News of the shooting at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania broke on Saturday, and immediately descended into chaotic social media, giving birth to the kind of lies, conspiracies and speculation that have become normal.
What happened was sickening. We don’t need to wait for specific details to know. Hearing gunshots and watching the presumptive Republican presidential candidate — thanks OK — surrounded by Secret Service agents, run off the stage with blood on his face? It is unthinkable. That’s not how America is supposed to work.
But what followed, within minutes, was terrifying.
The shooting at a Trump rally sparked a quick social media conspiracy
The chaos of the moment, as usual these days, quickly became worse because of the speculation that was launched by thousands or millions on X and Facebook and other platforms. It came from every source – random knuckleheads, pundits, legislators – decided the moment they knew exactly what had happened.
A pointless fact. Opinions and heat take it up to a level that was once the only realm of real, credible news.
This person is wrong. It’s that person’s fault. You are to blame. He is to blame.
America’s social media-driven demand for instant answers hurts us all
The trending topics started with claims of everything from attempted murders to staged events. Unwanted waste. Cynical manipulation.
Sick, twisted imaginations and attempts at humor – pointless conversations that once had no way of entering the mainstream – are thrown into a country where, literally, everyone has to have an opinion in order to gain some social status.
Is it our fault? How do the conspiracy theories and lies that are part of any society drip into the firehose?
After shooting Trump’s rally, no one waited for the facts
I don’t know exactly what happened at the Trump rally, beyond reports that the former president was OK, a person at the rally was shot and killed, two others were wounded and the shooter was dead. That will change as researchers learn more and share with the public, but after Saturday’s shooting, it’s pretty much anyone’s guess.
This does not prevent people from extrapolating, from fabricating, from sensationalizing a terrible moment that does not need augmenting. The untenable reality is quickly filled with opportunistic nonsense.
As a journalist, as someone whose entire professional life has been devoted to facts, the uncontrollable and predictable tornado of fiction sickens me. It has made me sick after more tragic and chaotic times that I can remember. It’s made me sick over the past few weeks because everyone and their uncles are experts on aging and President Joe Biden’s cognitive state.
But this moment – even if we still don’t know the motives or the full details – is one that demands clarity and unity and care. Damn, we are one nation, and we can and should, everywhere, condemn any kind of political violence. Period.
Trump’s rally shooting should give us pause, not speculation
And that’s all he had to do every Saturday, from the horrific, continuous shooting that night and until America knew, without question, what was going on.
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This is not a war. This can’t be us vs. We need to get to that moment when we put down our phones and just shut up. Just let the facts out. Only holding back the emotions and desire click-thirst and demand for instant gratification that has led us to this point.
I look forward to every detail of this horrific shooting so that we can move forward together and do what America is supposed to do: Make it better.
What happened on social media and on TV screens across the country after this shooting all but certainly made things worse.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump rally shooting shows we refuse to wait for facts
