Ten years ago, progressives mocked conservatives when a relatively small percentage embraced a bizarre theory known as “Pizzagate,” but now, they reflexively claim every assassination attempt on President Trump is a conspiracy.
Ten years ago, progressives were fond of mocking conservatives when a relatively small percentage of Trump supporters embraced a bizarre conspiracy theory known as “Pizzagate.” On October 30, 2016, a largely unknown Twitter account operated by David Goldberg that previously posted white supremacist material claimed the New York Police Department had discovered a pedophilia ring and Satanic ritual circle run by Democrats out of the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, DC after combing through the emails of the disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner and long-term associated of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, John Podesta. Somehow, the absurd claim was promoted on various fake news website including Your News Wire, which linked it to the conspiracy minded chat room “4chan,” and SubjectPolitics.com, when the idea that Secretary Clinton’s home had been raided by the NYPD was added, and the Conservative Daily Post, complete with another claim that the FBI had confirmed the existence of the child sex and devil worshipping cult. Perhaps the BBC was the first to claim the story had gone “mainstream” following a Reddit user positing what they claimed was an “evidence document,” noting “Everyone associated with the business is making semi-overt, semi-tongue-in-cheek, and semi-sarcastic inferences towards sex with minors. The artists that work for and with the business also generate nothing but cultish imagery of disembodiment, blood, beheadings, sex, and of course pizza.” The story only spread from there to InfoWars, headed then by the infamous Alex Jones, Planet Free Will, and The Vigilant Citizen while simultaneously being promoted by alt-right activists including Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec.
At one point, the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria was receiving so many threats and so much harassment as a result, the owner James Alefantis told The New York Times, “From this insane, fabricated conspiracy theory, we’ve come under constant assault. I’ve done nothing for days but try to clean this up and protect my staff and friends from being terrorized.” Even local bands that had performed there were harassed along with other businesses to the point where it spread all the way to Austin, TX, when East Side Pie’s delivery truck was vandalized and connections were alleged to both the CIA and the Illuminati. By December, the conspiracy theory reached a violent climax. Edgar Madison Welch, a 28-year old from North Carolina, opened fire with an assault rifle at the Comet Ping Pong restaurant, firing three shots as part of his goal to “self investigate” the conspiracy theory. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but even after he was arrested, Mr. Welch still refused to change his mind that the pizzeria was the center of the ring, claiming anyone who said otherwise was peddling “fake news.” Rightfully so, major media outlets and fact checking sites sprung into overdrive to declare the theory false. The New York Times itself, The New York Observer, The Washington Post, The Independent, The Huffington Post, The Washington Times, the Los Angeles Times, Fox News, CNN, the Miami Herald, Snopes.com, and others, all did everything possible to prevent the story from spreading any further. For obvious reasons, progressives generally used the incident as a means to portray President Donald Trump’s supporters as mindless drones, willing to believe anything without facts of any kind to back it up compared to their more enlightened and rational selves, and to some extent, the criticism wasn’t entirely unfounded. The “conspiracy” was always nonsense, and while I do not believe it was widely embraced by the Make America Great Again movement as was portrayed, the fact that it was embraced by a subset, certainly offered an opportunity for criticism and in politics, as in love and war, all is fair as they say or at least it ain’t beanbag.
Last Saturday evening, chaos erupted at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner dinner when an armed gunman attempted to race past security into the ballroom where President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, other members of the administration, Congressional leaders, and top figures in the media were gathered for the annual event, known colloquially as the “nerd prom.” Despite being in the second year of his second term, the evening was to mark President Trump’s first appearance, making it even more anticipated than usual. What would the President say confronted by some of his most ardent critics and what would the critics say confronting a President they have made no secret of loathing? While the man, Cole Allen, didn’t make it into the ballroom, at least five shots were fired and a Secret Service agent was shot in the chest, saved by his bullet proof vest, before he was subdued, cancelling the rest of the evening. By the following day, we learned that, not surprisingly, Mr. Allen was intentionally targeting Trump Administration officials and had written the requisite manifesto, explaining his motives in detail. In his own words, he wrote, “I am a citizen of the United States of America. What my representatives do reflects on me. And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. (Well, to be completely honest, I was no longer willing a long time ago, but this is the first real opportunity I’ve had to do something about it.) While I’m discussing this, I’ll also go over my expected rules of engagement (probably in a terrible format, but I’m not military so too bad.) Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest, Secret Service: they are targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible (aka, I hope they’re wearing body armor because center mass with shotguns messes up people who *aren’t* Hotel Security: not targets if at all possible (aka unless they shoot at me). Capitol Police: same as Hotel Security. National Guard: same as Hotel Security. Hotel Employees: not targets at all. Guests: not targets at all.”
