Pizzagate conspiracy theories inspired an armed real-world raid on a pizzeria.

Evidence

In the aftermath of Trump’s victory, conspiracy theories gained alarming traction. One of the most infamous was Pizzagate, promoted by Alex Jones and other right-wing provocateurs. The theory alleged that high-ranking Democrats were running a child sex-trafficking ring out of the basement of Washington, DC’s Comet Ping Pong pizzeria. In December 2016, Edgar M. Welch, a twenty-eight-year-old North Carolina volunteer firefighter, stormed the restaurant armed with an AR-15 rifle, determined to rescue the fictional victims. After firing shots and finding no children—or even a basement—Welch peacefully surrendered, admitting, “The intel on this wasn’t 100 percent.” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 450

Categorization

• CANDY: The surrendered gunman’s deadpan admission that ‘the intel on this wasn’t 100 percent’ is a memorable, retellable anecdote.
• XREF: connects to: Amateur email sleuthing fastened an imagined global pedophile ring onto a real pizzeria. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 223; Pizzagate grew into a global shadow-elite conspiracy theory, not a local scandal — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 237; A loaded-rifle attack on a pizzeria was triggered by viral Pizzagate articles — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 5