Renee Nicole Good was a city-dwelling, left-wing, white woman with a bank account. She is the victim of an ICE-perpetrated homicide. You wouldn’t have thought that her demographic had anything to do with whether her killing was justified. However, if you listen to MAGA punditry, she was at fault because she is ‘AWFUL.” A newly coined right-wing acronym standing for ‘Affluent White Female Urban Liberal’.
We shouldn’t be surprised. In the right-wing media sewer, the first directive is to slam anyone on the other side. Especially if the subject of the vitriol is the victim of ICE’s untrained, unchecked, and poorly-supervised homicidal aggression. It is shameless hypocrisy.
These are people who say that the Second Amendment guarantees the citizens their God-given right to defend themselves against the government. Yet when that government guns down a woman whose crimes were “blocking the street” and possibly brushing an ICE agent with a slow-moving car, it’s her fault. More than that, she deserved it.
Take conservative commentator Erik Erickson. He reacted to the public firestorm of horror after videos showed an ICE agent shooting Renee in the face three times by blaming the victim. Specifically, he commented on a tweet by Libby Emmons, by writing:
“An AWFUL (Affluent White Female Urban Liberal) is dead after running her car into an ICE agent who opened fire on her. Progressive whites are turning violent. ICE agents have the right to defend themselves.”
Perhaps he’s suggesting that women with money should just shut up and be grateful for the bounty America has showered on them. Or maybe he means that being progressive is a criminal offense.
The reality is that MAGA commentators know that they can say anything. And as long as they spit it out with a sneer, the base will assume that it is a negative — no matter how innocuous.
They’ll say: “She listened to NPR.” “What do you expect? He likes tennis.” “She drinks white wine.” “He takes his kids to the theater.” What the base hears: “Scary stuff.” “Definitely un-American.” “Not what a patriot would do.” “He’s dangerously gay.”
In the tweet Erickson was reacting to, Emmons had for some reason put scare quotes around the phrase “middle-aged white woman,” as if somehow Renee’s demographic had something to do with justifying her killing. The subtext may be that women should know their place. To wit, not having a political opinion. Perhaps it’s something else that checks a mysterious box known only to MAGAs.
Or perhaps it’s that this latest target of MAGA opprobrium, college-educated white women, voted for Harris over Trump by 16%. And as a group, they are 16% of the electorate. Almost as large as non-college white men (17%).
The internet tells me that Emmons is 51 (i.e., a “middle-aged white woman” herself). She is an editor of the Post-Millennial, a far-right news site. And she contributes to the MAGA-friendly NY Post. So we know where she stands on things.
She is just one cog in the MAGA propaganda machine. A machine that has, for years, painted its opponents, not as people who hold a different opinion. But as activists in the thrall of dangerous anti-American agents.
In their performative paranoia, a woman who thinks for herself, or has a career, is a feminazi. Gays have an agenda. Doctors who treat gender dysphoria are C.21st Mengeles. Protestors are Soros-paid demonstrators. Librarians are porn peddlers. Teachers are socialist recruiters. And the dead victims of state aggression are AWFUL.
