When he complained, rightwingers sent him homophobic taunts online...

When he complained, rightwingers sent him homophobic taunts online.

Black gay Republican podcaster Rob Smith has claimed that “white supremacist” members of his political party called him “fa**ot” and the n-word during his Sunday night attendance of Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest event in Phoenix, Arizona. Though Smith posted a video of his brief interaction with the aggressors, commenters on X (formerly Twitter) noted that the video didn’t feature the n-word and mocked Smith his membership in an anti-gay political party.

“Last night in Phoenix, I was confronted and surrounded by some White Supremacists that don’t like gays or blacks in the Republican Party,” Smith wrote in a December 18 post on X. “They shouted ‘nr’ and ‘ft’ at me to make their point. However, I served in Iraq. I never back down. Ever.”

  • JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world
    1561·
    11 months ago

    Maybe having served in Iraq, he should have learned how a mistake is sometimes just a mistake and to know how to change your course of action once it turns out to be a mistake.

    • magnetosphere@kbin.social
      57·
      11 months ago

      Or maybe he just learned how to live in denial, and put a positive spin on a nightmarish clusterfuck. Mission Accomplished!

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
      4·
      11 months ago

      Maybe he has an ideological reason and considers such events less important than that.

      Say, he’s a supporter of right-wing populist state capitalism. Satan knows why, Satan knows how, but he is.

      Is there an alternative political affiliation for him, so that he wouldn’t be a Trump supporter?

      • JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world
        1·
        10 months ago

        BCOS the military and its vets are the R’s version of ‘think of the babies’, right until the point they ask for bothersome thugs like rights and support.

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
    111·
    11 months ago

    He went to what was essentially a white supremacist rally and was shocked to meet white supremacists.

  • BreakDecks@lemmy.mlEnglish
    95·
    11 months ago

    “They shouted ‘nr’ and ‘ft’ at me to make their point. However, I served in Iraq. I never back down. Ever.”

    I don’t understand this take. Because he served in the military, he won’t stop being allies with people even when they attack him and call him hateful slurs?

    I don’t think I’ve ever heard the “I served in Iraq, so I’m a doormat” argument before…

      • orclev@lemmy.world
        22·
        11 months ago

        Not so much that last one. Nobody that’s not already ridiculously wealthy (like 0.1% wealthy) is going to profit under the GOP, it’s just a question of how far back in the queue you are to get fleeced. All their policies are based around concentrating all the nations wealth into as few hands as possible. It’s why the GOP has such a love affair with Russia of late, they want to emulate Putin and his oligarch minions.

        • jaybone@lemmy.world
          9·
          11 months ago

          They think they will lower taxes and the market will do better. So they save an extra thousand on federal tax and their 401k goes up a bit. Which isn’t true, but that’s what they think.

          • orclev@lemmy.world
            7·
            11 months ago

            Ah yes, the most quintessential of Republican voter, the moron. Reagan caused so much damage to the US with his trickledown economics fantasy, and the worst part is I’m not even sure he intended to. At least Trump is legitimately a terrible human being that I can feel perfectly justified in hating as the walking pond scum he is.

    • TallonMetroid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      38·
      11 months ago

      Maybe he’s racist against immigrants? Alternatively, maybe he’s hoping that they’ll care more about him being a fellow rich person (if he is in fact rich) than about his gay blackness (they don’t).

      • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
        17·
        11 months ago

        Maybe he bought the lie that the ideology that belies Conservative platform isn’t racist (or is an acceptable parameter of racist) or homophobic… Or maybe he just feels like he’s been accepted into the club when he gets cheered on by his Conservative buddies for slaging on trans folk and other POCs because they lift him up as an exception. " Here’s what a “good” gay black guy looks like. See we’re not racist and our platform has merit we got one of them on our side! Buy him a drink! "… This holds up until you get into company that doesn’t have to lie to themselves that they aren’t trying to oppress you and want you to just not be an uncomfortable problem anymore.

        Every genocide has idiots who join the other side in a bid to be a pet for safety and sell out their own communities in hope they will be respectable and safe… It’s a gambit that only proves you’re scum before it gets you get killed.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      28·
      11 months ago

      Last job, the gay Hispanic receptionist was a Trump man. My Philippina wife was too. Past tense, once I showed her a few things. She had only seen Fox News in her 2-years in America.

      This guy? Fuck is his excuse?!

    • kaitco@lemmy.world
      7·
      11 months ago

      He likely bought into the idea of “well, there’s bigots on both sides, but at least the GOP will help me keep more of my money.”

