"The totally false conspiracy theory claims that Hillary Clinton and her former campaign manager, John Podesta, ran a child sex ring at a pizzeria in DC, Comet Ping Pong. Over the past few weeks, Donald Trump supporters and white supremacists on social media have pushed the conspiracy theory — leading to headlines like “Pizzagate: How 4Chan Uncovered the Sick World of Washington’s Occult Elite” on fake news websites."
"Like many ridiculous things on the internet, Pizzagate appears to have begun on the troll haven and message board 4chan. After Podesta’s emails were hacked (likely by Russian agents) and WikiLeaks published them, 4chan users in October found emails between Podesta and Alefantis about a Clinton fundraiser that happened early in the campaign.
From there, people began speculating without any evidence that the restaurant was part of a broader child trafficking ring run by the Democratic Party — a popular but entirely false conspiracy theory on the fringes of conservative media. And the conspiracy theories jumped over to Reddit, where the popular Trump subreddit r/The_Donald championed it; Twitter, where pro-Trump tweeters have continued to promote it; and Facebook, where fake news outlets have written and shared articles about it."
As the story goes, this nut named Edgar Maddison Welch walks into the pizza joint with a loaded assault rifle and a determination of rescuing these non-existent child sex slaves and fires a warning shot. After searching the pizza parlor for nearly an hour, he found absolutely no evidence at all of this non-existent pedo ring. No underground tunnels (What is this? The McMartin Trial?), no kids chained up in meat lockers, no ANYTHING.
PizzaGate has been proven to be fake, apparently confirmed by Welch himself by his actions. Yet, the Alt-Right conspiracy nutballs are already claiming this asshat is a "crisis actor," but honestly, how much roof does on need to prove something is false?
Here are more details about Welch, according to Heavy.com:
- His father Harry was elected President of the North Carolina Crime Stoppers Association (two terms). Served as Executive Director for Protect-A-Child, a national, non-profit organization to prevent abuse and abduction of children. Appointed by Governor Jim Martin to the Governor’s Commission on Child Victimization.” (In other words, a victim industry blowhard)
- Edgar has been a registered Republican since 2006;
- On his Facebook page, Welch “likes” conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and his website, Infowars, and has posted anti-Muslim videos in the past.In 2014, Welch shared a Youtube video on his Facebook page titled “Bible prophecy and the Coming Muslim anti-Christ,” writing, “great, please watch,” along with two quotes from the Bible. In 2015, he shared a video called “A Message to President Obama from a former Muslim,” in which a man explains that ISIS is representative of the entire Muslim religion, and says stopping Islam will stop terrorism. He also shared several videos and posts about how the “end of times” is coming soon.
- Welch has a criminal record, including a conviction for driving under the influence in 2013, which led to a sentence of 60 days in jail, according to court records. He was previously convicted in 2007 of driving after consuming alcohol while under 21. He is also under investigation for an incident involving Welch hitting a pedestrian in October.
- One of his guns confiscated after his arrest was unlicensed.
If it is on the Internet it MUST be true, right? It seems to be a common thread among vigilante scumbags, be it Jessica Lessley or Laura Ahearn. Look, if you think 4chan is a website for truthful information, then you are likely clinically braindead. I expect things to get worse as the Alt-Right gains power under Trump. I know I'm already going to piss off Trumpophiles so I'll just leave this from soon-to-be National Insecurity Advisor Gen. Flynn and his spawn. Like father, like son...
