Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance’s (R-Ohio) public profile has changed tremendously since his now-running mate former President Donald Trump first ran for president in 2016. Vance, then a venture capitalist and author of the successful memoir Hillbilly Elegy, was a harsh critic of Trump and used to openly describe him as an “idiot,” wondering whether he might be “America’s Hitler” in a Facebook conversation with a friend.

As Vance radicalized over the course of a successful Ohio Senate campaign, he reconciled with Trump while becoming a fixture of MAGA politics in his own right.

“I allowed myself to focus so much on the stylistic element of Trump that I completely ignored the way in which he substantively was offering something very different on foreign policy, on trade, on immigration,” Vance told the New York Times’ Ross Douthat in June this year.

Along the way, his personal style also shifted, going from the baby-faced blogger of yore to a sitting senator. Vance grew a beard, got sharper haircuts, and settled into a professional suit and tie.

Some people think he hasn’t stopped there though, and are speculating that he’s also wearing eyeliner.

Is JD Vance wearing eyeliner?

On TikTok, the theories have been swirling since Trump announced the pick.

“This is unserious political commentary but I can’t stop thinking about it,” @mamasissiesays said in one video posted on June 19. “Is JD Vance wearing eyeliner?”

The TikToker, who goes by Casey, compared stylized photos of Vance with his official Senate portrait, as well as how he looked on TV appearances.

“No eyeliner to see here … that’s very much a man not wearing eyeliner,” Casey said about his Senate portrait, then contrasted it with a TV appearance. “Obviously something’s going on here,” she commented, “along with some contour, I’d love to know his shade.”

“That is a bold line just a few millimeters over and he’ll have a proper cat-eye on his hands,” she added, zooming in on one shot of Vance’s eye.

“We’re fine with men who wear makeup,” she specified. “What we’re not fine with is hypocrites who make … harmful policies against men who wear makeup.”

She also claimed to have found Vance’s shade, a “deep taupe-gray matte” glide-on eye pencil called “Urban Decay Desperation.”

It's a fitting color for a man who chucked his liberal values to latch on to a candidate decrying crime-riddled American metropolises.

Casey wasn’t the only TikToker who noticed the eyeliner. @skyeleight55, who goes by Skye Dawn on the platform, reacted to Casey’s video with a screenshot of Vance she said she’d taken because she had the exact same thought

“You cannot tell me he’s not sitting there … [with] foundation, eye liner, and filler,” Skye Dawn said.

Another TikToker offered the full JD Vance makeup tutorial for his national debut at the Republican National Convention.

In the post, they draw on a really “tight” eyeliner, both above and “under your eye like you are a 14-year-old girl in 2006," that, along with mascara "makes our eyes look sunken and like we're worried for America."

The Trump-Vance campaign didn’t answer questions about whether they were employing a makeup artist for Vance. Multiple people who worked for Vance in the Senate also didn’t answer questions about his makeup regime. Plenty of politicians wear makeup today on the campaign trail and under the glare of stage and television lights.

Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon blamed his loss in 1960 against John F. Kennedy at least partially on the fact that he refused to wear makeup during their televised debate. Polling before the TV faceoff had Nixon six points up, but his haggard appearance turned voters off.

Kriss Blevens, who’s done campaign makeup for dozens of presidential candidates over the years, also didn’t respond to questions about whether Vance was sporting eyeliner.

But this wouldn't be the first aesthetic secret of a politician outed by TikTok.

Online theories about the footwear of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) did him no favors in a brutal Republican primary campaign against Trump. TikTokers speculated that DeSantis was wearing a wedge shoe to increase his height, something he denied but which led to numerous awkward questions about the boots, and even an attack from Trump, who accused him of wearing high heels.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post TikTok makeup artists think they’ve found JD Vance’s exact shade of eyeliner appeared first on The Daily Dot.

A conspiracy theory that claims President Joe Biden is now tall after mysteriously growing several inches is slowly becoming the latest hot meme.

The tall Biden conspiracy theory

Last week, far-right conspiracy theorists cited a video of Biden outside the White House as proof that he had grown inexplicably. The theory alleges that Biden, who recently announced his plans to withdraw from the presidential election, has been replaced by a clone, given that he appears much taller than normal standing next to his wife Jill.

"Biden grew a few inches while he was missing for five days..." one user wrote.

The conspiracy theory comes not long after far-right figures claimed that Biden was either on death's door or outright deceased. Yet with that theory easily debunked given the president's public appearances, conservatives latched onto the Biden clone claim instead.

