Online misinformation is one of the GOP’s weapons; it’s almost fascinating watching on Twitter as they all turn out the same talking points. Programs to monitor online lies are cracking under GOP pressure and legal action. That’s pretty typical of their playbook: fight for the right to say whatever lies they please, try to shut down everyone else.
Case in point, Moms for Liberty turning their book-banning up several notches: they called the police to arrest librarians for supposedly distributing porn. Another Mom for Liberty who wanted to ban a Diary of Anne Frank graphic-novel adaptation is perfectly fine with having appeared on Jew-hating preacher Rick Wiles’ podcast.
Matt Walsh has never much worried about facts when he unleashes his misogyny, homophobia or trans-hate. That made it easy to harass a trans-care clinic. Walsh must be envious of Chaya Raichik of the Libs of Tik-Toks, who generates lots more harassment, including bomb threats and death threats, while piously pretending it’s a total coincidence they follow on her posts. Of course, despite the long history of right-wing terrorism, invariably shriek loudly when someone refers to right-wing terrorism; they want it, they just don’t want it blamed on them. This isn’t new: Sarah Palin still wants to sue the NYT for suggesting her rhetoric influenced a mass shooter. (More here).
Or Fox host Clay Travis who says the covid vaccines are fraudulent so the government should seize any profits Moderna and Pfizer made off them. RFK Jr. has more modest goals: end federal spending on infectious disease research for eight years and (according to NBC news) “use the power of that attorney general to threaten editors of medical journals and force them to publish studies that had been retracted (he often cites the retracted studies saying ivermectin, a parasite drug, is an effective treatment for Covid). ‘We’re gonna say we’re fixing to file some racketeering lawsuits if you don’t start telling the truth in your journals.'” As I’ve written before, RFK can’t get the scientific results he wants so he’s simply going to rig the game. Never mind that his anti-vax crusades have already hurt people. And this is a good example of why infection-disease research matters.
Of course, Junior has plenty of other anti-vax liars and idiots to help him out.
Bigot Stephen Miller has been working to wield the court system against anti-racism. NASCAR has diversity initiatives, therefore it’s anti-white people! He’s not the only one pushing back against diversity in business after college affirmative action lost at SCOTUS. And of course, Florida is all in on this. But children of alumni needn’t worry — unsurprisingly all that talk about merit still isn’t affecting legacy admissions.
Lawsuits defending business’s right to refuse gay customers are still a booming industry, even when the business owner hasn’t been asked. Mat Staver’s Liberty Counsel is once again suing the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling an organization as a hate group.
Right-winger pastor Duncan Urbanek insists that yes, all gay people are pedophiles. He’s lying, but to an audience that wants to believe it.
Bernie Moreno, who’s running for senator in Ohio, claimed the state abortion rights amendment that won Tuesday would allow rapists to make their victims abort. This is a lie. The governor thinks protecting abortion rights is evil and radical; Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose suddenly purged 26,000 voters right before the vote. Among other dirty tricks. Unfortunately the lesson learned won’t be “let’s course-correct on abortion” but “we need to cheat better.” Just as Trump’s allies have concluded the problem with all those conservatives judges and Justice appointees Trump put into place is they’re not fascist enough.
Tom Fitton of the right-wing Judicial Watch has explained the Ohio amendment passing was a “big victory for George Soros.” Nothing anti-semitic in suggesting an international Jewish banker wants American babies dead, no sirree …
Mark Levin is just one of the many right-wing loudmouths — er, pundits — who think Trump should be able to threaten witnesses because free speech!
“Last December, Laramie Faith Community Church Elder Todd Schmidt displayed an anti-trans banner in the UW student union, identifying an individual transgender student by name.” Schmidt sued and collected $35,000.
To end on a good note, Indiana AG and forced birther Todd Rokita has been fined for some of his treatment of Dr. Caitlin Bernard. Moms for Liberty got their butts kicked in Pennsylvania and Iowa. So did a book-burning advocate in Virginia.
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