Parkland Kids: Crisis Actors?

Following the fatal Parkland Florida shooting in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, teenage survivors of the attack have decided to take agency in ending gun violence once and for all. Through social media platforms, protests, and marches, the teens advocated for their cause, reiterating that no teen should ever have to cower in their classroom, painfully counting down the seconds a shooter is potentially gunning down someone they know. Their campaign for gun control was emotionally overwhelming as they commemorated the classmates they’ve lost with indignant tears and grief. However, their anguish was derided as melodramatic and fabricated, their tears nothing but skilled theatrical feats, and the survivors themselves were painted as “crisis actors,” amassing millions of supporters with theatrical antics and feigned sorrow.

Opponents of the teens’ calls for gun control are willing to go far, employing sickening methods to mock these teens and label them as hopelessly ignorant about gun control issues and gun usage.

In fact, conspiracy theorists are keen on inventing false claims and rumors about prominent Parkland student activists, namely David Hogg and Emma González, the leaders of the “March for Our Lives” and #NeverAgain movements. In an attempt to portray Hogg and other Parkland students as “crisis actors,” conspiracists spread rumors across online forums and social media platforms, fabricating false stories to convince the public that David Hogg was not a student at Stoneman Douglas.

The authentic footage taken of Hogg in Los Angeles, California, further perpetrated the rumor that he was an actor feigning grief over a tragedy which he claimed to be a survivor of. The footage was a video blog made by Hogg during his summer vacation in California prior to the start of his school year in Marjory Stoneman Douglas. However, conspiracy theorists used the video to assert that Hogg lived in California and never attended school in Florida. More conspiracies, unsupported by any actual evidence, wildly accuse Hogg of supporting Nazism. Statements allegedly made by David Hogg, stating “Generations before us don’t know what it’s like to be shot at by AR-15s,” along with convincing pictures of the teen taken from one of his rallies against gun violence circulated extremist blogs and made its way into mainstream media. This was an attempt to make the teen seem ignorant about the cause he is fighting for at hand and the history of gun usage in the United States.

B y no means is Hogg the only victim of these ridiculous online accusations. Video cuts taken out of context of Emma González’s speech were used to insinuate that González supported bullying the mentally ill shooter, Nicholas Cruz. The video snippet features an indignant González, stating “Since [Nicholas Cruz] was in middle school, it was no surprise to anyone who knew him that he was the shooter. Those talking about how we should have not ostracized him? You didn’t know this kid! Okay? We did!” With only this snippet and no further context provided, conspiracists made it seem as if González, along with the whole Parkland student community, bullied Cruz. However, with the entire speech in context, it became clear that Emma González is calling for authority’s attention toward the signs of mental illness and disturbances which Cruz exhibited prior to the shooting.

None of these claims made about the Parkland adolescent leaders are true. Hogg is a student, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, and does not support Nazism. Emma González did not bully Nicholas Cruz. However, these stories spread like wildfire, catching attention when right-wing political figures, such as Donald Trump Jr., liked or reposted the conspiracies on social media platforms.

In valiant attempts to stand up in front of the public and call for action to prevent future gun violence, these teenagers are blasted as liars and attention seekers by conspiracist blogs and the impressionable followers these blogs have gathered. It is understandable that the public is confused by and vulnerable to such fake news and conspiracies, especially when they trend on popular social media apps or are featured by notable political figures. As avid users of social media, we are gulled into believing the wrong information, and we perpetrate the spread of these rumors and lies through several taps on a screen or clicks on a mouse.

However, to these teenagers, the spread of these lies not only undermines a strong political and emotional response to Parkland shooting, but also cruelly suppresses a tragedy they all have lived through. They are denied the right to express their opinions in a very personal yet political matter that they deserve to have a voice in because of lies that question their credibility as activists.

Therefore, the public as a whole, especially social media users of our generation, should be more aware of the credibility of the news sources they are exposed to in order to stop these injurious conspiracies from undermining the efforts of a greater cause and spreading insensitive accusations about the victims. Through cross-referencing the information from social media posts or smaller news sources with larger and more reliable news outlets such as CNN or The New York Times, we are less likely to mistakenly believe conspiracy theorists. Conspiracy theories gain the most attention from social media posts and YouTube videos, which attract users who often don’t pay attention to their sources or look closely at the bias of the source. Cross-referencing social media posts or YouTube video content and paying attention to the bias of the content will reduce the chances that internet users will feed off false news and conspiracies.