space in our country after sandy hook have emboldened to reject the facts in existence on white supremacy covid masking and vaccination and the validity of our elections. elizabethh williamson is a future writer and former editorial board member from the "new york times". she has previously written for the "washington post" and wall street journal. will be joining conversation. now please join me in welcoming elizabeth williamson. try my luck after the work and had to clean up it's a very good report of introduction. elizabeth that i've talked a lot over years about this topic. i would sit near and dear to my heart but i'vey been especially troubled by what is happening how it was amplified hates and one of the first instances of this was sandy hook. i was interviewing kathy griffinn was put on the no-fly list et cetera, et cetera became the subject ofut death threats and stuff like that. no she's funny but her story is not as funny. you see it reiterating in places many years ago in sandy hook was probably the most reprehensible version of it. although january 6 is in competition how much our society and the way we talk to each other has changed so dramatically precluding conspiracy theories running wild as part of the politic including everywhere. nursing a lot in ukraine. it is one lie after another. anyway, this book is amazing. it is depressing but it is also very clear what we havee to do about it. i'm excited to talk about this. i'm going to read very quickly thehe key line i like to start from there. driven by ideology or profit ouor for no sound reason at all conspiracy theorist would use technology to create to unite the world to hunt and attack vulnerable people. it is happened many times since but sandy was a first massive tragedy to spawn hostile to reality and his messengers. the mainstream media, law enforcement of the families of the dead the torment by deniers had immeasurably to the pain. the decades distant san hicks dan is important in the warning power of the unquenchable fire lies delete the fire levels of decency and tradition to engulf accepted and established science inch left the foundations of our democratic institutions. this book tells the truth ofta how it happened. so let's start with that. we talked about this matter on twitter i went to get into what happened focus on electrodes and others. talk about the bigger picture for people here in terms of why this was a she sent a canary in a coal mine. i interviewed who son know what was murdered. talk a little bit about that. money was a sandy hook dad who son, no was thehe youngest sandy hook victim. yet a background. he is interested c in computers when the computer industry was in his infantry and infancy he knew how the algorithms propelled lies on the socialso media platforms and feed them to millions of people. so he was the one who told me this is not a one-off that was spurred by sandy opinion watershed moment from a gun-control battle for example. what this really was was a foundational story of how people were willing as you say group of people were willing to just deny accepted truth in fact and science. moves from pizza gate, kick you in on, to coronavirus to januarye 6 everywhere the steps of the capitol. i remember in january 2021 i remember i was trying to finishti the last couple of chapters and i'm thinking for crossing and a little but i want this to is so i turn on cnn people are scaling the walls of the capitol. i was thinking i guess this to be the last chapter in the book. it was exactly the same delivery message off to the same characters and people spreading the wise. >> tells how began one of the things was interested in conspiracy theory it was a raffle for the loan landing? conspiracy theories are not given chico this is not a new thing. they have been around since the beginning of time essentially. tran 91 of the interesting things i learned was america has always been an conspiracy nation. one of the historian i spoke with catherine olmsted as we are a nation of immigrants. we sort of define ourselves and create her own identity by defining the o other. that taken a step further means demonizing the other. that was something that sort of l troop people. this is a little different. it wasn't just keeping a check onr y government state governmet does light. we have been instances of it happening. this was never trusted the government voice and distrusting the official narrative. always think that narrative is something to be denied. there've been plenty of things the government is the course ofng the years about various things. there's dozens and dozens of examples. what company he missed russians i don't trust. >> he had its roots in the early 90s. it was always distrustful of government. identified with the white christian nationalist movement out west. after the branch davidian compound the waco he rebuilt the davidian church but he raised $93000 with an effort in group of volunteers. he had strong ties to that world which almost by definition was distrustful of government o. keep out of our business. he appealed to them was a celebrity among the crowd. they were kind of his core audience. >> one to get that way from yourly perspective? >> it's hard to know i struggle with trying who is alex jones? and what everyone knows who alex jones is correct? which was not the case. seven years ago this entire room would be i don't know who is that? what is hard to exactly. he is conspiratorial by nature. one of his employees told me it doesn't really matter alex jones believes what he says. it matters what his listeners do. there were millions of them. they were willing to defend that withri violence. he's offering fringes of me get thee time. i was completely struck by the end of early conferences i was noticing the right going with dragon rather well online. it was because i didn't zero of other media. here they found a very fertile ground to get -- backtalk radios in the area. which was jones. alternative meat is what they were looking for. some