The National Butterfly Center near Mission, Texas, is closing indefinitely due to rampant right-wing weirdness of the sort that inspired a gunman to shoot up the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in 2016. This time, the trouble stems from an unfounded—and utterly bonkers—theory about child sex trafficking being undertaken by folks who’d previously committed the bulk of their efforts to boosting their lepidopteran brethren.

There’s no question that child sex trafficking is a serious problem, but there’s a segment of right-wingers who appear to believe it’s the world’s only real problem (other than vaccines and masks, of course), and they see it happening everywhere. Everywhere. Even at nondescript pizza joints and nonprofit butterfly sanctuaries.

The Washington Post:

The nonprofit center in Mission has endured a firestorm in recent years amid an ongoing lawsuit against the former Trump administration, which sought to build part of a border wall on its property, and the fundraising organization We Build the Wall. Right-wing groups have falsely claimed the butterfly center illegally smuggles people into the United States and facilitates sex trafficking.

Wait, why is our side (i.e., Democrats, or lucid people) always accused of child sex trafficking, baby-blood drinking, and human smuggling? Substitute the baby’s blood with Coors Light and you basically have a Matt Gaetz fondue party. Plus, we’re the ones who want to fill parents’ coffers with a child tax credit that pulls millions of kiddos out of poverty. What do these MAGA weirdos think we’re doing? Trying to fatten them up for Thanksgiving?

Back to The Post:

Hmm, I figured I’d find Donald Trump’s Lilliputian fingerprints on this mess somewhere.

Indeed, the butterfly center has been the object of MAGA ire ever since it filed a lawsuit in 2017 seeking to halt construction on Donald Trump’s totally practical and fully funded-by-Mexico border wall. In the complaint, the center noted that the proposed wall would cut off two-thirds of its property and do serious damage to its operations. Harassment of the center reportedly began after it filed the suit and Brian Kolfage, the founder of the allegedly fraudulent “We Build the Wall” organization, claimed it would use private money to build Trump’s proposed border wall, accused the center of being involved in child sex trafficking.

In a follow-up report on the center’s closure, The Post notes that the recent wave of harassment largely stemmed from the actions of Kimberly Lowe, a fringe candidate who’s running in Virginia’s 9th Congressional District Republican primary. (Note to reporters: No need to use “fringe” anymore; just say “Republican.”)

[…]

The harassment, [Executive Director Marianna] Trevino Wright said, has made it difficult for her and her staff to focus on their work as butterfly scientists. She has been so stressed, she said, that she went to the emergency room for an electrocardiogram earlier this week.

Whoooooo! MAGA!

It was one thing when MAGA mites were just loud, obnoxious, and wrong, but they’re increasingly pushing the boundaries of what can be considered socially acceptable and/or legal. Election workers across the country are being threatened with violence because of Trump’s Big Lie, school board members are facing unprecedented harassment over their pro-education curricula and policies, and anti-vaxxers have gone out of their way to disrupt everything from mass vaccination clinics to public meetings. 

In short, our country has a serious problem, and it has nothing to do with nonexistent, frothing liberal fiends at the National Butterfly Center. Indeed, the blame can be laid directly at the feet of people who appear oddly predisposed to worshiping Donald Trump, who in turn encourages his supporters’ fuzzy thinking and fuels the unending conspiracy feedback loop that animates these buffoons.

Sadly, the cancer has likely metastasized beyond the original Trump tumor, so a thorough Trumpectomy will no longer do the trick.

Pray for our country, if you’re into that sort of thing.

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