Or perhaps yesterday. WaPo’s Anne Applebaum reports the shame:
For most Americans, the Parkland shooting was a terrible tragedy. But for social media accounts that promote the interests of Russia in the United States, it was a fantastic opportunity.
On the morning after the tragedy, the Russia-linked accounts were commenting fiercely, pushing the “crazy lone killer” explanation for the shooting and mocking advocates of gun control. According to Hamilton 68, a tracker website created by the German Marshall Fund, a lot of them linked to photos of guns and ammunition on the Instagram account of the suspected killer, plus a screenshot of a Google search for “Allahu akbar.” Others linked to a fact-checking website that debunked some statistics about gun crime. By Friday morning, some of the same accounts were also pushing something slightly different: the hashtag #falseflag. That’s a reference to the conspiracy theory, already widespread 48 hours later, that the shooting never happened, that the attack is a “false flag” operation staged by the U.S. government as a prelude to the seizure of guns.
A false flag operation?
From the Trump Administration?
OK, so for those who were getting all stirred up about a false flag operation in Florida, let’s smack you upside the head like your father would have and note this:
- The Trump Administration is allies with the NRA. Do you really, really think a single gun law will be enacted by Trump and the GOP over this? Much less sucking up all the guns with a great vacuum cleaner? That’s utterly ludicrous.
- If you do swallow that, then think of this: you’re disrespecting every single emergency responder who are now having nightmares of finding dead teenagers slumped all about a school. From the front-line cops who went in there knowing a shooter could take them out, yet they bravely did so, to the EMTs who desperately tried to save those dead kids and their teachers. Oh, tell you what, how about you travel down to Florida and accuse one of those first responders of lying about the whole thing, right to their face. PRO TIP: Reserve your spot at the dentist, as you’re likely to lose some teeth.
- You disrespect the friends and parents of the victims, who have to go to the funerals and mourn their lost loved ones. Still feeling good about yourself?
- You disrespect those that were lost. They won’t mind, though, since they’re dead. But it marks you as ungraceful.
- Finally, you disrespect yourself. You’re being dragged around by a bunch of hostile Russians. They’re laughing at you for being so suspiciously naive. Where is your trust in your fellow Americans?
Stop drinking the Kool-Aid. Learn respect. As Applebaum opines,
And this is just the beginning. Over the next few days, many of these same kinds of accounts will invent a whole range of conspiracy theories about the shooting. If the past repeats itself, pro-Russian, alt-right, white-supremacist and pro-gun social media accounts will promote the same hashtags and indulge in the same conspiracy theories. Each group has its own interests in pushing #falseflag, but the Russian interest is clear. They do it because it helps undermine trust in institutions — the police, the FBI, the media — as well as in the government itself. They also do it because it helps to amplify extremist views that will deepen polarization in U.S. political life and create ever angrier, ever more partisan divides.
