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. 

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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. 

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President Joe Biden announced today that he would no longer seek re-election, stepping aside over concerns about his health and fitness for office.

In the statement, Biden said: "It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down."

Biden posted the statement on his X account where, naturally, it blew up.

It also got quote tweeted by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, who added two pink hearts to it.

In 2024 reacting to momentous news with an emoji is common, but that she would post it to the biggest announcement of her husband's life was sending people.

"Heart emojis is CRAZY," wrote one person.

"craziest possible quote tweet dr jill u will always be famous" added another.

Others thought it was reminiscent of how a modern-day streamer might post.

"Heart emojis to this announcement is WILLDDDD like she’s just congratulating him on hitting 1 million subscribers" wrote @GrahamShein.

"Jill commenting like an influencer supporting their ex’s joint break up announcement has me rolling," echoed one person.

Some people thought it revealed more than it let on.

"she’s seething… lady macbeth tears. this was all she could muster typing," wrote one person, referencing stories that claimed Jill Biden was secretly behind her husband's refusal to drop out.

Reports also alleged that she wanted Joe to stay on to spite Vice President Kamala Harris, who she held a grudge against for calling out her husband's past history of supporting racist policies during the 2020 debate.

Another poster just wished they could have experienced the process in choosing the emoji.

"Would have done anything to be in the meeting where they brainstormed what emoji reaction Jill Biden should post in response to her husband dropping out of the presidential race," they wrote.

One person wondered how other famous First Ladies might respond to big news if emojis had been around.

"Imagine after Pearl Harbor if Twitter was around and after FDR declared war if Elenor Roosevelt retweeted a 'broken heart' emoji," joked a person.

But a user did like the emoji, imagining just how much more cringe it would have been if she used the popular "salute" face.

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It is no surprise that the first presidential assassination of the digital age prompted instantaneous conspiracies.

The internet bends toward skepticism and the scale of an incident like that naturally prompts shock and disbelief—all of which is before we even get to the target former President Donald Trump, whose supporters and detractors have been locked in an eight-year-long battle over reality.

The Trump assassination brings together just about every element of society deemed dubious by his supporters and the institutions his decorators steadfastly stand by: The deep state’s long arm, the FBI's previous efforts to oust him, and the media’s public animosity. That has all contrived to convince his supporters that the case will not be properly investigated—by journalists or the government—and never really resolved.

Which means it's up to them.

Right now, Trump supporters in the deeper corners of the internet are currently obsessed with the shooter. ID’ed by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks within five hours, they are convinced it was someone else.

Primarily they're obsessed with Crooks’ lack of an internet presence—believing it to either have been wiped clean before the public was given his name or that he kept an intentionally low profile having been long groomed to take the fall for the shooting and confound sleuths.

But they’re even more obsessed with his head. Namely, the idea that the head in an alleged uncensored image of him after death is not him at all.

The obsession—although across the web—was centralized on the most Trump-adoring of platforms, the Reddit clone Patriots.win.

Amateur online phrenologists are doing jaw bone and skull shape analysis on the photos, trying to prove the actual shooter was a self-identified antifa member out of Pittsburgh. 

Alongside the high-cheek bones and gaunt face they think Crooks lacked, they’ve pointed to “a big chin, small mouth, a high hairline, and thin, slanted eyebrows.”

Diagrams online are measuring distances between his eyebrows with the precision of an Apple ID face unlock, convinced the images released of Crooks look nothing like the person behind it.

There's also the ear, which they believe that surveillance footage of Crooks “shows a thick helix and a small space between antihelix” (basically the inner and outer ridges of the ear) and the antifa member (in the shot of him killed), who “has a wide space between the top of helix and anti helix.”

They also are pointing to a "red scar and divot from being stitched up," which they attribute to photos of the antifa member wearing gauges that he may have gotten removed. Crooks has never been photographed showing gauges.

Other claims pointed to a freckle cluster on his face, which they think matches up. Some of the analysis admits its limitations, noting that the face of the deceased gunman, whoever it be, may be stretched and distorted in the wake of being shot and killed.

But the fact that the antifa member they found had a substantial online footprint—people found his resume, Tumblr, and address associated with him—makes him seem like a more realistic possibility than a 20-year-old ghost.

