Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene—the intellectual giant who wore a mask emboldened with the word “censored” as she used her massive platform to speak to the nation live on major network television—has been under fire as of late when videos emerged of her harassing school shooting survivor and gun-control advocate David Hogg—who she gave the nickname #littleHitler—as well as for social media posts in which she appeared to endorse murdering elected officials. Greene also insinuated the mass shootings in Parkland, Florida and Las Vegas were false flag events conducted to push for gun control, and that the recent California wildfires may have been the result of lasers which were built by companies associated with the Rothschild family, a common anti-Semitic claim.
That last one did get “Jewish laser beam” to start trending on Twitter, so that’s pretty cool.
Greene went on a deleting frenzy to limit the ammunition of those calling for her resignation. But how much more do we have to see? And furthermore, none of this should be surprising.
Greene was an open Qanon supporter, and thus, trafficking in ludicrous conspiracy theories wasn’t detrimental to her rise. It wasn’t a hurdle; it was the fuel. She was open about all of this. It wasn’t an investigation that uncovered these things. They were all right there on her public Facebook and YouTube pages. Greene grew a platform for being the exact person we see in these videos and on social media. And the Republican party leadership was warned about her extreme views. But the GOP spent the last four years emboldening Donald Trump, so of course they weren’t going to try to destroy one of his acolytes.
That’s what she is, an acolyte, a product, a result. When a right-wing populist president spends his time in office propagandizing, assaulting the truth, and aggressively emboldening not only racism and intolerance but generic ignorance, extremists will inevitably ride the same wave of populism to winning elections. And when these dangerous ideas are amplified and legitimized on social media, the size of this contingent grows exponentially. Suddenly, they’re the one’s generating news cycles. Suddenly, they’re not the fringe anymore. For example: Over 70% of Republicans believe that Donald Trump received more votes than Joe Biden, which is objectively not true.
When asked to respond to the news that Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez planed to introduce a resolution to expel her from congress, Greene replied:
They are coming after me because I'm a threat to their goal of Socialism. They are coming after me because they know I represent the people, not the politicians. They are coming after me because like President Trump, I will always defend conservative values. They want to take me out because I represent the people. And they absolutely hate it.
It’s a Trump-inspired response from a Trump-inspired lawmaker. It has that same boorish mix of fear-mongering and victimhood. People like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert were elected because Donald Trump was embraced and empowered by the Republican Party. Let us not forget that a few weeks ago extremists, directly encouraged by—and perhaps, when it comes to Boebert, directly assisted by—the two congresswomen above and the former president, participated in a deadly insurrection at the capital. The truth is, there is a Marjorie Taylor Greene/Lauren Boebert wing of the Republican party.
These people are now in positions of serious power. They’re the ones who make the laws that guide the country.
So…
Is it terrifying that a person who thinks that when mass shootings occur in a country that has more guns and gun deaths than anywhere else on the planet, it must be a staged event?
Yes.
Is it terrifying that even though scientists have warned that wildfires will continue to increase due to rising temperatures and drier conditions resulting from climate change that a person would think wildfires must be the result of Jewish lasers?
Yes.
But when Greene says she “represents the people,” she’s not lying. And that’s what’s more terrifying. This problem is much larger than her. The calls for her resignation might be growing, and resolutions will be introduced to expel her, but the chance of achieving a 2/3rds majority is incredibly slim. It’s slim because this is a part of the Republican party now.
Greene is almost certainly isn’t going anywhere, and there are others primed to rise behind her. They may be a bit more polished and less obvious about it. Or maybe not. It probably won’t be the same stuff. Qanon will eventually fade deep into the background. But the appetite for conspiracy theories isn’t going away, and it’s hard to imagine the surge of right wing populism has reached its zenith in the United States quite yet.
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We put up a video recently on how the American healthcare system is not a failure, it’s a horrific success.
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