Honk-Honk Dog Whistles, Heil Hitler, Dark-Skinned Hordes, John McCain a Traitor, and more Hateful Madness...
Nazi frogs with clown noses, racism and replacement paranoia, plus a San Diego-based megachurch preacher whose social media feed claims John McCain trained the North Vietnamese.
These are internet images of Pepe the Frog, created as a cute little meme, then hijacked by bigoted internet trolls, turned into a hate symbol, and now often seen with a clown wig and red nose that goes “Honk Honk.”
Honk Honk is the dog whistle…
Shortened, this “Honk Honk” stands for “HH”, or Heil Hitler. Utilizing generally acceptable visual cues such as Pepe, the rainbow clown wig (a jab at the LGBT movement) and terms such as Honk Honk enable even hardcore Far-right pages to exist and thrive freely in plain sight on mainstream social media. Digital Dog Whistles: The New Online Language of Extremism p.19
Even Donald Trump has catered to the Pepe crowd, tweeting this out in 2015:
Believe me, this Pepe stuff gets really ugly.
Enter now “Clown World,” from the rabid social media platform GETTR. Riffing off the Pepe theme, Clown World streams endless vitriol, xenophobia, misogyny, and disinformation.
It’s a favorite of Jurgen Matthesius, founder of Awaken Church of San Diego. On his GETTR feed, where he calls himself “Jurgmeister,” his stream of hate, condemnation, and conspiracy theories regularly includes memes reposted from Clown World.
Note Jurgmeister’s fourth Clown World repost above, with a photo of Michele Obama and Oprah Winfrey, stating “Big Mike and the Black Antichrist!!!” That’s a reference to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ claims that Michele Obama is transgender, and megachurch preacher Mike Bickle’s assertions that Oprah is a forerunner to the antichrist.
For the record, Alex Jones was ordered to pay almost $1 billion in damages to the families of eight victims of the Sandy Hook shooting for the suffering caused by years of lies that the massacre was a hoax. Pastor Bickle now stands accused of sexually abusing members of his own flock.
Dark-Skinned Hordes
Then there’s Jurgmeister’s obsession with Replacement Theory.
Replacement theorists fear nonwhite, non-Christian hordes are being brought to America, largely funded by a global Jewish cabal, to replace the white Christian majority population and seize political and social power.
White "replacement theory" and the idea of a "white genocide" were a pillar of Nazi Germany's ideology, which pointed to Jews as the single most dangerous threat to white civilization. ~Reuters
Remember the White Supremacists marching with their torches in Charlottesville in 2017 chanting “Jews Will Not Replace Us?”
Replacement Theory is currently a favorite of the MAGA crowds, and even some members of Congress, including newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson.
According to Peter Bolland, a professor of World Religion, Replacement Theory fuels prejudice and often leads to violence.
To Professor Bolland’s point, perhaps you recall one or more of these mass shootings by domestic terrorists who reportedly were motivated by Replacement Theory.
May 2022, 18-year-old Payton Gendron shot and killed 10 people in the heart of a predominantly black community in Buffalo, New York. A propaganda document released online under his name in advance of the attack obsessively referenced replacement theory.
August 2019, Patrick Crusius opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 23 people and wounding almost two dozen. In a manifesto, Crusius talked about a “Hispanic invasion” and referred to the “great replacement.”
April 2019, John Earnest killed one and injured three at a synagogue in Poway, California. In a letter he released online, Earnest claimed that Jews were responsible for the genocide of “white Europeans.”
March 2019, Brenton Tarrant killed 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand. He released a manifesto online called “The Great Replacement.”
October 2018, Robert Bowers killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after writing a post on social media blaming Jews for bringing non-white immigrants and refugees to the U.S.
Although he spreads Replacement Theory propaganda, Jurgen Matthesius, a native-born German who came to America just over a decade ago via Australia, is in no way directly connected with the mass shootings listed here.
Yet those who traffic in hateful rhetoric, especially those claiming to be devout Christians, would be wise to reflect on how this creates a more divided and dangerous world that can, and has, pushed unhinged people over the top.
And then there’s this…
Attacking John McCain
John McCain, a Navy Officer who spent years as a POW in Hanoi during the Vietnam War.
A man who served as a United States senator from 1987 until his death in 2018.
A man who was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
John McCain, who spent part of his childhood in Coronado, owned a residence here and had one of the streets on North Island named McCain Boulevard for his grandfather, Admiral John Sidney McCain.
American Hero John McCain, a man Jurgmeister’s GETTR feed calls a traitor.
Taking Territory
Remember, it’s Matthesius who, rather than seeking to serve a community, vows to “take territory,” surround San Diego County, and say “Come out with your hands up!”
It’s Matthesius who calls Coronado residents who oppose his plans to establish a full-time presence in our community “demoniacs” and threatens to drive us out of town.
It’s Matthesius who hosted The ReAwaken America Tour, a national roadshow of White Supremacists, Hitler Admirers, Christo Fascists, Conspiracy Theorists, QAnon Influencers, convicted felons, and a character who claims Covid vaccines killed more people than were murdered in the Holocaust.
A Man of God?
Jesus Christ urged us to be forgiving, have compassion, and love our neighbors. He cautioned us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. He sought to unify us, not divide us. He promoted peace, not paranoia, intolerance, and hatred.
Once again, I am left wondering, “What would Jesus say?”
