Elon Musk Smears Former Twitter Employee with Pedophilia Accusations

Musk is not known for his poise or self-control, but this is a new low.

BY: CONOR KELLY

DonkeyHotey, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It is strange to be a Twitter user these days, mostly thanks to the perpetual childishness of its current CEO, Elon Musk. Ever since he purchased the site, Musk has proven to be a thorn in the side of many a Twitter user; something I have not hesitated to point out. But recently, Musk has taken his irresponsible use of the platform to another level, smearing one of his former colleagues with disgusting accusations of pedophilia and child sexualization.

THE PERPETUAL CHILDISHNESS OF ELON MUSK

Consistent readers of my work will know that I have become increasingly annoyed by Musk’s faux crusade in the name of free speech. From his consistent refusal to moderate far-right bigotry on Twitter to his blatant attempts to engage in partisan manipulation of Twitter users, Musk has proven to be a consistent annoyance to many who hope for a more responsible Twitter CEO.

But more than just a poorly organized and irresponsible leader, Musk has revealed himself to be completely and utterly devoid of restraint in dealing with his critics.

In a recent example of this, Musk targeted Twitter’s former safety head Yoel Roth, after Roth criticized Musk’s management of the site in an interview where he retracted his previous position that Twitter was safer under Musk than it was under its previous owners.

This shift in position is notable because Roth was previously a staunch defender of Musk’s management, regularly arguing that Musk was being castigated as a villain. But what is more incredible is how far Musk was willing to go in retaliating against someone who had previously defended him and even tried to contextualize the decisions Musk made.

LIES AND REPRISAL

Not long after Roth gave this interview, a Twitter user by the name of Eliza Bleu, a conservative activist associated with conspiracy theorists Jack Posebiac and Mike Cernovich, pointed to a Salon article posted by Roth titled “Student-teacher sex: When is it OK?” Using the title alone, Bleu incorrectly suggested that Roth was in favor of underaged sexual conduct. Musk almost immediately accepted the argument before leaning into the lie.

Screenshot of Tweets posted by Eliza Bleu and Elon Musk, December 10th, 2022.

It is worth noting that Roth merely posted a summary of the article’s topic and didn’t make any comment beyond the question presented by Salon‘s Tracy Clark-Flory. Additionally, the article in question does not involve any minors being abused at all.

Despite Bleu and Musk’s presentation of the article, and by extension Roth, the actual content was quite different than its provocative title suggests. Rather than endorsing sexual relations between minors and adult teachers, Clark-Flory was examining a case out of Washington involving an 18-year-old student and a 33-year-old music teacher several days before the student was set to graduate.

The issue in question, as Salon explains was that:

“The age of consent in Washington is 16, but a statute outlaws a few specific sexual relationships, including between a teacher and a “minor” student who is “at least sixteen years old.” In an appeal, Hirschfelder argued that the statute was meant to criminalize sexual misconduct between teachers and students who are aged 16 and 17 (i.e. over the age of consent but under the age of 18). This week, however, the State Supreme Court ruled that legislators had originally intended to outlaw teachers having sex with students under 21 (the age cap for high school enrollment).”

TRACY CLARK-FLORY, Student-teacher sex: When is it OK?, Salon, NOVEMBER 20, 2010

Despite the student being of legal age by state and federal law, the state has a specific prohibition against teachers having sex with students, where it would be legal had the participants not had a student-teacher relationship. In other words, the article raised the ethical and legal conundrum over when it is appropriate for two consenting adults to have sex if power dynamics are involved. Whether or not a person agrees with the teacher’s actions, the article does not, under any circumstances, support or suggest that sexual exploitation of minors is acceptable or even desirable.

Musk and Bleu’s misrepresentation of Roth’s post, a post that was well over 12 years old, is demonstrative of the fundamental malice that seems to permeate this new Twitter-sphere of perpetual accusation and deception.

