Barnes & NobleSandy Hook- An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth by Elizabeth Williamson

Book is gripping and still highly relevant!

America was shaken to its core by this horrific nightmare that happened in Dec 2012, when a gunman strode into an elementary school and killed 20 children and 6 adults. Our president was moved to tears as he addressed the nation that day as we struggled with how to understand and accept what happened, and how we might could come together and devise ways to avoid it happening again. While most of us grieved, a splinter of our society refused to believe it ever happened; that it was a government hoax; that the grieving parents were 'crisis actors' crying over children who had never lived; that this was all an Obama conspiracy to round up guns and take away 2nd Amendment rights, and the stories spiraled into even crazier territory beyond that. The ringleader of all this conspiratorial nonsense was Far-Right radio host, Alex Jones, whose show, Infowars, was the leader in advancing crazy, lunatic fringe theories, and rabid, frothing at the mouth, attacks on the parents of these murdered children. From this show and Jones's rising internet popularity, the 'hoax' theory spread its seeds far and wide and created an entire conspiracy culture around the event. Lunatics began harassing the parents, posting their personal information on line, their pictures of their children, their addresses, the addresses of all their relatives, spewing hatred, outrageous lies, and death threats to all the grieving families. One parent of a murdered child, had enough. And decided to fight back against all this online harassment. This book chronicles his near one-man crusade to take down all the lies, misinformation, conspiracy videos, and put a stop to Alex Jones himself. It's a fascinating tale that still has relevance today. It foretold the split from reality that half of America takes when any big news event or tragedy happens, how the denial of reality is really people seeking out their tribes for validation of their own existence. Denialism has always been around, from those who doubt the Holocaust to JFK to the Moon Landing. But what is different now is the advent of the internet. 9-11 was the first event that the deniers exploited the new blossoming technology to spread their zany conspiracies. And every big news event since, they have used the internet to spread their seeds of doubt and denialism, most recently spreading conspiracy theories about trump really winning the 2020 election and the Covid boosters having microchip trackers, etc. This book is NOT about the tragedy that happened in Newtown, that event only serves as the backdrop for the story. This book is about one man's battle for truth (and ultimately being joined by an army of people in both the legal and social media empires) against the Ringleader of Conspiracy Theorists, Alex Jones and his Infowars program, claiming First Amendment rights. It's a fascinating look at human psychology and that's what ultimately drew me into purchasing the book. Highly recommended reading, and still just as scary and relevant today as we see the same conspiratorial cult-think and the delusional denial of reality from the fringes of the MAGA movement of today, whose unhinged and highly-armed members eagerly lap up the latest conspiracy nonsense spread over the hate-filled, right wing internet and social media outlets. Very Good book.