Parkland survivors condemn far-right websites for comparing Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg to Hitler
Far right sites claimed the outspoken student's decision to finish his speech by triumphantly raising his hand in the air was reminiscent of Hitler’s Nazi salute
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Your support makes all the difference.Florida school shooting survivors have condemned far right publications in the US for comparing one of the victims of the gun massacre to Adolf Hitler.
David Hogg, one of the most outspoken survivors of the Valentine’s Day bloodshed which left 17 dead, has been likened to the dictator who orchestrated Nazi Germany’s mass murder of six million Jews.
Addressing a crowd of thousands at the Washington DC March For Our Lives rally, the teenager welcomed demonstrators to the “revolution” for stricter gun laws and called for politicians who are supported by the National Rifle Association to get their “resumes ready”.
Far right sites, such as Breitbart and InfoWars, claimed Mr Hogg’s decision to finish his speech by triumphantly raising his hand in the air was reminiscent of Hitler’s Nazi salute.
Alex Jones, who is the founder of InfoWars and has been dubbed America’s leading conspiracy theorist, attacked the rally as a “Hitler Youth invasion” and branded Mr Hogg “the chief propagandist in the left-wing fascist ‘Hitler Youth’ army.”
Mr Jones, a prominent voice of the so-called “alt-right” movement in the US, played a video that dubbed Mr Hogg's speech with one by the Nazi dictator. Mr Jones also included black and white footage from Nazi gatherings in the attempt to imitate the anti-gun violence demonstration on Saturday.
Kyle Kashuv, another student survivor from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, has condemned the comparison.
"I think it is reprehensible that people are comparing a 17-year-old to Hitler. As a Jew, I find it egregiously misinformed," he told The Hill.
Jaclyn Corin, another student survivor, did not refer explicitly to the Hitler comparisons but responded by expressing her support for Mr Hogg on Twitter.
"David Hogg is also a hardworking, intelligent human being, school shooting survivor, and my friend. He’s a GOOD person with feelings, just like all of us," she said.
Mr Jones was previously reprimanded by YouTube for posting other conspiracy theories about Mr Hogg.
The channel posted a video about Mr Hogg which took screenshots of an interview the young man did with KCBS in order to falsely claim he and other students were "crisis actors".
The video – titled “David Hogg can’t remember his lines in TV interview" – was removed by YouTube for breaching its policies on bullying and harassment.
Mr Hogg gained headlines after it emerged he had interviewed class mates while the massacre was taking place and gave an interview where he looked into the camera and urged politicians to deliver change.
Minnesota Republican Representative Mary Franson compared Mr Hogg to the Hitler Youth in a series of now-deleted Facebook posts on Saturday – the same day as the March for Our Lives protest.
Saturday’s march in Washington was attended by at least 200 students from Parkland, their families, and survivors of other instances of gun violence.
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