Current Events > Parkland shooting survivor's father believe it was a hoax after joining QAnon.

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Bills final semester at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was already difficult enough.
He was part of the final graduating class of survivors of the 2018 shooting, and they all had just marked the third anniversary of the day 17 people were killed, nine of whom were Bills classmates.
But Bill also had to deal with his fathers daily accusations that the shooting was a hoax and that the shooter, Bill, and all his classmates were paid pawns in a grand conspiracy orchestrated by some shadowy force.
Bill had worked hard to get over his survivors guilt after the shooting, but for the past five months, his own father has been triggering it all over again.
He'll say stuff like this straight to my face whenever he's drinking: You're a real piece of work to be able to sit here and act like nothing ever happened if it wasn't a hoax. Shame on you for being part of it and putting your family through it too, Bill said in an anonymous post on Reddit last week.
Bill first posted his story on QAnon Casualties, a Reddit thread dedicated to helping family members and friends of QAnon believers.
VICE News spoke to the poster and confirmed the authors claims about being a survivor of the school shooting. Bill is not the students real name as they only spoke to VICE News on the condition of anonymity, citing concerns about attacks from members of QAnon forums if his identity was revealed.
As is true for many who fell down the QAnon rabbit hole in recent years, Bills dads descent coincided with the pandemic.
It started a couple months into the pandemic with the whole anti-lockdown protests, Bill said. His feelings were so strong it turned into facts for him. So if he didn't like having to wear masks it wouldn't matter what doctors or scientists said. Anything that contradicted his feelings was wrong. So he turned to the internet to find like-minded people which led him to QAnon.
But until January, that was as far as it went. Then Bills father saw a video of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene harassing Parkland survivor David Hogg in 2018, while he was visiting Washington to advocate for stricter gun control. Greene has repeatedly voiced support for QAnon and claimed the Parkland shooting was a hoax.
He is a coward, Greene told her followers.
Ever since then, Bills father has become convinced the shooting his son survived was a so-called false flag event and that the shooter was a radical commie actor.
From there it snowballed into what he is today, believing that if the government is able to overthrow an election, then everything else is probably a lie too, Bill added.
Bill is 18, and now that hes graduated high school hes looking to get out of the toxic situation he finds himself in.
I do have options that can have me out before August, which as of now I'm planning to do, Bill said. I've been delaying it because I've felt stuck trying to fix my dad.
But Bill said that after he posted his story on Reddit, members of the QAnon Casualties community have been able to help him push through that obligation I felt and leave before I completely lose my mind, because I'm already halfway there.
Over the course of the last four years, but in particular since the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, the QAnon conspiracy cult has been tearing families apart, and many family members say their loved ones have transformed into different people in front of their eyes.
Burgundy-colored T-shirts [the color shirt worn by the shooter] make me uncomfortable and he used to be so understanding he stopped wearing it around me. That person is completely gone and I miss him so fucking much, Bill said in his Reddit post.
Bill says his relationship with his mother has also suffered.
The relationship with my mom is dependent on whether my dad is there or not, cause then it's pretty much all about conspiracy theories, Bill told VICE News. [The relationship] used to be fine but deteriorating quickly, [especially] after telling her that if she doesn't start putting her foot down, I'm leaving with no interest in seeing my dad again.
But despite the threats to leave home, Bills mother has not stood up to his dad.
It's not really going anywhere because she's too naive to think he'll magically get over wanting to constantly retraumatize me and I'm not waiting around for that, Bill told VICE News.
Bill also says hes been unable to talk to any of his fellow survivors about what he has been going through with this father.
I never talked about it with them, Bill told VICE News. As far as I know he's only held that beliefat least so stronglysince January. Our last semester was difficult enough with Feb. 14 marking 3 years since the shooting, along with emotions leading up to us being the last class of survivors to graduate.
It wasn'tand still isn'teasy to bottle up, but telling them my dad thinks the absolute hell we went through, where nine of the victims were in our class, is a hoax is not a pain I want to put on them. It's difficult enough knowing that belief even exists at all.
At this point, Bill has little hope in ever seeing his father return to the person he was before he became obsessed with QAnon conspiracy theories, and even if he did, too much has happened to ever repair their relationship.
He'll never stop on his own, because there are always new theories and goalposts being moved, Bill said. I don't know how to help someone that far gone. My guess is restricted access to the internet and lots of therapy. But even if there was hope he'd eventually snap out of it, it wouldn't change my mind on never wanting to see him again. So it doesn't really matter anymore.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/epnq84/im-a-parkland-shooting-survivor-qanon-convinced-my-dad-it-was-all-a-hoax?utm_source=vicenewstwitter

Full Post on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/comments/onq9ig/i_survived_the_stoneman_douglas_school_shooting/

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Qanon is poison.

