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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Pizzagate in Every City - fueled by Republicans and driving far-right anti-LGBTQ violence.
A Pizzagate in Every CityThese conspiracy theories were once fringe. Now theyre being fueled by Republicans and driving far-right anti-LGBTQ violence.
After threats made against Pride events by far-right actors in Idaho and Arizona over the past few weeks, a group whose leader calls herself a Christian fascist and others with ties to white nationalist groups targeted a Pride event in Dallas on Saturday.
I wonder if the mama bear instinct is gonna come out in three years when the mainstream Democrat[ic] party platform is to rape their kids, John Doyle, an influential figure in the white nationalist American Populist Union, taunted the families with kids lining up to get into the event, a family-friendly drag show at the queer club Mr. Misster in the Dallas gay neighborhood of Cedar Springs.
Two children stood in line a few feet away from the approaching Doyle, plugging their ears with their fingers as he continued to yell at those in line through his megaphone. A crowd surrounded the club and chanted, Groomer! Groomer! One person waved a Christian flag. The fist of Christ will come down on youvery soon, screamed one man, with a rosary clenched between his fingers.
From the idea that children inside this venue were being abused, and that such abuse was part of plot by Democrats, to the call to internet provocateurs to record their own evidence, as well as the false claims of child rescues made by those promulgating these conspiracy theories, the attack on Mr. Misster called to mind the same fearsif not the same threat of gun violenceas the assault on Comet Ping Pong in Washington, D.C. In 2016, a man motivated by the Pizzagate conspiracy theory arrived at the restaurant with a rifle to rescue children from a nonexistent sex trafficking ring supposedly orchestrated by prominent Democrats.
https://newrepublic.com/article/166712/pizzagate-comet-ping-pong-pride-lgbtq-republicans
Now, a little more than five years later, 25 percent of Republicans identify as believers of the Pizzagate successor QAnon, and the far rights capacity for street violence has grown. At the same time, where once most elected Republican officials would at least nominally distance themselves from Pizzagate-pushers out on the fringe, that wall has largely eroded. Across the country, GOP lawmakers have waged a legislative crusade targeting queer and trans kids, smearing opponents as groomers, language that rhymes with the pedophile claims that inspired the attack on Comet Ping Pong. And where once the targets of these conspiracy theories were largely confined to a select group of Democratic lawmakers and their allies, the fearmongeringamplified by Fox News and prominent conservative social media accountsis now targeted at all LGBTQ people, from national figures to members of your local community. The stage is set for a Pizzagate in any city.
dchill
(38,320 posts)Here we go, people. Here we go.
Deep State Witch
(10,350 posts)That this was going to happen this Pride month. Expect more of it.
Initech
(99,914 posts)underthematrix
(5,811 posts)vlyons
(10,252 posts)The hatred and vitriol of these people is quite astonishing. Do these people feed on rat poison to make themselves so hateful? Their minds constantly cultivating hate. How dreadful to go thru life like that. The hell they live in is merely perceiving the appearance of their own aggression. What they see is but a reflection of their very own mind.
"All experience is preceded by mind.
Led by mind.
Created by mind.
Speak or act with a contaminated mind, and suffering follows.
Like the wheel of the wagon follows the hoof of the ox.
Speak or act with a peaceful mind, and happiness follows.
Like a never-departing shadow."
-- from The Dharmapada
Duncan Grant
(8,258 posts)In as few words as possible: Im unwilling to accommodate RWNJ harassment of children from LGBTQI families.
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