I try to keep politics out of this space. But I’ve been increasingly tempted lately. Now, I just can’t ignore the totally ridiculous claim by Trump supporters – including running mate JD Vance – that Haitian refugees are eating cats in Ohio…
AI-produced fake image, being shared widely online…
UPDATE (Sept. 11, 2024 / 7:30 am.): Vice President Kamala Harrins laughed uproariously during Tuesday night’s presidential debate when former president Donald Trump, with a straight face, doubled down on his contention that this clearly fanciful story is true…
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Just a few days ago, I posted about how a long list of high-profile celebrity chefs have banded to-gether to support Democratic Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris in her run against Republican Donald Trump. Now, amid the increasingly crazy assertions from the Trump camp, comes a claim that Haitian refugees are catching neighbours’ house pets and eating them…
You read that right
No lesser a Trump surrogate than running mate JD Vance yesterday gave credence to social media rumours that Haitian refugees resettled in and around Springfield, Ohio, have been stealing and eating their neighbours’ cats.
The Springfield News-Sun reported on a social media post that’s (unfortunately) gone viral in recent days. And the situation is rife with indications that the whole story is bunk. Brutal, vicious, racist, violence-inciting bunk.
“The original poster did not cite first-hand knowledge of an incident. Instead they claimed that their neighbor’s daughter’s friend had lost her cat and found it hanging from a branch at a Haitian neigh-bour’s home being carved up to be eaten,” the paper stated.
Mistaken identity?
The paper also opined as the whole thing might have been a case of ‘mistaken identity. The poster, they say, may have been confusing the rumour with a bizarre case elsewhere in the state.
“In a case that some were confusing with Springfield, police in Canton, Ohio, 175 miles northeast of Springfield, recently charged a woman with cruelty to companion animals for allegedly killing and eating a cat in a neighborhood in front of multiple people.”
Who, I ask you, would take the Springfield poster seriously?
Well, for one…
According to CNN, a Trump Campaign account posted a supportive message on X: “President Trump will deport migrants who eat pets. […] Kamala Harris will send them to your town next. Make your choice, America.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz posted a meme showing two kittens embracing. Text overlaid on the image reads: “Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.”
Vance, Ohio’s Governor, posted a video of himself discussing migration to Ohio at a recent hearing: “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?”
Some X accounts shared AI-generated pictures of Trump holding a kitten in each hand while being chased by two black men (see post reproduction, above).
Ominous undercurrent
What this whole bizarre incident underscores is, Trump and his base have warped the traditional American humanitarian ideal beyond recognition. It’s a prime example of how he’s trying to set peo-ple against each other, rather than bringing them together.
And it’s also a glaring example of how the social media can blow up a ridiculous fantasy into some-thing that has thousands fuming.
How soon until folks in Springfield – and elsewhere – start doing violence to their immigrant neigh-bours – citing as justification a totally fictitious, vicious hoax?
~ Maggie J.