As has become traditional with any significant news event, Tuesday’s crash of the container ship Dali into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore prompted rightwing kooks across the internet — and your television! — to offer any number of conspiratorial takes on the disaster. It was obviously a “cyberattack,” according to rape advocate and alleged practitioner Andrew Tate, leading Sandy Hook denier Alex Jones to agree “Looks deliberate to me.” Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo speculated that the “wide-open border” was to blame, although she didn’t say what she thought the connection was. Matt Schlapp blamed COVID lockdowns for weakening infrastructure and security, and speculated that maybe everyone was on drugs that night.
Nancy Mace blamed the “Green New Deal” for taking away all the maintenance dollars (like most Republicans, Mace voted against the Infrastructure law, not that it matters, because the bridge was “fully up to code,” per Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, and no bridge is designed to withstand a collision with the equivalent of a floating city block).
But because nothing excites the Right like the chance to be racist as fuck, the consensus among the crazies was that the disaster was due to Black people having jobs anywhere. Freakouts over DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) are the Right’s current outrage flavor of the month, so there were plenty of racists to hop on that, even if they couldn’t actually point to any Black people on the ship who might have caused it to lose power and crash. But Gov. Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott are both Black, so obviously they, and the majority-Black population of Baltimore, are all at fault, because when only white people ran ships, they never sank or crashed into things.
Typical was the response of Utah gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman, who seized on a tweet from the “Young Conservative Federation” expressing outrage that two of the six members of the Maryland Port Commission are Black, and not even sailors! Lyman tut-tutted,
“This is what happens when you have Governors who prioritize diversity over the wellbeing and security of citizens.”
We should probably point out that the Port Commission’s job is to promote business for the Port of Baltimore. It’s not involved in running the port or even driving the boats.
Then there was man of few words and Florida congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini (R-Did We Need To Say?), who simply twote a video of the crash (archive link) and collapse, adding simply, “DEI did this.”
No need to explain: The people he wants to reach already agreed.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-New Jersey) blamed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for being “worried too much about pronouns, worried too much about DEI policies, worried too much about being the cool kid on the block” to do his job, which we suppose meant he should have somehow shooed away the Dali before the ship hit the span. Van Drew is the former Democrat who switched parties, and we think he’s found his proper home at last.
And then there was some idiot who is apparently a favorite of Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who tweeted a video of Mayor Scott (link is to a Chris Hayes quote tweet) and warned,
“This is Baltimore’s DEI mayor commenting on the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.
It’s going to get so, so much worse. Prepare accordingly.”
Wow, bet that video must have shown Scott saying something insanely incompetent or insensitive that would prove why Black peoples shouldn’t win 70 percent of the vote and become mayor through affirmative action! Oh, wait. The press conference video shows Scott calling on people to pray for the victims and first responders, and to thank the first responders for their quick response. (After a distress call from the ship, police closed the bridge to traffic, preventing more deaths, but were unable to reach construction workers still filling potholes. Other emergency responders rescued two construction workers from the water.) Wow, shame on him.
Mayor Scott went on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show last night to set the bigots straight, if such a thing were possible.
“I know, and we know, and you know very well that Black men, and young Black men in particular, have been the bogeyman for those who are racist and think that only straight, wealthy white men should have a say in anything.”
Wow, how divisive. We bet some of the racist white guys blaming everything on DEI aren’t rich but only plan to be. Scott went on:
“We’ve been the bogeyman for them since the first day they brought us to this country, and what they mean by DEI in my opinion is duly elected incumbent. We know what they want to say, but they don’t have the courage to say the N-word, and the fact that I don’t believe in their untruthful and wrong ideology.”
In a bizarre departure from many in their party, the Baltimore City Republican Party issued a Facebook statement in which it actually pledged to “stand with Governor Moore as he faces the biggest challenge of his term of office.” Perhaps to prove they’re still Republicans, they also said Moore’s time in office would be judged for his work in rebuilding the bridge, including his “ability to keep union demands in check,” so there’s that.
[Vox / Mediaite / NBC News / WaPo]
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