Pizzagate Conspiracy Theorists Have Taken Aim At Chrissy Teigen And John Legend

The Pizzagate conspiracy was one of the more shocking and crazy storylines to come out of Election 2016, hitting the mainstream one year ago after a gunman entered Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, DC and fired several shots. The gunman was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison for the act, but the conspiracy has not died down. It continues to pop up and the latest to become targets are Chrissy Teigen and her husband, John Legend, with theorists claiming the pair are part of the conspiracy.

It all seemed to start from a few harmless tweets involving Teigen’s child in some fun costumes, dressed like a hot dog and Alice from Alice In Wonderland. All things that wouldn’t seem odd, but soon the conspiracy theorists entered her timeline and claimed the tweets signaled that the pair were somehow involved in the insane “child sex ring run out of the basement of a pizza parlor” conspiracy. Sometime after the saga of her flight to Japan that turned back halfway, some of them entered the replies.

It seemed to reach a point of frustration for the model on Saturday, leading to her to post and speak out about some of the messages she received.

She also turned her sights on Twitter itself for seemingly condoning the conspiracy theories and their behavior by verifying certain people and allowing harassment to continue.

And it also pulled Legend into the discussion online:

This also highlighted a very informative thread by Alexandra Erin, retweeted by both Legend and Teigen, that probably covers the continued existence of the conspiracy theory better than any explainer you’ll find online. The entire thing is worth your time, but one of the more telling portions is how you can never “clear your name” once accused by the conspiracy theorists:

Here’s the thing. This is full on Kafka territory, and I mean The Trial, not the bug one that everyone knows. There is no way to clear your name to a “court” whose judgments are not based on evidence. Anything and everything will be interpreted in a way that condemns you.

As I said: if someone who has been identified as a “perp” is clearly shown not to be wearing an ankle monitor, this will *not* change the conspiracy theorists’ minds. It will simply be discussed as the newest wrinkle in the “case”.

It’s 21st century Blood Libel, complete with plenty of anti-Semitism (though not exclusively so). And I fear that our country’s clearest, smoothest path to bloody pogroms is already being paved by these people.

Pizzagate has seen a stiff backlash since the Comet Ping Pong incident, even forcing noted Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to disavow it and apologize for helping to spread it. Also, the only person to be arrested in connection with the conspiracy to this point has been the shooter who pled guilty to weapon’s charges back in June.