Parkland parents respond to Marjorie Taylor Greene's mass shooting conspiracy theories

The thought of losing a child is too much for most parents to think about. The thought of watching your child being killed on camera is unfathomable.
Linda Beigel Schulman and her husband Michael watched security camera footage of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018. They witnessed their 35-year-old son Scott Beigel, a teacher at the school, usher students into a classroom, away from the gunman. Then they saw the gunman fire at their son six times, saw the blood, saw him collapse to the ground.
Two other teachers and 14 students were shot and killed by the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, that day. Scores of students and teachers survived the terror and horror of fleeing for their lives and watching their friends and colleagues get murdered in front of them. The trauma for survivors and their loved ones was—and is—real.
So what kind of person would spread lies about what happened, criticize survivors for their response, pour salt in those wounds?
Apparently, a sitting member of Congress.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a freshman GOP representative from Georgia, has a history of touting conspiracy theories, especially surrounding mass shootings. She's on video suggesting that the Las Vegas shooting was a planned event to strip Second Amendment rights:
And Media Matters for America has reported on since-deleted Facebook posts that show Greene supporting the conspiracy theory that Sandy Hook and Parkland school shootings were "false flags"—a term conspiracy theorists use when they think the government or some other powerful group stages an event like a mass shooting with crisis actors as means of control.
The Schulmans have something to say about that. Speaking to Olivia Nuzzi at New York magazine, Linda Schulman said:
"Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, the shooting where my son was murdered protecting his students was not a 'false flag.' It was not staged. It really happened. Do not trivialize my son Scott's sacrifice to save his students for your own political gain. As Joseph Welch said to Sen. Joseph McCarthy Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1954: 'Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Have you no sense of decency?' Congresswoman Greene, I ask you the same question. Are you that cruel? HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY??"
Schulman asked Nuzzi, "What do we need to do? Show her the video? Do I need to take her over to Scott's mausoleum? Does she need to see how he was shot six times from three feet away?"
Another Parkland parent, Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed in the shooting, told Politico, "She is going to confront her lies. She is a fraud. She has no place being the halls of Congress. I do intend to bring her evidence of my daughter's murder." Guttenberg has called for Greene's removal from Congress.
Greene is also shown in newly resurfaced video harassing Parkland survivor David Hogg, who has been a vocal activist for gun reform since the shooting and is a co-founder of March for our Lives. This is a grown woman following a teenager who had survived a school shooting, telling him she carries a firearm, peppering him with questions and comments that could easily trigger trauma, and then calling him a coward who is being paid off. Absolutely ridiculous.
Yet another video has surfaced of Greene doing the same thing another time to another group of young gun sense advocates, also including David Hogg, who end up chanting "Enough is enough" to drown out her incessant yammering.
What's perhaps most chilling about these videos is that she appears to have zero empathy and zero acknowledgment of what these kids went through. It's all about the guns. Debating gun laws with people who haven't been through the trauma of a mass shooting is one thing, but following and harassing kids who watched or heard their friends and teachers get shot in front of them at school? That's some next-level inhumanity on display.
Speaking of which, Greene has also indicated support for executing prominent Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, Presidet Obama, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on social media. So that's neat.
How has Greene responded to all of this? A combo of silence and with claiming that the media is out to get her. She explained away the Facebook posts by saying that she's had lots of different people run her social media accounts, which frankly is a cop-out. She did not offer comment on New York magazine piece. At a town hall in her district this week, she refused to hear questions from the press, and in fact, had reporters escorted from the meeting by the sheriff simply for trying to ask a question about it. (She had told the press ahead of time that they were not allowed to ask questions or talk to anyone at the town hall, which is, of course, not how any of this works. It's called the First Amendment.)
And what of the response in Congress? One member, Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) has introduced a resolution to have her removed, as she poses "a clear and present danger to Congress and our democray."
Meanwhile, the GOP has seated her on the House Education and Labor Committee.
Our country has a decision to make. Are we going to accept conspiracy theorists who harass traumatized teens and families and advocate killing other members of our government in the halls of Congress? Is there really no line that can't be crossed by people we put in power?
- She takes photos of survivors of gun violence and hopes they'll ... ›
- Twice as many American children die from gun violence as police ... ›
- Trevor Noah points out the hypocrisy of being pro-life and anti-gun ... ›
- Ex-NRA president duped into speaking to 3,044 empty chairs - Upworthy ›
- Trevor Noah points out the hypocrisy of being pro-life and anti-gun-control. - Upworthy ›
- Town has rule to stop parents from harassing umpires - Upworthy ›
- Biden uses Marjorie Taylor Green speech for campaign ad - Upworthy ›
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."