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OPINION

Thursday, May 9, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

I

n America, shootings have 
become part of the news cycle. 
There is a breaking news alert, 
followed by an outpouring of sup-
port, condolences and appeals for 
stricter gun policy. We continue 
to hear about it as the media gains 
more information on the event — 
the victims, the shooter, the town 
where it happened. We sometimes 
hear from the victims directly. 
But then, like all things, it eventu-
ally dwindles. And with each gut-
wrenching, breaking news alert, 
we slowly adjust to a world in 
which this is normal. Today is the 
129th day of 2019 and, already, 132 
mass shootings where four or more 
people were shot have occurred in 
America this year. Despite the value 
of each unique human life and each 
unique 
circumstance, 
shootings 
occur in America so often that, with 
every bullet and every life lost, we 
become increasingly desensitized 
to the appalling acts of hate that 
plague our nation with increasing 
frequency.
On April 27, 2019, a shooting 
occurred at a synagogue in Poway, 
California, 
where 
worshippers 
gathered on the last day of Passover. 
Three people were injured and one 
woman was killed — Lori Gilbert 
Kaye, who was shot as she prepared 
to say the traditional prayer for her 
late mother. Any loss of life or inten-
tionally inflicted harm is tragic, but 
even more so when motivated by 
intolerance and hate.
As I have observed the ebb and 
flow of gun terror and hate crimes 
in America, I’ve noticed a pat-
tern in how people react. More 
often than not, when people post 
on social media or speak out about 
one of these events, it is when their 
identity is the one that is attacked. 
While I have never been religious, 
the Jewish identity I inherited from 
my mother’s family is something 
that will always be a part of me. The 
history of anti-Semitism is long and 
violent with Jews being discrimi-
nated against, displaced, targeted 
and even killed. Even though I am 
not religious, even though my father 
is not Jewish, it would not make a 
difference in the eyes an anti-Sem-
ite. For the shooter of the Chabad of 
Poway synagogue, it would not have 
mattered.
This is not the only reason why I 
am driven to speak about the shoot-
ing. I speak about the shooting not 
just because I am a Jewish person, 
not just because I am an American, 
but because I am a human being. I 
may be more directly impacted by 

the hate perpetuated against those 
in this synagogue than those shot in 
two of New Zealand’s mosques, but 
both are tragic, and both deserve 
condemnation. All shootings, espe-
cially those motivated by hatred 
towards certain groups, are tragic, 
despite the seemingly endless slew 
of them in America.
The importance of diversity and 
the influence of different identi-
ties such as religion, ethnicity and 
nationality are essential. They are 
what make America such a spe-
cial country. American culture is 
defined not by a singular legacy, but 
rather by the mixing of many dif-
ferent ones. Our differences enable 
us to learn from and grow closer to 
each other. But, in a world where 
marginalized identities are con-
stantly on the defense, we are losing 
one of the most beautiful aspects 
of what makes us human: empathy. 
By emphasizing the cultural, racial, 
ethnic and religious differences that 
distinguish us in response to the 
hostilities that permeate society, we 
are losing the ability to empathize 
and identify with other humans.
But we can do amazing things 
when we come together, defending 
the freedom so fundamental to our 
country not just for our own com-
munities, but for those of all groups. 
After the Tree of Life shooting, 
Muslim groups raised $150,000 for 
the victims. And when two mosques 
in New Zealand were targeted, the 
Jewish Federation of Greater Pitts-
burgh raised money for New Zea-
land’s Muslim community. Not only 
are we at our strongest when we are 
able to look beyond our own identi-
ties, but it is imperative that we help 
and defend each other in order to 
truly work towards equality.
The other day, I was talking about 
politics with my grandmother, who 
is Republican, on the phone and 
she said something that struck me. 
As we discussed the inequality and 
violence in today’s America, she 
said, “We’re all American. It doesn’t 
matter where you go to pray.” 
We’re all American, but even 
more 
fundamentally, 
we’re 
all 
human. We need better gun con-
trol laws, but that’s not all; Amer-
ica needs to address the thriving 
intolerance, hate and violence. We 
must realize that, while America’s 
strength is in our diversity, our 
greatest weakness is when we allow 
our individual identities to separate 
us.

Another shooting. I can’t say I’m surprised

OLIVIA TURANO | COLUMN

Olivia Turano can be reached at 

turanoo@umich.edu.

