A singer who frequently posts right-wing views on his social media pages was slammed after he tweeted a Tinder profile of a young journalist after super-liking her.
Phil Labonte is a 47-year-old musician best known as the lead singer for the metal band All That Remains. He declares himself a Libertarian and is an advocate for gun rights, drug legalization, and criminal justice reform.
He recently posted the dating profile of 23-year-old journalist Kat Abughazaleh, who covers right-wing extremism for the internet watchdog group Media Matters and also watches "Tucker Carlson so you don't have to."
On Monday night, Labonte tweeted about Abughazaleh, saying:
"I haven’t even gotten the keys to my apartment yet and Tinder is already tryin to hook me up with the Media Matters Tucker Carlson explainer girl.”
Accompanying the tweet was a screenshot of the journalist's Tinder profile.
He additionally clarified in the comments:
“I’m not trying to be a Media Matters hit piece. I did send her a message like, ‘yo, Tinder is f***in with me!’”
As a result of Labonte exposing her Tinder page on another platform, Abughazaleh was barraged with misogynistic comments attacking her.
A disparaging remark included in response to Labone's posts was:
"You can fix her."
Another said:
"THAT'S her Tinder profile? She looks like a hooker waking up on the filthy floor of some slum."
And:
"That has 18 years of child support written all over it."
Abughazaleh compiled a selection of the hateful comments into a single image to share her point of view in a tweet.
"POV: You're a 23-year-old woman who researches right-wing extremism and a 47-year-old conservative commentator posts your dating profile on Twitter," she tweeted.
Abughazaleh assured allies she was unaffected by the slanderous remarks against her.
"I'm good, I promise! These people are pathetic and though it's gross, it's also pretty funny/sad (and a very regular thing)."
"I just picked 50 replies at random after some (cis) male friends expressed shock at the replies. I figured this was a good visual aid."
Those who found Labonte deeply disturbed denounced him in the comments.
It was later revealed that Labonte actually tweeted:
"I haven't even gotten the keys to my apartment yet and Tinder is playing games."
Many users came to Abughazaleh's defense.
Abughazaleh added in the thread of her post:
"Y'all... We can recognize that it's weird for a 47-year-old with more influence to tweet the Tinder profile of a 23-year-old without calling it 'grooming.'"
"I'm a grown woman. It's weird and hostile but it's definitely not 'predatory grooming' or whatever."
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