When he complained, rightwingers sent him homophobic taunts online.

Black gay Republican podcaster Rob Smith has claimed that “white supremacist” members of his political party called him “fa**ot” and the n-word during his Sunday night attendance of Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest event in Phoenix, Arizona. Though Smith posted a video of his brief interaction with the aggressors, commenters on X (formerly Twitter) noted that the video didn’t feature the n-word and mocked Smith his membership in an anti-gay political party.

“Last night in Phoenix, I was confronted and surrounded by some White Supremacists that don’t like gays or blacks in the Republican Party,” Smith wrote in a December 18 post on X. “They shouted ‘nr’ and ‘ft’ at me to make their point. However, I served in Iraq. I never back down. Ever.”

    • MagicShel
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      Attention? Self-loathing? Money? There are options. No good ones, but they’re there.

      • orclev@lemmy.world
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        Not so much that last one. Nobody that’s not already ridiculously wealthy (like 0.1% wealthy) is going to profit under the GOP, it’s just a question of how far back in the queue you are to get fleeced. All their policies are based around concentrating all the nations wealth into as few hands as possible. It’s why the GOP has such a love affair with Russia of late, they want to emulate Putin and his oligarch minions.

        • jaybone@lemmy.world
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          They think they will lower taxes and the market will do better. So they save an extra thousand on federal tax and their 401k goes up a bit. Which isn’t true, but that’s what they think.

          • orclev@lemmy.world
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            Ah yes, the most quintessential of Republican voter, the moron. Reagan caused so much damage to the US with his trickledown economics fantasy, and the worst part is I’m not even sure he intended to. At least Trump is legitimately a terrible human being that I can feel perfectly justified in hating as the walking pond scum he is.

    • TallonMetroid@lemmy.world
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      Maybe he’s racist against immigrants? Alternatively, maybe he’s hoping that they’ll care more about him being a fellow rich person (if he is in fact rich) than about his gay blackness (they don’t).

      • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
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        Maybe he bought the lie that the ideology that belies Conservative platform isn’t racist (or is an acceptable parameter of racist) or homophobic… Or maybe he just feels like he’s been accepted into the club when he gets cheered on by his Conservative buddies for slaging on trans folk and other POCs because they lift him up as an exception. " Here’s what a “good” gay black guy looks like. See we’re not racist and our platform has merit we got one of them on our side! Buy him a drink! "… This holds up until you get into company that doesn’t have to lie to themselves that they aren’t trying to oppress you and want you to just not be an uncomfortable problem anymore.

        Every genocide has idiots who join the other side in a bid to be a pet for safety and sell out their own communities in hope they will be respectable and safe… It’s a gambit that only proves you’re scum before it gets you get killed.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      Last job, the gay Hispanic receptionist was a Trump man. My Philippina wife was too. Past tense, once I showed her a few things. She had only seen Fox News in her 2-years in America.

      This guy? Fuck is his excuse?!

    • kaitco@lemmy.world
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      He likely bought into the idea of “well, there’s bigots on both sides, but at least the GOP will help me keep more of my money.”

      The problem, however, is that the GOP have doubled down on social issues that shouldn’t really be part of the platform, and in doing so, the GOP have turned away from anything that was remotely useful in them.

      This idea of the “self-made” person and pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps sounds appealing on paper and can be inviting at first. My grandmother received her Master’s in Nursing at a time when the vast majority of blacks, let alone black women, in a medical field weren’t doing much more than the laundry. It’s easy to be proud of such things and attribute this to conservative ideals of doing “more” out of pure determination and strength of will, and then admonishing those who have neither the drive nor intelligence to do the same.

      And then…there was Trump.

      Under his umbrella, it seemed as if overnight, the party that was about doing for “self” was more about removing options for anyone who wasn’t a straight white Christian and ensuring that the “others” stayed in their place. What could once be ignored with the dismissive of “well, there’s plenty of liberals who are racist too”, was no longer applicable. The Left turned from the racists who pretended to care for show to just the people who’d rather let a few so-called “undeserving” folks get fed, clothed, and housed to ensuring that the hundred who really need help would be able to get it. Meanwhile, the Right continued down the path of being anti-everything; anti-anyone not white, not male, not Christian, and they weren’t even remotely concerned about the deficit or lowering taxes across the board for the people instead of just for major corporations and the top 1% of the 1%.

      I don’t blame this man for having been a gay black Republican at some point, and trying to hold onto what he thought made sense in the past. I do, however, raise an eyebrow at any rational person who has watched the GOP’s descent and yet has still marched with them while they refuse to back away from white nationalism and show approval of outright hatred of all women, and non-Christians, and all people of color, and all those who aren’t cis-heteronormative.

    • Omega@lemmy.world
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      Maybe they’re one of Hillary’s other mentioned deplorables. Or maybe they’re like the other half that are just disconnected from reality and don’t feel like any of Trump’s shit will impact them (until it does). And to be fair, Democrats have worked hard to make sure people aren’t impacted by the things Trump did.

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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      Must be fiscally conservative and worried about the debt. That’s what they’re focused on right? Right? /s

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      The usual answer of Log Cabin Republicans is “I like lower taxes”. Not much thought beyond that.