The Storm is Upon Us by Mike Rothschild

Author:Mike Rothschild [Rothschild, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melville House
Published: 2021-06-22T00:00:00+00:00

THE BATTLE OF SB 145

QAnon-driven brigading over social media has fallen on the heads of a number of prominent liberals and outspoken Trump opponents. Using old jokes, out-of-context tweets, and manipulated images, Q believers painted the comic and actor Patton Oswalt as a pedophile who openly spoke of his attraction to children without fear of repercussion.23 They tarred the model and influencer Chrissy Teigen as a top-level cabal operator and pedophile who attempted to flee the country in advance of “the storm” with her husband, only to be caught and sent back for a public execution that never actually took place. They went so far as to mercilessly troll her with accusations and memes after she announced the stillbirth of her child.24 And Tom Hanks was hit with so many baseless allegations of pedophilia and murder by QAnon believers that it goosed Google and YouTube algorithms into putting far-right links at the very top of search results for the actor before the mistake was corrected.25

But far from the lofty perches of stars like Hanks and Teigen, a vast engine of harassment, trolling, and threats can be turned on anyone who the Q movement deems to be the enemy.

And in August 2020, as #SaveTheChildren mania was sweeping the conspiracy world at large, that engine drove straight over Catie Stewart in the battle not between good and evil, but over the arcana of the California state legislature: State Bill 145.

As the communications director for California state senator Scott Wiener, Stewart was not in a position that usually merited much scrutiny. Wiener is a gay, Jewish Democrat representing San Francisco, one of the most liberal enclaves in America. He’s well-liked, visible in his community, and routinely advocates for marginalized groups in his city.

But that summer, threatening messages started coming for Wiener. They were full of graphic depictions of violence, accusations of child rape, and disgusting memes. And as part of her job, Catie Stewart was the first set of eyes on most of them. A few messages seemed like genuine questions from concerned people who didn’t seem to know what they were talking about—people Stewart was able to speak to personally and sometimes correct on their mistaken beliefs. But those were outnumbered by gleeful proclamations from middle-aged women hoping Stewart and her boss would get raped and murdered.

The source of the onslaught was a recent bill introduced in the state congress. Wiener had been one of the driving forces behind SB 145, a measure meant to fix a loophole in Section 290 of the California penal code, which dealt with judges automatically adding people to the state’s sex offender registry for acts outside vaginal intercourse when one of the parties was underage, while having the discretion not to for “traditional” sex between a man and a woman—disproportionally requiring LGBTQ people to register as sex offenders, even if the minor was 17 and the offender was 18 or 19. It was a standard bill that went through the standard markup process. But when

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