By David Futrelle
Most of the people I follow on Twitter are, as far as I can tell, lovely people. But in the interest of balance (and because I’m always in search of material for this blog) I also follow a number of truly terrible tweeters. Which means that as I scroll my way through Twitter I regularly encounter some absolutely godawful tweets that often seem to come from an alternate universe somehow even weirder than our own.
Today. I ran across this, which was, er, striking enough that I screenshotted it and shared it with my Twitter followers:
https://twitter.com/DeepStateExpose/status/1077315643136004096
But I was still a bit puzzled: Was @DeepStateExpose simply claiming that Melania is the first truly feminine first lady — a claim I’ve seen other MAGAheads make — or was this intrepid conspiracy researcher literally claiming that all the first ladies before her were secretly trans women?
It turns out to be the latter. Earlier this month, @DeepStateExpose tweeted this, declaring in all caps that
https://twitter.com/DeepStateExpose/status/1074181689646157825
No need to watch his video: It’s two-minutes of some mumbly dude — @DeepStateExpose himself? — putting up pictures of a bunch of first ladies and declaring that each and every one of them “looks like a man.”
This brief video seems to have been, er, inspired by a much longer one that’s been floating around on YouTube for several years that uses a similar, er, methodology to prove that all of the first ladies, at least going back to the 1930s, were”demonically possessed transgender entities.” The narrator, like the one in the video above, makes much of the fact that Herbert Hoover’s wife was named “Lou,” and at one point informs viewers that “Bess Truman was a TRUE MAN.” (The original Youtuber also claimed that Melania is trans — in a portion of his video that’s conspicuously missing from some of the re-uploaded versions of the video.)
These claims don’t come out of nowhere; they’re merely the latest iteration of a long-running transphobic right-wing smear. A surprisingly large contingent of Barack Obama-haters — including, famously, Alex Jones — have been claiming for years now that Michelle Obama is “really a man,” citing as proof a recording in which the supposedly gay Barack supposedly slips up and supposedly calls his wife “Michael.” (Look, it’s transphobia, homophobia, racism and misogyny all at once!) These folks also spend a great deal of time poring over photos of the former first lady searching for, and sometimes convincing themselves they’ve found, telltale penis bulges. @DeepStateExpose has himself posted tweets proclaiming that U.S. intelligence services have “now confirm[ed] the lefts worst fears. Michelle Obama is a man!!!”
Now some of these Michelle Obama “truthers” have become First Lady truthers, and the theory has gained enough traction on the far right that in one discussion of the relative attractiveness of various countries’ “first ladies” earlier this year in 4chan’s /pol/ forum, many of the regulars seemed to treat the trans, er, theory as old news, debating only about the reasons behind this alleged historical fact.
“You don’t reach the very top unless you are a tr**ny or have a tr**ny wife,” wrote one anon. “That is the rule.”
“I’m still finding out why,” added another.
My guess so far is that since there are tr**nies in positions of power, and men can’t be in power unless he has a tr**ny wife, then it seems that tr**nies actually rule the world and any powerful men or male Jew that rules the world are actually just puppets and have a tr**ny as their handler. Tr**nies run the world behind the scenes.
It would be nice if such sentiments were confined entirely to the fringes. But they aren’t — claims like @DeepStateExpose’s are all over Twitter, and YouTube videos claiming that all the first ladies have been trans have been viewed well over 100,000 times.
@DeepStateExpose’s embrace of the theory may presage even wider acceptance of the preposterous claims on the right. @DeepStateExpose isn’t just some random Twitter troll or bot. He’s got nearly a quarter of a million Twitter followers, including a number of influential voices on the right, among them Dinesh D’Souza, former congressman and radio host Joe Walsh, and TurningPointUSA’s Charlie Kirk. His “first ladies were men” Twitter video has itself been viewed more than 10,000 times.
Perhaps more alarmingly. @DeepStateExpose is someone whose tweets are regularly seen — and often retweeted by — President Trump himself. @DeepStateExpose says in his Twitter bio that he’s been retrweeted by the President nine times. Given the limitations of Twitter’s search function, I haven’t been able to confirm this, but as Slate noted in one article “Ranking … Trump’s Sunday Morning Tweets From Least to Most Insane,” Trump has on at least one occasion retweeted the popular conspiracy theorist multiple times in a single day.
Let’s just hope that Trump doesn’t choose to promote this particular tweet; our political discourse is already strange and terrible enough as it is.
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White men have had their turn, I say we give the rulership to trans people and Jewish people for a while. Could it be much worse?
@Weird Eddie
Precisely. Carl “Wouldn’t Even Rape You” Benjamin is the perfect example. He leapt upon GamerGate probably because he really did believe that feminism was out to take away his video games, but quickly found himself the center of attention and used the YouTube algorithm to his advantage. As the subs went up, so did the demand to be even more edgy and extreme.
I’d be remiss not to call that blasted algorithm to task for facilitating these shitlords’ rise to prominence. Of course, the algorithm has no endgame either. It just is.
I’d prefer using ‘Morlock’ to ‘CHUD,’ but that’s just me…
@Kevin
I suspect that you need to go and re-read the time machine and reflect upon the ways in which you are wrong.
@Katamount
Even assuming that the algorithm was perfectly apolitical and neutral to start with (and we can only assume that it was; we’ve no evidence) in the current environment on YouTube it very clearly is neither of those things.
Algorithms are goal-oriented and serve someone’s purpose. That someone is very much to blame.
I think it’s the conspiracy theory mindset, combined with increasing awareness that trans people exist, combined with vague heteromasculine insecurity about “deceptive” trans women.
Conspiracy thinkers get really excited over the idea that someone, somewhere is trying (unsuccessfully) to deceive them about something, even for no obvious reason or harm.
@ Katamount
Nice story… I didn’t watched Star Trek, so the reference is mostly lost on me, but still… I think it’s more of a coping mechanism on their side. Because people – no matter how messed-up they are – are generally reluctant to admit that they are the baddies, and they’re beating defenseless victims. So they made that sprawling imagined world, where the role of abusers and victims are reversed, and they are the ones getting oppressed and fighting back. Hell, even Nazis tried to rationalize their genocide by claiming the Jews were the real villains.
If anything, in MAGA world the episode would go something more like the alien trying to convince Picard that that killing bunch of stick-wielding aliens with lasers is noble and honorable self-defense combat.
@Pie
We cannot assume that at all. Algorithms should always be assumed to reflect the biases of their creators.
OT, but related to youtube algorithms; when I was a teen I argued a lot with hardcore misogynistic fundies in the youtube comments. People who posted links more than once in a comment tended to get their comments ghost-banned, which meant that when delusional puritans poured out a screed of shit they pulled out of thin air, their comment would stand, while people who referenced their debunks with citations would get their comments deleted automatically.
Not that it really mattered, because the internet has a tendency of coddling the virulently anti-fact bigots of society, so trying to talk is a waste of breath.
Alternatively, on some level, they understand the depth to which we are fucked, and they don’t expect to be around long enough to end up eating the consequences of their own jackassery.
“I suspect that you need to go and re-read the time machine and reflect upon the ways in which you are wrong.”
Yeah, with respect, Morlocks really are superior (as predators) — it’s not just that they think they are.
It says a lot about these Chuds that only an actual fashion model reads as “female” to them.
?
Ok am i awake or dreaming odd stuff again??
Doe they really claim this BS?!
I do often wish the things the propaganda claims would be true, we would live in the paradise