California boutique owner Lauri Carleton was shot dead this week by a person who was reportedly very upset over the fact that she displayed a pride flag in the front of her shop, Mag Pi.
According to the San Bernardino police, the suspect “made several disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag that stood outside the store before shooting Carleton.”
Following the shooting, police found the suspect, still armed and apparently quite riled up.
“When deputies attempted to contact the suspect, a lethal force encounter occurred and the suspect was pronounced deceased,” an update read.
Carleton is survived by her husband and nine children.
What the actual hell is going on here?
I am in no way trying to make excuses for the pile of human excrement who shot and killed a woman over a flag, but how badly poisoned does someone’s brain have to be to do that? Look at how far they are willing to take this nonsense.
As much as the shooter themselves is at fault here, this is also the fault of Ron DeSantis, Christine Pushaw and Chaya “LibsOfTikTok” Raichik, who started all of this “LGBTQ people are ‘groomers’” shit. It’s the fault of right-wing polemics who jumped right on that train and ran with it once they realized it was going to be a smash hit for them.
They didn’t want to be called bigots for hating LGBTQ+ so they made up a bunch of nonsense about how they were pedophiles who were out to “groom” children with drag queen storytimes and pronouns, they started crying out about pride flags and accusing anyone displaying one, any business celebrating Pride Month, of somehow being in on some mass conspiracy to molest children.
Why? Because all the GOP had left was culture war nonsense that seemed like it should have died off a decade ago and they needed something to reel their voters in. It’s hardly as if their economic message is exactly resonating with anyone these days — it’s simply not the right time for “give rich people more money and the wealth will just trickle down.” But the old tactics didn’t work, because most people had largely come around on LGBTQ+ rights. So they had to go with “Actually, they’re trying to molest children and that’s our problem with them. We are heroes, not bigots!”
All they have left is hate, all they have left is “woke people are bad and LGBTQ+ people are coming for your children and white people are being ‘replaced’ in some capacity.” So that’s what they doubled down on.
Now, the shooter is dead as well, we don’t know their identity, we don’t explicitly know their motive and I admit I am assuming some things here. But we’re not exactly talking major leaps. This is what some unhinged people do when they think, however wrongly, that children are being harmed. We saw it with the Pizzagate shooter, we’ve seen it with other QAnon weirdos who thought children were being trafficked when they weren’t and we’re seeing it again now.
I am not suggesting that the shooter is not to blame or that those who have jumped on this bandwagon are not just as complicit as those who started it, but it’s been clear for a while now that this was going to lead to more than just Bud Light cans getting hurt and that is exactly what is happening here.
By all accounts, Lauri Carleton was a lovely person and beloved member of her community. It is horrifying that her life ended this way, and as much as the shooter themselves is to blame for what happened to her … they’re not the only one.
