How The Right Seized On A Historical Reference To Create A Specious Conspiracy Meme

Even as we saw video this morning of the Stoneman Douglas student activists moving into their own office space, e.g.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/never-again-movement-stoneman-douglas-students-behind-the-scenes/

We also know the Right's snowflakes are trembling at the spectacle, scarified of these young, idealistic activists who they try to dismiss as "crisis actors". Now, we also know for the first time, thanks to a WSJ piece, how a historical reference and geopolitical role defining crisis actors (as nations in crisis) was seized and mutated into child crisis actors playing victims. All this compliments of the Right's trolls who double as snowflakes given their fear of kids less than half their age.

To cut to the chase, we owe WSJ writer Ben Zimmer a debt of gratitude for debunking the Right's nonsense about child crisis actors in his excellent Review article  ('Plots, Politics and Crisis Actors',  Mar. 3-4) . He begins by reminding us that:

"Crisis is from a Greek word for turning point or sudden shift, and has long been used for traumatic or stressful events, or more broadly for unstable situations leading to drastic change".

Then adding:

"Combining the word with 'actor' suggests all manner of performance at a critical juncture."

Zimmer then informs us that there is actually a firm historical and geopolitical basis for the term 'crisis actor'. The Right's trolls didn't just recently invent the term - whether to infect events with their ignominious false flag ideations, e.g. in the Sandy Hook massacre (describing the kids actually killed as "crisis actors" not really killed) or imposing it on the Stoneman Douglas students now taking to the air waves to fight for gun control laws.  Oh, and moving into their new office to continue the fight and organize other students nationwide.

Zimmer then explains further the historical genesis of the term (ibid.):

"The two words were first brought together by political scientists. In 1977, Michael Brecher, a professor at McGill University in Montreal, used it in a report on how countries behave in times of crisis - calling the countries in conflict "crisis actors".  Together with Jonathan Wilkenfeld of the University of Maryland, Mr Brecher launched the International Crisis Behavior Project, which maintains an online database of 476 crises since 1918."

To fix ideas we're then informed of the main crisis actors in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: The U.S., Cuba and the Soviet Union.  NO kids (dead or alive), no students or gun shot survivors anywhere to be found because the term was coined to specifically refer to nations embroiled in crises.

But then, alas, the term was mutated to serve the agenda of the Right's loopy conspiracy spinners especially in the era of Obama- who they regarded as against their gun rights, and 2nd amendment rights. (No surprise gun sales consistently went into the stratosphere because the real "snowflakes"" - the Right's gunnies - were terrified their little toys would be taken away by a bunch of kids with voices).

Anyway, as Zimmer informs us, the process to the warped conspiracy memes of today are interesting to follow.

"Crisis actor' took a more theatrical turn in 2012 in the wake of a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado that July."

 See e.g.:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/07/time-to-reel-in-us-gun-culture-zealots.html


"A few months later in nearby Denver, an actors'studio called Visionbox sought to help active shooter drills by providing realistic 'crisis actors' as part of role playing exercises. Visionbox promoted the group on the website crisisactors.org and cited backing from state authorities in a release."

Again, role playing actors for psychological exercises to help in active shooter drills are not the same as sneaky child actors hired to deceive the public,  gun buyers or not.

Zimmer goes on:

"The term acquired more nefarious connotations after the shooting at Sandy Hook ELementary School  in Newtown, Conn. in December, 2012. A since deleted article on the Washington Examiner news website questioned whether the school was participating in 'an emergency response exercise using paid crisis actors funded by a grant from our federal government' thereby linking it to the Visionbox release."

Again, let's note there wasn't an iota of evidence to make such a linkage, nor was Visionbox ever a federally funded program. It had "backing" from state authorities here in Colo. but that backing didn't mean funding. It meant psychological support backing as in "Rah, rah! Go forward!"

Despite this, we learn from Zimmer:

"The tenuous chain of reasoning was enough for conspiracy theorists to begin imagining that Newtown was a staged event populated with 'crisis actors'"

Zimmer traces the actual origin to a whacked out blogger-   James Tracy - a then professor of communications (if you can believe it) at Florida Atlantic University - but who later lost his job there, and for good reason.

Of course, once the deformed use of crisis actor appeared it was bound to get further traction,, especially by those unaware of the real history of the term. Zimmer again:

"Since then, high profile mass shootings have inevitabbly brought out groundless 'crisis actor' theories. With the Parkland massacre pushing the phrase into ever greater prominence, Facebook and Youtube have been cracking down on posts and videos using the term."

Which is good. The Right's ubiquitous trolls should not be permitted to demean the victims of horrific school shootings by labeling them "crisis actors". And certainly not under specious First amendment claims.  As Joe Scarborough recently pointed out, the first amendment has limits just like the 2nd. Neither is open ended and replete with 'anything goes'.