But why?

The deep state, if it wanted to take out Trump, would naturally need to put some level of effort into it and thus, potentially create plenty of loose ends. If they’d work with this antifa member to plot it, there’d be concerns that he somehow kept receipts. So, they’d need the media looking at Crooks instead.

“Too many groomed breadcrumbs to real shooter who might have stored FBI evidence (promises made by groomers on tape, receipts, photos),” wrote one person. “Too many loose ends leading to his Fed groomers,” echoed another. And if evidence like that existed, the FBI could easily say it’s nothing since it’s not from the perpetrator.

Others noted the popular theory that there were numerous Lee Harvey Oswalds planted across the American South to sow confusion leading up to the Kennedy assassination. Similar questions about Oswald’s face shape—especially when he allegedly visited the Soviet embassy in Mexico—arose throughout independent investigations.

“obvious.....THREE simultaneous Oswalds well documented in great detail. 2 fake fed oswalds.”

“TWO OTHER PROVEN fake oswalds,” one agreed nothing there could be more. “the one who could not speak Russian, on phone call taps, while in Mexico City, plus at least another SIMULTANEOUS other fake Oswald belligerently trying to get spotted making public scenes around Texas. Two amazing PROVEN lookalike Oswalds. FBI phone taps of one fake oswald WAS deliberately destroyed after assassination by FBI. Many big books cover this.”

The concerns are natural given the magnitude of the incident, as well as their long-harbored skepticism. And given the way the Kennedy assassination has never been truly resolved, the only thing keeping this from completely dissolving into an endless mystery is the simple fact that Trump survived. 

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Former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt yesterday, when he was shot in the ear during a rally in Pennsylvania.

Almost immediately, far-right online sleuths attempted to identify the perpetrator, falsely accusing an Italian YouTuber of being behind it.

Hours later, the FBI named Thomas Matthew Crooks as the alleged Trump shooter. Crooks, who was killed by police, was reportedly a 20-year-old who lived about an hour away from the rally.

But—for myriad reasons—those same digital sleuths don't trust the FBI's claim of who was behind it and think they've sussed out the real person.

"Why are some of you saying that the FBI named the shooter like that means anything at all?" wrote one poster on X, identifying another person as the Trump shooter. "You trust the people that investigated the JFK Assassination, Watergate, 9/11 Attacks, Boston Marathon Bombing, Orlando Nightclub Shooting, Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting, Russia Interference in 2016 Election, and January 6th?"

But on X, far-right posters fell for a debunked video from a troll who cosplayed after the assassination attempt for clout, posting a video claiming to be Crooks.

They've since deleted it and are now apologizing for doing so.

But users have taken stills from that video, as well as other unconfirmed images, and are comparing body parts, saying the ears of the alleged gunman don't match up to the images of the deceased. They say pictures of the deceased gunman show he had gauge holes that have since closed up.

Others, though, have argued that the closed gauge holes are blood.

"We know they are going to WIPE this persons ENTIRE history on the internet, so we may never know. Side note, [He] had viable gauges in his ears in his mug, now they are closed up," one wrote.

They've also claimed the person has ties to antifa, which was the same claim made in the original false identification of the Italian YouTuber.

"That it is a guy affiliated with ANTIFA that was actually arrested back in 2016 for being involved in an Anti-Trump protest in Pittsburgh ... He was sentenced to a 3-12 month jail sentence in Allegheny County Jail," wrote another account, identifying the same person.

While they're completely wrong about the other identity, some have taken it further and found the person's address. On Google Maps Street View, the house in question shows both "Black Lives Matter" and "Trans Lives Matter" posters in the windows.

"Shooter's window (allegedly or whatever)," read one post with nearly 24,000 views.

"He random fired his cringe politics onto innocent bystanders- thinking he would hit Trump," wrote one response.

The image exploded on 4chan, which has been questioning the current official narrative of the shooting since it happened. Users have been using it to challenge the reporting that while Crooks donated $15 to a progressive organization, he was listed as a registered Republican.

"Lines like 'protect trans kids' is dog whistle for violence," one said, claiming that progressives are inspiring a mass shooter panic, a false narrative that's nonetheless been adopted by the right.

In addition to the attempt to suss out a real identity, trolls have also repacked an infamous old meme to joke the shooter was transgender.