Some may argue that Musk merely didn’t read the article, and perhaps that could have been a cover for him, if it were not for his follow-up post, in which he again blatantly lies about Roth’s views on children and sexual exploitation, pointing to Roth’s dissertation Gay Data (2016), which examined the interconnected nature of a site like Grindr.

Musk took a screenshot of a portion of the paper and attempted to argue that Roth was endorsing the idea of children being on Grindr for sexual purposes, a claim that seems to suggest the Twitter CEO has no reading comprehension skills.

The paper itself does not endorse, under any circumstances, the idea of children engaging in sexual behavior on Grindr. Instead, Roth highlighted instances in which Grindr users falsely claimed to be adults and engaged in sexual conduct with other users who actually fit that bill, such as a case in 2012 where two adults were charged with sexual assault and endangering a minor (Roth, 2016, pp. 247).

Roth calls out Grindr’s failures (Roth, 2016, pp. 247).

Roth does not sugar-coat the severity of these instances and actively calls the case of the two adults engaging in a threesome with a child “chilling” (Rother, 2016, pp. 247). Instead, Roth’s concern, which Musk himself shows in the article, is that Grindr is attempting to avoid legal liability for its conduct by creating a false sense of security for minors while actively failing to protect them.

If Musk had shown the page just before his maliciously clipped quotation or even linked the original dissertation, then he would’ve had to admit that Roth was not endorsing sexual conduct with minors. The exact opposite is true. And the cost of this malicious approach is Roth’s own safety.

As of writing, CNN reports that Roth fled his home due to the deluge of threats issued against him, largely prompted by Musk’s ridiculous attempts to paint him as a pedophile. The consistent attempts by Musk to paint his critics as groomers or corrupt have largely been based on nothing more than spite and conspiracy theories.

Musk’s conduct is nothing more than an attempt to silence a critic of his that he can no longer hope to control. Instead of rolling with the punches and acknowledging that the current state of Twitter is far from perfect, Musk demonstrates that he is perfectly willing to put a former employee’s life at risk if it means keeping his precious ego intact. This is not the attitude of a man who should be running a major social website. This is the attitude of a coward who has never been told that his ideas, much like his underground tunnels, are garbage.

Advertisement

Neo-Nazi Lover Kanye West is Running for President

Despite scandal after scandal, the disgraced bigot and rapper is officially running for President.

Cosmopolitan UK, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The infamous rapper currently known as “Ye,” formerly known as Kanye West, is apparently running for President, much to the amusement and chagrin of most decent Americans, who, in all likelihood, are getting rather tired of arrogant celebrities running for public office. The announcement, reported by The Guardian this Friday, is yet another example of how our politics have become increasingly occupied by the prejudiced and politically unfit, but more than that, it is illustrative of the fact that the far-right has begun to scrape for anyway into the mainstream political system and if we are not careful, they might just succeed.

EXAMINING KANYE’S PREJUDICE AND ANTI-SEMITISM

Kanye has consistently demonstrated a history of intense and unmitigated bigotry, some of which go back over a decade. As I noted in a previous article on Kanye’s anti-Semitism, the infamous rapper’s history of anti-Semitism goes back to 2013, where he claimed that Obama could not pass his agenda because he lacked Jewish ancestry and influence that other members of government and the political had.

“People want to say Obama can’t make these moves or he’s not executing. That’s because he ain’t got those connections … Black people don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people. Black people don’t have the same connections as oil people.”

Kanye West on Barack Obama on New York hip-hop station Power 105.1.

This was not the only time that West would engage in such blatant prejudice against Jewish people. In an infamous post on Instagram, West released texts he had with fellow rapper P. Diddy, in which he accused Diddy of being controlled by Jewish people. Once his account was locked, Kanye then took to Twitter to post an infamous Tweet, threatening to go “deathcon 3 on Jewish people,” and claimed that “Black are actually Jew…”

Kanye West tweet screenshot

Since then, things have only gotten worse. West preceded to double down in an interview with the Drink Champs, blaming the Jewish people for the paparazzi, and his relationship problems with Kim Kardashian. But even worse than that, he argued that Black people are the actual Jewish people, saying:

“When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are…This is who our people are. The blood of Christ. This, as a Christian, is my belief.” 

