“It takes a fanatic to abuse a child like this. Unfortunately, the kind of people who actually run for office or run for school boards on the ‘MAGA’ platform are fanatics. Fanaticism propels their relentless quests for political power. To vote for MAGA candidates is to vote for fanatics, and fanatics are the ones who do these terrible things to children.” – Me.

One by one, Democrats are learning that there is nothing to be gained by playing nice with MAGA, always playing defense but never going on the offensive. While MAGA spreads vicious, savage lies about the LGBTQ+ community that can get innocent people fucking murdered, Democrats still think they can win by playing patty-cake with fascists. So, this is how Democrats should unleash a full-scale nuclear strike on far right culture warriors that will leave the GOP Convention floor inches deep in figurative radioactive ash.

Spoiler alert: It’s another textbook case of far-right projection.

KSL in Utah: “‘Religious extremism’: Ruby Franke’s journal details disturbing abuse of children”

Time: “What the Evidence Released From Ruby Franke’s Child Abuse Case Reveals”

NBC News: “Ye wanted to shave Donda Academy students’ heads and lock kids in cages, ex-employee says in lawsuit” and “The 10 strangest, most troubling allegations about Ye’s Donda Academy” Remember: Kanye West is a Trump worshiper.

Warning, folks – this is a brutally tough read. If you think it may be too disturbing, just know that it is while sparing yourselves the details.

Ruby Franke’s YouTube channel, “8 Passengers,” had – brace yourselves – 2.3 million subscribers. That’s right, millions. That is a lot of parents seeking to learn and emulate Franke’s techniques of methodical child abuse.

To be fair, many of Franke’s viewers grew increasingly disturbed by what they were seeing and tipped off authorities. Decent people young and old alike owe the whistleblowers our gratitude. Many others, however, were eating it right up.

As the court discovered, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt, religious extremism is what moved Ruby Franke and her business partner to abuse children in a sadistic, calculated manner that could easily be mistaken for an adult-themed parody of the strict parenting of the past. But this was NO parody. This was actually perpetrated on children, as documented by her own hand in her daily journal.

Who is it again that poses a danger to children? Contrary to the right wing lie and hate machine, it’s not the LGBTQ community that endangers kids. It’s religious extremism that claims God calls for child abuse that endangers kids.

I have seen firsthand parents whom I suspected of this. Years ago, I was visiting the friend of a neighbor at the time. At first I was impressed by how respectful the four children were. And then, I began seeing warning signs. The father would bark about something, and the kids would line up like a platoon falling in for close-order drill. He frequently self-identified his politics and assumed that everyone else agreed with him. It was then that I began to suspect that, maybe, not all was what it had seemed.

The details and descriptions of ritual child abuse revealed in the Ruby Franke abuse case are very tough to listen to. As I said, you may want to skip the details and simply know that they’re horrific. But I’m telling ya: this kind of ritual child abuse is less uncommon in MAGA world than you may think.

But there’s more. Josh Duggar of reality TV fame, was Executive Director of the militantly anti-Constitutional organization FRC Action, the most militant arm of the listed hate group Family Research Council. Duggar attended Trump presidential debates in person in 2016 and patterned his life by the teachings of the ultra-legalistic Institute in Basic Life Principles, conceived by yet another author of child abuse instructional materials, Bill Gothard. Considering the very unhealthy obsession that far right MAGA churches and organizations such as FRC have with the adventures and whereabouts of other people’s private parts, it’s not at all surprising that Duggar is now in prison on child pornography charges.

In Bakersfield, California, there is a man who sells repurposed BDSM gear – for use on one’s own children. This is the original Web store before taking it mostly underground. -> Note the “chastening instrument” and the considerable number of instructional child abuse manuals that he sells.

I’m not saying that all, or even most, MAGA parents are guilty of this kind of child abuse. Many MAGA parents surely condemn it. But the farther up the “MAGA ladder of power and influence” you go, the farther up the “religious extremism” scale you go, the more common this becomes.

It takes a fanatic to abuse a child like this. Unfortunately, the kind of people who actually run for office or run for school boards on the MAGA platform are fanatics. Fanaticism propels their relentless quests for political power. To vote for MAGA candidates is to vote for fanatics, and fanatics are the ones who do these terrible things to children.

Former Independent Fundamentalist Baptist pastor Bruce Gerencser has compiled an extensive library documenting the ritual child abuse at Lester Roloff-inspired teen group homes. Mr. Gerencser’s library of the documented atrocities committed at these far-right group homes goes on almost forever – “Sexual Abuse in the Name of God: New Bethany Home for Girls,” “Black Collar Crime: Restoration Youth Academy’s Sadistic Abuse of Children Made Public” – this list of horrors feels bottomless and limitless.

Extremist Michael Pearl, who is as widely “respected” in far-right world as is 8 Passengers, seriously thought that it was perfectly okay to make a child abuse demonstration video using a doll. (I must assure readers that the blog to which the preceding link points is extremely critical of child abuse. The author of the blog is merely reporting on the sickening horrors, not condoning them.)

The fact that such people actually think that it’s okay to go public as advocates and practitioners of child abuse shows just how far out they really are. This kind of systematic child abuse is endemic to the fanaticism at the inner core of the MAGA movement. These cases are not outliers once you reach the higher, inner echelons of militant MAGA religious-extremist activism. They are prevalent.

If Democrats and media would go full nuclear on MAGA with these verified, and often court-verified facts, the “culture war” would be nothing but crickets by January 2025. MAGA would be gone from the political face of the earth.

But as long as Democrats and the media keep turning a blind eye to just how not-so-uncommon this is, the real tragedies – not the fabricated lies about the LGBTQ community promulgated by the right wing lie and hate machine – will continue to maim children – emotionally, and at times physically.

Seriously, Dems: Take this heavy ammunition and GO NUCLEAR on the culture warriors. You’ll sweep both chambers of Congress and ace the White House.

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