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I mean... even if we suppose for a second that the whole thing was set up by the government / the illuminati / aliens / that creepy dude down the road / CJayC / whoever the latest boogeyman is... that doesn't mean that every person there was in on it. Indeed, I'd think that if someone were actually running a false flag operation, they'd want as few people as possible to know it was staged, rather than literally everyone in a school-sized radius knowing it was fake...

There again, these aren't exactly logical people.

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tag for later
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That's really sad (especially the part about not wearing burgundy) but I agree that leaving now is the best for Bill.

How does this even happen. How does somebody convince a father their high school kid somehow got paid and trained to be a false flag actor in a school shooting without him even somewhat suspect something?

If people would pause and just take a minute to look at things logically they might realize what they are saying makes zero sense.

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Compsognathus posted...

Qanon is poison.

Compsognathus posted...

Qanon is poison.

I am so thankful none of my family is into that poison

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If I was in a situation like that and my father did and said that kind of shit to me, I would orchestrate him going to prison for a very long time.
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Qanon is poison and fulll of pedos

So, where do these people think the "actors who "died" " are? Gone with all the money they got paid? Never existed? If Bill got this money too, why would he still live with his awful father?

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Laserion posted...

So, where do these people think the "actors who "died" " are? Gone with all the money they got paid? Never existed? If Bill got this money too, why would he still live with his awful father?

SSJPurple posted...

If people would pause and just take a minute to look at things logically they might realize what they are saying makes zero sense.

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Laserion posted...
So, where do these people think the "actors who "died" " are? Gone with all the money they got paid? Never existed? If Bill got this money too, why would he still live with his awful father?

SSJPurple posted...
If people would pause and just take a minute to look at things logically they might realize what they are saying makes zero sense.

No, seriously. This must have been asked of them before. And they must have provided an answer. Where do I find it?

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Laserion posted...

No, seriously. This must have been asked of them before. And they must have provided an answer. Where do I find it?

What I've noticed recently is that conspiracists often just go quiet (and act as if they didn't see certain posts) when it gets to the point that they have no meaningful answer. It really makes you wonder just how much of what they're saying they actually believe, although it could be that the ones doing this are the ones knowingly pushing (rather than falling for) the crap.

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There really isn't much you can do at that point except cut ties with him if you can. The father has torn his own family apart.
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Qanon followers need to be launched into the sun

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SSJPurple posted...

How does this even happen. How does somebody convince a father their high school kid somehow got paid and trained to be a false flag actor in a school shooting without him even somewhat suspect something?

If people would pause and just take a minute to look at things logically they might realize what they are saying makes zero sense.

They're too far gone for any logic to get through to them. It's why you have politicians saying that there's Jewish space lasers being used to start forest fires. It's about saying whatever nonsense they wish to be true.

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Tragic for Bill, kid has suffered enough

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Damn that's actually really sad.
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these cults are getting out of hand

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FL81 posted...

these cults are getting out of hand

Agreed
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I'm skeptical this is real.

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Trumble posted...

What I've noticed recently is that conspiracists often just go quiet (and act as if they didn't see certain posts) when it gets to the point that they have no meaningful answer. It really makes you wonder just how much of what they're saying they actually believe, although it could be that the ones doing this are the ones knowingly pushing (rather than falling for) the crap.

The average theorists learn from the grifters that the best way to "win" discussions is to flood the argument with pointless questions and information that's at best tertiary to the event in question. You see this with the JFK assassination, moon landing, 9/11, Pizzagate, and now antivaxxers. There are so many "but what about"s that have been developed for the implicit purpose of overwhelming anyone who tries to reason with them.

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That's just awful. That poor kid.

I'm glad it looks like he's getting out.

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Thats insane.

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The conspiracy nuts who see shootings and scream "Crisis actors!" are already incredibly shitty people, but to do that to your own son is a whole other level of shitty.

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Petri dish logic

Machete posted...

If I was in a situation like that and my father did and said that kind of shit to me, I would orchestrate him going to prison for a very long time.

seek help please, you sound like a ticking bomb

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/400-current-events/79583768

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Hornswoggled posted...

I'm skeptical this is real.

Why are you skeptical?

@Hornswoggled

Pretty soon, it's going to reach a tipping point with these QAnon nutters.

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Compsognathus posted...

Qanon is poison.

Giving everybody unfettered access to social platforms is poison.

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I would hate to be the kids father, having to deal with a trauma like that and then being told it was a hoax. I blame people like Alex Jones for peddling this nonsense. In fact the only reason he peddle that nonsense because it made guns look bad.

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Doom_Art posted...

I am so thankful none of my family is into that poison

This, I have Trump supporters in my family but they never went down that hole. Thankfully since he's out of office they have more or less stopped taking about him rather than doubling down.

Maybe he has early onset dementia.

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