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Former President Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet today in an assassination attempt that left him bloodied and the nation as divided as ever.

On the left, people immediately accused the incident of being staged, saying that Trump found a way to barely avoid being killed to improve his electoral chances.

But supporters of Trump have taken a different (albeit somewhat similar) line of attack, claiming the Secret Service allowed it to happen.

Pictures and videos of the incident that have emerged in the hours since have helped fuel their claims, pointing to the spot the alleged gunman set up, and a Secret Service member they claim ignored the shooter.

Google Images from the field Trump held the rally in in Butler, Pennsylvania show the roof the alleged shooter—who was killed—reportedly fired from.

Trump fans were aghast that an armed person could get that close to the rally.

"You’re telling me the Secret Service let a guy climb up on a roof with a rifle only 150 yards from Trump? Inside job," wrote the pro-Trump Hodgetwins on X.

Responses to the post swiftly agreed.

"It was an inside job," wrote @WallStreetApes.

"This was allowed to happen. They tried to impeach, convict, arrest and now assassinate! They won’t stop. This is a fight for the Republic! Buckle up Patriots!," added another.

"Seems that way, especially how they were ignoring the guy frantically trying to warn them," another said, pointing to an interview with a rallygoer who said they attempted to warn police.

In the interview, the rallygoer said they saw the person with a rifle and tried to point him out to police, but they were too confused to respond. They said the alleged shooter was up there for three to four minutes.

One unconfirmed account claimed a person was walking around with a rifle before the attack.

Prominent Trump supporter and online conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer echoed the claim it was an inside job.

"How does someone get in a building unidentified with a rifle and make it to the rooftop? @SecretService needs to be investigated. This reeks of an inside job. The head of Secret Service must resign. This was not an isolated incident ... You can’t just get into a Trump rally with a RIFLE and climb on the roof," she wrote.

Others pointed to a video of a Secret Service sniper on a roof. Some people online claimed it showed him swiftly taking out the gunman, but others thought the government official did not react.

"The SS man was aiming and even so let the shooter fire 3 times…" wrote one.

An online conspiracy theorist rebuked someone sharing the video and calling them heroes.

"'heroes'? They had one job!" they wrote.

"And they failed," wrote another.

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An Italian YouTuber unexpectedly found themself thrust into a social media firestorm after mistakenly being identified by internet sleuths as the perpetrator behind the shooting at former President Donald Trump's rally on Saturday.

According to a statement by the local district attorney, the shooter responsible for firing multiple times at Trump appears to have been killed by authorities. Trump, for his part, is doing "fine" and is safe according to his team.

It was not immediately clear how many other casualties may have occurred in the shooting.

While authorities have not officially named the perpetrator, online sleuths instantly attempted to investigate who committed the attack.

And some pointed to a video they believe the shooter posted to YouTube just hours before the rally.

The only problem, however, is the person in the video is alive and posting that they were not involved.

Immediately after the shooting, a video began to circulate showing a bearded man mimicking a firearm being shot while making noises.

Several of the posts alleging to reveal the identity of the shooter claimed they were an antifa member who hinted at the shooting by posting online hours beforehand.

Others have shared older clips from his channel, also claiming those videos showed his plans to get rid of Trump earlier today.

Those claims have begun to be deleted, but the name is still trending online.

The user's account, which the Daily Dot is not identifying, has since gone private.

However, prior to that, they posted about the accusations.

In response to a mega-viral claim from one account, they quoted it saying "Shshsgagzsgagagahzgahagsxg gagagahazhxgsgwga" appearing to be flabbergasted by the accusation

"Holy shit," they added to another.

"Damn yours ... these American idiots think it's me."

They posted a number of other tweets, trying to refute out the claims.

On the account's YouTube channel, no videos have been posted in the past four days. Videos of the person appear to match the one people are falsely identifying shooter.

The Daily Dot is not identifying the YouTube channel or X handle.

In response to a message on X from the Daily Dot, they asked to be left alone. Later they noted that other outlets also reached out.

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In recent weeks, long-simmering online fears percolated to the forefront of the collective digital consciousness over Project 2025, a radical far-right blueprint for the nation.

