Anti-Trans Propaganda Contributed to Attempted Assasination of House Speaker Pelosi

Conspiracy theories and misinformation have violent real life consequences.

by Evan Urquhart

A report for ABC News with four bylines (Emily Shapiro, Luke Barr, Mike Levine, and Meredith Deliso) cites the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, “a think tank dedicated to researching extremism and disinformation,” as having knowledge of the internet behavior of a man accused of the attempted assassination of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The incident resulted in an assault on Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, in the couple’s California home yesterday. David DePape, who was arrested after being caught in the act of assaulting Paul Pelosi with a hammer, had reportedly posted about multiple far right conspiracy theories.

If you’re familiar with conspiracy theories on the extreme right, this list sounds depressingly familiar. Each item is not seperate from all the others, but rather fits an overarching narrative, one which is little changed from the conspiracy theories that drove the rise of Hitler’s Nazi Party in Germany. At the heart of this conspiracy is antisemitism, ie the false belief that Jewish people are secretly in control of everything and are, therefore, reponsible for all the believers grudges and grievances and insecurities. Against the antisemitic backdrop, trans people are (again falsely), believed to be not merely human beings living out our lives the best we can, but a false creation of this imaginary cabal of Jewish people. In this dangerous belief system, trans people exist solely for the purpose of destroying Wesern (ie white supremacist) civilization.

Anti-semitism and anti-blackness are a constant in these Nazi-inspired belief systems, but anti-transgender and anti-gay sentiments are a very old part of it as well, and have, in recent years, become one of the primary focuses of far right extremists.

Paul Pelosi was hospitalized for his injuries and recieved treatment including surgery to repair a skull fracture, but is expected to make a full recovery.