The Crazed MAGA Hunt Over Trump Assassination Jokes
In recent days, ring-wing social media users have been sniffing out, doxxing, and hounding those who cracked offensive jokes or comments about last week’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Namely, Chaya Raichik, who runs the prominent far-right X account Libs of TikTok, has spent the week doggedly pursuing everyday retail workers, teachers, and public safety personnel who made insensitive remarks in the wake of the incident.
For example, after one social media user posted a video confronting a Home Depot cashier for making a Facebook comment that read, “To bad they weren’t a better shooter!!!!!,” Raichik’s account shared the footage with the caption, “Hi @HomeDepot! Are you aware that you employ people who call for political violence and the ass*ss*nat*on of Presidents? Any comment?” On Tuesday, Home Depot’s official X account announced that the woman “no longer works at” the home improvement store.
Also on Tuesday, after Raichik’s account put the name and workplace of an Oklahoma schoolteacher who made a similar remark on blast, it caught the attention of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction. Walters vowed to investigate and, later that evening, posted, “I will be taking her teaching certificate. She will no longer be teaching in Oklahoma.” (Walters, it should be noted, recently appointed Raichik to a position where she can advise school libraries in Oklahoma.)
On Sunday, a Pennsylvania firefighter found himself in the crosshairs of Libs of TikTok after posting, “Too bad it didn’t hit him square.” The following day, according to NorthcentralPA.com, a bomb threat was made on the fire house where he was captain, which “may have been connected to [the] viral social media post.” On Tuesday, the man announced his resignation in a statement online, writing, “I have been threatened. My family has been threatened. My friends have been threatened. I have never felt so unsafe in my life.”
To think it was once a purported consensus on the right that upending the livelihoods of ordinary people for making unsavory remarks is a vile feature of cancel culture.