MAGAs to conservatives: "You're with us or you're a groomer"

So why are they doing this? Culture warriors on the Right are advocating a “you’ve got to fight fire with fire” philosophy. This holds that the left are the aggressors in the culture war. And because it is, in fact, a literal “war,” the only thing that matters is victory. Might makes right. So they are co-opting the other side’s propaganda methods.

Earlier I mentioned Biden’s attempt to redefine words. But his Orwellian sleight of hand is nothing when compared with the actions of some activists on the Left. The term “white supremacy,” for example, was—for my whole life—reserved for overt racists, like Klansmen. In recent years, though, activists have dramatically broadened it to apply to almost everything that encompasses the American “system.”…

There are other reasons people on the Right are using this term, including the simple fact that it works. It has a chilling effect, since nobody wants to be accused of something as indefensible as pedophilia—even as a joke. But the person wielding this heavy charge also has plausible deniability. They can always say they were just trolling you—that it’s just hyperbolic (for example, is this person really accusing me of this heinous act?)

In this sense, it is a bit like the anti-Biden “Let’s Go Brandon!” slogan. People who consider themselves decent (or even devoutly religious) now have an approved code word to justify slander and lies.