The fervor spiked so high that former President Donald Trump distanced himself from the movement, calling some of the ideas abysmal, despite the clear ties between his political stances, the people at the Heritage Foundation who wrote it, and the likelihood those staffers will populate his upcoming administration.

The 900-plus page document is a far-right fever dream, cracking down on pornography and the regulator state, pushing Christian nationalism, and expanding Trump’s ability to lord over the nation.

Over on BlueSky a simple plan to fight back emerged. Make it relatable.

The conversation stemmed from struggles to truly state the massive scope of it. How do you distill a massive authoritarian ethos into tangible harms?

The site settled on going as simplistic as possible.

“They want to eliminate national parks” is a very simple way to get just about anyone on the Stop Project 2025 train. Are there much more glaring and life-threatening goals of P25? Yes but even your most bigoted cousin does not want to see the parks system sold for parts,” wrote one user.

Another pointed out how memetic language could make a marked difference.

“I feel like the trick with Project 2025 is exactly the same as the WGA strike. little snippet screencaps going viral all over normie social media that make some shocking thing you had no idea about instantly digestible to anyone regardless of their information level or background,” they wrote.

That idea prompted others to find brief tidbits that could easily be understood and shared.

“Project 2025, page 592: make it harder for employees to be paid at overtime rates by allowing employers to average the number of hours worked over 2-4 weeks,” noted one person, hypothesizing how that might go over with the GOP’s blue-collar base.

“Project 2025, page 455-456: a national abortion database that includes detailed medical information, including the person's state of residence to assist with criminal prosecution.”

“Project 2025 wants to put private equity in charge of nuclear waste disposal (page 371),” said another.

The popularity of the posts even prompted a call for volunteers to crowdsource the scouring of the document.

“I want to see a moral panic raised up against Project 2025,” said one.

2) Kamala’s Missing Kids

At a rally this week, Trump said that since Vice President Kamala Harris took over as President Joe Biden’s border czar, over 150,000 children have gone missing.

“The Biden-Harris has lost track of an estimated 150,000 children … many of whom have been raped, trafficked, killed, or horribly abused,” Trump said. “Nobody knows where they are. Many are not with us any longer," he added, citing a rash of purely speculative outcomes.

Trump appears to be upping his attacks on Harris as she looms as a potential Democratic replacement for Biden given the recent backlash to his debate performance.

But the number Trump appears to be citing isn’t correct either. 

Two years ago, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) asked the Department of Health and Human Services for data on migrant children.

The 150,000 figure appears to reference children who were released to sponsors by HHS, not those who have gone missing.

The government has not been able to reconnect with the sponsors of 20,000 children within that group, who could be deemed unaccounted for.

While the potential for abuse among undocumented migrant children is high, the number only references being unable to contact the families and hosts, and doesn’t mean these kids have been abducted.

But Trump is wildly inflating the number to throw red meat at his base, the pedophile hunters of QAnon.

On their numerous Telegram channels, they deduced that Trump’s message was secret code to activate U.S. Marshals, with commenters pleading for success.

(Although it’s unclear if they realized Trump was talking about migrant children and not white babies, from their responses).

“GOD PLEASE HELP THE MARSHALS FIND OUR BABIES!” said one.

“Prayers for the Marshall's involved (and everyone actually) in this type of rescue,” added a commenter.

But others thought the U.S. Marshals' news (which isn’t real) was a sign a big target was about to go down.

“US Marshals are a BIG deal. Think I read somewhere way back They can arrest a pResident”

Whether that target would be Biden or Harris, they didn’t say. 

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President Joe Biden’s debate performance was bad. But was it “engage deep state protocol” bad?

Former President Barack Obama has long been a boogeyman of the conspiratorial crowd, ever since former President Donald Trump accused him of spying on him in 2016. What became the Russian interference investigation in liberal circles became parallel accusations of Obama and his team using the vast apparatus of the surveillance state to gin up false accusations, wiretapping Trump and his team, and leaking about Mocow ties to sink both his candidacy and his presidency.

Now, the QAnon crowd on Telegram—where they’ve flocked since numerous website bans—think Obama is at it again in 2024.

A spate of channels on Friday, after Biden’s brutal debate effort, claimed the next day Obama visited CIA headquarters in Langley.