While Biden does look taller than his wife in the above video, the difference is attributable to the low angle of the camera as well as Jill Biden's walking a short distance behind him.

But at least some right-wing users appear to be taking the claim less seriously and have instead begun sharing memes.

Tall Biden Memes

In one example this week, a video altered by a group known as the "Dilley Meme Team" depicts Biden as even taller than before.

"Is it just me, or is Joe getting taller? Is that even Joe?" one of the meme's creators asked.

They followed up the post with an even more exaggerated Biden, who overshadowed Marine One on the White House lawn.

In that clip, Biden walks next to Jill and his son Hunter, causing the camera to shake with each step. They also add sound effects to each step.

The Daily Dot reached out to Brenden Dilley, a podcast host who runs the team that created the video, to inquire about the post. Dilley responded with a screenshot of the Daily Dot's previous coverage of the meme team alongside the statement: "You're welcome to blow me first."

In another post, Biden is towering over the nation's Capitol building.

A caption on the picture states: "At this rate of growth Biden will soon be unstoppable."

Trump's 18-year-old son Barron, who is a staggering 6'9, also found himself in the mix.

"I await their titanic duel," another said in a manipulated image.

Other posts referred to Biden as "Joeliath" and "Giant Joe," while some argued that his nickname should be changed from Dark Brandon to Tall Brandon.

"To all video editors... Now I crave a thread of Giant Joe memes," one user said.

The conspiracy is bigger than the meme

Although the memes were quite apparent to conservatives, they still dwarfed the conspiracy theory that alleged Biden had really replaced by a much taller body double.

"Joe Biden has never been 6’ 4 tall like the ‘body double’ towering over Jill and White House aides," another added. "And he’s never in his life moved as well as this other ‘body double’ caught on the way to his car."

Prominent Trump supporter Bill Mitchell also hyped the claims, posting in image he claimed of Biden in 2022 and 2024.

While the conspiracy theory remains prominent among mainline supporters of former President Donald Trump, the tall Biden memes appear here to stay.

At least until he leaves office next year.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Dark Brandon is dead—but Tall Biden grows bigger every day appeared first on The Daily Dot.

Vice President Kamala Harris is developing a new fan base: white dudes.

As her presidential campaign ramps up, a group of white men formed a coalition known as "White Dudes for Harris."

The group plans to kick off Monday night via a virtual call that will feature speakers including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D), singer Josh Groban, actor Mark Hamill, and others.

"Together, we aren’t going to sit around and let the MAGA crowd bully other white guys into voting for a hateful and divisive ideology because we understand that under MAGA everyone loses," the RSVP page for Monday's call reads. "We know that as white dudes, we have both a strong, and positive role to play in America’s shared future, and it begins with all of us cutting through the MAGA crap and reminding the folks who have co-opted American symbols what America actually means."

White Dudes for Harris also launched a $35 hat with its slogan ahead of the meeting.

The group said that nearly 80,000 people have RSVP'd and it collectively raised more than $300,000 in support of Harris' campaign.

What do Democrats think about White Dudes for Harris?

Democratic influencers and those planning to attend the call praised the initial organizing.

"Tonight's call represents a promising attempt to create a movement and a permission structure to lift many white dudes out of the MAGA whirlpool they've gotten sucked into," wrote one person on X. "It will allow for tough but necessary conversations that can create healing, movement, and unity around Kamala Harris and Democratic candidates like her."

He continued: "The guys organizing tonight’s call were inspired by the Black women and men, as well as all the other folks, who've organized calls over the last week. White men haven't organized ourselves well around Democratic values, which has been detrimental to the country and our ability to win elections."

Joked the pro-Democrat account VoteDarkBrandon: "Folks—white boy summer is here," riffing on the right-wing attempts to claim the phrase.

At the same time, critics of Harris were quick to put the group on blast.

Some accounts posted images of transgender women while making fun of the initiative, while others took digs at the manliness of the attendees.

"White dudes for Harris?? The Democrats return to their segregationist roots," slammed one person.

"If you belong to 'White Dudes for Harris', you've turned in your man card and didn't even realize it," snarked someone else.

"These dudes would be melting down if there was a 'White Dudes for Trump,'" mused another person.

Asked one user: "How beta-male can you be?"

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post White Dudes for Harris thinks they can turn male MAGA supporters appeared first on The Daily Dot.

