The MAGA movement loves nothing more than a good conspiracy theory — except, perhaps, a really awful conspiracy theory. Wendy Rogers, an Arizona State Senator who is up for re-election this year, and who is something of a rising star in the Trump fandom, is first in line to buy into and promulgate even the most bizarre or outdated of them all.
Here, for example, are Rogers’ “forbidden things” for Monday:
The homophobic and racist hate in calling Michelle Obama and Jacinda Ardern men, and Barack Obama gay, is at least as old as Obama’s first Presidential campaign. Of course, 9/11 conspiracies are over two decades old now — The Conversation covered this recently, noting that these rumors don’t die even after thorough debunking.
Then, of course, there are current favorites: that Trump won, that Joe Biden is suffering dementia (a backlash due to concerns expressed about Trump’s mental state during his term) and that vaccines are a secret bioweapon that kills recipients (although about three-quarters of the U.S. population has received at least one dose, and the only mass deaths recorded are the now-nearly-one-million from COVID-19).
It’s a frightening momentum from a state legislator who is relying entirely on wild conspiracy theories to build a base.