http://www.news.com.au/world/sandy-hook-massacre-was-a-government-plot-the-new-t...Sandy Hook massacre a 'hoax', say conspiracy theorists
A picture posted on Twitter shows the US President with young relatives of the Sandy Hook massacre victims, including Emilie Parker's sister. Source: Supplied
WHO would believe that the US Government orchestrated the Sandy Hook massacre?
And who would believe they did it just to ease the way for Barack Obama's new gun laws?
A US professor, among many others.
Many completely sane people believe in all sorts of conspiracy theories, and the ‘Sandy Hook Hoax' is just the latest. This is how the story goes: The entire massacre, in which 20 children and six adults were killed, was a set up by the government.
Some people believe it never happened at all, that the whole thing was a hoax.
And many in both camps think it came about so that US President Barack Obama's proposals to ban assault weapons and introduce background checks for gun buyers would get the impetus they need to be made law.
More than 10 million people have watched a YouTube clip that questions the "official version" of the story, and highlights original (wrong) reports that there were more suspects and more guns.
"Isn't something like Sandy Hook just what the Government needs to to start disarming the public, so they don't have to worry about people being a threat to them anymore? Sure seems like it when you see the facts," it says.
More than 300,000 people have now watched a YouTube clip that claims six-year-old Emilie Parker, a victim of shooter Adam Lanz, is alive and well and was later filmed sitting on Obama's lap. That's just one of the many bits of "proof" floating around the internet. For the record, Salon.com points out that the photo of ‘Emilie' is actually of her sister, who looks quite like her.
Gene Rosen, who looked after six surviving children in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, told Salon.com he had been accused of being involved in a government cover-up by conspiracy theorists.
"I am rageful about it, both for the children and for the mother of the child who came to my house looking for her son," the 69-year-old retired psychologist said.
"There must be some way to morally shame these people, because there were 20 dead children lying an eighth of a mile from my window all night long.
"I feel that there has to be some moral push-back on this."
One conspiracy theorist called Jay Johnson, who describes himself as the New Age Messiah, says:
You know in your heart that no one could walk into a school and start shooting defenceless little kids. They are trying to alter mass perception of the human condition, so that people feel insecure and trust only the government to make things safe.
He's got theories about hit men and people not crying enough and inconsistencies in reports about the type and number of guns used, about typos in stories that prove they are false, and there's also some sort of connection to Batman.
If that doesn't make a lot of sense, this may help: He gets some of his inspiration from "Goddess Tefnut, aka Ma'at, of Egypt".
He concludes somewhat unconvincingly that:
"(The) idea of a young man shooting kids for no reason is a black op-type psychological operation and did not happen, and is therefore a hoax."
Then there's the tenured professor from Florida Atlantic University, James Tracy, who believes the whole thing was a mass media conspiracy (he's a professor of media history, no less). He wondered in a blog post whether the shooting was "intended primarily for public consumption to further larger political ends".
Then there are all the people who believe him, and people like him, about both this conspiracy and all the others – that September 11 was a Government plot, that grassy knoll aliens killed Princess Diana, and so on.
Why?
According to Stephan Lewandowsky, a conspiracy theory expert and the Winthrop Professor at the University of Western Australia's School of Psychology, the main reason is that it "explains away something that's scary".
"It gives people a sense of control paradoxically because (the conspiracy) is better than just a dreadful, random event," he said.
"Sandy Hook was terrible, horrifying. If you can explain it away by a conspiracy, that takes out the element of randomness and gives people a sense of control.
He said there are a few "plain crazies" and then there are disgruntled narcissists who peddle the theories, but he says "the lion's share of people who buy into this kind of stuff aren't really crazy".
"They may be slightly odd, but they're not deep crazy. They simply had a horrifying event they want to explain … the conspiracy leaves nothing to chance and explains everything," he said.
"That's attractive to people because reality is usually so messy that there are little things left unexplained by what really happened."
So do we ignore them? The problem is, once these ideas gain traction, they can influence more people and ultimately influence public policy. Prof Lewandowsky says conspiracy theories – and he counts climate change denial among them – are "extremely concerning".
"They're introducing a distortion of reality into the political process," he said.
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