Loading ...Inflammatory personalities such as Alex Jones make a living peddling conspiratorial rhetoric and anti-government propaganda that appeals to a specific audience. Some are drawn to the hoax narrative because they cannot deal with the fact that small, innocent children were slaughtered at a school. That would entail having to accept the reality that this could happen to their family. It’s much more comfortable to believe that women and children did not die and that the government they love to loathe is coming for their guns. But then there are those who are far removed from the average conspiracy enthusiast with a passing interest in 9/11 and UFO cover-ups. These cult followers are malicious, potentially dangerous and have no capacity for human empathy.
People like these by the tens of thousands are flocking to charismatic con men like Jones, with cultish reverence and conviction. With the aid of media platforms such as alternative talk radio, YouTube, Google, Facebook and Twitter, scores more are being reached and indoctrinated into the cult of delusional lunacy every day.
What does anyone suppose is the right thing to do about this malevolent phenomenon? Many will say, “Just ignore them.” “Don’t give them the attention they crave.” “Don’t provide them with any notoriety, and they will fade away.” This approach is ineffective and feeds the movement rather than diminishing it. Unimpeded, this mindset and worldview spread across the internet like a virus.
The hoaxer ideology must be challenged, discredited and disparaged. Many of the deniers of the Sandy Hook shooting are also deniers of the Boston Marathon bombing, as well as just about any violent mass casualty event. Many are also holocaust deniers, and some even deny that the Earth is round and that men landed on the moon. The level of emotional dysregulation certainly varies from individual to individual; from the harmless, deluded recluse all the way to the rabid psychopath with domestic terrorist aspirations.
The current climate of “alternative facts” will give way to “alternative history” if we allow the village idiots to grow in number and take over the town.The exposure of Jones and his lunatic fringe to the masses is inevitable. Only then will this disturbing cult of insanity be exposed and dealt with by mainstream society. The government and the police are bound by the first amendment to honor the conspiracy theorists’ right to free speech. Society, however, is free to despise, renounce, shame and shun them; to administer social justice in response to their repugnant worldview and wicked deeds. Hoaxers need to be rejected and shamed by their families, their neighbors, their bosses, their co-workers, their friends and their communities. I see no other way to control the spread of their evil and delusional ideology.
Lenny Pozner, wrote this piece, he is a father of one of the shooting victims. lives in Palm Beach County, Fla.