X owner Elon Musk is feuding with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) over an AI-generated campaign video that alters the speech of Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Friday, Musk promoted a video created by the right-wing YouTuber "Mr Reagan" that uses an AI voice generator to depict Harris calling President Joe Biden senile.

"I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate," the AI audio says. "Thanks, Joe."

The fake Harris goes on in the nearly two-minute-long video, which uses footage from a real Harris campaign ad, to refer to herself as "the ultimate diversity hire" before stating that any criticism of her is "both sexist and racist."

"I may not know the first thing about running the country but remember that's a good thing if you're a deep state puppet," the ad continues. "I had four years under the tutelage of the ultimate deep state puppet, a wonderful mentor, Joe Biden."

Although the text in Mr Reagan's post described the video as a "Kamala Harris Campaign Ad PARODY," the footage itself does not include any such disclaimers. And while many would argue that the audio content is unmistakably manipulated and satirical, critics, such as Newsom, took issue with the clip.

"Manipulating a voice in an 'ad' like this one should be illegal," Newsom wrote. "I'll be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is."

The bill Newsom is referring to is known as "The Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act" and would require major online platforms to label certain content as "inauthentic, fake, or false" during election season. Election-related content deemed “materially deceptive" would be outright banned.

In response, Musk, as well as his right-wing supporters, flooded Newsom's replies.

Musk himself made reference to his testicles while criticizing Newsom's remarks.

"I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America," Musk said.

Musk followed up by issuing a poll to his more than 191 million followers asking whether Newsom should create an endowed chair at the University of California for the imaginary professor.

Ironically, as noted by the Verge, Musk's promotion of the altered video without context is actually in violation of X's policies.

Aside from Newsom, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) also pushed back on Musk by pointing to legislation aimed at curtailing such content.

"If Elon Musk and X let this go and don’t label it as altered AI content, they will not only be violating X’s own rules, they’ll be unleashing an entire election season of fake AI voice and image-altered content with no limits, regardless of party," Klobuchar said on Threads.

Reacting to the video, the Harris campaign argued in a statement that the "American people want the real freedom, opportunity and security Vice-President Harris is offering; not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump."

As it stands, Musk has not labeled the video as manipulated. Musk's post highlighting the video has already been viewed nearly 130 million times.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Elon Musk replies to Gavin Newsom’s criticism of AI Harris video with a Deez Nutz joke appeared first on The Daily Dot.

Ever since former President Donald Trump announced Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate in the 2024 presidential election, Vance has dealt with some peculiar criticisms. Some joked that Vance had a sexual relationship with a couch. Others claimed that Vance once shared a screenshot on X that showed him having searched for a video of a woman and a dolphin being intimate.

Now, people are just saying he's weird, including Vice President Kamala Harris' official campaign X account. Harris is running for the Democratic nomination for president.

"JD Vance is weird and creepy," @KamalaHQ tweeted on Friday regarding Vance's comments about a "federal response" to stop women from traveling to other states to get an abortion.

In response, many right-wing influencers and well-known online figures posted memes, images, and videos to prove that the people who call Vance weird are actually weird themselves. Many of these posts focus on drag queens, non-binary and trans people, and the LGBTQ community in general.

Donald Trump Jr. posted a video of Harris high-fiving drag queen Pattiegonia, whose real name is Wyn Wiley. In the video, Harris and Wiley reference Kylie Minogue's song "Padam Padam." Wiley was invited by the Biden administration to the White House to celebrate Pride Month and has met with lawmakers about climate change.

"'JD Vance is weird' - Team Kamala Harris," Trump Jr. said on X yesterday.

Phillip Buchanan, who goes by Catturd online and has almost 3 million followers on X, also posted a photo of Harris and Wiley.

"JD Vance is so weird," he wrote.

Buchanan also posted a photo of Admiral Rachel Levine, who is the Department of Health and Human Services' Assistant Secretary of Health. Levine is trans.

Chaya Raichik, who runs @LibsOfTikTok, posted a video of Harris with Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness, who is non-binary. Raichik posts about LGBTQ educators online and her tweets have been connected to more than twenty bomb threats across the country.

Other prominent right-wing accounts posted similar tweets. Mostly Peaceful Latinas, a conservative podcast hosted by Linda Catalina and Isabella Rodriguez, posted photos of Rose Montoya and Dylan Mulvaney on its X account.

Montoya was invited to the White House for Pride Month in 2023, where she posed for photos topless. According to a statement from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Montoya is no longer welcome at the White House. She is trans.