SAMANTHA DELLA FERA | COLUMN

B

enjamin Franklin once 
said there are two things 
that are certain in life: 
death and conspiracy theories. 
OK, that may be paraphrasing 
but, when it comes to American 
society, it’s true. Conspiracy 
theories have become so deeply 
ingrained in the history of the 
United States that the majority 
of Americans don’t know what to 
believe. Was JFK’s assassination 
more than a one-man job? More 
than half of Americans think 
so. Did the real Paul McCartney 
die and get replaced by a fake 
Paul or “Faul”? Even I believe 
that one (a little bit). Conspiracy 
theories are as American as 
deep-fried Oreos and NASCAR, 
but, as fun as they are to joke 
about, they can have dangerous 
consequences on the American 
psyche and the people being 
conspired about.
The talk of conspiracy theo-
ries was recently revived with 
the #FreeBritney trend blow-
ing up on Twitter. If you haven’t 
been following this roller coast-
er of information, the story goes 
that, after the 37-year-old singer 
checked herself into a mental 
health facility following the 
declining health of her father, 
someone claiming to be a former 
member of her team went on a 
fan contest to say Spears’s hos-
pital check-in wasn’t by her own 
doing. Apparently, all of Spears’s 
choices were orchestrated by 
her family and her management 
team, following a legal device 
called 
conservatorship. 
This 
led to an outcry among fans, 
protesting in Los Angeles and 
sharing stories on Twitter about 
strange behavior they witnessed 
from Spears’s team. Spears, of 
course, has denied that she has 
no control over her life, but this 
just ignited the #FreeBritney 
movement even more.
And that is the exact problem 
with conspiracy theories — they 
can never be stopped. Once the 

idea gains ground, anyone trying 
to reject the theory is just anoth-
er part of the conspiracy. Spears 
went on Instagram to address 
the rumors, but fans and follow-
ers alike claimed this was just 
another example of her not being 
in control of her life. Conspiracy 
theories feed off of their deniers 
and, when they fester, they can 
cause real-life consequences.
When Hillary Clinton was 
running for president, a theory 
went viral that she was involved 
in some sort of child sex ring/
human-trafficking ordeal that 
involved a pizzeria in the Wash-
ington D.C. area. To most of us, 
that sounds absolutely absurd. 
However, right-wing media out-
lets, including former Trump 
White House Chief Strategist 
Steve Bannon’s passion proj-
ect Breitbart News, spread the 
theory 
and 
many 
far-right-
wingers believed it. The theory 
went so far, in fact, that a young 
man armed with an AR-15 rifle 
opened fire in the pizza shop to 
“investigate” the claims. Fortu-
nately, no one was injured.
So why do these conspiracy 
theories exist? Studies show 
that trust in the government 
has been on a decline since the 
Nixon 
Administration. 
With 
this lack of trust comes skepti-
cism and cynicism, and with 
skepticism and cynicism comes 
the belief that the government 
or other public officials are hid-
ing something. It’s only natural 
to want to fill in the blanks.
Conspiracy theories can be 
fun sometimes. Did The Beatles 
leave clues about Paul’s death in 
their music? I don’t know, but it’s 
entertaining to look for them. Is 
Madonna a lizard overlord sent 
to control humankind from the 
inside? Probably. These theories 
may be ridiculous but they’re 
fun — they cause no harm. The 
danger is when we allow our 
theorizing nature to seep into 
our politics, to treat politics as 

if it comes with the same drama 
and absurdity that pop culture 
does.
Trust in our pop culture fig-
ures is not vital to the struc-
tural foundation of this country. 
Roseanne Barr is not the one 
deciding what I can and cannot 
do with my body — and thank 
god for that. I don’t need to have 
faith that Jennifer Aniston won’t 
start a war in Iraq or that Alec 
Baldwin won’t cut social secu-
rity. However, losing trust in the 
government and living under 
the notion that the government 
is constantly hiding something 
from you damages civic effi-
cacy and in turn damages our 
democracy. Why would I vote 
if I think that, no matter who I 
want in office, there is a myste-
rious board of people really run-
ning the scene? Why even bother 
to cast a ballot in the primary if 
all candidates are lizard-people 
anyway? These sound like silly 
examples, but up until these 
past midterms, voter turnout 
followed the same downwards 
trend as trust in the government.
I don’t want conspiracy theo-
ries to end — I find them fasci-
nating, and what else could I find 
over 700 words to write about? 
But we must get to a place where 
we can separate our friendly, 
funny theories of quirky celebri-
ties with harmful, chaotic ideas. 
Politics is not pop culture and vice 
versa, but the way we treat one 
has dire effects on the way we see 
the other. When the CNN website 
looks like a screenshot from The 
Onion, it is easy to lose trust in 
your government, to theorize why 
things are the way they are. It is 
important not to get caught up in 
that, to know that the people who 
can change the country and con-
trol the things that happen aren’t 
a board of mysterious figures in a 
back room, but in fact all of us.

Britney Spears, Breitbart and America’s risky conspiratorial nature

Samantha Della Fera can be 

reached at samdf@umich.edu.

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