Lori Falce: Butler victims deserve better than conspiracy theories

Jul. 19—The conspiracy theories come faster these days.

There was a time that it took months or years for a good skeptical narrative to develop around major events.

The apocrypha surrounding the Freemasons, for example, have been 400 years in the making. Flat Earth theories in the modern era can date to 1849 but really picked up over the last 20 years. Holocaust denial began within years of the Nuremberg trials, creeping slowly over time.

But as Mark Twain said, a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. Speculation can be even faster.

The internet has taken conspiracy theories from something that crawled into the space between answers and information and given them wings. Anyone with a cellphone or a social media account can be the next link in a chain of disbelief and opinion that are transmuted into fact at light speed.

It happened with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It happened with Sandy Hook. QAnon has taken conspiracy theory to a new level of mutation that defies any single event, turning the whole world into an ever-evolving story of suspicion and intrigue.

And so of course, the shots that rang out Saturday at the Donald Trump campaign rally in Butler County are the latest example.

But conspiracy theories have typically appealed to a particular sliver with reason — rational or not — to distrust the official story. The Butler shooting has plenty of theories to appeal to everyone. Are you a Trump supporter? Perhaps you see a plot by the Biden administration. A Democrat might see a Trump-driven campaign stunt. Evangelical Christian, progressive, Libertarian — no matter where you fall on the political compass, the internet has a theory tailor made for you.

And all of them are dangerous.

The problem with conspiracy theories is that they are so seductive. If you think MSNBC, CNN or Fox News have confirmation bias, they are nothing compared to a conspiracy theory that takes your fears and stitches them into a blanket that neatly covers events.

It is faster than the news. The news, after all, has to wait for a report from the scene to tell you what happened. A theory doesn't wait for anything. It confirms nothing. It takes breadcrumbs and reverse engineers them into a witch's gingerbread cottage rather than a loaf of bread.

On behalf of journalists everywhere, I can say we understand the appeal. We are frequently frustrated with the speed at which the information unfolds, too. And sometimes the facts are just not as satisfying as the James Bond-esque machinations of the fiction.

But building a narrative rather than waiting for answers leads to distrusting the answers when they come because they do not fit the narrative.

There is a reason the conspiracy theories have such appeal. Human beings want to see patterns. And despite our love of Powerball and slot machines, when the chips are down, we don't want to rely on luck as an explanation. It's a psychological thing. Whether we listen to brain experts or even overall science nerds like Neil DeGrasse Tyson, research has shown us that human beings seek out patterns to make sense of things.

But we should all learn from Alex Jones and his $1.5 billion lesson about promoting the Sandy Hook conspiracy theory. Real lives are behind the Butler shooting. This is not just about Trump's campaign. It is not just about an election.

Corey Comperatore, 50, of Buffalo Township died. James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon and David Dutch, 57, of Plum remain hospitalized in serious condition. They do not deserve to be background characters in the conspiracy theories shared on social media.

What happened in Butler County was important enough to wait for the truth as it unfolds rather than taking the pieces and turning them into a crazy quilt that fits anyone's political perspective.

Lori Falce is the Tribune-Review community engagement editor and an opinion columnist. For more than 30 years, she has covered Pennsylvania politics, Penn State, crime and communities. She joined the Trib in 2018. She can be reached at lfalce@triblive.com.