In the meantime, it is appropriate to note how gun sales are going down in the U.S. of A. despite the students' gun control activism. see e.g.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/02/27/gun-sales-under-donald-trump/


More good news:  The Florida legislature has passed a moderate gun reform bill (no assault weapons ban, but we know a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step) .  The bill SB 7026 passed by 67- 50 in the Florida House (after 20-18 Senate passage) and provides for:

- A 3-day waiting period on gun purchases

-Raising the minimum age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21.

- $100 m to increase school security

The bill now only awaits Gov. Rick Scott's signature. We will soon see whether he really cares about the Stoneman Douglas victims and survivors or whether his words in the aftermath were mere gaseous effluent and beer talk.

We also learned in yesterday's WSJ  (p. A21) that Yale University's  admissions office is encouraging students to actively partake in the school walkouts scheduled this month in support of the #NeverAgain movement. As the author Walter Olson writes:

"Senior assistant director of admissions Hannah Mendlowitz, makes clear that Yale considers participation in such a walkout to be a plus, rather than a subject of indifference..

'For those students who come to Yale, we expect them to be versed in issues of social justice', Ms. Medelowitz writes.  'I have the pleasure of reading applications from San Francisco where activism is very much a part of the culture.'"

So go ahead, Parkland kids and others, and walk out on March 24th and spread the message of needed gun control - especially for military assault weapons. There is no reason, none at all, this nation can't do what the UK (after the Dunblane massacre) and Australia (after Port Arthur, 1996) already have.  The argument these weapons - solely designed to mass kill - are needed for "protection" is pure Right wing snowflake babble.  Protection from what? An invading cadre of 200 ISIS terr'ists? Grow a pair for once!

So is the balderdash one needs them for hunting. As one former infantryman (Ralph Peters) put it, that only applies if you plan to destroy the meat. And what manner of snowflake idiot prefers to destroy the meat - e.g. hog - he wants to eat? What kind of snowflake gun baby needs an AR to kill a hog when a 30.06 with hollow points will do?  At least for a real hunter as opposed to poseur.

See also:

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/02/the-parkland-students-arent-going-away/554159/

And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/belle-chesler/78040/high-school-students-the-canaries-in-the-coal-mine-of-american-disaster

Stoneman Douglas Students Make Big Impression On HBO's Real Time

David Hogg, left, and Cameron Kasky, take Bill Maher's questions on 'Real Time' Friday night.

"The students of Parkland are like veterans coming home from the bloody front of the N.R.A.’s de facto war on children. They’ve seen their friends, teachers and coaches gunned down in the halls. To them, powerful Washington lobbyists and United States senators suddenly look like what they are: cheesy TV spokesmodels for murder weapons. It has been inspiring and thrilling to watch furious, cleareyed teenagers shame and vilify gutless politicians and soul-dead lobbyists for their complicity in the murders of their friends. Last week Wayne LaPierre was reduced to gibbering like Gen. Jack D. Ripper in “Dr. Strangelove” about a “socialist” takeover and “hardening” our schools. You could see the whites all around his irises. That look is fear."  - Tim Kreider in NY Times Op-Ed (March 2)

Bill Maher's Real Time, Friday night, was the setting for the appearance of two Marjory Stoneman Douglas students, David Hogg and Cameron Kasky. Even as the Right's trolls continued to cast aspersions on them as  "crisis actors" (too dumb to actually check the school's rolls), the pair again displayed their media savvy in the opening interview with host Bill Maher.

Maher, after the first few responses, was so impressed that he told Hogg and classmate Cameron Kasky:

“I honestly thought kids were a lot stupider.  You’ve really given me faith that the kids today are actually very bright, way brighter than we were.”

Oh yeah, and way brighter than the Right's naysayers will ever be, because that lot can't fancy anyone brighter than themselves at that age.   Kasky himself also lambasted critics who dismiss the students because of their youth.

“We’ve seen our friends text their parents goodbye. We are the experts.”

Regarding the conspiracy slander claiming the Parkland students are actors, well true, but not in the way the wingnuts believe.  In other words some of the students are part of the school's Drama Club and enjoy putting on plays. As Kasky told Maher:

“I’m in Spring Awakening at Parkland Performing Arts Center. Great show.”

And  Maher's praise  was before Hogg revealed that he hung up on the White House last week, angered that Trump refused to attend CNN’s town hall meeting with survivors of the February 14 mass shooting that left 17 students dead at their high school.


Said Hogg of his White House phone call (they called him, as he emphasized to Maher):

“I ended on this message: 'We don’t need to listen to President Trump, Present Trump needs to listen to the screams of the children and screams of this nation.”

Wow! You have to give this kid credit for cojones as well as composure and media savvy (though the Right wingers never will, preferring to slam these kids for "not respecting their elders". )

Maher then told the students about their impact on the nation’s gun reform debate, averring:

“We have never seen change like this,”

The Parkland FL students – co-founders of the student advocacy group Never Again MSD – are among the organizers of nationwide marches and the March for Our Lives rally outside the White House on March 24. What many may not know is that the event has drawn considerable support from Hollywood, with George and Amal Clooney, Eli Broad, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw and Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg each pledging donations of at least $500,000.