      The problem, however, is that the GOP have doubled down on social issues that shouldn’t really be part of the platform, and in doing so, the GOP have turned away from anything that was remotely useful in them.

      This idea of the “self-made” person and pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps sounds appealing on paper and can be inviting at first. My grandmother received her Master’s in Nursing at a time when the vast majority of blacks, let alone black women, in a medical field weren’t doing much more than the laundry. It’s easy to be proud of such things and attribute this to conservative ideals of doing “more” out of pure determination and strength of will, and then admonishing those who have neither the drive nor intelligence to do the same.

      And then…there was Trump.

      Under his umbrella, it seemed as if overnight, the party that was about doing for “self” was more about removing options for anyone who wasn’t a straight white Christian and ensuring that the “others” stayed in their place. What could once be ignored with the dismissive of “well, there’s plenty of liberals who are racist too”, was no longer applicable. The Left turned from the racists who pretended to care for show to just the people who’d rather let a few so-called “undeserving” folks get fed, clothed, and housed to ensuring that the hundred who really need help would be able to get it. Meanwhile, the Right continued down the path of being anti-everything; anti-anyone not white, not male, not Christian, and they weren’t even remotely concerned about the deficit or lowering taxes across the board for the people instead of just for major corporations and the top 1% of the 1%.

      I don’t blame this man for having been a gay black Republican at some point, and trying to hold onto what he thought made sense in the past. I do, however, raise an eyebrow at any rational person who has watched the GOP’s descent and yet has still marched with them while they refuse to back away from white nationalism and show approval of outright hatred of all women, and non-Christians, and all people of color, and all those who aren’t cis-heteronormative.

    • Omega@lemmy.world
      4·
      11 months ago

      Maybe they’re one of Hillary’s other mentioned deplorables. Or maybe they’re like the other half that are just disconnected from reality and don’t feel like any of Trump’s shit will impact them (until it does). And to be fair, Democrats have worked hard to make sure people aren’t impacted by the things Trump did.

    • root_beer@midwest.socialEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      He doesn’t realize that there’s a quota of “one of the good ones” and it’s already been met

    • frezik@midwest.social
      1·
      11 months ago

      The usual answer of Log Cabin Republicans is “I like lower taxes”. Not much thought beyond that.

      • Shyfer@ttrpg.network
        3·
        11 months ago

        If you throw an exclamation mark in front of it people can use it as a link with most of the apps.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
        2·
        11 months ago

        Me as well. Every day dealing with my mask at work hoping that I wouldn’t be the small fraction of the population that still gets messed even vaxxed, then sitting down and scrolling through the long timeline of a goatee hat and sun glasses or religious-karen going from tough to vent.

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
        502·
        11 months ago

        Hot take: If leopards are only eating faces on one side of the political spectrum, maybe you need to consider that only one side is consistently voting for leopards eating faces.

      • Isthisreddit@lemmy.worldEnglish
        381·
        11 months ago

        I call bullshit - Let’s see a few examples of liberals/democrats getting their faces eaten by policies they support.

        “Oh noes, this free college is hurting me” “Oh noes, all this free healthcare, my wallet is too fat”

        Just to be obvious here, show me what laws liberals have actually been able to pass just how they championed for, and show me the face eating. I’m waiting.

        Inb4 something about an immigrantl/minority/female committing a crime (cause liberals are so pro crime)

          • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
            251·
            11 months ago

            So the fuck what. It’s almost as though humans shouldn’t be predisposed to shit lives by arbitrary borders in places that western nations like America fueled their instability in the first place.

              • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
                121·
                11 months ago

                Perhaps not, but it would be nice if the wealthy shared their privilege with the less-fortunate, right? Last I checked Norway IS a Christian nation, after all… Would be awfully Jesus-like if they broke bread with their less-fortunate neighbors, now, wouldn’t it? Of course I’m not saying the burden rests solely on Norway; rather it is a shared burden of the collective.

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
    791·
    11 months ago

    “Guys, I am so shocked and offended and hurt that I would be called racial and homophobic slurs while speaking at the racist, homophobic convention. I thought being a Republican would make me one of the good ones to them! why isnt it making me one of the good ones to them!”

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
        163·
        11 months ago

        Not possible.

        To be a Republican you have to fundamentally hate America, and be extreme in thought.

        its always been the case.

        They used to just make effort to hide it from Cameras and public.