Mulvaney, who is also trans, is an influencer who is well-known for her "Days of Girlhood" series in which she documented the ins and outs of her transition. Last year, she partnered with Bud Light which resulted in a huge right-wing boycott of the beer brand.

"'JD Vance is weird,'" the account wrote.

@GrandOldMemes, a conservative meme account with over 575,000 followers, took a different approach: It posted a meme that features the anti-semitic hate symbol "the happy merchant" with signs that say "Harris for President" and "Protect Trans Kids."

Vance's response to the hullaballoo was to post a video of Harris saying her pronouns at a 2020 CNN Town Hall.

In his less than two years in the Senate, Vance has introduced anti-trans legislation and made many anti-LGBTQ statements.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Kamala Harris called JD Vance ‘weird’—so now his fans are mocking trans people appeared first on The Daily Dot.

Right-wingers online think that Google and ChatGPT are systematically repressing information about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump two weeks ago.

The prominent right-wing account Libs of TikTok put ChatGPT on blast for stating that "there is no verified information or evidence that Donald Trump was 'almost assassinated' during his presidency or afterward" when asked by a user.

"They’re erasing history in real time," Libs of TikTok concluded.

"Election interference in full effect," replied another account.

"This is some serious Orwellian stuff," wrote someone else.

But the post itself got a Community Note stating that "GPT 4o has a training cutoff date of October 2023" so the information it provides—when it doesn't rely on pulling from a web search—will only go up until that point.

Somebody else who worded the question differently—asking "Was President Trump almost assassinated two weeks ago?"—received updated information due to ChatGPT relying on web search.

When tested by the Daily Dot, the latter question similarly returned the same, correct result. However, the first phrasing did not, with ChatGPT stating that "while there have been threats and minor incidents, there has not been a significant assassination attempt on Trump."

Libs of TikTok made the same accusation against Meta AI, though like ChatGPT, the system does not always have access to up-to-date information.

"We’re witnessing the suppression and coverup of one of the biggest most consequential stories in real time," the account said. "Simply unreal."

As of Monday, Meta displays the correct information when given the same prompts Libs of TikTok provided.

But the main source of outrage online was not the sometimes outdated AI systems, but Google Search.

"Google is already suppressing searches on the 'assassination attempt on TRUMP,'" wrote one X account along with a screenshot of the Trump assassination attempt not being shown as a recommended search when typing similar inquiries. "This is clearly an attempt to prevent political support for Donald Trump. Big Tech is once again r*gging the presidential election."

"I saw someone post on X that Google was Suppressing President Trump’s Assassination Attempt on their Google search engines. And IT’S TRUE!!!" wrote Rob Schneider. "That is why Google needs to be BROKEN UP by the FCC!"

A Daily Dot search for the same and similar terms yielded no search recommendations. "Assassination attempt on truman," however, autopopulated.

The screenshots caught the attention Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who called the results "insane."

"Google is engaged in active election interference," Cruz continued. "They are gas-lighting the American people & trying to erase the attempted assassination of Trump."

"Why is Google suppressing the search about the Trump assassination attempt?" echoed Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas). These are all screenshots from this morning. Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the last two weeks? I’ll be making an official inquiry into Google this week - I look forward to their response."

A spokesperson for Google told the New York Post that there was no “manual action taken on these predictions” and that autocomplete suggestions are impacted by terms "associated with political violence.”

Nonetheless, Trump not being included in autocomplete suggestions drew the wrath of many—some of whom, like Cruz, are accusing the tech giant of attempting to sway the 2024 election.

"Election interference?" asked Elon Musk.

"Big Tech is trying to interfere in the election AGAIN to help Kamala Harris," concluded Donald Trump Jr. "We all know this is intentional election interference from Google. Truly despicable."

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Conservative influencers who don’t know how ChatGPT works lose it over Trump assassination response appeared first on The Daily Dot.

Prominent left-wing users on social media cited recent photos of former President Donald Trump to prove that an assassination attempt against him didn't happen.

Since the attempted assassination of Trump more than two weeks ago, conspiracy theories have exploded online among liberals.

The photos, taken by press photographers over the past several days, only amplified those conspiratorial claims.

"Donald Trump doesn't want you to see this," X user David Leavitt wrote of one photo from the Associated Press (AP). "Do not share this picture of his ear."

Such posts racked up millions of views on X, prompting further speculation about Trump's ear.

"Trump speaking at Bitcoin Conference 7/27/24," another added. "His ear is miraculously healed in only 14 days after 'being grazed with a bullet.' Everyone should be questioning this."

