Fox has more blood on their hands. 💔

This is the “normal” they’re building.

Last night a man in Lake Arrowhead CA shot and killed a clothing store owner because he didn’t like her Pride flag.

He shot her in the head over a rainbow flag.

“Through further investigation, detectives learned the suspect made several disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag that stood outside the store before shooting Carleton,” the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department said in a press release.

And now, Lauri Carleton, 66, a mother of nine, and wife of 28 years is dead.

The man who is suspected of the murder is also dead. Killed by police after fleeing the scene.

And while this story is utterly horrifying and unbelievably tragic, it’s not really at all surprising, is it? Not if you’ve been paying attention.

After all — this is what Fox and the rest of the hair on fire right-wing bigotry brokers have been building. And selling. For years.

Tucker. Watters. Jones. Bannon. Shapiro. Kirk.

The list is long and the bench of profiteers is deep.

It’s not enough to simply “other” entire communities of already marginalized people. You see, you have to do that, while making sure that your audience also believes “they” endanger them. Believes they are an existential threat to them. To their kids. To their way of life. And once they’ve got them there, that’s when the final piece falls into play.

They have to DO something about it. They have to draw a line. “Stand up for…” some nebulous thing they aren’t actually in any danger of losing… with violence.

With those guns “THEY” are trying to take away from them.

Hate is big business. Master masons of manipulation are bricklaying bias, intolerance, discrimination, prejudice, racism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, fear & a need to arm oneself, all topped off with a willingness to commit acts of violence. Because they think they HAVE to. Because if they don’t, they’re the ones who will lose everything they love.

They believe they need to “protect” themselves, but what they don’t want to admit, is that it’s not really about “protecting” their kid’s gender identity, but is instead about protecting their obstinate devotion to their own opinions and prejudices.

Because if anything is actually under attack — it’s that. It’s the bigotry. And for many the Fox viewer, that’s a non-starter.

But this has become about so much more than them thinking these thoughts. It’s getting them from thinking them, to believing they have a god given right entitling them to saying them out loud, and then eventually, in acting on them.

This is the journey they’re on… one they’re being taken on, one gaslighting, propagandizing Fox “News” segment at a time.

https://x.com/esqueer_/status/1693259613410394147?s=46&t=0jhpxQw9pD9FCcEuf7-TIQ

In a nation armed to the teeth, relentlessly bombarded by the right-wing media machine with fear mongering, othering and violence stoking while being totally strung out on hate, this is the natural progression.

This is inevitable.

It’s the drug Fox and the rest are pushing. Just as addictive as Fentanyl, and potentially, just as deadly. A drug the viewers are addicted to. One they need more and more of every day. They need that next hit of rage. They’re itching for it.

This is the goal for the cult that is the MAGA Republican Party. Fox is pumping these people up with 24/7 outrage. An hourly supply of dopamine hits of HATE HATE HATE and FEAR FEAR FEAR.