There is nothing these people won’t pollute with their lunatic conspiracy bullshit. Nothing:
The National Butterfly Center on the Texas border is closing “for the immediate future” after conspiracy-fueled attacks against the center on social media escalated in recent days.
The butterfly sanctuary, part of the North American Butterfly Association, made the announcement Wednesday. The decision came just days after GOP operatives descended on the site, reviving baseless and false conspiracy theories linking the center to sex trafficking.
This lurid obsession with pedophilia and sex trafficking is going to require massive psychological counselling. We have millions of people who are damaged from this nonsense. The Butterfly Center is the subject of violent threats and has been advised to close for the time being. Think about that — the Butterfly Center. There is literally nothing these people won’t believe.
The butterfly center has been the target of far-right conspiracy theories for years, after the sanctuary in 2017 sued over the Trump administration’s plans to build a border wall through the 100-acre nature preserve.
Two years later, online trolls — led by Brian Kolfage, the head of the allegedly fraudulent “We Build the Wall” fundraising campaign — falsely claimed there were dead bodies and “rampant sex trade” at the sanctuary.
But the situation escalated over the past two weeks, starting with a confrontation between Marianna Treviño Wright, the center’s executive director, and Kimberly Lowe, a GOP congressional candidate from Virginia.
On Jan. 21, Lowe approached the facility and demanded to see “illegals crossing on rafts.” When Treviño Wright refused, the candidate began filming on a phone and accused her of being “OK with children being sex trafficked and raped and murdered.”
Treviño Wright swiped at the phone, and a scuffle ensued. As Lowe left the facility, Treviño Wright says the woman nearly ran over her son, Nicholas Wright, who works there.
Lowe had been in town to attend the right-wing “We Stand America” rally in neighboring McAllen, which took place last weekend. The event, headlined by former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, included a trip to the border. (After her altercation with Treviño Wright, Lowe said she was barred from attending.)
Fearing more trouble, the butterfly center decided to close for three days. While doors were shut, attendees did visit the sanctuary — and shot more videos repeating the lies about the facility.
Ben Bergquam, a correspondent for the far-right news site Real America Voice, posted a minute-long clip to Twitter repeating the sex trafficking lies.
“What really matters to the Democrats are the butterflies, and so we unite with them, if that’s what it’s going to take to shut this border down,” he said. “We unite with them and say: Protect the butterflies, (President Joe Biden). Close down the border — because we know you don’t care about the kids.”
This is so sick. And these twisted people are being manipulated by opportunistic politicians who know very well that it’s nuts.