News of a shooting at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania broke Saturday and immediately sent social media into chaos, spawning the kind of lies, conspiracies and speculation that have become our new normal.
What happened is sickening. We didn’t have to wait for specific details to know. Hearing the crackle of gunfire and seeing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee—thankfully OK—surrounded by Secret Service agents, rushed off the stage with blood on his face? It’s unthinkable. This is not how America is supposed to work.
But what followed, a few minutes later, was maddening.
The shooting at a Trump rally quickly spawned conspiracy theories on social media
The chaos of the moment, as it still is today, was quickly compounded by speculation broadcast to thousands or millions of people on X, Facebook, and other platforms. It came from all sources—random idiots, pundits, lawmakers—deciding at the very moment they knew exactly what had happened.
Meaningless facts. Opinions and hot takes elevated to levels that were once the sole domain of real, reliable information.
It was that person’s fault. It was that other person’s fault. It’s your fault. It’s their fault.
Americans’ demand for instant answers, fueled by social media, is hurting us all
The news stories have escalated with allegations ranging from an assassination attempt to a staged event. Unbridled bullshit. Cynical manipulation.
Sick, twisted fantasies and attempts at humor – idle chatter that once had no way of entering the mainstream – have been aired in a country where literally everyone must have an opinion in order to achieve any form of social status.
What is wrong with us? How could we let the conspiracy theories and lies that are part of every society become a fire hose?
After the gunshots at Trump’s rally, there was no waiting for the facts
I don’t yet know exactly what happened at the Trump rally, beyond the reports that the former president is fine, that one person at the rally was shot, two others were injured, and that the shooter is dead. That will change as investigators learn more and share it with the public, but in the aftermath of Saturday’s shooting, that’s all we know.
This did not stop people from extrapolating, fabricating, and dramatizing a horrible moment that did not need to be reinforced. The lack of facts was quickly filled with opportunistic bullshit.
As a journalist, as someone whose entire professional life has been anchored in fact, this uncontrollable and all too predictable whirlwind of fiction makes me sick. It has made me sick after more tragic and chaotic times than I can remember. It has made me sick in recent weeks, as everyone has become an expert on the aging and cognitive state of President Joe Biden.
But this moment, even if we do not yet know the motives or the exact details of this situation, demands clarity, unity and attention. For heaven’s sake, we are one nation and we can and must condemn, without reservation, any form of political violence. Period.
The shooting at Trump rally should have made us think, not speculate
And that’s all anyone should have done Saturday, from the moment those shocking gunshots rang out and throughout the night until Americans knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what happened.
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This is not a battle. It can’t be us versus us. We need to reach a point where we put down our phones and shut up. Let the facts come out. Let’s hold back the emotions, the desire for clicks, and the demand for instant gratification that have brought us to this point.
I look forward to every detail of this horrific shooting being revealed so that we can move forward together and do what Americans should do: make things better.
What happened on social media and on television screens across the country in the wake of this shooting only 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 our unwillingness to wait for facts
