I made a mistake on Twitter on Sunday night. When I learned that a man with an assault rifle had stormed into a Washington pizzeria to “self-investigate” an online conspiracy theory for which there is no evidence — that the restaurant is a front for child sex abuse involving Hillary Clinton — I decided to confront some of the alt-right bloggers who had played a role in spreading the hoax on the social network. The gunman, Edgar M. Welch, surrendered after telling the police that he had discovered that there were no child sex slaves being held at the pizza place, Comet Ping Pong, despite the lurid fantasies he had read online about a made-up scandal known as “PizzaGate,” which surfaced just before Election Day.

Those who had worked diligently to spread the hoax — and others who had a hard time accepting that it was obviously not true — had by Sunday night started to claim that Welch himself was part of the plot. He shot up the pizzeria, they said, as a “false flag” attack to distract attention from the (entirely imaginary) scandal they claimed to have uncovered by reading between the lines of hacked emails published by WikiLeaks.





Pro-Trump conspiracy theorists who fabricated "pizzagate" now claim man who attacked pizzeria as a result is part of the conspiracy https://t.co/oRXXi0vzDE — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) December 5, 2016





What is wrong with you? https://t.co/Bqr6k00Px8 — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) December 5, 2016





Except the gunman's own statement to police that he was inspired by your fabricated conspiracy theory https://t.co/De5EgAdayH — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) December 5, 2016

Islamic terror attack: Not all Muslims!



Nutcase walks Into Comet Pizza with gun: Anyone who even mentioned #PizzaGate is responsible! — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) December 5, 2016





You are responsible for this https://t.co/XKIqBrybdY — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) December 5, 2016

Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it'll remain a story. The left seems to forget #PodestaEmails and the many "coincidences" tied to it. https://t.co/8HA9y30Yfp — ??MFLYNNJR?? (@mflynnJR) December 5, 2016





Here's our next National Security Adviser's son demanding proof that fantasies fabricated by Trump supporters to damage Clinton are not true https://t.co/B0ttnzFss4 — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) December 5, 2016

I’ll admit there was something quixotic about the premise behind my intervention, namely the hope that people who have devoted hundreds of hours to spreading falsehoods intended to boost Donald Trump by tarnishing Hillary Clinton would suddenly transform into responsible adults when confronted by the dangerous behavior of a man who mistook the fantasy they peddled for reality. But watching the campaign of disinformation that lifted Trump to the presidency continue and even accelerate after Election Day poses an obvious challenge for professional journalists, whose careers are dedicated to the premise that facts matter. I was not alone. Jake Tapper of CNN, another journalist who understands the power of social media to amplify both genuinely valuable information and baseless rumors concocted by partisan political operatives, took those who spread the conspiracy theory to task.

Predictable result of people irresponsibly spreading insane falsehoods on social media. What could have happened is terrifying -- https://t.co/15PHVvyk7o — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 4, 2016

Among those Tapper confronted on Twitter was Michael G. Flynn, who was at that point a member of Trump’s transition team and whose father, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, has been named the next president’s national security adviser. Flynn the younger was kicked off the transition team on Tuesday.

asking you for evidence of what DC police call a "fictitious conspiracy theory" isn't trolling, Michael. — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 5, 2016

Flynn’s willingness to adopt the default position of conspiracy theorists — demanding that the rest of us prove that the wild fantasies they have concocted without evidence are not true — matters because he has been a close aide to his father, who promoted a previous version of the false rumor that Clinton was involved in the sexual abuse of children on the eve of the election.

The senior Flynn, a former intelligence chief, is likely aware of the long history of elaborate hoaxes in political history. Earlier this year, he co-wrote a book with Michael Ledeen, a former Reagan official who was involved in the Iran-Contra deception. Ledeen was once accused of secretly collaborating with an Italian intelligence service that specialized in disinformation campaigns to tarnish the reputation of Jimmy Carter’s brother, Billy, just two weeks before the 1980 presidential election. Sharif Silmi, a lawyer who was playing ping pong at Comet with his wife and three children when the gunman burst in — and who photographed the Welch’s surrender to police — wrote that he held those who spread wild tales about the pizza place responsible for endangering their lives.

I hold @RogerJStoneJr and @RealAlexJones responsible for putting my family in danger today at the @cometpingpong — Sharif Silmi (@bayreef) December 4, 2016

Silmi soon received the same response as reporters who confronted the conspiracy theorists: a barrage of abuse, including hysterical claims that we were all in on the plot.

wheres your proof pizza gate is fake cuz the MSM says so?why do u find it soooo hard to believe? Are you one of those sickos ?? — ?????????? (@AngiieStylinson) December 5, 2016









Look at these nut jobs lol I don't know whether to laugh or cry. https://t.co/cjcOMK47Fj — Sharif Silmi (@bayreef) December 5, 2016

Silmi’s decision to single out Alex Jones, a pro-Trump internet radio host who helped amplify the wild speculation about Comet pizza found in 4chan and Reddit threads, led to an extremely bizarre dialogue between the two men on Monday. (Jones featured clips from the interview on his YouTube channel, but the complete exchange is also available.)

After Silmi said that the rumors about something nefarious happening at the pizza place were baseless, Jones — who claims that the September 11 attacks and the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School were staged by the U.S. government — insisted that the online hysteria over the restaurant, which he referred to as an “investigation,” was warranted. “Clearly,” Jones said, “there’s code going on,” referring to mentions of the restaurant and the ordering of pizza in emails hacked from the account of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, and published by WikiLeaks. All he was asking for, Jones said, was law enforcement to investigate the (entirely imaginary) goings on at the pizzeria. Silmi’s conversation with Jones, like my own brief exchange with one of the most prominent boosters of the #PizzaGate hoax — the popular alt-right blogger Mike Cernovich — revealed something interesting about the mindset of those engaged in the vast campaign of disinformation that has helped to elevate Trump to the presidency. They fend off accusations that they are propagandists by claiming to be engaged in investigative journalism.

It's just a few hundred thousand people online investigating this issue. Why so afraid? — FashyFamilyFun (@LordKek2020) December 5, 2016

Cernovich, for instance, accused me of “trying to silence journalists” while demanding to know why I had not reported on Dennis Hastert, the former congressman jailed in April for covering up his sexual abuse of young members of a wrestling team he once coached.

.@RobertMackey You're spending all night trying to silence journalists, but you said nothing about convicted pedophile Dennis Hastert. Why? pic.twitter.com/53ROGcHZXm — Mike Cernovich ???????? (@Cernovich) December 5, 2016