If I Had a Hammer
Republicans fulfill their prophecy of violence and another right-wing conspiracy theory is born
Editorial rights purchased from iStock. Photo by zephyr18.
Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was attacked with a hammer in their San Francisco home early on Friday, October 28. Before the San Francisco District Attorney released the details of the attack, Elon Musk tweeted a conspiracy theory that suggested Paul Pelosi was an acquaintance of the attacker and the attack was part of a personal dispute between them — one involving male prostitution.
After the District Attorney released a detailed statement about what actually happened, Donald Trump publicly contradicted the DA by stating that the window broken to allow the assailant's entry was broken from the inside, not from the outside. This is a lie.
The fabricated responses to this heinous crime probably wouldn’t have gone very far if not for the fact that Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and the new owner of Twitter, chose to retweet a conspiracy theory to his 80+ million followers — or if Donald Trump wasn’t the former president of the United States and the de facto leader of the Republican Party when he blatantly lied to mislead the public.
Lies are powerful — especially when they feed people exactly the kind of emotional carrot they’ve been looking for — and even more so when they come from powerful people the public believes.
Trump and his sycophants in Congress have fully embraced The Big Lie and Q, thus giving their stamp of approval to any crazy sociopath who might use the lies concocted by Trump or Q as justification for violence against Democrats. Or election workers. Or anyone else their lies tell them is a threat to them. Today it’s Paul Pelosi.
Who will it be tomorrow?
Republicans may say their words aren’t the problem, but it’s hard to forget the prophetic words of Lindsey Graham: “…if there’s a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information after the Clinton debacle… there’ll be riots in the streets.”
In other words, if Republicans don’t get their way, they will resort to violence.
And here we are.
What really happened
Since Mr. Pelosi was attacked, the San Francisco DA has released a lengthy statement clarifying the actions, the confession, and the stated motivations of the attacker.
The facts are as follows:
The attacker announced to the police his intention to tie up Paul Pelosi and wait for Speaker Pelosi to return to the house, at which point, the attacker planned to confront her about her “lies.” Knowing (as he said he did) Pelosi would continue to lie to him, he planned to crush her kneecaps with the hammer he brought.
Rendered unable to walk, the attacker would then wheel Speaker Pelosi “into Congress” as a cautionary tale that “actions have consequences.”
Republican politicians respond to the attack on Pelosi
Once this information was released, Republicans minimized the fact that the incident was politically motivated and fueled by lies. Instead, they focused on the location of the crime — not that it took place in Speaker Pelosi's home, which is relevant — but that it took place in San Francisco.
Republicans would have you believe that Mr. Pelosi would never have been attacked had he not lived in a Democratically run city — and if San Francisco wasn’t such a “hotbed of crime.”
Some members of the Republican Party were less political but no less callous in their response to the tragedy. Kari Lake, wannabe governor of Arizona made a little joke about the lack of security at Pelosi’s home. Glenn Youngkin quipped something about how violence is never acceptable and followed with, “…but we’re gonna send her back to be with him in California. That’s what we’re going to go do.”
So yeah, look at that, we got rid of Nancy!
The birth of yet another right-wing conspiracy theory
As for the general public, the response has been even more chilling. According to Ben Collins, an NBC News senior reporter, the conspiracy theory tweeted by Musk was invented as a game by right-wing extremists who thought it would be fun to create the most embarrassing scenario possible to explain what happened to Paul Pelosi. Kind of like that game where you point to people in public places, like the airport, and invent stories about who they are and what they’re up to. Except it’s not.
The difference is the former has consequences while the latter does not. And the consequences are never to those playing the game, but always to some unsuspecting target.
In this case, the players who created the sick scenario broadcast by Musk to over 80 million followers probably had no idea that anyone else would even see it. And they’re probably even more surprised that anybody believes it.
But here we are.
What this means for the future of America
The key to the Republican Party’s ongoing manipulation scheme is to keep the target moving. Find an enemy, fabricate a claim against them, and move on to a new victim before you have to prove your claim by providing evidence.
You’ll notice the attacker who fractured Mr. Pelosi’s skull wasn’t specific about the lies he accused the Speaker of telling. That’s because specifics can be proven or disproven. Republicans require ambiguity — if not complete chaos. Their conspiracy theories would all be disproven if any of their accusations were taken to their natural conclusion. Better to make up more lies and overwhelm your opponent. Keep them moving in 50 different directions at once, and they’ll never catch up.
In the end, everyone Republicans target will be tainted. This is their goal.
A stark warning from someone who understands
Note: This is from an interview with NBC’s Ben Collins. He spoke to RealClear Politics on October 31st.
The incentive structure in these spaces, the things that animate the right now come from the far right. And while it used to maybe come from, you know, the [National Review] or like, you know, a regular publication, now it comes from 4chan and The_Donald [on reddot].
We saw in 2016, this pipeline of stuff going up through to the president from 4chan, from anonymous spaces, people making up lies out of whole cloth, and forming a narrative, world-building, like if you were trying to build a fantasy novel or something. That’s the sort of thing that hits right now. They can’t be failed. That’s the thing in these spaces. There is no admitting you’re wrong on 4chan, on Truth Social. It’s called Truth Social, right? You have to double down over and over again.
There’s no admitting that that attack had something to do with what you said. You have to create a reality in which they’re still the bad guy. Nancy Pelosi, despite her husband getting hit in the head with a hammer, somehow he’s the bad guy. That’s what happens in these spaces, they world-build to create a permanent victimhood complex.
This has been happening since 2015 and 2016. The difference is the world’s richest man now runs the most powerful news platform. And Donald Trump still has his own. And Kanye West has his own. These people who were committed to these New World Order conspiracy theories, those are the people that run these platforms.
We can’t ignore this anymore. I understand the idea that, you know, for some reason, we’re supposed to be able to ignore this and move past it, and not talk about it. We have to confront this head-on. These are the people running this party. This is not the fringe. This is not a sideshow. These are the people who could very easily take power in 2024.
Republicans will take a hammer to everything if they take over Congress
If Republicans take over Congress this year, this will be the modus operandi of every Republican politician in office. Those unwilling to replace our democracy with an autocracy will be forced out.
Many good Republicans have already left the party. What’s left are mostly extremists who operate like Trump. It was dangerous enough when Trump was president. Imagine if the majority of Congress behaved behave the same way.
Republicans in leadership positions today are so cynically self-serving that they are willing to destroy our democracy for personal power. They align themselves with men like Putin, Bolsonaro, and Viktor Orban and if they are able to gain power in America our country will become like Russia or Brazil, or Hungary.
I don’t even want to think about what might happen in the rest of the world if America’s democracy falters.
Republicans have already normalized violence. And they have normalized lies. If they gain power in the midterms, there will be no way to stop them.
We have to stop them now. It doesn’t matter if you have conservative values or if you hate liberals. If you care about the future of our democracy, please help us save it.