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.”

  • unreasonabro@lemmy.world
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    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.

    maybe he just really hates poor people.

  • unreasonabro@lemmy.world
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    Never ever backing down from a stupid fucking position like “black gay republican” or “The Iraq War” seems like an issue to discuss in therapy, dumbfuck. Not the national news. Christ i fucking hate people.

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

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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      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?

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        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.

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

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        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.

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          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.

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            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.

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      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).

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        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.

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      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?!

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      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
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      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.

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    “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…

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    “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!”

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        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.

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    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.

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

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        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.com
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      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.

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        I have a coworker who is anti-immigrant because she thinks all immigrants are unvaccinated and spread diseases. She is also anti-vax.

        I also have two half-Thai cousins who are anti-immigrant.

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