OGM News— Matt Gaetz and the Right-Wing’s War on Facts | If there’s one thing the right wing has perfected, it’s the fine art of getting facts completely wrong. Enter Matt Gaetz, the latest contestant in the “Say Something Dumb Online” challenge. His latest blunder? A tweet about Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance that was so off-base it had to be saddled with a community note. Gaetz boldly proclaimed, “The halftime show you just watched is clearly the regime’s response to Trump’s historic gains with black men.” There was just one tiny problem—Lamar’s booking was announced before the 2024 election. Oops.
This type of misinformation isn’t new for Gaetz, or for that matter, his ideological peers. The right wing’s relationship with reality is much like that one cousin who insists the Earth is flat—it’s loud, persistent, and completely detached from the truth. But Gaetz’s misstep here is even more embarrassing because, of all people, he should be the last to comment on a halftime show featuring the now-infamous diss track “Not Like Us.”
Matt Gaetz and the Right-Wing’s War on Facts: The Irony of Gaetz Commenting on Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”
OGM News— Matt Gaetz and the Right-Wing’s War on Facts | If you’ve ever wondered what irony looks like in its purest form, just watch Matt Gaetz insert himself into a conversation about Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance. The song “Not Like Us” has been widely interpreted as a takedown of Drake, but it also carries lines that reference inappropriate relationships with minors. And Gaetz, a man who has spent the last few years trying to shake off an Ethics Committee investigation that found he allegedly paid a 17-year-old for sex, thought it was a good idea to chime in? The internet was quick to remind him otherwise.
Social media users wasted no time throwing Gaetz’s own alleged history back at him, using Lamar’s lyrics to roast him into oblivion. “Say, Gaetz, I hear you like ’em young,” some quipped, adapting the song’s infamous line aimed at Drake. Others noted that if anyone should avoid discussing anything related to age-inappropriate behavior, it’s the Florida congressman. Perhaps he should sit this one out, but restraint has never been his strong suit.
Right-Wing Outrage: The Art of Creating Fake Problems
OGM News— Matt Gaetz and the Right-Wing’s War on Facts | While Gaetz’s Twitter fail was particularly spectacular, he wasn’t alone in his outrage. Right-wing commentators as a whole seemed to go into full meltdown mode over Lamar’s halftime show. Some, like Eric Daugherty, called it a “black nationalist Super Bowl halftime show,” despite the performance featuring patriotic imagery, including dancers forming an American flag. Others went the full conspiracy route, labeling the show “satanic” without offering any specifics—because when has a lack of evidence ever stopped them?
The right-wing outrage machine operates on one fundamental principle: manufacture controversy where none exists. If Kendrick Lamar had performed a rendition of the national anthem with fireworks spelling out “God Bless America,” they’d probably still find a way to claim it was “woke propaganda.” It’s a playbook as predictable as it is exhausting.
Matt Gaetz and the Right-Wing’s War on Facts: Even Elon Musk Joins the Circus
You know things have truly gone off the rails when even Elon Musk, self-proclaimed free speech advocate and Twitter’s resident billionaire, wades into the nonsense. Musk, who has a history of jumping into right-wing culture wars, joined in on the criticism, adding his own brand of pseudo-intellectual commentary. The exact details of his complaints? Unclear. But if history is any indicator, it probably involved some vague appeal to “traditional values” sandwiched between a meme and a Tesla stock price update.
At this point, right-wing commentators aren’t engaging in actual debate—they’re competing in a contest to see who can be the most outraged over the most trivial thing. Kendrick Lamar’s performance was just the latest excuse to rally their base into believing they’re under attack, despite, you know, reality.
Ana Navarro’s Savage Takedown: Matt Gaetz and the Right-Wing’s War on Facts
Of course, not everyone took the right-wing meltdown seriously. Ana Navarro, co-host of The View, decided to inject some much-needed humor into the situation. She joked that Trump, in response to Lamar’s performance, might sign an executive order “banning Black people from halftime.” While obviously hyperbolic, her comment hit on a deeper truth—right-wing anger over Lamar’s show wasn’t really about the performance itself; it was about the discomfort of seeing Black culture celebrated on such a grand stage.
Lamar’s halftime show was a powerful display of artistry, culture, and resistance—everything that tends to make certain right-wing figures deeply uncomfortable. And as the backlash rages on, one thing remains abundantly clear: when faced with reality, the right wing will always find a way to invent their own. And unfortunately for them, the internet is always there to fact-check it in real time.
