As Twitchy reported, Iowa school shooter Dylan Butler, who shot and killed an 11-year-old and injured four other students and three staff, was a "known wolf." The FBI was warned about him in November when someone emailed disturbing social media posts to them. This was reported by The Daily Mail, but if you read the excerpt, you won't see that Butler was an LGBTQ/trans activist. Mainstream media reports about Butler generally ignore that he was a member of the LGBTQ community, but NBC News is something special, and decided it was a good idea to turn the school shooting into a "Republicans pounce" story. Sorry, in this case, they "seized."
NEW: Elon Musk and far-right figures seize on Iowa shooter’s possible LGBTQ identity https://t.co/vwidGshD0t
— Matt Lavietes (@mattlavietes) January 5, 2024
Matt Lavietes (he/him) covers LGBTQ issues for NBC News, under its NBC OUT banner. The fact that the headline includes the now-meaningless adjective "far-right" indicates we're in for a treat.
Lavietes writes:
As authorities and journalists scrambled to uncover information about the shooter who opened fire at an Iowa school on Thursday, far-right figures zeroed in on the likelihood that the assailant was LGBTQ and once again suggested that queer people are more likely to pose a danger to others.
…
Far-right social media personalities and conservative provocateurs were quick to pounce on these revelations.
“This is the trans genderfluid te*ror*st who shot up a school in Iowa today,” the account Libs of TikTok posted that same day on X, where it has over 2.7 million followers. “Trans extremists are a serious threat. The media will bury this.”
Donald Trump Jr. weighed in on the matter, reposting a different tweet from Libs of TikTok that stated that “the modern LGBTQ+ movement is radicalizing our youth into becoming violent extremists.”
OK, we're laughing out loud that the guy actually used the word "pounced" in his report. He also came up with a new class of bad guy: "conservative provocateurs." What does that mean, exactly?
Not that long ago, a trans school shooter in Nashville killed three children and three adults, and her manifesto was kept under lock and key … it was only recently that a leaked page showed her plans to kill the little "crackers" with their privilege.
What is the point of this story?
I’m seizing on this ratio pic.twitter.com/ASKuvXskNT
— Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) January 8, 2024
This ratio is glorious
— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) January 7, 2024
As we reported on January 5, Lavietes had emailed Libs of TikTok's Chaya Raichik letting her know he was writing a hit piece on her. "What would you say to your critics who say you're stoking fear and hatred," he wrote, with "your critics" being a handy stand-in for "me."
Liberal snowflake with 2k followers taking a cheap shot at @libsoftiktok 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) January 7, 2024
Enjoy the ratio D-Bag
65,000 views...
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) January 7, 2024
38 likes.
Maybe, just maybe, you're failing to read the room? lol pic.twitter.com/JvhYgpQpEE
Libs of TikTok said in response to a request for comment from NBC News on X:
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) January 7, 2024
“Pronouns in bio = opinion discarded.”
Matt, you are a 🤡
"far right" is such a joke of a term. Seriously - get some new material. This stuff is tired and wrung out at this point.
— Free Speech Is Not Hate Speech (@FreeSpeechMonk) January 7, 2024
Sooooo we’re not supposed to recognize their identity now?
— Just Evan™ (@EvanPrinciple) January 7, 2024
These rules sure are confusing.
Lavietes refers to the shooter as "he" and "him" in the article, so maybe he's guilty of misgendering?
Why are you mad at people for bringing demographics into it?
— Canada’s Gun Gnome (@redpillcanadian) January 7, 2024
If the shooter was a right wing white dude you guys would be all over it.
"Gender fluid" teen shoots up a school, but the concern is over the safety of the LGBTQ community.
You sound like an activist.
— Skeptic (@Socalfamof5) January 7, 2024
How does one "seize" an identity, @mattlavietes? Did @elonmusk use one hand or two?
— Andrea E (@AAC0519) January 7, 2024
SEIZE
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) January 8, 2024
Pronouns in Bio 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👇👇👇🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡 pic.twitter.com/MM6lZUuWKF
— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) January 7, 2024
I forgot that identity isn't relevant to possible motives. Good thing the media never reports the identity characteristics of other shooters 🙄
— Trey Isaac (@seehearspeaknow) January 7, 2024
Honestly, journalism has become an embarrassment of ideological spin and obfuscation.
— Lord Brian Urso, Lead Guitarist of Gideons Mob (@TheMobRules73) January 7, 2024
FYI, the sin of omission is disinformation, but you already knew that.
— My2Cents (@phpmatt) January 7, 2024
Clown post.
— William Green (@William06651905) January 7, 2024
Says member of the MSM obsessed with identifying middle America as a mass of white supremacist Christo-fascists.
— Sasha the Wonder Dog 🇺🇸☘️ (@livesuperior1) January 8, 2024
The FBI was too busy surveilling Catholics to respond to the tip.
“Possible LGBTQ identity”? It seems to be a matter of record that he was LGBTQ, are you saying he’s not? Why are you trying to squash a discussion about the facts?
— Ghost of Osceola (@Kertis53) January 6, 2024
You do realize that phrases such as “conservatives seize on” and “Republicans pounce” have become cliches used by the hackiest of hacky liberal journalists, don’t you? Don’t be a cliche. It’s embarrassing.
— Qué (@quevinhualquer) January 7, 2024
He actually used the word "pounced" with no sense of self-awareness at all. And again, if it's "possible" that the killer was gender fluid, why not refer to them as "they" in the article? It's what the killer would have wanted.
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member