Proving yet again how nervous the far right is getting about the momentum survivors of the Parkland school shooting have injected into the gun control issue, several alt-right websites and commentators have compared student David Hogg to Hitler.
On Saturday, Hogg delivered a speech to a massive crowd of an estimated 200,000 people at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington D.C., and at one point, he raise a closed fist into the air.
Alex Jones, founder of the conspiracy theory website InfoWars, took video of Hogg’s speech and dubbed it with audio of a speech by Hitler.
Alex Jones played a video featuring @davidhogg111's #MarchForOurLives speech dubbed over with a Hitler speech https://t.co/icsyQcxG4I pic.twitter.com/3Dt5mhIL4J
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— Media Matters (@mmfa) March 27, 2018
Breitbart and The Daily Wire, also far-right websites, have published articles accusing Hogg of ending his speech with the Hitler salute. Numerous tweets accusing the teen of the same thing have been shared thousands of times.
https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/977662563956633600
Check out this little salute/gesture David Hogg does at the end of his speech. #MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/Tj4EgHhZV2
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 24, 2018
Even more pathetic is the fact that Republican legislators, such as Minnesota Rep. Mary Franson, have used this as a way to attack Hogg on social media. Iowa Rep. Steve King similarly shared an insulting meme about Emma Gonzalez, another Parkland survivor, to mock her after her own speech at Saturday’s march.
By lowering themselves to the point where they’re attacking minors who went through a massive tragedy just weeks ago, Republicans and pro-gun advocates are doing the job of discrediting themselves out of their opponents’ hands.
