Although President Donald Trump has offered some complaints at this point about Fox News supposedly breaking too much with him — they remain spinning wildly off in their ultra-conservative, far-right fantasies all the same. This week, progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) denounced one of their high-profile hosts as a “neo-Nazi fan favorite.” She tore into Laura Ingraham like that during a discussion of her personal criteria for blocking accounts on Twitter. After she’d explained that she has a total of less than 20 blocked, and these were all engaging in consistent, targeted harassment, Ingraham jumped in to reply with a policing of Ocasio-Cortez’s grammar as if in this Twitter discussion, that is even in the universe of things that are substantively relevant.
Pointing out her acceptance of diverse “viewpoints” even while blocking accounts behind harassment, Ocasio-Cortez responded to Ingraham:
‘See? You’re a neo-Nazi fan favorite and I don’t block you for defending white supremacist viewpoints and mocking gun violence survivors.’
See? You’re a neo-Nazi fan favorite and I don’t block you for defending white supremacist viewpoints and mocking gun violence survivors. https://t.co/007audZvgj
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 30, 2019
Originally, Ocasio-Cortez had posted in direct response to criticism:
‘1. I have 5.2 million followers. Less than 20 accounts are blocked for ongoing harassment. 0 are my constituents. 2. Harassment is not a viewpoint. Some accounts, like the Daily Caller, posted fake adult photos of me & abused my comments to spread it. No one is entitled to abuse. People are free to speak whatever classist, racist, false, misogynistic, bigoted comments they’d like. They do not have the right to force others to endure their harassment and abuse.’
Ingraham had chimed in to say that Ocasio-Cortez should have said “fewer” accounts rather than “less” accounts.
Ingraham has attracted criticism in the past ranging back in this current cycle all the way to an appearance she made at the 2016 Republican National Convention where she offered what appeared to be a Hitler salute on stage. Unsurprisingly, she denied she’d intended anything of the sort — but it’s not like the glaring gesture she made was offered in a vacuum, either. Ingraham and her Fox News colleagues like Tucker Carlson repeatedly trumpet white nationalist viewpoints on national television including that immigration poses an inherent threat to the U.S.
Ingraham has also, as Ocasio-Cortez notes, engaged in personally repulsive behavior like mocking survivors of the 2017 Parkland, Florida, massacre.
Check out Twitter’s response…
Featured Image via screenshot