factory the word out undercover. >> is i like to listen to alex jones run drug between clients he represented to the other side of information that was before alex jones got abducted. what did he like about it? works to him as an intellectual exercise. but if you looked at what the government said about the moon landing? we look at what the conspiracy their essay. how is a sausage made? how did they figure out what is the basis for their doubt being photographed, he thought it was fun to just look at those things he didn't think it was toxic in any way. and what know at that time alex jones from his association he definitely was a different person who is a lot less toxic and broader than he was on 2020. >> at shifted from those cap things are propaganda angle. the idea of client fake news i caught propaganda news. lies is another way toe put it. some are purposely done for propagandalu purposes. sometimes propaganda to drive an agenda. not negative this early. he is in fact underdogs was actually true for this loud bells and whistles that go along that i'll get tod. that second period the idea was this guy was doing this step in living along the edges pretty new so they take himself aboard. explain how that happened for this tragedy happened on imaginable foros everybody. talk about how it unfolded. >> sure. the whole internet and why this one. why did this get that kind of attention? german argosy everyone in this room knows and can probably remember where you were when this happened. on imaginable crime the slaughter of 21st read is trying to hide in their classroomsec. in the six women who try to protect them. initially the parents themselves couldn't. and the people around them. they told me about how they would wake up, even today and say that was a nightmare. then realize no actually it is my life. i think there were a number of people who congregated online essentially moms who had children around that j age. they just could not believe it. they would show up there as it biggest tonight at the time, people on facebook? >> there hundreds and gather at night. they would talk all night long. they would show up usually after work, come in and out and exchange their theories. we talked about this the earliest facebook groups were quilting and knitting groups people who had when i meant for time he then you need a quilting group admitting school for aol online. it was lonely they were locally people they kept stroking and they gave cookies and it was lovely it was lovely. then it turned ugly quickly and that was the idea communities of people would come together online. it was a very active among gay people for example who could not together etbl cetera. is a great way to solve the problem of like-minded people for like-minded interests protect building each other up. that is that you're using it really was the same kind of impulse. gather online, each of the club. the percentage traveled by and thee helicopter? i did cottage? it's on plan in advance? or the police doing? who's in the woods? everybody had a piece of thisyo crazy quilt of the sandy hook were building called the conspiracy blog. overview of fact emerged. this is history and crime is the goldens state killer there's all kinds of stuff around police work that actually end o up. >> there's true crime groups at the time. it was billing the whole body reof conspiracy going to ms. young mom showed up on their i'm here for anybody who could tell he somehow this didn't happen then wrote about her own children. estreatment let me described as a poor form of ptsd. these particularar individuals and i think we suffer a little of that. that was one part of the group. they fell away pretty quickly. there prettyty easily convinced himself to join this group 19 to try to present the records of knows life and death rate of birth certificate, his postmortem exam from a school record to say look, here i am. i'm using my power as a grieving father. i'm going to answer questions going to give you this material. you can examine it. happy to answer any question you have. along these younger moms were convinced. click on insert joining him in a separate group. that left the wrong group of hard-core conspiracists. there, alice john so then he took a hole about what happened. treatment those individual became alex jones content providers for they were the people who were showing up but newtown to do some time saying how long the families around. extendingta endless public records request from the grisly details of the crime and photos of what and publish them. there are people who were just harassing the families to no end. both online and increasingly in person. i treatment they would show up this could be truer going to prove it. on the other thing is just like the aol thing you have people in this tight cohesive group building each other up, supporting each other, exchanging information. people are not isolated. they hand you xerox sheet on the subway or crazy uncle who would call you at the family reunion for jfk theories. nothing found of the magic of social media that all college of their common exchange their theories they create a bonds among themselves. so anybody who is their dissent actually this is the truth is this what happened happened. no, here are myoc documents. with it right first responder or another participant or they were a parent, they were villains and they were threats. they would break what they were doing they had to be done was righteousrt presumably. it wasls a form of psychic income they'd never gotten. >> also income, income. talk about the money alex jones made out to be a platform of secondary and i cannot people say just act in question to wonder what's going' on. that's an excuse for a lot of stuff very famously carlson does a, thought that it was joe rogan does it sometime. terminological second just asking questions which i never say by the right. ngsome asking questions. jena i am asking questions of basin best opposed to doctor carlson and sean hannity two. when