        The only difference now is they dropped all pretense about it after Obama’s election and they lost their mind over losing to a black man.

        You can no more turn the Republican party into a good, for the people party, than you can turn the KKK or Proud Boys into a civics organization that helps low income communities of color.

  • CCF_100@sh.itjust.works
    741·
    11 months ago

    Why on earth would a gay man want to be a Republican? Just seems like a conflict of interest…

    • unreasonabro@lemmy.world
      321·
      11 months ago

      gullibility combined with personality traits like “i never back down because i was in a wrong and illegal war started by the party of criminals who want to kill me and everyone like me” could be one reason, I think.

      • UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        11 months ago

        Maybe he believes it really is just about class and nothing else and thought, ka-ching! Time to get in with the class that’s exploiting everyone and only pretending to be white supremacist to stir up the plebs

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
      21·
      11 months ago

      Based on the one I know, toxic upbringing, dumb as rocks, and completely unemphatic to anyone else. I was stuck in a car with one that’s a family friend for 25 hours. He’s managed to survive, so why can’t all the other lgbts just suck it up is probably the unspoken thought he has. When he was complaining that the Metrosexuals messed up his ability to find other gay people, I told him I haven’t heard anyone use that term in years. He was also convinced that his boyfriend is hiding that fact that he works as at a porn store and that’s going to get him fired from his job as an… Pianist/Organist for the Catholic Church. I try to avoid him.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
      191·
      11 months ago

      The same reason why a poor white person with kids would?

      I do agree that your example is much more extreme, but maybe it’s a question of degree not kind.

    • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
      8·
      11 months ago

      It’s all about the financial aspect. These people tend to be wealthier and very anti-tax. They hope to be one of the “good ones” that are tokenized in the party.

    • smackjack@lemmy.world
      22·
      11 months ago

      We’ll probably see more gay Republicans now that same-sex marriage is legal everywhere and no one seems interested in challenging it.

      • Jomega@lemmy.world
        7·
        11 months ago

        They are absolutely still interested in challenging it. They’ve been talking about repealing it since the day that it was enacted. Why do you think they keep dialing up the anti LGBT rhetoric? Do you think that they just threw up their hands and said “oh well!” when that thing they railed against for decades happened? That which they raged against with all the hatred in their hearts. That they insisted was a sin against god and would lead to the collapse of Western civilization?

        They didn’t stop being angry at us. They’re still pissed.

  • GONADS125@lemmy.world
    732·
    11 months ago

    What kind of battle over cognitive dissonance must people like this face?..

    Dude must have an Olympic gold metal for mental gymnastics…

  • KptnAutismus@lemmy.world
    65·
    11 months ago

    here in germany, we have a politician who is in the AfD (a right-wing party, where many members are literally Nazis).

    and he is an immigrant, talking about how we should stop immigration. he only gets accepted in there because he is as bigoted as them.

    i know it has little to do with this post, but i got reminded of this story by it.

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
      53·
      11 months ago

      Trump claims immigrants are “poisoning the blood of this country.” His wife, ex-wife, and mother are immigrants…

      • violetraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        8·
        11 months ago

        But they’re from the correct group and countries. They want eastern European characters because they’ll be the correct religion and skin color. Do they hold those beliefs? Doesn’t matter. What matters is the image not the people. People are expendable, ideals sell.

    • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.comEnglish
      15·
      11 months ago

      Many Republican leaders are children of immigrants.

      Many also say our birthrate is too low and we need more young people to support our future economy, something immigration builds up.

      None of it makes sense.

  • telephone@infosec.pub
    621·
    11 months ago

    Black and gay? I’m just confused. Didn’t you get the memo that these are the two things Republicans hate the most?

      • Asafum@feddit.nl
        31·
        11 months ago

        I’m sure he’s definitely grifting somehow, but being black and gay I’d imagine people on the left would throw money at him if he wasn’t a piece of shit. I don’t know if he is, just saying if he wasn’t then it would probably be easy and he’d have the benefit of not having to deal with actual racist nazis

        • Soup@lemmy.world
          7·
          11 months ago

          Nobody parts with their money like the right. The left doesn’t just rally behind anything with the right keywords and will often provide emotional support before anything else.

          The left has so many people who are abused for just being who they are that something like that is a Tuesday and not special enough to warrant sending $10 to a rando. There are bigger fish to fry and many would rather go after the instutions that allowed the pain to happen in the first place than pat themselves on the back for a weak bandaid solution.