Ronda Rousey, a former professional mixed martial artist, apologized for amplifying a Sandy Hook conspiracy theory 11 years ago, after the incident resurfaced in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session earlier this week.
In a lengthy statement she posted on social media Thursday night, Rousey recounted watching a conspiracy video about the mass shooting, in which 20 children and six adults were killed at a Connecticut elementary school, and then reposting the video on Twitter (now X) in early 2013.
“I didn’t even believe it, but was so horrified at the truth that I was grasping for an alternative fiction to cling to instead,” she wrote. “I quickly realized my mistake and took it down, but the damage was done.”
Rousey said her post went largely unnoticed by the media and she “never spoke of it again.” (It did spark some backlash at the time, and Rousey responded that she “never meant to hurt or insult anyone.”) She also said that she had “redrafted this apology” multiple times over the past 11 years.
Rousey added:
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. I apologize that this came 11 years too late, but to those affected by the Sandy Hook massacre, from the bottom of my heart and depth of my soul I am so so sorry for the hurt I caused. 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 it.
The Sandy Hook shooting is one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history. Conspiracy theories about the massacre, often promoted by right-wing figures, have been rampant and are deeply damaging. Families of the victims and survivors have experienced death threats and harassment for years as a result.
Infowars host Alex Jones was a major proponent of the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories. After a prolonged legal battle with the victims’ families, Jones was ordered in 2022 to pay them a total of $1.5 billion in damages. In June this year, a judge granted his request to liquidate his personal assets to pay some of what he owed the families.
Apologies from celebrities for public missteps can often come across as perfunctory exercises in damage control. Rousey’s statement comes more than a decade after her post and only after she was recently called out for it online. But, as far as such apologies go, her acknowledgement of the harm she caused and the repercussions she should have faced for it lend her apology a credibility others have lacked.
Rousey also had some words of advice to those who have been taken in by conspiracy theories:
To anyone else that’s fallen down the black hole of bulls—, it doesn’t make you edgy or an independent thinker, you’re not doing your due diligence entertaining every possibility by digesting these conspiracies. 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.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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