By Dustin Rowles | Politics | August 1, 2016 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | August 1, 2016 |
I couldn’t sleep last night and found myself actively seeking out opinions from the far-right on Khizr Khan because, idiot that I am, I thought he was Donald Trump’s teflon kryptonite. Even John McCain is now attacking Trump for the Khan flap. What could the far-right conservatives possibly be saying about Khizr Khan to justify their own vote for Donald Trump at this point?
It didn’t take long to find out.
There’s this article, for instance, that said that Khizr Khan was tweeting insults at Melania Trump, never mind that Khizr Khan does not have a Twitter account, and the idea of him dragging Melania Trump is laughable. The same post suggested Khan was a Clinton plant, and may even have implied that Khan’s son didn’t even die during combat.
There was also this post, which suggested that Khan’s immigration practice specialized in basically selling U.S. citizenship to foreigners.
Jim Hoft, who has 45,000 followers, tweeted a link to the above article and referred to Khan as a “Coyote,” and I am not sure what that means, but I assume it’s racist.
What is the Arabic word for "Coyote" ? @AnnCoulter https://t.co/G4VLQw11Pc
— Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) August 1, 2016
By far, however, the article that I saw linked to more than any other (in fact, I saw it linked by 50 or 60 people on Facebook, at least) came from a fringe anti-Islam conspiracy website called ShoeBat. The article is twisted and convoluted and seems to make a whole lot of nonsensical leaps based on a paper Khan wrote in the 1980s.
I’ve read the article a couple of times, and I have no idea how they came to this conclusion, but they believe that Captain Khan was actually an Islamic terrorist who infiltrated the military in order to kill Americans, but was killed himself before he could complete his mission. Moreover, Khizr Khan is a Muslim Brotherhood Agent who wants to advance Sharia Law, and that Clinton’s top advisor, Huma Abedin, also has links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
It’s a completely inscrutable article, but right wingers are elevating it on social media. It’s gaining steam for some baffling reason.
One of Trump's white supremacist followers is already pushing Walid Shoebat's vile smear https://t.co/2t3PAshaKE pic.twitter.com/MKVcpWx3Wa
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) July 31, 2016
In fact, Trump’s veteran affairs advisor is now citing the article to undermine Khan’s credibility.
Mr Khan, shame on you & #CrookedHillary for not being truthful to all in attacks at @realDonaldTrump @CNN @FoxNews https://t.co/Nrt7CEU3ua
— Rep Al Baldasaro (@Al_Baldasaro) August 1, 2016
Another Trump advisor, Roger Stone (70K Twitter followers) is also citing the article.
Wait! Mr. Khan traced to the same radical Muslim group as @HumaAbedin https://t.co/mJuUYvOpwc
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) August 1, 2016
I’m not sure if anyone is doing research on Ted Shoebat before they cite him, because if they did …
Roger Stone is linking to Ted Shoebat to attack the Khans. Meet Ted Shoebat:https://t.co/xNfcchjDlc pic.twitter.com/HVxF6J19yA
— Brian Tashman (@briantashman) August 1, 2016
Shoebat has also called on the government to execute gay people for sodomy and Hillary Clinton for witchcraft.https://t.co/20YZBKsVn3
— JamesSheridan (@WldRvrFshr) August 1, 2016
Truth and reality really are foreign concepts to many of those who support Trump. If you see this article — and you probably will if you have a Facebook account — pay it no mind. It’s written by a crazy person designed to be consumed by crazy people.
It really is fascinating to see how the other side ticks, and by “fascinating” I mean “terrifying.”