he was doing this he was making money. he started doing it at look good ratings, right?? correct? not really but this case he saw the numbers,ed correct? alex tran seven called on the carpet for this run 2014 -- 2015 or 16 he had two things. one is that he did not come up with these theories he is repeating plans of others. if you listen to the broadcast from that day within hours of sthe shooting he had started to say this is a plot to get americans guns. that was false. ther other thing was i never make any money from this. as a matter fact these kinds of controversial theories -- mike i lose listeners. that's awfully wrong. : : : 50 million viewers a month. wow. yeah and money. and money, you know, so the first thing i had to go on were records from his divorce in 2013-2014 and there he had his personal income was five million dollars a year, but now some records have started to emerge just in the last several days. actually that suggests that during the trump presidency, which was when alex jones presidency which is when alex jones was riding high he had revenues of more than $50 million a year. >> so 50 million. much of it sandy hook. >> genius business model. all he was doing was he sells products that are absolutely geared to the paranoia and fears of his audience. so it's dry food for your doomsday shelter, untraceable gun components you have a weapon you don't need to register when the end of times comes, vitamin supplements and diet supplements for people who don't trust traditional medicine, fluoride free toothpaste because the government puts fluoride in your toothpaste meant to rock your brain. so he sells this from a warehouse $50 million a year. >> so he's taking advantage of and products at the same time using crap to sell that crap. >> perfect. so then he used social media platforms to do this. he also started appearing on mainstream media whether it was megan kelly, he was on joe rogan, a lot of different places so that is oneea part but online was important he was to the same tactics for january 6th which turned out to be one of those organizers. talk about that and then what the platforms did or did not do. >> his early business model again pretty genius, he modeled it after gary allen who in 1971 wrote a sort of conspiracy blaming bankers saying that they ares the ones behind american policy not elected officials. he used to sell his theories and he was of the john birch society of the far right and he used to sell his theories on video cassette tapes and through mail order and that is how alex jones started to soak he and his ex-wife would create these films from globalists and they would not only send them out to you if you contacted them by phone or later on their website but they encouraged that people that bought them pass them around and let your friends see them and that was exactly asthe verbiage that he was using during 2020 and the run-up. >> thatt they were using these platforms. >> yes which was exponentially obvious and one of the arguments, they went there because it allowed a them to do this at a much faster rate without any tracing and any kind of editorial you in anonymity. >> they complained to the platforms and i'm not surprised, but explain what happened. >> that's how many laws there are governing the tech companies. one is very good for them, but to go ahead. >> so, he tried to get this material taken down. so to back up for a second, alex jones material he started to put every broadcast on youtube and his youtube videos were racking up a billion views for example. he had a twitter account and all the things of everybody that wants to spread this stuff now so he just exponentially that kind of prepared him for a where he washe in the trump presidency and put this stuff out online. >> at the time there were the three that were the most important. he was putting the videos on and doing that. >> then he just couldn't believe it. if there was a memorial page that had photos with sisters, family videos. he owns that stuff but the conspiracists were going on and taking that and lifting the material and putting it into the videos and websites. he used the copyright laws to get that stuff taken down, so thatut was the first real effective thing. but when he went to feel for them directly, he got an automated message. he described it as standing in front of iron doors and door knocking and no one, you can't even make it heard this is a bunch of lies, et cetera. this got no reaction from any of them, correct? >> so he went to copyright. that is the only law that they are bound by. >> what did you think of this and what did he think of it? you called me like why are you doing this? they are not to be governed by anybody but themselves. and as you said, these are the analogy that sticks with me that mark zuckerberg built the city without police or fire departments, without sewage treatments, without trash pick pickupand we all have to live i. what happened to shift that because he didn't get them to start to pay attention. >> public shaming, and in the book there is a great incident where cara interviewed about alex jones and asked him before you even sat down and out before they were even recording such. he said that's ridiculous. and he said no, you are. essentially he said he was going to make me and i said me. i brought it up right away. and thinking that he would avoid that question of alex jones, they segued right over to the holocaust. of those people are just mistaken. he said they don't mean to lie and i felt it was the definition of the holocaust. i wasn't surprised by what they did. we were talking about alex jones and he felt uncomfortable because at the time it was getting a lot of attention. he said let's move onto the on e like no. and i was instead of saying this, of course they need to lie. that's the little game and i said interesting. please go on. were you surprised because you were right in the midst of this that he actually said the quiet part out loud. >> it's just like what facebook used