Although already widely discussed, the issue blew up after Pete Souza, the chief White House photographer for former President Barack Obama, weighed in on the conspiracy theory.

In a post on Saturday, Souza insinuated that a bullet did not strike Trump, and encouraged his followers to "look closely at his ear" in a photo from the AP.

Souza's comments came just one day after the FBI clarified that it believed a bullet hit Trump.

Yet not long after making the post, Souza's account disappeared. The issue led left-wing users to double down by suggesting that X owner Elon Musk deleted Souza's account in order to help Trump.

"Presidential photographer Pete Souza posted this new AP photo of Trump's uninjured ear, so Elon kicked him off Twitter," one user wrote. "In case you're wondering how the free speech is going."

As noted by Mediate, however, Souza instead deleted his account. Still, left-wing Twitter users haven't let go of their belief that a cover-up is underway.

Some left-wing users have pushed back, though, and are calling out many of the conspiracy theories circulating online. Journalist Yashar Ali, among others, called out the claim about Souza.

"Just incredible… Resistance Twitter has gone from calling anyone who said Biden should drop out a fascist supporter and racist to now tweeting #FreePeteSouza which implies that Pete’s account was suspended," Ali wrote. "His account wasn’t suspended, he deactivated his account."

As for Trump's ear, "a detailed analysis of bullet trajectories, footage, photos and audio by the New York Times strongly suggests Mr. Trump was grazed by the first of eight bullets fired by the gunman," a finding that backs up those also given by the FBI.

Others online also argued that the photos did in fact show damage to Trump's ear, noting a divot on the helix.

As is the case with most conspiracy theories, though, it appears unlikely that many of Trump's detractors will let go. While it is certainly likely that Trump has utilized the assassination attempt to his political advantage, it nevertheless took place.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post New photos of Trump’s ear have left-wingers doubling down on conspiracy he wasn’t shot appeared first on The Daily Dot.

The Heritage Foundation, the juggernaut right-wing think tank behind Project 2025, an ambitious uber-conservative policy platform to implement if former President Donald Trump is reelected this year, is on a crusade to solve the assassination attempt against him.

This week, it revealed it purchased location data from the address of Trump’s would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks to pinpoint his travel.

And they've unearthed some very, very, very dubious ties to the FBI.

“We found the assassin’s connections through our in-depth analysis of mobile ad data to track movements of Crooks and his associates,” the think tank's Oversight Project wrote to open a thread they posted on Monday.

“To do this, we tracked devices that regularly visited both Crooks’s home and place of work and followed them.”

The thread highlights those devices—which could be tied to Crooks, his parents, or other people in the vicinity of his home—traveling to places Project Oversight says looks fishy.

Most concerning to them, one device went somewhere near FBI headquarters once.

"Someone who regularly visited Crooks home and work also visited a building in Washington, DC located in Gallery Place. This is in the same vicinity of an @FBI office on June 26, 2023," it wrote. “Who’s device is this?” it added darkly.

The map shared shows downtown Washington, D.C. with two blue circles, indicating they visited a building in Gallery Place between 7th Street Northwest and 6th Street Northwest on June 26, 2023.

The FBI main office is within a half mile of the dots. However, the location is right next to the Capital One Arena, where the Washinton Capitals and Wizards play.

Also on the block are numerous restaurants and chain eateries. One of the blue circles on Project Oversight’s map looks like it’s in the Gallery Place complex, which includes a Haagen Daaz and a Regal Cinema.

"Imagine doing this level of research but not bothering to note it appears this person just ate at Clyde's lol," joked one person on X.

The project also highlighted a device “linked to Crooks” visiting Plymouth, Massachusetts in early March, and a device “linked to Crook’s work” traveling from his home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania to Butler, Pennsylvania two times on July 4 and July 8. 

Crooks worked at a nursing home and rehab center in Bethel Park, about a 50-mile drive from Butler, where Crooks opened fire on the rally Trump was speaking at on July 13, killing one and seriously injuring two others. According to a map the Oversight Project posted, the device stopped off at a Home Depot in Butler, and all activity on the device ended on July 12.

The Oversight Project also linked a device they say is linked to Crooks to Allegheny Arms & Gun Works on Aug 30, 2023.

That was the gun store in Butler where Crooks bought 50 rounds of ammunition just hours before he opened fire on the rally, reported the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

A conspiratorial strain runs through a lot of the Oversight Project’s thread. They end it by saying that they wouldn’t be sharing the information congressional task force charged with investigating the assassination attempt because of the “connective tissue between that entity and FBI, USSS, and other entities.”

