We've heard of satire, but this is over-the-top.
The far-right Pro-Trump group, LaRouche PAC, admitted to trolling Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) at a town meeting in Queens on Thursday.
LaRouche PAC staged their very own Modest Proposal by suggesting they can improve on the climate change crisis by eating babies and other inappropriately exaggerated solutions.
A video of the incident has gone viral in the past 24 hours, featuring a woman speaking at the town hall, and wearing a white t-shirt that says:
"Save the Planet, Eat the Children."
At the time, many listeners in the hall believed she was mentally unwell and allowed her to speak. LaRouche PAC, however, has since come forward and said the woman was part of a stunt they'd concocted to speak out against "the hoax" of climate change.
You can see the video here:
In the video, the woman explains to AOC how she feels people aren't doing enough to make a difference and that they needed to take more extreme steps.
The woman began by saying:
"I think your next campaign slogan has to be this: We have got to start eating babies."
There was immediately a stir in the room, but the woman continued to explain her idea.
The woman continued:
"I'm so happy that you are really supporting a Green New Deal, but it's not enough. Even if we were to bomb Russia, we still have too many people, too much pollution. So we have to get rid of the babies. That's a big problem. Just stopping having babies is not enough. We need to eat the babies."
AOC then tried to calm the woman and explained that there are other solutions that can be explored. She also expressed repeatedly that this isn't the time to lose hope.
LaRouche PAC came forward on Twitter on Thursday night to announce they were behind the stunt. They referenced Jonathan Swift's famous satire, A Modest Proposal, which suggested eating babies to clean up the streets.
LaRouche PAC tweeted:
"It was us. Malthusianism isn't new, Jonathan Swift knew that. Sometimes, only satire works."
Matthew Sweet, author of Operation Chaos, which analyzed the histories of conspiracy theorists in the 1960's, made the connection first between the stunt and LaRouche PAC.
Sweet explained:
"It is textbook stuff. They have been in this game for decades."
The group dates back to Lyndon LaRouche, Jr., who died this past February. Sweet pointed out that this undeniably was an effort to discredit AOC and the concept of climate change, and this also wasn't their first attempt to discredit a leading political figure. In 1988, the group attempted to brand Presidential Candidate Michael Dukakis as mentally unwell. The news became so far-spread, Dukakis had to make his mental health records available to the public.
Individuals on both sides have shared their thoughts about the woman's suggestion to eat babies, which is now a trending hashtag.
Some of discussed the Left and the Right, while others have observed how extreme of a solution this would be. Vegetarians and vegans, of course, have taken the opportunity to point out that we're already eating some babies, if not all kinds.
Whether or not people believe in climate change or view it as a massive hoax, we hopefully can agree that the solutions presented by LaRouche PAC are far too extreme.
That being said, parents may want to consider not dressing their kids up as food-stuffs this Halloween.
For a shirt with a different slogan, this shirt is available here.
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