to say in those times were a little earlier we will never play by china's rules. so this was something that he really picked up on him and he did an op-ed in which he called him out on the holocaust lie and you're not even protecting people that are targeted by holocaust deniers and we are even lower down the food chain and that got another reaction. within a month, alex jones was off of facebook only because apple did it first. they wereus like dominoes. thenth twitter did it and the others. they were not going to do it without apple doing it, 100%. so, we are going to get some questions from the audience. where are we now on this and i think you moved from surprised that they are doing this to how it ended up because the sandy hook page is gone. what about all this material? >> the facebook page was gone but whenat we did our first conversation about the book, the hoax,cc the twitter account suddenly disappeared. oso it's pretty amazing how little they do to try to police. >> do you give them any excuses why there's so much information because it's happened in covid, vaccines, elections, it happened january 6th. it's now starting. were theret other mass shooting? so, what do you imagine has to happen becausehi they are trying by immediately pulling it down. i use to call myself the call center for these places. the kind of thing i would call and say the one i had is when i called it was sheryl sandberg and i said hillary clinton is not a lizard. i've never met her. s?can you take down all these conspiracy theories and it's under her skin. it ultimately led to that. what do you imagine they areat going to do now, what do you think is going to happen? he's doing this a group where he tries to expand it. what happens next from your perspective? >> on alex jones at the end of last s year there were four separate lawsuits filed by the families of ten victims. alex jones has lost the suits because he refused to cooperate and give his business records or provide adequate depositions. so he basically just they wanted so it's a sweeping victory for ithe families. but it means that now the trials will begin so the juries will set the damages. all that he is lost in all the juries have to do is decide how much he should pay them in damages. >> and he will declare bankruptcy. >> he's already scurrying and running into setting up and juggling a web to try to hide his income. >> out of then the pain these families continue. now it's moved to a policy level because sadly they are joined by many more people that have been wronged by the same things. there are some interesting moves on section 230 that is the shield of the platforms have that keep them from being sued for defamation themselves. it's a very early law that protects and gives a broad immunity and not just at tech companies, but it was able to allow the internet to take off. and the question if you pulll it off whatod will happen because there are good arguments. >> what do you imagine happening other than i am going to ask the question. >> i think it is anyone's guess. the reason i wrote this book and i was so compelled to get this into the world is these familier shared with me the worst day of their lives because they feel like if people read this book and get mad they will push for some kind of policy change. andd i think that's what i hoped for. >> the department of information security, you know, what are the department of information be able to secure the platforms or come up with some kind of broad fixes. we can be pessimistic about this, but at least people are talking about it and there seems to be some bigger brains in the room now and it does seem that the platforms are notn able to just shut the iron doors on anybody with a complaint anymore. he got the phone number. he really felt like i'm going to, you know, i'm going to make this my life's work, but is it fair that a grieving parent should make it his life's work to get these platforms to behavh themselves? and this is ongoing. >> know i would be 15 this year in november 20th he would be 15. >> 15. >> so this is how long it's been going on. i want you to answer the final question i have and it was about trump and twitter and he violated the rules almost continually. a high-profile example that he broke the rules. that's alld he did. he broke the rules they don't enforce. okay it so happens in recent weeks including at a fancy pants washington dinner this last week testing companions with a hypothetical scenario. my promise had been to ask what the twitter management should do if mr. trump loses the election and then tweets and accurately the next day and for the rest of the month that there had been widespread fraud and people should rise up in armed insurrection to keep him in office. most people i pose the question to head to the same response, throw him off twitter for inciting violence and if you said he shouldld temporarily be suspended and very few said he should be allowed to use the service without repercussions because he's no longer the president. ten visual asked me what i would do. my answer, i would never let it get this bad to begin with. i wrote this in 2019. this was a year and a half before this happened. i got called by the executives and this is of course what happened. how is it to get this bad to begin with and for me this was the moment if we tolerate this information, how do you think we fix it? >> i don't know. i do think the platforms are so enormous and we talked about this in the interview for the book that they are so large that even if they wanted to, even if they were forced to, they wouldn't be able to remove all this content. saso, it does make them think ad say blow it up and start over. so, i don't know. >> do you think the living it up and starting over would be a better solution? >> they were some of the smartest fingers on it, so it is the biggest experiment in the human communication that has failed. there are some people, i have a star wars theory where i think it started off as star trek where