An Example

or, Rep Omar vs Rep Boebert

Just an example to illustrate the essay I sent out on Tuesday.

Here’s a description of this conflict between Rep Omar and Rep Boebert over at The Hill. For those who don’t want to deal with an infestation of ads and digital noise, here’s an excerpt of the relevant portion:

Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) clashed in what both described as a tense phone call on Monday after video surfaced of the far-right lawmaker making Islamophobic remarks about her colleague.

The two lawmakers issued separate statements after the phone call making clear that neither found the conversation to be helpful in settling their differences.

“Today, I graciously accepted a call from Rep. Lauren Boebert in the hope of receiving a direct apology for falsely claiming she met me in an elevator, suggesting I was a terrorist, and for a history of anti-Muslim hate. Instead of apologizing for her Islamophobic comments and fabricated lies, Rep. Boebert refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments," Omar said in a statement.

"She instead doubled down on her rhetoric and I decided to end the unproductive call," Omar added. "I believe in engaging with those we disagree with respectfully, but not when that disagreement is rooted in outright bigotry and hate."

Boebert, meanwhile, expressed frustration in a video posted to Instagram that Omar felt the initial public apology "wasn't good enough."

"I wanted to let her know directly that I had reflected on my previous remarks. Now, as a strong Christian woman who values faith deeply, I never want anything I say to offend someone's religion. So I told her that. Even after I put out a public statement to that effect. She said that she still wanted a public apology because what I had done wasn't good enough," Boebert said.

Boebert went on to attack Omar for her past criticisms of Israel and calls to dismantle the Minneapolis police department following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, while he was under arrest.

"She kept asking for a public apology. So I told Ilhan Omar that she should make a public apology to the American people for her anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-police rhetoric. She continued to press, and I continued to press back. And then, Rep. Omar hung up on me. Rejecting an apology and hanging up on someone is part of cancel culture 101 and a pillar of the Democrat Party," Boebert continued.

Boebert then doubled down on engaging in an Islamophobic trope suggesting Omar sympathizes with terrorists.

"Make no mistake, I will continue to fearlessly put America first, never sympathizing with terrorists. Unfortunately, Ilhan can't say the same thing. And our country is worse off for it," Boebert said.

Whether you think Rep Boebert is a racist¹ or a patriot² probably comes down to your political affiliation, which doesn’t really interest me. As I’ve said before: this is all aesthetics. So I want to talk about something aesthetically interesting here.

This all started with Boebert trying to project strength. She’s virtue signaling to her base that she’s a True American. She does this by meangirling a story into existence where Rep Omar is literally just standing near her.

But if we ignore the way people in this video laugh along with this strange anecdote and actually focus on what she’s saying here, we find a woman aspiring to bully one of her colleagues in a Safe Space.

And she’s doing this because she is, quite literally, terrified of Rep Omar.

I mean, can we acknowledge how pathetic this is? She wants to project the strength of a bully³ but her story that’s meant to bully Rep Omar is about how she’s afraid of Rep Omar.

Anyway, this nothing story is the Story of the Week for certain sections of the internet. Liberals⁴ will breathlessly talk about this with gasping horror and conservatives will high five one another about all the libtard snowflakes.

And the only real result will be that Lauren Boebert—who is so desperate for attention it’s honestly embarrassing—will have her profile temporarily raised to national status. It’s the kind of viral moment these aspiring influencers crave. The way she throws cancel culture into the mix is just chum⁵.

I do think this is the perfect example of the culture war. There’s nothing of substance here. Ilhan Omar⁶ handles most of this obscene shit well by ignoring it and continuing to do the work. She more or less does that here, too, but Boebert got sort of caught being a bit too racist and a bit too pathetic in public so she felt the need to apologize. Which didn’t go well!

But, of course, that’s part of milking virality. Now she gets to stay in the news cycle for another 24 hours.

The funny thing about this is by the time you read this essay, this story will already be forgotten by many, despite that this led to Rep Omar receiving at least one death threat⁷.

Which, again, is why it’s a perfect example of this era of the culture war. It means nothing, but people are willing to kill over it.

Anyrate, have a good weekend.

1. accurate

2. lol

3. All conservatives are just desperate to be Trump but none of them have that true bully instinct that makes Trump irresistible to a certain type of person. Whatever else Trump might be, his compulsion to bully people is authentic and genuine.

4. Just so we remember - liberals hate Ilhan Omar because of her principled stance against US Imperialism and her support of a robust social safety net. And, you know, because she’s Muslim.

5. Take note: hanging up on someone cancels them.

6. The best of the Squad and my Representative in Congress. If I feel like it or if people want it, I may write something longer about Ilhan Omar. She is both well loved and well hated, which does make her an interesting politician. I have a lot to say about this!

7. Depressingly, if you google “ilhan omar death threat” there are many search results stretched across the years, so you actually have to be specific about which time she got a death threat.