Right-wing pundits blame “woke” pro-LGBTQ ideology for Taliban takeover of Afghanistan
Media Matters claims conservatives are claiming America is under attack from "leftist" ideology to rile up GOP base ahead of the 2022 elections.
Right-wing pundits are blaming “woke” ideology in the U.S. military for the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, even going so far as to repeat a debunked claim that the U.S. embassy in Kabul flew an LGBTQ Pride flag on its rooftop ahead of the Taliban’s takeover of the country.
The various statements have been recorded by the left-leaning media watchdog organization Media Matters for America, which notes in its write-up that conservative outlets have seized upon anti-LGBTQ fear-mongering as fodder for the 2022 midterm elections, ginning up anger among Republican base voters claiming that America is under attack from inside by cultural “leftists” pushing LGBTQ rights, identity politics, and critical race theory.
Media Matters notes that, in order to perpetuate this narrative, conservatives have attacked local school boards, corporations that engage in pro-LGBTQ marketing or have pro-LGBTQ policies, and the U.S. military for allowing LGBTQ soldiers, or even the children of LGBTQ couples, to serve openly. And now, following the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan, the narrative from the right casts blame squarely on an inclusive military.
For example, Media Matters notes, New York Post columnist Miranda Devine published an op-ed earlier this month accusing President Joe Biden of “wokifying the military” and leading the country into a defeat that “will echo for eternity.” Devine also said that Biden has been “busy making us less safe” by “injecting the poison of critical race theory and transgender ideology to divide the troops.”
Devine later appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room to push the debunked story about the U.S. embassy flying a Pride flag, claiming it was a “provocation” to the Taliban. She accused the administration of “transporting the worst kind of cultural, sort of, fringe ideas,” claiming: “No one wants pregnant men and transgender ideology being taught to four year-olds.”
Similarly, Fox Nation host Lara Logan criticized a comment from Biden that the United States could put “economic, diplomatic, and international pressure” on the Taliban to ensure the rights of women in Afghanistan are protected by referencing the false Pride flag story.
“Why was the U.S. embassy in Kabul flying the pride flag, gay pride flag, if what you can do is through diplomatic pressure?” Logan said. “That is not a message that was well-received by millions of Afghans who do not see the world that way and are not really lockstep with woke ideology.”
Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh has sarcastically tweeted that the absence of rainbow flags in Afghanistan is “the greatest tragedy of all.” He also criticized the United States for being too obsessed with social issues to maintain its diplomatic power.
“A government waving rainbow flags and a military indoctrinated into LGBT and critical race theory propaganda cannot be an imperial force, even if it wants to be,” Walsh said. “Most of the people defending American imperialism abroad seem to want to pretend that we’re still the country we were one hundred years ago. We’re not.”
See also: Anti-LGBTQ hate group panics about “surviving the rainbow onslaught” during Pride
Fox News host Tucker Carlson criticized the Biden administration’s “radical gender politics” in Afghanistan, citing a classified report from the U.S. Agency for International Development, claiming that American-funded advisers implementing gender quotas “caused revolts” among “these Stone Age people they were going to educate.”
Anti-Muslim activist Brigitte Gabriel also joined in on the fun, claiming in an appearance on Newsmax’s Eric Bolling the Balance that it was “frustrating” to see Gen. Mark Milley, the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, “talk about gender and critical race theory and transgender rights and equality in the military.”
“It’s frustrating to see our embassy in Afghanistan, just last month, instead of posting about how we’re going to win against the Taliban, … posting about LGBTQ rights as a month and how they celebrate diversity in the military,” Gabriel lamented.
Media Matters says these rants against LGBTQ inclusion are simply pushing a particular narratives in an attempt to excite social conservatives ahead of next year’s elections.
“The right-wing media obsession with LGBTQ people has only gotten worse this year, finding any way possible to target them time and time again,” Alex Paterson, a researcher for Media Matters’ LGBTQ Program, said in a statement. “Most recently, the right has primed its audience to believe the debunked story about a Pride flag at the Kabul embassy after months of attacks on the Biden administration’s decision to undo a Trump-era ban on them flying at any embassy. Notably, it was former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is now a Fox News contributor, who fanned the flames on this issue in 2019 and started a cycle of outrage over U.S. support of LGBTQ people abroad.
“These attacks perpetuate the bigoted myth that LGBTQ people are weak and that our inclusion poses an inherent threat to the country’s safety,” said Paterson, adding that such rhetorical attacks also “drive real-world threats of discrimination and violence against queer and trans people, particularly those serving in the military.”
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