The freaks Republicans want in charge of your kids

In the horrible wake of a trans teenager dying after being assaulted by their bullies following Oklahoma’s fanatically anti-trans Secretary of Education hiring Glenn Greenwald/Elon Musk protege and deranged bigot Chaya Raichik as some kind of far-right book censorship consultant, the latter did an interview with the Washington Post, and hoo boy:

Since her appointment, Raichik has sought to pull books depicting gay and transgender people, as well as sex education, from public school libraries, saying she has found “porn” in various districts. But her growing role in the state has drawn greater attention since Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary student, collapsed and died the day after a Feb. 7 fight in a girls’ bathroom at Owasso High School in suburban Tulsa. Family members said Benedict had been bullied for months for being openly nonbinary.

[…]

As Libs of TikTok, Raichik has been blamed for sparking bomb threats, property damage, shooting threats, written and verbal harassment and other forms of violence against individuals, hospitals and schools across the country — including in Oklahoma, according to GLAAD, a nonprofit LGBTQ+ advocacy group. In her profile picture on X, she is holding a newspaper that reads: “when Libs of TikTok posts, threats increasingly follow.”

In a podcast interview this week about the violence that follows her posts, Raichik smiled and said she’s proud of being called a stochastic terrorist — someone who inspires supporters to commit violence by demonizing a person or group.

“Honestly, like, that makes me feel really important,” Raichik said.

On Thursday, in an hour-long interview with a Washington Post reporter at a coffee shop in Los Angeles, Raichik said that “bomb threats are bad” and that she believes “people who call in bomb threats should be arrested.” But she said: “I just don’t know — what does it have to do with me?”

Raichik called Benedict’s death “very tragic” and “horrible” but said she believes nonbinary people should not be allowed to receive certain gender-affirming care.

For those who very wisely choose not to get out of the boat, this captures the interview accurately:

It was like watching a Roomba try to get out of a corner— Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) February 24, 2024

These are not very bright trolls. There’s more at the story too, including the detail that Raichik lost her funding from the Babylon Bee guy, and imagine being beyond that particular pale.

Speaking of which, let’s check in with the guy in de facto charge of the nation’s third largest system of higher education:

Chris Rufo thinks his claim that the point of sex is to create children is "factual," and can be "empirically verified." How would you even begin to "empirically verify" a metaphysical assertion about the ultimate point of a human activity? pic.twitter.com/KDFfRlrv6o— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) February 23, 2024

In addition to his ultra-reactionary views, I would personally not have someone who doesn’t understand what an “empirical” claim is in charge of choosing faculty for colleges, but for Ron DeSantis it makes perfect sense.

Rufo being full mask-off about how Dobbs is just the beginning of a full-out war on female autonomy and sexuality will be grimly amusing to those Seattleites who remember that when Rufo’s grift involved trying to get a seat on the Seattle city council he used to portray himself as a “social liberal and a fiscal conservative.” For those who don’t speak wingnut means “someone with Josh Hawley’s politics trying to get elected in a jurisdiction that isn’t R +20.”