For those who have been paying attention to the news lately, the “Pizzagate” scandal can’t have escaped your notice. Many people may find themselves wondering just what Pizzagate is and why it seems to have invaded every area of the internet. For instance, last month over a million messages were left on Twitter under #PizzaGate. Furthermore, Reddit has gone so far as to completely ban the Pizzagate board from their website after a wealth of information and discussion popped up surrounding it.

Pizzagate has become so big now that today, a North Carolina gunman, Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, was arrested after he marched into Comet Ping Pong wielding a rifle in order to investigate the matter for himself. Comet Ping Pong is the D.C. pizza restaurant that is purportedly the center of a pedophilia ring that involves people from the very highest echelons of the Democratic Party.

A gunman at Comet Ping Pong seems like a very convenient engineered plot to paint those exposing #pizzagate as wackos. — indiana jorts (@wienerherzog) December 4, 2016

But to show that things can get even stranger, while it has been said that Pizzagate is nothing but a conspiracy theory and fake news, as the BBC have called it, it is now being suggested that perhaps the armed gunman incident today wasn’t even real news either, as Twitter posters have shown news stories appearing before the alleged incident even took place.

In fact, one Twitter poster in particular put up a screenshot showing that the D.C. gunman was making the news hours before the event was even supposed to have taken place. This Twitter post has since been taken down not long after it was posted and the person’s account appears to have been deleted.

Weird that the gunman at #CometPingPong was called in at 3 PM, but they were reporting on it nine hours ago. #Pizzagate#Pedofiles pic.twitter.com/DFqS4zxIgv — Grace???? (@FranSeenWrites) December 5, 2016

From reading the above, you may find yourself puzzled as to whether Pizzagate is a full-blown conspiracy theory, a conspiracy theory with elements of truth, or a very real story of scandalous proportions. If you’ve become curious now as to just what Pizzagate really is, read on.

Back in early November, WikiLeaks exposed and published a large number of emails from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. One of the contacts of these emails was none other than James Alefantis, the owner of the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington D.C. Coincidentally or not, Alefantis also just happens to be a huge supporter of the Democratic Party. Upon investigation, it was discovered that James had raised money for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and had also been previously involved in a relationship with David Brock, the man who founded the liberal media watchdog group known as Media Matters for America.

But it wasn’t his Democratic Party connections that made some people suspicious. Users of a message board known as 4Chan began speculating that James Alefantis was part of a child sex ring connected to the Clinton Foundation after perusing Alefantis’s Instagram account, as well as the highly-interesting modern art collection found inside of his restaurant. This soon turned into a full-fledged scandal as politicians and Democratic Party donors were thought to be suspected of taking part in this pedophile ring.

John Podesta, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center November 9, 2016 in New York City. [Image by Win McNamee/Getty Images]

James Alefantis, for his part, claims the pictures that people have seen are innocent and that stories revolving around his Comet Ping Pong restaurant and the subsequent Pizzagate scandal are patently false, especially as the sex ring is meant to have taken place deep in the restaurant’s basement.

“They ignore basic truths. We don’t even have a basement. Sometimes an innocent picture of a child in a basket is just an innocent picture of a child in a basket and not proof of a child sex trafficking ring.”

For Pizzagate believers, there have been numerous emails from John Podesta that appear to have “code” words used in them. Words like “pasta,” “ice cream,” “cheese,” and “pizza” have taken on a whole new level of meaning here.

“I consider ice cream, its purchase, and its consumption a rather serious business. We can’t just willy-nilly toss it out and about in casual references, especially linked with the word free.”

Further emails discuss pizza.

“Hi John, the realtor found a handkerchief (I think it has a map that seems pizza-related. Is it yours? They can send it if you want. I know you’re busy, so feel free not to respond if it’s not yours or you don’t want it.”

Then there is the dubious art of choice for Tony Podesta. Tony is the brother of Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. Pizzagate believers have taken offense to the fact that Tony Podesta’s favorite artist is Biljana Djurdjevic, an individual who shows children in shockingly provocative positions. One painting, for instance, shows a young boy who is tied to a wall, while another shows a young girl with her back turned to us, and who is dressed in very little. No one upon looking at these works of art could consider them innocent.

This is the art of biljana djurdjevic, a favorite of Tony Podesta, brother of @HillaryClinton campaign manager @johnpodesta#SpiritCookingpic.twitter.com/dp0CgacsgD — AhnoldSwarthzenegger (@northofdoom) November 5, 2016

Meanwhile, James Alefantis has asked Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook to help stop spreading the Pizzagate conspiracy theory as he says that people are using photographs of his friends and staff’s own children as evidence to support their sex trafficking ring theory. But as more and more media sites continue to debunk Pizzagate, believers continue to find fresh evidence to back up their claims.

[Featured Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]