I love social media and use Twitter throughout the day. But one thing social media does better than almost anything else is provide a seamless way for conspiracy theorists to come together in into one twisted clump of paranoia. It's extremely easy to fall down a rabbit hole of half-baked theories, many of them based on coincidences and suppositions along the lines of "well, where there's smoke, there's fire!
Roseanne Barr's tweets last week about Donald Trump's war on pedophiles might have seemed like a strange thing for her to bring up just a couple of days after the successful launch of the new "Roseanne." But it gave many people their first glimpse into the strange world-theory of "#PedoGate," a collection of seemingly near-random data points that have been assembled Frankenstein-like into the mother of all conspiracy theories. Believers in the #PedoGate theory are convinced there is a world-wide pedophilia ring run by the world's elites. The details vary from person to person, but the overall theory is that organizations like the CIA are funneling thousands of children a year to rings of pedophiles, whose members include everyone from Bill Clinton to Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
I first noticed the #PedoGate hashtag when I was working on a story about Dan Schneider, a longtime creator & producer of teen programs who left Nickelodeon last week after nearly two decades producing shows for the network. No official reason was given for the exit, although the rumors ran the gamut from budget over-runs to vague allegations of "inappropriate" behavior towards some of the cast of his shows.
As I dived into the social media conversations, it was pretty clear that no one posting theories about him had any real evidence (even second or third-hand) that Schneider had done anything wrong. But their gut reaction to hearing he left the network was "See! Another Hollywood pedophile has been uncovered!"
To be clear, at this point I have no idea whether the rumors about Schneider are true or not. I've heard lot of allegations and there are several posts online that purport to be from someone with knowledge about his alleged behavior. But I have yet to speak with anyone who will even admit off the record that they have have something to share. But while I'll dive into that more in another story, it was interesting to me to see how the rumors developed. Which gets us back to #PedoGate and its show business-related sister theory #PedoWood.
From what I can tell, the core #PedoGate theory evolved out of the #PizzaGate conspiracy theory of 2016 and 2017. According to this theory, after John Podesta's emails were leaked by Wikileaks in October 2016, some people began to notice his frequent mentions of food in his emails. They believed the food mentions were code (based in part on some entries in the Urban Dictionary) and the code was being used by John, his brother and others in the Clinton campaign to hide evidence of pedophilia and satanic rituals. I'm going to gloss over a lot of details here, but the theory soon expanded to include the Washington D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong Pizza Parlor. That pizzeria was reported to be the center of a DC-based pedophile ring and I won't even begin to discuss where the theory goes from there. Although my favorite part was the assertion that an email touting Friday's "Chicago Hot Dog Party" was code for "get some kids and come over to the White House for a good time."
When Donald Trump was elected, the #PedoGate theory expanded into an "us vs. them" explanation of how politics supposedly worked. According to believers, Donald Trump has been responsible for more arrests of pedophiles than any politician in history. Critics of the President aren't driven by political differences. No, they're secretly pedophiles or providing political cover for the global elite pedophile rings which secretly rule the media. But don't worry, these believers argue. The mass arrests of the evil will take place next week. Or soon, anyway. The #Pedogate believers also claim John Podesta, Bill & Hillary Clinton and others are already under house arrest or wearing ankle alarms so they can't escape before they are publicly dragged away in chains. And then there's the mysterious (and from what I can tell usually wrong) #QAnon. And the soon-to be coming #TheStorm, which will wipe away all the evil in the country. Sometimes Trump is leading #TheStorm, while others claim he might have been compromised on the "Lolita Express." (Don't ask)
Pedophilia is a serious problem and I don't want to understate the importance of tracking down and prosecuting anyone involved in this loathsome thing. But that doesn't make the #PizzaGate and its big sister #PedoGate theory any less insane.
As the #PedoGate theory expanded in scope, it naturally began to include well-known celebrities. According to the #PedoGate conspiracy universe, code words and message are hidden everywhere in pop culture. The Katy Perry video for the song "This Is How We Do." Yes, the video is loaded with sexual images, but it's not easy to go from that to imagining Katy Perry is pro-pedophilia because the song contains supposed "code words" like "pizza" and "ice cream." Most us would see a story with the headline "Kendell Jenner Shares The Real Reason Behind Her Pizza Nipples" and shrug off the obviously lightweight gossip piece. But a #PedoGate believer looks at the headline and thinks "Pizza is a code word for young girl! She's REALLY talking about abusing girls with her nipples!" And of course, let's not forget the Illuminati.
Many of these theories were posted on social media and included hashtags like #PedoWood, meant to reflect Hollywood's decadent and evil secret abuse of children. Inappropriate contact with underage actors is an ongoing problem in Hollywood. But that issue deserves real scrutiny, not breathless allegations that "Angelina Jolie said in an interview she likes to lick soft ice cream. We all know what THAT means."