Kanye West on Jewishness and Black people in an interview with Tucker Carlson, October, 2022.

Despite intense pushback, West continued to push his prejudiced views in that same episode, claiming that he could:

“I can say anti-Semitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what? Now what?”

Kanye West on Drink Champs, October 16th, 2022.

What all of this demonstrates is that much of Kanye West’s history and thinking is occupied by an intense hatred of Jewish people, and a complete disregard for historical accuracy as well as the humanity of Jewish people around the world, but that is not the only problem with West’s views.

A NAZI AND A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WALK INTO A BAR

In a normal world, this would be the furthest a person can go when it comes to anti-semitism and prejudice. In a normal world, Kanye would stop there, but we don’t live in a normal world and Kanye is not a normal person.

In recent video revealed by Benjamin Dixon and later confirmed by Kanye himself, the rapper turned presidential candidate, was shown walking with infamous Neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier, Nick Fuentes. The two are shown marching towards a flight in matching outfits.

The decision by West to associate with Nick Fuentes, in any capacity outside of scorn, is just another reminder that Kanye has not only no respect for Jewish people, but for himself. To put this into another context, Fuentes has referred to the black voters as the “n***** voters,” and has previously called for a return to white-centered Christianity.

Funetes has also argued that the GOP of being  “run by Jews, atheists, and homosexuals.” Along with his general hatred and idiocy, Fuentes is also a notorious Holocaust denier, claiming that the death of six million Jews was impossible, using the metaphor of cooking six million cookies to conceal his intentions.

To say that Fuentes is a Nazi is a massive understatement and despite knowing full well what Fuentes is and what he believes, West decided to stand by him publicly. Hell, he even dressed like him on his flight. Nothing about West’s political expression should be treated with an iota of respect. Even as former president Trump hosts Fuentes and him at Mar-A-Lago, this campaign should be treated like the unacceptable act of prejudiced garbage that it is.

Kanye may not win the election, but if he tries to seriously run for office, and puts in serious effort to win, then he may succeed in spreading his anti-Jewish bile even further into the mainstream more than it already is.

Democrats Hold The Line and Republicans Flub the Midterms

Despite all predictions to the contrary, Republicans are not as strong as they think they are.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Pexels.com

Despite months of claiming that a red wave would hit the House and Senate and the supposed failure of the Biden administration would lead to a complete and utter defeat of the Democratic Party, the midterms were, at most, a red trinkle. Despite President Biden’s approval rating resting at a low of 39 percent, according to a CNN Poll, Republicans failed to handle the rise of young voters and were prevented from taking the Senate and barely managed to take the House of Representatives.

As of recording, the Democrats have secured the Senate with 50 seats to the GOP’s 49 seats, with Georgia’s race going into a runoff and quite possibly leading the Democrats to gain a seat in the Senate. In the House, Republicans have done only slightly better but have shown an incredible weakness in their momentum. As of writing, the GOP holds 218 seats in the House, just enough to hold the majority, with Democrats holding 212 with only three seats remaining competitive. 

As it stands right now, Republicans have gained a pitiful six seats in the House or an estimated .013 percent of the House membership. Even if they take all of the remaining seats that have not yet been called, Republicans will have only gained roughly .02 percent of the House’s seats from where they started.

Now, I have written about this before on the website, and some of you may have read through some of what I said, but I can’t emphasize enough how weak this showing was for the Republicans. I went into this election cycle, and yes, I am admitting it, expecting something similar to a Red Wave or, at the very least, a slight advantage for the GOP in the Senate, but instead, I saw Republicans squeaking their way to control. 

To put this into perspective, and I mentioned this earlier in my previous article, almost every president has lost the midterms to some extent since the Civil War. During the 2010 midterms under Barack Obama, Democrats lost 63 seats in the House of Representatives. Under Donald Trump in 2018, Democrats took 41 seats in the House from the Republicans. Currently, it seems like Republicans will be lucky to gain more than 15.  To put it lightly, Republicans have severely underperformed despite all of their harping on their supposed success. 

