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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 6/15/21

The Enduring False Narrative About the PULSE Massacre Shows the Power of Media Propaganda

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From Substack

Pulse nightclub memorial in Orlando
Pulse nightclub memorial in Orlando
(Image by Office of Governor Dan Malloy)
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On the fifth anniversary of the PULSE nightclub massacre in Orlando, numerous senators, politicians and activist groups commemorated that tragic event by propagating an absolute falsehood: namely, that the shooter, Omr Manteen, was motivated by anti-LGBT animus. The evidence is definitive and conclusive that this is false Mateen, like so many others who committed similar acts of violence, was motivated by rage over President Obama's bombing campaigns in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and chose PULSE at random without even knowing it was a gay club, yet this media-consecrated lie continues to fester.

On Saturday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) falsely described the massacre as an "unspeakable act of hate toward the LGBTQ+ community." Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) went even further, claiming "the LGBTQ+ community was targeted and killed -- all because they dared to live their lives." Her fellow Illinois Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin, claimed 49 lives were lost due to "anti-LGBTQ hate" (he forgot the +). These false claims were compiled by the gay socialist activist Matt Thomas, who correctly objected: "the shooter literally picked PULSE at random from Google after security was too tight at the mall he went to first," adding that while LGBT groups "are hopeless of course," too much money and power is at stake for them to give up this self-serving fiction. But he asked, "Shouldn't the bar be a little higher for senators?"

In the immediate aftermath of that horrific crime, it may have been reasonable for the public to speculate that Mateen, given his professed support for ISIS, chose PULSE because it was a gay club. That belief also neatly played into a liberal political agenda of highlighting anti-LGBT hate crimes, and also comported with the dual stereotypes of the gay-hating Muslim and the closeted gay man who harbors self-hatred that ends up directed at other gay people. This storyline was instantly consecrated when politicians and LGBT groups quickly seized on this claim and ratified it as unquestionably true.

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