everyone gets along and even, the villains get turned to good and then there's star wars where everybody dies. you know what i mean, like nobody comes out well. of the empire is always striking back. ti think we live in star wars d i'm not sure what to do about that. so, let me ask some questions. this is jennifer griffin is here. >> she's amazing. i've been sending her love letters on the internet because -- >> believing your power is for good. anyway, fantastic national security reporter. she's wonderful. was there any link to alex jones, what percentage were bought and to what degree is russia behind this conspiracy theory in america? >> great question. >> so, alex jones, we left this part out of the narrative, was a regular on our team, so he would get up, rushahd today, kremlin selected. he would get out in the middle of the night. heat was eager to expand the platform by whatever means necessary. he's been a putin fan and apologist from the start. he admires that and i think, and we've talked about this when i was a reporter in eastern europe, even then it wasn't terribly long ago, it would have takenry a pretty sophisticated foreign adversary to show the kind of disinformation that we are doing ourselves. and if we are worried about russia interfering in the next election,dy don't worry about it because we've already done it and we will do it again. >> i asked him when i interviewed alex jones i asked about russia and he said absolutely bananas. it was the only time during the interview that heha truly lost , and it made me wonder you know, what is your relationship there. it was either that he thought just that association but a sort of ruin him with his audience, or there is something there but f.i don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist myself. i don't really know. if they felt the pregnant women being evacuated and said russia hadxa been canceled. it's ridiculous to use a term like that. about that's one of the reasons alex jones was on was to talk aboutt american mayhem. there's nothing better than to broadcast news outside in russia about american gun related mayhem. one of the things, i did a story. remember roseanne barr said of that terrible thing and then samanta be a week later said something not very nice. they were the same. they were like getting on both sides. she was right. no, she's terrible, and they were all from the same company doing it and then she always gets involved. so they started the fight. the same companies did the same othing so they just wanted to create mayhem which to me felt like it was the internet, the thing that does this. and russia uses contractors. what groups are disproportionately affected, minorities, women, low income, lgbtq et cetera, all the above. and how. >> all really all the above because an essential element of the conspiracy theory is demonizing so you pick a group and you hold them out and it wae the families, the first responders that represented the good of the case, the facts and the truth and in all of these other theories alex jones is a i master of this. every time he's demonized a certain group. he said he was importing immigrant rapists into the united states. it's always about the demonizing one of these groups. >> whatever it happens to be but they don't care because it's what averted cells. >> an arrangement is engagement. >> there's been a lot of discussions about the restoration of trust in america based on the reporting what do you believe we need to do to improve trust in institutions like the government and each other? >> that's a big question. >> we could have a whole other program on that. >> it's interesting bringing together nato. most people agree which is sad. >> that kind of unity has a salutary effect of course. one of the worrisome things astr the erosion to the mainstream media because as one of the sandy hook lawyers put it, if there are no arbiters of truth, then anybody can be an arbiter of truth and that's what this is, sos meaning everybody has owtheir own set -- people do not even agree on a. basic set of facts. >> gap. do you have an answer? >> i wish i knew. >> it's interesting when ngeveryone is getting different silos. it's something mark and i used to talk about bringing everyone together. all you are doing is creating silo after c silo. cable news and everywhere. the literacy, what age to start teaching young people and how and our adults a lost cause? [laughter] >> my mother is. [laughter] i pointed her to you, jennifer. [laughter] >> how do we restore the trust in the media? for media literacy. >> i do see even among my own boys that are both here -- >> how old are they? >> david is 18, and charlie is 25? [laughter] now they are like tell our birthdays. >> yeah, i was there. theyi' both just head of their birthday so i'm still doing last year's math. >> but they are highly skeptical both of their own views and what they read online, and i think that is healthy. >> two of my kids are -- >> how old are yours? >> i have the older ones 16 and 19, the others can't read. although i had a big argument he's like you think your baby knows and i'm like my bb can't read. [laughter] but they have i the same thing this idea that young people are more critical of believing anything online. and in the book there's some really interesting research on something that is about teaching people how the sausage is made so they can recognize the elements of the conspiracy theory and they are less likely to share it and more likely to and make it harder to share. there's a lot of things you really want to do do you really want to share. >> i loveng that. that is a study and a lot of work being done out of cambridge and i think that is fascinating because it uses that -- one of the things that drives these conspiracists ishe the possessin of superior knowledge. so if they feel like when they get online i've done this little study and played this game because they've done it through online games, i know what that is. if they can use their own character