As a result of this failure, Republicans, and by extension, the former president Donald Trump, has also underperformed, as his support for candidates like Dr. Oz failed to secure victory. And part of the reason that was the case was Gen Z, who showed up in record numbers, buoyed by the 2018 and 2020 elections. Of voters aged 18-29, 63 percent voted Democratic. Even though they only constituted roughly 12 percent of the vote, Gen Z voters were a force to be reckoned with at a level they previously hadn’t been. 

What I want people to understand, and you will all see this in a later discussion I uploaded after the break, is that the importance of people activating their will not just in their own discussion in private life but in their ability to show up to demand change can have historic consequences. Even though Gen Z compromised a minority of the vote, their historic vote share was enough to stem the tide of Republican domination. In other words, if you are a voter aged 19 to 29, you have more power than you know.

The Blue Wall Holds: Reviewing the Midterms 

Thanks again to NateTalksToYou, Rico Rants, and Mustache Bob for their appearance on this panel.

Hey everyone! I have a new video out. This time, I am going over the midterm results and how Republicans flubbed their chances at overwhelming the Democratic Party and the Biden administration at the ballot box.

Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes Endorses Dictatorship

Infamous Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes officially called for a dictatorship after the GOP’s failure in the Midterms.

Screenshot of Nick Fuentes’ speech taken from Steven Dennis

In a disgusting display of his fascist tendencies, Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes has officially endorsed a dictatorship, according to Right Wing Watch. The brazen desire for a fascist government came on Wednesday, as the infamous Neo-Nazi and self-described “groyper” leader reacted to the midterm election results, where Republicans floundered in their gains. The outburst should serve as a reminder that despite being removed from Twitter, Fuentes remains a dangerous force in public life, even when restrained.

Fuentes is notorious for his brazen and violent white nationalism, having participated in the infamous white supremacist rally at Charlottesville and having previously argued that Jewish people control the media and that women shouldn’t vote.

What prompted this rant, though tied to the election and the failure of the GOP to win as extensively as expected, is the presumption of ownership over societal values and principles. In his rant, Fuentes explained that:

“You gotta recognize the fact that this is a godless country…I hate it. It’s immoral. It’s wrong. It’s heinous. It’s evil. But this is an evil country, and this country will surprise you with how evil it is. And that’s why you’ve got to get this out of your head that there is some silent majority cavalry that’s going to come out of the woods and save us at the last minute. It’s not.”

Nick Fuentes in a rant on November 9th, 2022.

The result of this supposed Godless, according to Fuentes, is:

“When you look at these things like abortion, it’s popular …And you can thank the Jewish media for that. Abortion is popular, sodomy is popular, being gay is popular, being a feminist is popular, sex out of wedlock is popular, contraceptives—it’s all popular at all. That’s not to say it’s good. That’s not to say I like that. Popular means that people support it, which they do. It sucks, and it is what it is, but that’s why we need a dictatorship. That’s unironically why we need to get rid of all that. We need to take control of the media or take control of the government and force the people to believe what we believe or force them to play by our rules and reshape the society.”

Nick Fuentes in a rant on November 9th, 2022.

To Fuentes and his ilk, the only way to stop the supposed degeneracy of what he sees as conservative Christian values is the rejection of democracy itself and the usurpation of the people’s will and livelihood to impose his interpretation of Christian identity. It’s worth noting that Christian identity is heavily restrictive for Fuentes, who readily preaches the idea of a supposed Great Replacement of white people, a theory that has inspired mass shootings around the globe, including the Christchurch shooting of 2019 and the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting of 2018.

It should come as no surprise that Fuentes also denies the Holocaust, having previously compared the cremation of Jewish victims of Nazi atrocities to Cookie Monster baking cookies in an oven, insinuating that there was no way that six million Jewish people could be killed and cremated within the timeframe of the Holocaust.

