sandy hook parents

UFC Hall of Famer, former WWE star and actress Ronda Rousey had a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Tuesday, August 20, to promote the Kickstarter page for her first graphic novel. But things didn’t go as she planned.

The post was flooded with Redditors asking her about the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 26 people dead, including 20 young students. A month after the tragedy, Rousey posted a link to a YouTube conspiracy video about the shooting that she called “extremely interesting” and “must-watch.”

She deleted the post but didn’t exactly back down from the decision.

The top comments on the Reddit AMA were all about the shooting. “Over a decade ago, you tweeted, ‘I never meant to insult or hurt anyone, sorry if anyone was offended. It was not my intention in the least.’ after sharing a video that you called ‘must-watch’ and ‘interesting’ that had claimed the Sandy Hook School Massacre was part of a government conspiracy,” the top commenter wrote. “Considering 20 children were slaughtered and one was shot as many as 11 times, is it fair to say that you owe a much better public apology than the one you issued?”

Three days after the AMA and 11 years after posting the controversial video, Rousey posted a heartfelt apology on Twitter.

“I can't say how many times I've redrafted this apology over the last 11 years. How many times I've convinced myself it wasn't the right time or that I'd be causing even more damage by giving it. But eleven years ago I made the single most regrettable decision of my life,” she wrote.

“I drafted a thousandth apology to include in my last memoir, but my publisher begged me to take it out, saying it would overshadow everything else and do more harm than good. So I convinced myself that apologizing would just reopen the wound for no other reason than me selfishly trying to make myself feel better, that I would hurt those suffering even more and possibly lead more people down the black hole of conspiracy bullshit by it being brought up again just so I could try to shake the label of being a ‘Sandy Hook truther,’” she wrote.

Rousey sided with those who have criticized her and said she deserved to lose opportunities because of her actions. “But honestly I deserve to be hated, labeled,detested, resented and worse for it. I deserve to lose out on every opportunity, I should have been canceled, I would have deserved it. I still do,” she continued.

Rousey then addressed those who were personally affected by the shooting.

“I can't even begin to imagine the pain you've endured and words cannot describe how thoroughly remorseful and ashamed I am of myself for contributing to it. I've regretted it every day of my life since and will continue to do so until the day I die,” Rousey wrote.

She ended the apology by addressing those who continue to embrace conspiracy theories, warning them to avoid falling into the same trap that she did.

“And to anyone else that's fallen down the black hole of bulls**t. It doesn't make you edgy, or an independent thinker, you're not doing your due diligence entertaining every possibility by digesting these conspiracies,” Rousey wrote. “They will only make you feel powerless, afraid, miserable and isolated. You're doing nothing but hurting others and yourself. Regardless of how many bridges you've burned over it, stop digging yourself a deeper hole, don't get wrapped up in the sunk cost fallacy, no matter how long you've gone down the wrong road, you should still turn back.”

It’s impossible to know what’s inside another person’s heart. But Rousey’s apology did a commendable job of atoning for her mistakes and attempting to prevent others from doing the same.

Ultimately, it’s not up to the general public to decide whether Rousey’s apology was adequate to make up for her actions. It’s up to those who were personally affected by the tragedy, who had to endure countless attacks by conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones. One can hope that the apology provided solace to those who’ve suffered an unimaginable loss and can help prevent others from inflicting the same pain.