Prominent posters like GhostofEzra, Master C. Miller, and Mr. Pool all pushed the same claim, to a furious response from their fans. “Obama just arrived at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.”

According to one account, it was a lengthy session.

“Obama spent nearly 6 hours at the CIA headquarters today.”

And a productive one.

“Biden has already been removed unofficially,” wrote GhostofEzra.

It’s true that Obama has been more vocal as Biden’s floundered. He helmed a Hollywood fundraiser that raked in top dollars and, after the debate, tried to do damage control with an X post that said bad nights happen.

And according to recent reporting, he’s been counseling Biden in the wake. But there’s no proof he went to CIA headquarters, and given his high profile, you’d think he’d be able to take meetings like that in private.

Regardless, the Telegram storm jumped with it, revealing the deep state plan. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s also a beautiful wife guy tale.

Wrote Captain Kyle: “BIDEN Will step down around August 19.”

He will be replaced, naturally, by Michelle Obama.

And to halt any criticism or concerns and to bolster her candidacy, you guessed it. False flag race wars brought on by a George Floyd-style event.

If it worked in 2020…

2) Thomas Massie’s Tucker Appearance

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) announced this week that wife of over 30 years passed away unexpectedly. Massie did not reveal a cause of death.

And in that absence of information, the far-far-right decided she was targeted by Israel to send a message to Massie.

Before her death, Massie appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show, and in it he discussed the American Israel PAC’s influence over Congress, talking about how they sunk tons of cash into his primary.

Massie has long been anti-interventionist and especially anti-military foreign aid, but in the wake of the Israel-Gaza war, those stances have been twisted and dubbed a form of antisemitism, with AIPAC pushing hard against anyone pushing against blanket U.S. support.

Massie won his primary and will likely win re-election, and in the aftermath spoke about the Israel lobby’s influence on Congress.

“Your AIPAC babysitter, who is always talking to you about AIPAC  ... they've got your cell number, you've got conversations with them, I've had four members of Congress tell me ... I'll talk to my AIPAC guy and see if I can get them to dial those ads back,” he said, discussing his race.  

After Massie announced his wife’s death though, a random pro-Jewish account, jewsarethegoat, quoted it, issuing something less than sympathy.

“Perhaps this is an opportune moment to reassess your perspective and make a positive change in your life. … I would like to gently suggest that you consider whether this is the legacy you wish to leave behind for your family.”

The comment caused a freakout on 4chan, tying the events together.

“Massie goes on Tucker Carlson's podcast and names [AIPAC]. Great interview, everyone should listen …  2 weeks!!!!! Later his wife is dead. He … didnt bend the knee, we need to get this out there and not let it die. Every GADDAM red blooded american should be incensed.”

Some specifically called it an assassination.

“They killed her. He was exuberant when talking about how she was the most important thing in his life. So they took her from him.”

Massie has not commented on the speculation, but in his Carlson interview, he noted how AIPAC fought against any element of dissent in Congress, spending to defeat his polar opposites, as well, the Squad members, and succeeding in one race.

“Why the need to crush you?” Carlson asked.

“I don't know, I think it's they don't want one horse out of the barn. If one person starts speaking, the truth, they're afraid it could be contagious,” he said. 

3) No more Hawk Tuah

Two recent female influencers have blown up online, dominating the discourse. Two weeks ago, no one knew the Hawk Tuah girl or the N-Word trad wife. Now they’re all over everyone’s feeds.

But there is one social site where they won’t be blowing up. 

Gab founder Andrew Torba delivered a strongly worded missive to his user base that he is “sick and tired” of it.

“Right-wing culture has devolved into a spectacle of so-called ‘conservatives’ sharing clips of insipid harlots pouting the most depraved drivel,” he said, specifically referencing the two women.

Sharing it, even as outrage bait or to criticize it, is only making things worse.

“Our culture on the right is degenerate, debased, and frankly disgusting. We have to remember that inputs= outputs. What we think about we bring about. We are literally poisoning our minds with filth when we share and boost this content into the feeds of our people.”

That, he says, is the purview of the left. But luckily, there’s hope, he added, echoing the recent calls to outbreed the left.

“We must continue to have more children…. Our adversaries, those who embrace a wicked and depraved worldview, are faltering in their ability to reproduce.”