Such a horrid ideology, disgusting as it is, should further nauseate all decent people when considering the fact that Marjorie Taylor Greene, a sitting member of Congress, spoke at Fuentes’ America First Pac event in February.

Screenshot of Livestream taken by Huffington Post Reporter Christopher Matthias

Despite ridiculous claims by Greene that she didn’t fully understand the nature of the event, which I’ve rejected before, Greene praised Fuentes as she was welcomed onto the stage moments after Fuentes praised Adolf Hitler.

All this goes to show that Fuentes’ fringe views are not as restrained as previously thought. While banning him was the right move, the fact of the matter is that there is an element of Republicans who would love nothing more than to support a Nazi such as Fuentes. Despite his overt antisemitism and fascist tendencies, Fuentes’ presence around Greene has not sunk her bid for reelection as it should have. Instead, she won her seat easily against Democratic candidate Marcus Flowers.

Nor is the GOP willing to punish her or anyone else for their fascist leanings. Indeed, current Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has said that Greene could get an even better committee seat than the won she lost if Republicans take the House. As it stands right now, the influence of Fascism and Fuentes’ disgusting worldview is not dead by a long shot and Americans should be worried.

Trump is Weak: Republicans Flub Midterms

The failure of Republicans and Trump-chosen candidates to capitalize on the midterms reveals Trump’s fundamental weakness in electoral politics.

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

It was supposed to be so easy. That was what Republicans and pollsters across the nation told us: the GOP would easily wash over the House and Senate with a red wave that would wash away the Democrats’ control of the legislature; it had to be that way. With record-high inflation, the ‘real’ Americans would come to take their country back, and Trump would return triumphantly. We were told that, and it has proven to be a remarkable farce. With the incredibly weak display by the GOP in the ongoing midterms, the party of Trump is increasingly looking like the party of failure.

Despite his claims of intense strength as the leader of the Republican Party, the results on Tuesday have been a complete disaster for the former President. In key Trump-supported races, failure after failure hit the GOP. Trump endorsed candidate Doug Mastriano, the GOP’s far-right candidate for Pennsylvania Governor, lost by a massive 13 points, which served as a firm rejection of the Trump vision for the party. Lee Zeldin, Trump endorsed candidate for New York Governor, suffered a similar fate, albeit less one-sided fate, winning with roughly 52. 8 percent of the vote.

Across the board, gubernatorial races in Kansas, Michigan, Maine, New Mexico, and Wisconsin all went to the Democrats. As of writing, Arizona and Oregon are currently being led by Democrats, with Nevada being the only state to show the Republican candidate leading the race. Of course, Texas and Georgia’s gubernatorial races went to the Republicans, but overall, Republicans have seriously underperformed when it comes to electing governors.

On the Senate side, things were not much better. After John Fetterman defeated GOP candidate Mehemet Oz, Trump reportedly lost it on his colleagues, blaming Melania for his decision to endorse the controversial celebrity doctor. Despite suffering nonstop propaganda about a stroke he had from Republicans, Fetterman, a seemingly unlikely candidate when compared to more establishment Democrats, managed to win by 3 points, sending the doctor packing. The count of seats held by both parties is 48 to 48, with Georgia heading to a run-off and Arizona leaning toward a Democratic victory.

Even in the House, where Trump and the GOP expected to see large leads have underperformed and failed to gain the lead they hoped to despite having an 84 in 100 chance of taking the House.

Examination by FiveThirtyEight

Such success would not be surprising when considering how the President’s party tends to lose seats in the House and Senate. In 2010, the Democratic Party led by then-President Obama lost 63 seats in the House and 6 seats in the Senate. In 2018, Trump’s GOP lost 40 seats in the House. Clinton lost 52 seats in 1994, gaining some seats in the Senate,, much like Trump. The only exception to this pattern would be George W. Bush, who benefited from a rally around the flag movement after 9/11 amid the public’s desire for revenge.