While this information wasn’t known on Saturday evening, progressives and other card carrying members of a class we can only describe as Trump-deranged, were sure of one thing: The attack simply hadn’t to be staged, fake, not real. Don Winslow, a “#1 bestselling author” and “Author of 3 New York Times Critics Choice Best Books of the Year” with 947,000 followers on X declared, “F A L S E F L A G: A false flag operation is A COVERT ACTION —such as an attack—DESIGNED to look like it was perpetrated by a different party. These operations aim to create a false pretext for military action or to MANIPULATE PUBLIC OPINION.” Rick Wilson, a long term Trump adversary, replied to a post from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who told reporters prior to the event that there will be “shots fired.” Though she was clearly referring to the long history of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner as part roast of politicians and the media, part comedy and satire, Mr. Wilson questioned, “Total Coincidence, Right?” which would bizarrely mean that Ms. Leavitt had announced the false flag in advance for some unexplained reason that perhaps only Mr. Wilson himself can possibly understand. The Patriotic Blonde, a self-described “Constitutional Conservative” “Journalist,” and “Legal Diva,” with over 155,000 followers declared on X, “Staged. As. Fuck.” The progressive journalist and founder of the Young Turks, Cenk Uygur didn’t directly claim that the event was staged, merely that he understood why everyone else did, providing an excuse when these claims were made before a single fact – from the attackers name to how he’d entered the Hilton Hotel in the first place was known. “It’s a sign of the times that as soon as you heard there was a shooting at WHCD, you heard speculation it might be staged. Why? Because we’ve lost all faith in our government. We know they lie to cover up the crimes of the powerful, we don’t trust anything anymore. Rightly so.” Though I certainly don’t trust anyone myself, the idea that this lack of faith justifies making claims before anyone knew anything suggests that the purpose of Mr. Uygur’s post was merely to provide rhetorical cover to those who should know better in the first place. It’s also worth noting that after the facts were in, the idea that it was staged made even less sense and yet there were no retractions of any kind: How did President Trump or someone on his team get a man who called him the anti-Christ and was avowed progressive who attended No Kings rallies to serve decades in prison presumably so that the President can build a ballroom? The situation was so bad that by Monday, even The Washington Post felt compelled to weigh in claiming, “After the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner, online influencers quickly spread outlandish conspiracy theories that it was an elaborate hoax.”
Sadly, this isn’t the first time that progressives have insisted an attack on President Trump was staged, nor even the most ridiculous. On July 13, 2024, Thomas Mathew Crooks opened fire on the President, then a candidate, at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing his ear, killing Corey Compatore, a former volunteer fire chief, and critically injuring two other attendees before the Secret Service killed him. Though two people were dead, two others injured, and Donald Trump himself was shot on national television, some not-significant segment continues to insist the entire thing was fake and the notion resurfaces from time to time, as if new evidence had emerged. Immediately after the incident, PBS provided an example, “Donald Trump continues to play in our faces!! This was SO staged!!! If someone REALLY wanted to take him out, they wouldn’t use a BB Gun!!” and immediately declared it “Pants on Fire,” but some things simply never go away. More prominent people got in on the act, including podcast host Jennifer Welch, Angie “Pumps” Sullivan., and Joyce Carol Oates. Earlier this month, about a week before the incident at the White House Correspondent’s Association Dinner, Wired and other outlets reported that the idea has even taken root among some of the President’s former supporters. The increasingly deranged – and not merely Trump-deranged – Tucker Carlson mentioned in November that the “FBI lied” about the shooter. The next day Emerald Robinson claimed on X that the FBI “did it” themselves. More recently, Tucker Carlson hosted Joe Kent, the former US National Counterterrorism Center director. The two discussed the sad reality that the government has not released many details about the Butler attempt. From there, Mr. Kent proceeded to claim the investigation was shut down for political reasons, then made an excuse for the conspiracy theories similar to Mr. Uygur. “If you don’t want to address that question, then you just go silent and say you can’t ask that question,” he said. “Which then creates people who come out of nowhere and they start drawing their own conclusions.” Shortly after, Trisha Hope, a GOP national delegate from Texas and former Trump supporter claimed, “If you cannot look at this story and use critical thinking skills and have at least some questions, you are the problem and we need you to snap out of it.”
At the risk of being argumentative, what we need to snap out of are rapidly embracing conspiracy theories for which there is absolutely no evidence of any kind. By almost any objective standard, our discourse is polarized if not poisoned enough. While I am generally alone in embracing hard hitting political rhetoric and refusing to directly connect it with violence, believing that deranged people are going to do what they are going to do and as I mentioned earlier, the old adage that politics ain’t beanbag, completely fabricating ideas that inevitably go viral isn’t rhetoric despite that the people involved could be injured or even dead. It’s insane. Progressives used to agree with me. They should do so again or risk becoming more of what they love to hate.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 