Because 2016 is the year that fake online news apparently gets wildly, dangerously out of control IRL, a US man has been caught firing a gun while investigating the far-right, 100%-bullshit, “Pizzagate” conspiracy in D.C. family restaurant Comet Ping Pong.
Police arrested 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch outside the kid-friendly pizzeria Sunday afternoon EST, after witnesses saw him carrying a gun through the building, trying to enter a staff area around the back, and reportedly firing multiple shots inside, although no one was harmed.
Welch, who has been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, claimed he had done all this as a Very Effective method of investigating “Pizzagate,” which D.C. police have helpfully described as a “fictional online conspiracy theory”.
DC police: Comet Ping Pong suspect is Edgar Maddison Welch of Salisbury, NC who said he came to investigate “pizzagate.” pic.twitter.com/wbW9BMBBG3
— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) December 5, 2016
See, during Wikileaks’ hacking campaign against Hillary Clinton in the lead-up to the election, they found multiple references to “pizza” in her private email exchanges, which naturally lead to some select Reddit-users believing that Comet Ping Pong was the home base for a child sex abuse ring.
Yes you read that correctly, and no there is not much more to their theory than that.
Go on, have a look at the smoking gun itself:
At one time John Podesta owned a handkerchief with a “pizza-related” map on it https://t.co/shCNAkhIol #PodestaEmails13 pic.twitter.com/mKfr5txFV5
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 20, 2016
Still, “Pizzagate” has gotten more traction thanks to fake news articles from conservative sites such as Infowars and Conservative Daily Post, which, according to fact-checkers, consistently fail to cite any (urgh) empirical evidence.
A reminder, these aren’t “fake news” articles in the way that, say, comedy news shows or satirical websites are fake news.
These are wholly unsabstantiated conspiracy theories, unnamed “FBI sources” and straight up lies being presented as fact, which, as we’ve now seen, leads to unbelievably dangerous consequences.
And because someone thought the best way to investigate these claims, which include Comet having an underground rape basement despite the owner saying they don’t have a basement at all, was “fire gun at family restaurant,” it might be time for the people pushing these ideas to accept some fucking responsibility.
But hey, surely that can’t be too difficult a task, right? This is a clear-cut, worst-case scenario for conspiracy theorists, and it’s not like the people prone to believing this crap aren’t capable of self-reflection.
False flag. Planted Comet Pizza Gunman will be used to push for censorship of independent news sources that are not corporate owned
— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) December 4, 2016
Welp, shit. It’s going to be an uphill battle, folks.
Source: The Daily Beast.
Photo: Getty / The Washington Post.