And yet, the GOP’s leads in the House are, thus far, a disappointment. Starting with 212 seats in the House, Republicans thus far have only secured 207 seats, according to The New York Times, and several seats are still up for grabs. Lauren Boebert, the pro-Trump Republican Congresswoman from Colorado’s 3rd Congressional district, is currently in the fight of her life to maintain her seat, despite being an incumbent.

Data provided by The New York Times, last updated at 9:59 PM EST

While it is unlikely that Democrats will keep the House, the close nature of Boebert’s race combined with the narrow majority Republicans have thus far secured is indicative of the lackluster state of the GOP under Trump’s leadership.

Average of polls on Biden’s approval rating by FiveThirtyEight -November 9th, 2022

Even with the Biden administration’s approval rating sitting at an average of 41 percent, Trump and the Republicans failed to capitalize on the opportunity that covid and inflation have provided. And if this is any indication of how Republicans will do in 2024, GOP operatives should be very concerned. And Trump, though he has rarely ever listened to reason, should reconsider his plans to announce his run for President next week.

Elon Musk’s Cowardly Endorsement of the Republican Party

In a recent post on Twitter, the new CEO of Twitter urged his followers to vote Republican, spelling serious questions about his supposed neutrality in moderation.

Elon Musk, The Royal Society, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Elon Musk is not having a good time. From his disastrous and costly purchase of Twitter to his constant fighting with his critics on the site, the CEO of Tesla is falling short of the glorious free speech revolution his followers predicted. But things have gotten worse for his brand and Twitter as a whole, as the newly-established CEO of Twitter decided to overtly endorse the Republican Party a day before the midterms.

This endorsement by Musk comes as a massive shift in social media policy, as social media moguls have traditionally attempted to avoid the appearance of partisanship. Musk, however, has previously shown himself to be erratic in his conduct, and that could explain some of his decision-making. In one infamous incident, Musk reportedly went into a profanity-laced rant about Covid lockdowns and restrictions, calling them “fascist.”

Potentially erratic behavior making aside, both in his relationship with Covid-19 and Twitter, Musk’s decision to overtly support a political party the day before the election should be a reminder that Musk’s supposed neutrality in issues of influencing media is and always has been a farce.

Musk may assert that his endorsement is merely to balance out the partisan makeup of the government, but if he had any understanding of politics, he would know that Presidents and their parties tend to fare poorly in the midterms and that supposed balance does not always lead to effective governance. More importantly still, Musk’s decision to frame his endorsement with a supposed centrist mindset, meaning a faux mindset of balancing the interests of the two parties, is, in all likelihood, a mechanism for him to deny the severity of his decision to endorse the Republicans in the first place.

Tweeting out to millions of followers, with the full recognition that Musk controls the platform, is a sign that the CEO is not only willing to use Twitter as his personal political weapon but also serves as a reminder about how dangerous unrestrained social media leadership can be.

Whereas previous social media debacles on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have called into question how serious social media companies are about moderating their platform, the destruction of those moderation teams is not a solution, as I noted before. We are witnessing a perfect example of grifting, faux libertarian advocacy, and an overt appeal to partisanship for the sake of Elon’s frothing fans. Such negligence on a site that houses millions of people’s viewpoints, perspectives, and in the case of freelance writers, careers is an affront to the dignity of every single person who has to endure it.

And while I won’t be leaving the site anytime soon, it should surprise absolutely nobody that Twitter is going into the dirt because of this spoiled manchild.

MAGA Terrorist Wanted to Break Nancy Pelosi’s Kneecaps, and Republicans Don’t Care

The audacity of fascist reactionaries knows no bounds.

Office of Speaker Pelosi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In a disgusting display of horrible and rabid terrorism, a pro-Trump assailant broke into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and beat her 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi, over the head with a hammer. The attacker, David DePape, reportedly shouted, “Where’s Nancy” and planned to wait for her return, planning to tie up Mr. Pelosi and hold him hostage. In an interview with police, DePape allegedly claimed that he wanted to break Speaker Pelosi’s kneecaps if she didn’t comply with his questioning. Officers involved in the investigation have warned that the attack was politically motivated against Pelosi and the Democratic Party, but Republicans have been maddeningly silent or downright celebratory of the attack.