Plenty of posters picked up on that speculative angle.

“Democrats and FBI were in on it!” claimed @_BruceBane in one post.

“I strongly recommend bringing in total outsiders, such as a retired military inspector general, and providing them with the necessary authority to root out this corrupt branch of government,” suggested 8chan owner Jim Watkins. “Competent and loyal outsiders still exist and could effectively address these urgent issues.”

“They need to completely hand it off to Pennsylvania State Police,” proposed @Distress99. “Any federal agency would be absurd—these potential allegations create a clear conflict of interest.”

Other posters were baffled by just how the organization got access to the granular level of data needed to pinpoint what might be Crooks’ movements.

“How did you get access to this type of data?” asked @zephyr_wild, with plenty of posters lining up to explain that it comes from advertisers which businesses sell to other businesses.

“It's generic aggregated commercial tower data.  It is used in targeted advertising and is pretty granular,” wrote @admiral_nemo. “It is likely ‘scrubbed’.  Meaning, the devices are trackable... but identity of device holder is unknown.”

“This is why flashlight apps want your location and contacts and why you can't disable the stock weather app,” added @Jimerican2.

People present at the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot were tracked by similar advertising data, which included 100,000 locations pings distributed across thousands of smartphones. The New York Times described how ostensibly anonymized data can actually be cross-referenced across multiple databases using a unique identifier called a Mobile Ad ID. That ID can be matched with a wealth of other data in other, non-anonymous databases. These include information like first and last names, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and even precise locations.

That level of tracking capability had some people impressed, but it also made them uneasy about the power that sort of data could have for think tanks like Heritage.

“The amount of information gathered by digital ADVERTISING is wild, looks to be what this OSINT account used to pull data,” posted @WeaponOutfitter in reaction to the Project Oversight thread.

Others were less sanguine about the capabilities on display.

“yo this is fucking terrifying. this data should not be accessible. what the fuck,” posted @daysnotlived succinctly. 

“Feels like the real takeaway here is ‘The Heritage Foundation has unrestricted surveillance powers,” added @ebeggin1.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post The Heritage Foundation is trying to claim Thomas Matthew Crooks has FBI ties using dubious cell phone data points appeared first on The Daily Dot.

The Fort Worth Botanic Garden, a 120-acre oasis in the heart of the bustling city, recently found itself mired in controversy after a far-right advocacy group booked the grounds for its 15th anniversary. 

The “birthday celebration” for the True Texas Project featured panels on Christian nationalism and the Great Replacement Theory, an antisemitic myth.

The Botanic Garden, whose website commemorates the indigenous peoples whose land it occupies, canceled the event after a Texas Tribune report revealed the far-right slate of speakers, including Kyle Rittenhouse and a Christian nationalist author who calls for blasphemy laws. 

But the Fort Worth mayor reinstated the event, bowing to a pressure campaign orchestrated on Facebook by the group’s CEO, according to emails obtained by the Daily Dot.

The True Texas Project is no stranger to controversy and extremist rhetoric. CEO Julie McCarty once expressed solidarity with the El Paso Walmart shooter who killed 23 in a 2019 attack targeting Latino immigrants.  

The sold-out event featured a Friday evening “birthday party” with cake and breakout sessions that included Rittenhouse and Wade Miller, who wrote a policy brief on the “demographic replacement of American citizens by the foreign-born.”

Attendees were greeted by a dozen or so protesters outside the venue the first day—a number that grew to almost 100 by the next—beating drums and holding signs like “TTP = KKK.”

McCarty did not respond to a request for comment. The mayor directed the Daily Dot to previous statements about the event. The Botanic Garden did not respond to a request for comment. 

True Texas Project started life as a local Tea Party, one of the many grassroots organizations that sprung up to oppose President Barack Obama. At the time, McCarty was a stay-at-home mom with no political experience. But it quickly exerted muscle in Texas politics, ousting elected leaders it deemed insufficiently conservative and recruiting ideological warriors to run for office. And like many on the right, it shifted from libertarian rebellion against Obama to outright Trumpian anti-immigrant nationalism. 

McCarty’s grassroots activism was instrumental in turning Tarrant County, where Forth Worth is located, into a “GOP stronghold.” 

“As Texas goes, so goes America and it is Tarrant County that holds Texas red,” McCarty said in a recent interview. 

That penchant for ideological warfare was on display in June. After the Tribune report dropped, McCarty claimed it boosted sales. 

