How Conspiracy Theories Became More Personal, More Cruel And More Mainstream After The Sandy Hook Shootings

<p class=”is-style-sans-serif”><em>This article is part of&nbsp;<a href=”https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe”>TPM Cafe</a>, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It first appeared at&nbsp;<a href=”https://theconversation.com/how-conspiracy-theories-in-the-us-became-more-personal-more-cruel-and-more-mainstream-after-the-sandy-hook-shootings-172015″>The Conversation</a>.</em></p> <p>Conspiracy theories are powerful forces in the U.S. They have damaged public health amid a global pandemic, shaken faith in the democratic process and <a href=”https://abcnews.go.com/US/qanon-emerges-recurring-theme-criminal-cases-tied-us/story?id=75347445″>helped spark</a> a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.</p> <p>These conspiracy theories are part of a dangerous misinformation crisis that has been building for years in the U.S.</p> <p>American politics has long had a <a href=”https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/”>paranoid streak</a>, and belief in conspiracy…

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Alex Jones Loses By Default In All Sandy Hook Defamation Lawsuits

<p><em>This article is part of <a href=”https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe”>TPM Cafe</a>, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It first appeared at <a href=”https://theconversation.com/alex-jones-loses-sandy-hook-case-but-important-defamation-issues-remain-unresolved-171914″>The Conversation.</a></em></p> <p><a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/us/politics/alex-jones-sandy-hook.html”>A Connecticut judge has found Alex Jones, a well-known media personality, liable</a> in the defamation claim brought against him by parents of 6- and 7-year-old children killed in the Sandy Hook massacre for falsely claiming they were accomplices in faking the murders of their own children.</p> <p>Like <a href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/us/alex-jones-lawsuit-sandy-hook.html”>an earlier decision in a Texas court</a> brought by different parents, the court entered a “<a href=”https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=460″>default judgment</a>,” which means that…

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