traits in order to turn them against. >> but do you think some of the warnings they have like twitter has one if you are angry are you sure you want to share it, are iyou sure you want to do this, maybe you haven't read this. that's like putting a twinkie on a plate saying are you sure you want to eat this? [laughter] you're on twitter let me just hang on. such a waste. at the least possible thing to do and typical. can you talk about how you discovered the story and decided to pursue it? >> in may to 2018 when the first two, well, the families of two victims who were killed and the parents ofed jesse lewis that ao died at the sandy hook, when they sued alex transfer defamation in texas and made the 2018, i thought this is a very interesting test of the first amendment all around. and that is when i first got involved in it. but that was when i went to talk to the lawyers and them i spoke, that's when i realized this is a much bigger story even then. it's what's symbolic of what we are all going to live through. it's to provide a platform meaning we are just a benign platform. how is mark zuckerberg no worse than alex jones and is it worse given the goal to profit from facilitating propaganda, lies and hate? that's a good question. >> i'm going to ask that one of him. >> he is never giving you another interview. [laughter] that didn't turn out well for him either. oh well. i can see why people argue that. it's one thing to know. we have time for one more. okay. go ahead. i think that is a legitimate argument, he knows what is going on. it's been too long. he knows what he's created. he can't control it and he's one of the richest people in the world. i'm going to ask one more question. okay they are also good. sorry we didn't get to do more. did pointing to a different uraspect changed your view about our society and leave you more or less hopeless and how did you keep despair at bay more or less how did you keep despair at bay while writing this book? >> it is an incredibly depressing topic. >> i always feel a little uncomfortable and a lot of people have asked me that. i was just telling the story today of a woman i know that said that woman over there in the salon she wrote this book about sandy hook and they thought this woman must be a downer. >> she is not a downer. >> i'm a midwestern pollyanna. actually, no, you know i will say that it was the grace of these families. they i, always say when people say my god that must've been so hard i just say imagine living it. youhe know. they s shared this and i will sy it again. they shared these moments because they want all of you to do something. to me, that is the most inspiring thing. they have hope that things like what terror does, or this book will inspire somebody to take some action. so they have faith actually. despite all these efforts to undermine our democracy, to lie about the deaths of the children, they believe, they still believe. and so, how can we give up, how could i. >> last thing, what can these people do. >> right to your congressman. >> i think that it's, well, first thing read the book i will encourage people i know this is hard material but it's not too hard that you can't stand it. contact people for change whether it's the social media platforms are members of congress that are starting to grapple with it. in a bipartisan way. it's one b of the few bipartisan efforts that is actually taking root in the congress. so, you are saying get angry. >> yes. i hope people say, you know, i don't mind a radio host but said to me the other day i don't mind telling you this the book made me a little mad. i said that's absolutely the goal and also think about what you're carrying around. i always say you are cheap dates for the internet. they get all the money end of the data and you get the map, whatever. understand what they are doing. it's not unlike opiate companies that are also giant pieces of shit, but it's addictive and the pandemic has shown its addictive and it's necessary for your job and life and social life, and it's run by the richest people in the history of the world. running the companies that are the most valuable companies. thee top ten companies except oe that might be after this crisis. the top ten companies in the world are tech companies. valuable, the top richest people except forri the saudis, the richest peopleld in the world. just keep that in mind. that's your money. they are, just think of that. anyway. this is a book you should read. do not look away. what's happened to these parents and the kind of grace that they have is really inspiring. don't let them down. elizabeth, thank you. [applause] thank you very much. >> thanks for having us. >> for the book, the conversation, theep questions. just a reminder the tortoise close at eight. i don't actually know what time it is -- [laughter] to end on a hopeful note, i am originally from utah and something about the outpouring of support you mentioned a number of times in the book to go against in the weeks afterwards newtown got so many pieces of mail from so many places in the world the town hall had to run shifts of 40 to 50 volunteers opening mail for all over the world. i don't even know how many thousands of piecess of mail wee sent saying we are with you, we are going to support you. if you don't want to get involved or you don't know anything about texas law or anything like that, you can be that person of kindness in your community. you can interrupt any kind of conspiracy theorist. you can go out and say i'm going to be nice to somebody today. i don't know where it's goingo o happen but i'm going tot go out and be nice to somebody today and that o could change that person's life for the rest of their life. so go ahead and take that. so, just take it and then go out and be the positive change. [applause] the world changed in an instant, but mediacom was ready. internet traffic soared, and we've never slowed down. schools and businesses went t

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