“I hope the Trib keeps attacking because the support has been fantastic, and ticket sales keep coming in,” she wrote. 

But patrons of the garden, seeing the news, flocked to Facebook. A week-old post on the Botanic Garden’s page received intense pushback. Unlike the usual anodyne comments the garden generally draws, these were furious. 

“I will never visit this place again. They are hosting a white supremacy right wing event. Hosting a bunch of Nazis,” one commenter said. 

“Do not allow your facility to be used for hate,” another said. 

“[We] won't be setting foot in this garden again unless they cancel this hate group conference,” another comment said, “I still can hardly believe this is actually real.”

Within an hour of receiving angry engagement, the official Botanic Garden account spoke up.

“Please rest assured the True Texas Project event is not being held at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden," it wrote.

Behind the scenes, emails obtained by the Daily Dot show that the Garden's CEO announced the cancellation of the event to the Garden’s board as the comments swelled, mentioning that “questions and community protest” about the garden’s association with the extremist group had risen.

The Tribune report also caused a mini-rebellion on the right, with three planned speakers canceling their appearances. In a remarkable split, one of the group’s longtime allies, former Texas state senator Don Huffines, released a statement that directly called out antisemitism as his reason for dropping out. 

After the event, McCarty painted it all as a plot by members of the “Radical Left”—the Tribune and the Garden—conspiratorially joining forces to shut them down. 

But McCarty didn’t wait to fight back, urging her supporters to fill the mayor’s inbox with complaints. 

“The Gardens are city property,” McCarty said in the June 14 Facebook post. “They are not allowed to pick and choose which groups may use the facilities.”

According to emails obtained by the Daily Dot, her base responded instantly

“Once again the city of Fort Worth displays that they in fact hate Christian Conservative people,” one such email from a True Texas Project supporter said. 

“They host far Left groups happily,” wrote another, echoing McCarty’s language on her Facebook post verbatim. Despite that assertion, the vast majority of events the garden hosts tend to be apolitical sessions on nature and art.

But the wave of emails caught the attention of the mayor’s office. An aide compiled the responses in a heads-up, noting they all went the same way—in favor of reinstating the event. 

That email, sent by an assistant “for awareness,” came just three hours after McCarty launched her campaign.

It went to the Mayor Mattie Parker, the city attorney Leann Guzman, the mayor’s chief of staff, and a media relations professional. 

“Let me know how we want to proceed,” the email ends. 

Less than 15 minutes after the aide’s concerned email to the mayor, a letter from the city went out to the True Texas Project’s attorney.

“The City has notified [the Botanic Garden] that it must immediately reverse the cancellation of your client’s event and reinstate the reservation,” the letter said.

No reasons were given for the reinstatement in the letter. However, in emails obtained by the Daily Dot, a message from city attorney Guzman to the Botanic Garden CEO cites the First Amendment as the reason for reinstatement. “Facility rentals constitute a public forum,” the message says, thus, “the City cannot restrict access based solely on a potential renter's viewpoint.”

That point, though, highlights just how Fort Worth caved on the matter over far-right pressure. Guzman, who cited the rationale, raised no initial concerns when the event was first canceled despite being cc’ed on the decision. 

That’s likely because the city has a policy that allows it to deny the use of any facility to groups it deems discriminatory. 

Just three months prior, in April, the Fort Worth Parks and Recreation canceled another event they deemed discriminatory—an event on “The danger of transgenderism” hosted by Latinos United for Conservative Action. 

But the action campaign whipped up by McCarty in her case appears to have trumped Fort Worth’s own policy. 

A mere half an hour after the mayor’s aide flagged the campaign, McCarty celebrated online. 

“We won!” she wrote. 

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post EXCLUSIVE: How Forth Worth caved to an online pressure campaign and reinstated a far-right party on city grounds appeared first on The Daily Dot.

1) Joker abandons incels

When Todd Phillips’ Joker came out in 2019, it spurred a rash of spurious discourse that a sympathetic portrayal of a mentally ill white man prone to anger would inspire hordes of maladjusted men to commit wanton acts of violence.

Digital pundits worried incels—a 2014-era internet phenomenon tied to one spree killing that metastasized alongside the moral panic over young men online flocking to former President Donald Trump—would be unleashed on the population.

But the movie did not inspire involuntary celibate posters, the ones who desperately want to have sex with a woman but can’t, to commit crimes. That’s probably because the panic was predicated not on the movie itself but pearl-clutching online over the trailer.

