Douglas High students in attendance, the Florida House voted on 20 February 2018 not to consider a bill calling for a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines for firearms.

School shooting survivor knocks down 'crisis actor' claim
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/02/21/u...nse/index.html

(CNN) David Hogg has become a strong voice among survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

The attention has given him a powerful platform -- but it has also made him the subject of smear campaigns and demonstrably false conspiracy theories.

Either he has been "coached" by his father, a former FBI agent; or he is a "pawn" for anti-gun campaigners; or, the most far-fetched, he is not a victim but a "crisis actor," paid to travel to disaster sites to argue against stricter gun laws.

"I'm not a crisis actor," Hogg told CNN's Anderson Cooper on AC360 on Tuesday. "I'm someone who had to witness this and live through this and I continue to be having to do that."

"I'm not acting on anybody's behalf," the 17-year-old added.

As the false theories continued circulating on Tuesday, US Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, came to the students defense on Twitter.

"Claiming some of the students on TV after Parkland are actors is the work of a disgusting group of idiots with no sense of decency," Rubio wrote.

Hogg and many of his classmates have been outspoken about the need for stricter gun laws since they witnessed the massacre that killed 17 students and staff members at their Florida high school last week.

They have become the subject of false conspiracy theories and smear campaigns online. Memes and YouTube videos make outlandish claims that some of the students are "actors" working for a globalist gun grab who travel around the country to the sites of shootings.

Some are also accusing Hogg of letting his father, a former FBI agent, coach him to speak out against President Donald Trump --- an allegation that Donald Trump Jr. endorsed on Twitter.

On Tuesday, Hogg criticized those who amplified the claims and said it was disturbing that Trump Jr. liked the Twitter post.

"Unlike the people who are tweeting that stuff about me and my dad, I haven't lost hope in America and my dad hasn't either," said Hogg with his father by his side.

Responding to claims he is in favor of repealing the Second Amendment, Hogg said he doesn't "want to take a constitutional right away from American citizens."

He believes Americans can own a gun if they are mentally stable, don't have previous major convictions and are "not going to go out and commit these atrocities"

"We have a right to live just as we have a right to bear arms," he said.

In the face of evidence, claim fake evidence. Should be a new thing for the right wing.

[Edge-]

Literally disgusting, pathetic human beings. Glad to see a few have been fired for this, though it's concerning to see how much traction these morally repugnant and reprehensible conspiracy theories continue to gain.

They've gone from the fringes of Infowars to being repeated by elected officials at the state and federal level, to more "mainstream" conservative media across the board, to the presidents own family.

[Dontrike]

I'll never understand why Reps and the zealots need to try and make mass shootings into something that never happened or turn it into some sort of conspiracy, first Sandy Hook and now this.

[GennGreymane]

[Machismo]

The assholes did it with Sandy Hook, they did it with the Boston Bombings. People who peddle in baseless conspiracy theories are evil assholes. People who buy into them, are ignorant morons.

Here's a tip: If anyone you know on social media starts to regurgitate this stuff, start telling everyone that he/she has sex with their own kids, or is a rapist. If they want to spread misinformation, then they should have no problem with it.

[Anevers]

This just more history repeating itself. Remember when people claimed the same about Sandy Hook?

It's easier for some people to believe that these are false flags and actors than believe children are being slaughtered to justify their twisted views.

[Resurgo]

ugh, I'm seeing it on my facebook too. It's disgusting.

[Deleted]

outright malicious people that are spreading lies.

That is exactly what they are - as well as fucking whackjobs.

You should change the title of you thread - you're usage of "deplorable" is meant as a direct attack on Trump supporters, based off of the HRC label. While the people you are talking about are clearly deplorable, your intent was to paint all Trump supporters with your brush. That is unfair and disingenuous.

[Redwyrm]

There's also claims that the Russian bots are also adding fuel to the attacks

[Kujako]

There's also claims that the Russian bots are also adding fuel to the attacks

Well of course they are... that's what they do, and it's not like we're trying to stop them. Again I wonder what the reaction will be when in 2018 the Russia bots turn against the Trumpeters, since their goal is to cause conflict, not to get "their side" to win.

[GennGreymane]

That is exactly what they are - as well as fucking whackjobs.

You should change the title of you thread - you're usage of "deplorable" is meant as a direct attack on Trump supporters, based off of the HRC label. While the people you are talking about are clearly deplorable, your intent was to paint all Trump supporters with your brush. That is unfair and disingenuous.

Are you being offended by a word and making a very tumblrish response to the word being used?

[Dontrike]

That is exactly what they are - as well as fucking whackjobs.

You should change the title of you thread - you're usage of "deplorable" is meant as a direct attack on Trump supporters, based off of the HRC label. While the people you are talking about are clearly deplorable, your intent was to paint all Trump supporters with your brush. That is unfair and disingenuous.

Are you saying Trump and his supporters own the word "deplorable". This might come as a surprise to you, but anyone thinking that this was fake is deplorable.

As for you saying not to paint every Trump supporter with the same brush is true, unfortunately you are part of the problem. Nothing like blaming those taking bullets for not taking down the shooter and calling anyone else that ran a coward. It's even more hilarious coming a person that worships one of the biggest cowards alive right now.

Oh sorry, I didn't mean to upset you by painting you with a brush.

[Togashii]

That is exactly what they are - as well as fucking whackjobs.

You should change the title of you thread - you're usage of "deplorable" is meant as a direct attack on Trump supporters, based off of the HRC label. While the people you are talking about are clearly deplorable, your intent was to paint all Trump supporters with your brush. That is unfair and disingenuous.

Sounds like you need a safe space. What a fucking deplorable snowflake.

[Travis B]

The deplorables are so used to spreading fake news, they assume everybody else does it too.

[Breccia]

Hey who wants to see Alex Jones call this a false flag attack?

[GennGreymane]

Well that explains why the neckbeards and soybois of 4chan are so into this. They need that vitality.

[Stop Pretending]

We already have a thread on this.

[Edge-]

Crazies gonna crazy. We have plenty of people here who think Trump colluded with Putin and will swear the Steele Dossier is legit. Watch, they’ll manifest within 3 posts below this.

Except that's not remotely the same as this nonsense but sure, I guess that's a good dig at liberals in the face of conservatives acting in a morally reprehensible way.

Got'em.

[Edge-]

Oh, it’s absolutely the same thing. Complete disconnect from reality to believe the most horrible stuff about your opponent with zero ducking evidence. Like I said, crazies gonna crazy.

There's at least evidence of possible collusion to spark that conspiracy, even if it's pretty nutty, and that's not telling children who survived a mass fucking shooting that they're liars.

But again, yeah, sure, it's the same thing. Liberals are just as bad.

Got'em!

[Deleted]

Oh, it’s absolutely the same thing.

Absolutely - but it fits their agenda so it is perfectly fine.