What weirdo theocratic Christofascist gay-hating conspiracy-addled porn-dodging phony-impeachment-pitching lunacy has Speaker of the House and possible illegitimate love child of Rick Moranis and an excitable Chihuahua Mike Johnson signed his name to today?
We’re glad you asked!
CNN dug up a 2022 book called The Revivalist Manifesto penned by a Louisiana political blogger and generic-faced Republican whose next picture you see will probably be a booking photo after a child porn arrest by the name of Scott McKay. And hoo boy does it sound like a banger:
“The Revivalist Manifesto” gives credence to unfounded conspiracy theories often embraced by the far-right – including the “Pizzagate” hoax, which falsely claimed top Democratic officials were involved in a pedophile ring, among other conspiracies.
The book also propagates baseless and inaccurate claims, implying that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was subjected to blackmail and connected to the disgraced underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The book also reportedly defends Joe Rogan for using the n-word and sneers at poor people on welfare, so McKay is really playing the entire gamut of conservative hits from the last half-century or so.
Johnson’s foreword actually feels fairly generic as far as forewords go at first, but because its baseline subject is a mountain of insanity pressed between two cardboard covers, it quickly devolves into something that could have been written by Pat Robertson in the depths of an ether binge:
As McKay says, we must become a counter-revolutionary movement against the Left and its “Progressive Democrats,” communists, deep state operatives, and cultural and institutional arsonists who are advancing their scorched-earth policy through our republic.
Oh sure, the congressman who supported Donald Trump’s coup attempt on January 6 that resulted in the sacking of the nation’s Capitol simply because millions of diseased turkey wattles believed a whole bunch of evidence-free horseshit about voter fraud is worried about the opposing party taking a gas can and a book of matches to our republic’s institutions. That fits.
Anyway, what crap is Johnson, who we remind you is second in line to the presidency at the moment, signaling his apparent approval of? Well, we mentioned Pizzagate:
McKay insinuates that hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman John Podesta contained coded references hinting involvement in “child sex trafficking” because of “unexplained references” to “hot dogs and pizza,” resembling alleged code words used by pedophiles.
“The Pizzagate scandal was born, and though some of the most outlandish allegations made in it were clearly disproven, other elements were not; the whole thing just seemed to be dismissed as debunked, and no explanation was ever given,” he writes.
There is some Seth Rich trutherism, which even Fox News has been forced under penalty of lawsuit to recant. There is some Great Replacement yammer that “the Biden administration deliberately allowed undocumented immigrants into the country to turn them into voters.” There is some gay bashing of Pete Buttigieg, who is referred to as being “obnoxiously gay,” which is code for “Scott McKay is upset that Pete Buttigieg is not so deep in the closet that he’s riding talking lions in Narnia” as opposed to the good old days when the Scott McKays of the world could pretend to not know about the existence of them.
The book targets and taunts prominent Democratic officials, including calling Interior Secretary Deb Haaland “half oppressed” because her mother is Native American and father is of Norwegian descent and writes that former President Barack Obama’s “chief selling point was that he was black.”
All class.
Now, one could, if one felt generous, chalk up writing this foreword to an ambitious Louisiana politician taking on an unpleasant task to shore up his support from the lunatic right. We are not feeling generous, however, so we will note that, according to CNN, Johnson hasn’t exactly tried to distance himself from this distasteful fuckery:
Johnson’s endorsement of the book extends beyond the foreword: In 2022, he actively promoted the book on his public social media platforms and even dedicated an episode of his podcast he co-hosts with his wife to hosting McKay.
During the podcast episode, Johnson expressed his belief in the book, stating, “I obviously believe in the product, or I wouldn’t have written the foreword. So I endorse the work.” He also referred to McKay as a “dear friend” and highlighted that the book “really could make some waves.”
Well, after 18 months on the market, the book is #79,914 on Amazon’s best-seller list as of this writing, so those are some pretty anemic waves.
McKay has also written and apparently self-published a series of fantasy novels in which a tribe of savages with “no moral compass…or principles of private property ownership” attempt to take over a peaceful nation of civilized people. Oh boy, we wonder where he got the inspiration for that not-at-all-obvious metaphor!
[CNN]
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