Asked by Maher about the goal of the rally, Kasky said:

 “We want Americans to stop being afraid of demanding our politicians to take action. They work for us, we don’t work for them and the march is us coming out and saying to our employees ‘You guys suck at your job.’ “


Interestingly,  neither Hogg nor Kasky would condemn the Second Amendment, even at Maher’s urging- but then they shouldn't have had to. It's not the Second Amendment that needs  condemnation but rather juvenile, ignorant interpretations  of it, i.e. which claim that one is entitled to own an AR-15 or any similar military type assault rifles under that banner. I had previously taken this balderdash down in my citation of the case District of Columbia vs. Heller, where Antonin Scalia delivered the majority opinion, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2018/02/sorry-you-have-no-constitutional-right.html

Reinforcing this limited 2nd amendment take was a recent NY Post essay by a former army infantryman, Ralph Peters, who wrote:

"I believe on moral, practical and constitutional grounds that no private citizen should own an automatic weapon or semiautomatic weapon that can be easily modified for automatic effects. These are military weapons. Their purpose is to kill human beings. They're not used for hunting unless you want to destroy the animal's meat. They're also lousy for target shooting. But they're excellent tools for mass murder. No one has the right to a personal arsenal of weapons designed for mass murder."

This view was, of course, that invoked by Antonin Scalia who wrote the majority opinion in the Heller case. It was also cited by WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan in her own piece (Mar. 3-4, p. A13) where she asserted:

"We have an estimated 300 million guns in America. An estimated 50 million of our households keep them. For now that is enough, even for whatever terrible day comes. Stop selling military weapons in America.. Just stop.  Revisit the issne in five years. See what happens."

What she is proposing is a moratorium- style experiment in national gun policy. In other words, cease all purchases of such weapons for a time and see what the effects are.  But first make sure the  N.R.A.-backed Dickey Amendment, -  which was passed in 1996 - is neutralized so the CDC can investigate gun death stats objectively  over the 5 years.  Then, if there is a true statistically significant reduction in killings from military style weapons, we can ban them..

What Noonan got wrong was her expectation Dumpster Donnie was a serious actor when he met with a bipartisan group about gun control and promised things would change, e.g.

"He treated the mass shooting like a crisis, not a tragedy."

But as we've seen, he went running for a change in diapers after NRA honcho Chris Cox talked him down - or rather - back under the NRA's thumb.  Yeppers, this disgusting drooling turd - who couldn't even stand up to an NRA blood money purveyor and who had earlier bragged he'd have faced the AR-15 shooter at Stoneman Douglas  "even without a weapon".  In a pig's eye.,  especially if he couldn't even handle an unarmed NRA flack
.
But even Noonan half expected Doturd would change his stance when she wrote:

"His presentation were undisciplined, scatty....And as always the question is whether he meant any of it. His opinions rest on impulses. He likes to say words. You never know which you can believe."

Actually, you can pretty well assume 100 percent of what he says is wrong, outright lies or bonkers and be secure.  To fix ideas, if he said a North Korean attack was coming tomorrow I wouldn't believe it. Not one word! As   NY Times writer Charles Blow ('The Chaos President', March 3) put it:

"Believing anything Trump says is a recipe for a headache and heartache."

Adding  this explanation of why all his "ideas"   come a cropper:

"I believe that this chaos is the perpetual result of the absolute incompetence and idiocy of a preening philistine who has faked his way through life pretending that he knows more than he does and is tougher than he is.....He wants so desperately to be right that he says whatever his audience — whether that be a small group or a filled arena, whether that be members of Congress or fans at a rally — want to hear and will respond to..  This is how you can get wildly vacillating positions and bold, empty promises in bipartisan meetings with the man — whether those meetings are about addressing DACA and immigration or about addressing gun control after the school shooting in Florida.."

And all this occurs as this degenerate stirs up even more chaos with his twitter threats of trade war and steel tariffs. Now aimed at Canada and Mexico, as if he is pointing a gun to those nations' heads re: a new NAFTA deal.  Be advised, our northern and southern neighbors, we have a psychotic at the helm - now clearly trying to deflect attention as the Mueller noose tightens around his orange neck.

As for the Parkland students, their main job right now is to: 1) understand they are going to have to play the "long game" in changing gun laws in this regressive nation, and 2) learn much more on the limits of second amendment rights especially as they pertain to military style rifles (whether one uses the controversial term "assault" or not).  They can start with the 2008 Supreme Court case of District of Columbia vs. Heller in which Justice Antonin Scalia clearly set the limits on rights to own AR-15 and similar weapons.

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/miles-mogulescu/77940/gun-control-legislation-is-constitutional

And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/henry-giroux/78018/killing-children-in-the-age-of-disposability-the-parkland-shooting-was-about-more-than-gun-violence