But aside from doing it, the other key is to unfollow.

“Our victory is assured, but it is up to us to seize the opportunity  … Let's start by unfollowing the clickbait 'conservative' merchants.”

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Deplatformed is a weekly column that looks into the nether reaches of the internet—outside the big few that everyone already covers—to tell you the political discourse online. It runs on Thursdays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.

The right wing, in recent months, has been obsessed with chain restaurant closures. True or false (the Fuddrucker’s one never happened), they treat the recent string of announcements as symbolic of American decline, be it from unabated inflation or President Joe Biden’s secret plot to destroy the soul of the nation.

But this week, one chain’s announcement hit different. 

Hooters, the wing franchise beloved by a subset of men for its scantily clad waitresses, pitchers of beer, and better-than-average wings (they are not as bad as people say), is closing at least 40 franchises.

Where will young men get their boobs and birds now?

As you might imagine, the news hit conservative forums hard. On Patriots. win the mood was downright funereal.   

And the blame was, at first, placed squarely on Biden.

“When you can’t sell tits, you know we are in trouble,” wrote one user, echoing the sentiment that Bidenomics, the branding given to the president’s dubious track record on the economy, was making things so bad that even sex can’t sell.

“Damn you Biden damn you to hell !!!!,” wrote one user, including a link to a meme riffing off Planet of the Apes a giant owl arising from a desolate beach.

But in some circles, the blame didn’t fall squarely on their least favorite president.

Instead, it’s the rise of OnlyFans. The popular platform that lets women sell adult content directly to mostly male consumers certainly has its issues. But one of the medium’s allure is that it keeps creators at a distance from rafts of horny young men.

Women having less of a need to work for tips in a chain restaurant where drunken bros harassed them meant men saw the restaurant, once a bastion of 1990s sexuality, as diminished.

“All the attractive hooters girls are on OnlyFans now.”

Others agreed.

“Honestly the issue is probably more that half the waitresses are selling full nudes on the side, lol. There’s zero reason for a place like hooters in the modern age.”

And won’t someone pour something out for the time when women were forced to demean themselves for tips?

“A reflection of the sexual deviancy plaguing society. Hooters used to be a way for girls to dip their toe in the water … Now they can just run an OF and get paid a lot more.”

Women making more money and being abused slightly less. What hell hath modernity brought.

Regardless, even if OnlyFans is to blame, the site pitched a 2024 rallying cry to save it.

“Biden likes groomers, Trump likes hooters.”

2) Supreme Court social media defiance

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court dismissed a case that argued the Biden White House overstepped its authority in communicating with social media networks about what kind of content should be allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election.

In May 2023, Missouri’s attorney general filed suit against the Biden administration, part of a spate of lawsuits around government and big tech collusion, alleging that “misinformation efforts” were actually secretly free speech suppression efforts.

A Trump-appointed judge initially issued an injunction that barred Biden officials from speaking with social media executives, but the Supreme Court ruled that Missouri did not have standing to bring the case, overturning the rulings on it.

The court found that Missouri and Louisiana, which joined the suit, could not prove they were harmed by federal government officials' communications with big tech.

Gab founder Andrew Torba, a free speech absolutist, immediately botched his response, criticizing the decision.

“Gab will not comply with censorship requests of legal 1st amendment-protected speech from the Biden Regime or any other regime,” he wrote.

But Torba, in reality, should be praising the Supreme Court.

The court didn’t really rule that the Biden administration could coerce social media platforms into stripping away content it didn’t like. Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett noted that the initial complaint over-attributed moderation decisions to the government, when in reality the platforms were often acting of their own volition.

Something, the decision reaffirmed, they were free to do.

You know, just like Gab’s founder is defiantly boasting he’s going to do.

Still, his post drew praise from people who didn’t realize he wasn’t bravely bucking the Supreme Court.

“Thank you Andrew. I can't believe I just had to thank you for upholding my God Given right to Free Speech.. Look how far this nation has fallen.!” wrote one

“Thanks for your principled stance, Andrew. There are increasingly fewer and fewer businesses--and churches, sadly--that are willing to push back against the tyranny being foisted on us, so we appreciate you sticking your neck out, and we stand with you.”

A brave, bold, meaningless stance. 

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