The Joker 2 trailer dropped this week and there’s one thing we can be thankful for—it won’t inspire a spate of takes about incels becoming Joker-fied. Because in Joker 2, Joker has a girlfriend.

Lady Gaga stars alongside Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck in what everyone assumes is a Harley Quinn role, as the trailer shows them falling in love over petty crime and ballroom dancing.

And while one might hope incels seeing an incel escape could inspire them, the doomer nature of the movement bled through on forums reacting to the trailer.

Some thought it was a direct rebuttal to the community’s love of the first.

“It's like they did this specifically because they accidentally made incel kino last time,“ one person said.

Kino is slang for top-notch cinema, and Joker 2, in their eyes, was not it.

“Betrayed bc he has a lady,” said one.

“h..he's not... an incel like me?” wrote another.

But worse, Arthur might be, instead of a monster, a … beta boyfriend.

“If it was anything like the first one, he will kill her in the end … But that won't happen.”

Instead, they feared, he’ll just mopily follow around Lady Gaga as the film apes its most iconic moments in service of Lady Jokers.

“They will just make her do everything Arthur did in the first movie, because yas slay female joker, and he will just somewhat be there, but he won't be important,” wrote one person.

Others called out shots that explicitly mimicked the first movie, only with Gaga included in them, like Phoenix’s infamous stair dance.

And plenty were bothered by what most everyone is assuming—that, in casting Gaga, the sequel will be a campy musical.

“first movie was kino but this looks fucking horrible ngl, also annoying how theyre pretty much not telling us whether or not its an actual musical until we actually go to watch it,” one person wrote.

In the parlance of modern times, Joker 2 is as thrilling as Biden’s reelection bid.

It’s “actually joever anons i am going to cry it looks so fucking bad. unless they take the unconventional approach that she doesnt actually love him and is actually projecting her craziness onto him its going to suck so fucking bad.”

While you may be tempted to feel sorry for the incels, their one love falling for someone else, at least we won’t have to listen to months of discourse now. 

2) Joe Biden Fanfic Cope

While massive amounts of Democrats seem to be rallying around Vice President Kamala Harris after President Joe Biden announced he’d no longer seek re-election, some of the most ride-or-die Bides, who fought furiously until the end, were upset that their adamant attitude had been entirely for naught.

So they’ve turned to the most tried and true internet coping mechanism: Cope.

What if, read a mega-viral thread on Threads, Biden didn’t drop out because he needed to, or couldn’t go on, but because he’d been planning to all along? Powering through the Democratic primary, fumbling the debate, going on a sputtering redemption arc while vehemently denying calls for him to step aside…

All part of the plan, according to the thread.

“Turns out the 81-year-old man everyone said was losing it, expertly outmaneuvered every coup plotter against him in under 24 hours … This was all teed up and executed by President Joe Biden with the perfection only wisdom and experience can deliver,” wrote the thread, which got over 10,000 reactions as it detailed an elaborate plan wherein Biden slow played his departure to trick the GOP.

“Biden dropped out after allowing Trump and his minions to spend four days and millions of dollars going on live TV…. mounting a campaign against him. He screwed Trump and Republicans with perfection. Completely changed the landscape in a way no one saw coming and nobody was prepared for.”

His timing of announcement and endorsement of Harris was also dubbed a masterstroke, supposedly catching the media off guard while thwarting other Democrats who sought an open primary.

There was plenty of fan fic involved, with Biden secretly making calls to ensure this masterstroke.

“Biden made the necessary calls on background to make sure the turnover was seamless and he got it done. He trusted Kamala Harris and Kamala Harris trusted him, they had each other's backs. He made the campaign a turnkey operation for her. That was no small accomplishment.”

Others along for the ride posted that Biden intentionally sank the debate, setting the stage for his own removal.

“Biden placed the Republicans like a fiddle. Watching that debate, I was astounded. We have seen Biden debate thousands of time,” one said, claiming he chose to avoid a contentious primary by staying in and ensuring with little time until the election, Democrats would rally around him.

“Can you imagine learning in a future Biden biography that he intentionally tanked his debate performance, and he was every anonymous leak about him thinking about resigning? All of it being setup for him to be able to retire and hand the next Presidency to Kamala Harris,” wrote one.

“Maybe Dark Brandon just might have pulled off the greatest rope-a-dope of all time,” added another.

Call it a cope a dope. 

The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post Incels are upset that Joker has a girlfriend appeared first on The Daily Dot.