When such a disgusting attack occurs, it is critical that those in power condemn it completely and universally. Politically motivated violence can’t be allowed to go unopposed unless the goal is to spread violence throughout the American body politic. Republican pundits and leaders, however, have taken the exact opposite position.

Not long after the attack, the former President’s son, Donald Trump Jr. posted an image of a hammer and a pair of underwear, saying, “Got my Paul Pelosi costume ready.”

Donald Trump Jr.’s now-deleted Instagram post about Paul Pelosi. (Screenshot by Ron Dicker)

The post is a reference to the debunked idea that both the attacker and Mr. Pelosi were both found in their underwear when police arrived, suggesting that the attack was not politically motivated but was a gay meetup that went wrong. That conspiracy theory prompted the phrase ” Paul Pelosi is gay” to trend on Twitter.

Though he would later delete the post, the former president’s son doubled down in his disregard for the severity of the attempted kidnapping of the Speaker of the House, tweeting, “Imagine how safe the country would be if democrats took all violent crime as seriously as they’re taking the Paul Pelosi situation. They simply don’t care about you.”

Nor was he alone in his absurd desire to flip the script on the objective victims of political violence. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene argued that DePape’s immigration status was more important than the fact that he was a self-described opponent of the Democratic party and openly stated he wanted to hold Pelosi for questioning under the threat of torture. Instead, Greene attempted to blame Pelosi’s support for gun control.

Of course, it is rather convenient for Greene to ignore his history of far-right blogging and hostility to supposed “commies,” especially when one considers that Greene herself accused the Speaker of treason and insinuated that she should be executed.

Others were even willing to encourage their audience to support DePaper. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, while claiming the attack was horrible, also encouraged his audience to post bail for the assailant.

The cowardice inherent in these positions is one of the greatest strengths of the MAGA movement. They will say the most absurd, vile, and violent bile they can to rile up their base and fall back when their rhetoric inevitably results in someone acting based on their propaganda.

On its face, one could expect this to be a major weakness and the destruction of the movement’s credibility, but in reality, it allows the MAGA activists to play both sides of the coin. All they have to do is lay low when the media comes to critique them, claim some sort of martyrdom, and then wait for the public’s attention to shift away, which it inevitably does.

This is precisely why Republicans like Kirk, Trump Jr, and Greene don’t care about the threat of political violence against their rivals. They don’t mind if it polarizes American politics even further and threatens lives. The extremism and cruelty are the point, and thus far, there have been very few consequences for it. Nobody should be surprised that this rhetoric continues, even if it means mocking the brutal assault of an 84-year-old man.

New Video Planned: Responding to Candace Owens and Lauren Chen’s Defense of Kanye West’s antisemitism

These two conservative hosts are doing a pathetic dance to defend Kanye’s antisemitism.

Candace Owens by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hello everyone,

This isn’t so much a normal newsletter but a reminder that I am currently working on my next video, responding to conservative hosts Lauren Chen and Candace Owens, as they have recently played a major role in defending the anti-Jewish bigot, Kanye West.

Owens has been playing dumb about the severity of Kanye’s statements, and in response to her defense, Chen attempted to defend her from the backlash in a video of her own. Both of these videos serve only to protect those who spread anti-semitic garbage. As such, I will be responding to both of them and pointing out how refusing to condemn antisemitism only allows it to spread.

My response will be uploaded on the channel, which you can find here.

Episode 53: MAGA Terrorist Attacks Nancy Pelosi’s home, Charlie Kirk’s defense of Maga Terrorism, Elon Musk’s abuse of Twitter, and Response to Kevin Phares on Mara-Lago Raid

In this most recent episode of The Progressive American, I talk about a recent attack on Nancy Pelosi’s home by a MAGA Terrorist, Charlie Kirk’s pathetic attempt to defend the assailant, Elon Musk’s recent abuse of Twitter, and my recent video response to Speechless’ Kevin Phares over his coverage of the Mar-A-Lago raid.