She’s running, and fundraising successfully. But this is Laura Loomer.
First, she’s not the least bit bashful about her efforts to stoke hate against Muslims.
In 2017, she bragged on Twitter about being a “#ProudIslamophobe,” as she called Muslims “savages,” calling for a ban on allowing Muslims into America “EVER AGAIN.” She has called Islam a “cancer,” and worse, she wrote that there’s “no such thing as a moderate Muslim. They’re ALL the same.” Loomer dangerously wants you to believe that a Muslim American like myself is no different than a person in ISIS.
Loomer, who once worked for the right-wing group Project Veritas, seems to especially despise immigrant Muslims, tweeting in 2017, “Someone needs to create a non-Islamic version of Uber or Lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver.” That resulted in her being banned from Uber and Lyft for violating its community standards, which prompted Loomer to tweet, “Uber will literally hire an Islamic terrorist, but they will ban a conservative journalist for addressing legitimate safety concerns.”
In 2019, Loomer took to Instagram, where she made a video attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in vile terms, blaming all Muslims including Omar for 9/11, and adding, “Muslims should not even be allowed to seek positions of political office in this country.”
Beyond social media, in October 2018 Loomer praised and appeared with self-professed Canadian white nationalist Faith Goldy, who has claimed in the past that homosexuality facilitated the Holocaust and openly recited and defended the “14 word” mantra used by white supremacists. Loomer also trespassed on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s property in January 2019 along with her colleague, Charlottesville Unite the Right marcher Antonio Foreman, to denounce her refusal to support Trump’s wall. While on Pelosi’s property, Loomer reportedly made racist comments about Latinos.
The article doesn’t even mention the time she handcuffed herself to a door at Twitter headquarters and peed herself. Or the time she crashed a Shakespeare play to yell about ISIS controlling CNN. She wants to declare Keith Ellison’s election invalid, because he got 50,000 votes from Muslims and another 50,000 by voter fraud.
The Florida GOP loves Loomer, which is just another sign that the entire goddamned party has been infected with a brain-eating virus, and that we’ve got to do more than topple Trump.
For those who think Trumpism ends with Trump, think again. Loomer, who is 26, and the others we saw march in Charlottesville in defense of white supremacy are part of a younger generation that will be with us long after Trump. The best and only antidote to driving Trumpism to the fringes of society where it belongs is winning big in November. Barring that, Trumpism will spread and infect our nation like a deadly cancer.
Unfortunate incompetence in writing here: from the rest of what they said, it’s clear that they don’t want an anti-dote to “driving Trumpism to the fringes of society”.
That said, I like most of the rest of the piece. Could have spent more time on how she chained herself to the building with Twitter’s HQ, got no attention, then begged the NYPD to cut her free.
Honestly, this is just a grift. The way to end it is just to take the money out of it.
‘“14 word” mantra used by white supremacists.’
It probably ruins my omniscience cred, and I’m probably better off not knowing, but I have not heard of this.
I hope it’s just saying “Omm… Omm… Omm… Omm… Omm… Omm… Omm… Omm… Omm… Omm… Omm… Omm… Omm… Omm… “.
prostheticconscience @ 2
Honestly, this is just a grift.
That’s what they said about Trump in 2016.
I’m starting to get quite worried about the idea that removing Trump will fix anything.
It won’t. Trump is the rash, not the rot. Things are going to keep getting worse until something is done to fix the gross inequality which defines wealthy societies in the modern world.
Even electing Sanders president doesn’t fix that. It’s going to take a concerted effort over at least a decade to totally revolutionise the US political landscape. I fear a slackening of efforts post election, when you’re going to need to push on toward a radical shift in the Senate. That means replacing most of the Dems, as well as the Reps.
PZ, you forget Loomer’s visit with Jacob Wohl to your neck of the woods last year, looking for jihadis. Or more likely claiming they were looking for jihadis so they’d look so brave and cool to their marks.
@3 richardelguru
The 14 words:
“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
There is so much idiocy in Loomer’s “career” that I can’t possibly recount it all!
” Loomer, who is 26, and the others we saw march in Charlottesville in defense of white supremacy are part of a younger generation that will be with us long after Trump. ”
Do much for Hey Boomer…
Aggh. SO Much…
I’m not sure this counts as grifting. She’s providing her audience with exactly what they want and as long as that’s true, they’ll be willing to pay for it.
Is she the one who chained herself to the door of the Instagram or twitter office or some such and they just ignored her until she got tired and went home?
Yup, that was here.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/far-right-activist-laura-loomer-handcuffs-herself-twitter-s-new-n941891
Love this bit: “At about 6 p.m. ET, police, at Loomer’s request, used a bolt cutter to cut through her handcuffs. She was not arrested.”
in this internet world of digital communication, pod casts, YouTube channels, blogging, and hand-held computers there is no center to be a fringe of anymore. That is the problem and the reality, just as in the modern battle field there is much of it as without a front there are no trenches nor isolate individuals when ISIS can get recruits from around the world to fight in Syria and Iraq and a nobody like this women can get attention there are no longer fringes to be banished to by polite society.
it is on every street corner , it is lies and greed and the lust for power, it is inequality and lies and exploitation, hate and fear
uncle frogy
I’m still sad that the cops actually helped her out with the bolt cutters. Would have been better to just leave her there until she figured out how to get herself free without using taxpayer resources.
I don’t think driving anything to the fringes is a useful solution. We did that, and for about 50 years we’ve listened to the dog whistles. The only difference now is the bigots are being more open and blatant about it. That might be a good thing because we can’t delude ourselves into the belief that we’ve solved the problem of racism, sexism, sectarianism, xenophobia, and general stupidity. How a society corrects and eradicates those evils is the question.
Loree @ 7
Thank you.
Not quite as bad as I feared, but a creditable (???) second place showing.
I still prefer mine.
“She wants to declare Keith Ellison’s election invalid, because he got 50,000 votes from Muslims and another 50,000 by voter fraud.”
??!?!??!?!???!?? I can believe that Keith Ellison got 50,000 votes from Muslims, but I am highly skeptical that he got 50,000 fraudulent votes. If there was any truth to that statement it would invalidate the election, the Republicans did that to a race in North Carolina a couple of years ago.
Which is why that the next Democratic president (assuming there ever is one) has got to to mercilessly crack down on white supremacy and the alt.right with all the police and military power they can muster. Screw free speech! We now see what a mistake that was, Let the Republicans, Bible-beaters, and gun-nuts whine and scream about ”persecution” and ”FEMA death camps.” A message must be sent that fascism and racism will never be tolerated in the U.S..
@Akira: how sure are you that the police would be on our side in that scenario?
No, that is not the only difference. As racism has become normalised, the number of violent hate crimes has risen. And of course Trump’s election followed the huge rise in overt racist rhetoric that followed Obama’s election.