Here’s a pro tip for liberals spreading photos of children in cages: Check the pictures’ provenance before attributing them to Donald J. Trump and his immigration policies.
You would think this would be common sense by now, particularly for individuals who consistently go on about the scourge of “fake news,” but ever since the debate over the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy for individuals crossing the border hit the headlines, along with the accusation that the administration is “ripping” children out of their parents’ arms, liberals have lost their uplink to reality.
We’ve all seen the images of children in cages that turned out to be from the Obama administration. Now, a new picture of a child in a cage is making the rounds and being attributed to the Trump administration. The only problem? The photo was a staged stunt by the Brown Berets, a very liberal Chicano activist group.
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The image was shared across social media, but really gained traction after activist Jose Antonio Vargas and actor Ron Perlman decided to use it to vent their spleen at the Trump administration.
This is what happens when a government believes people are “illegal.”
Kids in cages. pic.twitter.com/OAnvr9cl3P
— Jose Antonio Vargas (@joseiswriting) June 12, 2018
“This is what happens when a government believes people are ‘illegal,’” Vargas wrote. “Kids in cages.”
Aside from repeating the erroneous fact that holding illegal immigrants responsible for the crime they’ve committed makes them illegal, Vargas’ tweet also didn’t have a source, something he kind of realized long after the fact.
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Still trying to find a source for this photo. Saw it on a FB friend’s timeline but looking for confirmation. Has anyone seen it elsewhere?
— Jose Antonio Vargas (@joseiswriting) June 12, 2018
Vargas probably should have asked that beforehand. As for Perlman, he didn’t ask it at all.
Trump, Sessions, McConnell, Ryan, this is on YOU! pic.twitter.com/VR5m70eWsC
— Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) June 13, 2018
“Trump, Sessions, McConnell, Ryan, this is on YOU!” he wrote in a Twitter post under the offending image.
However, other Twitter users were a bit more interested in where the picture had come from.
Can I have a source for this picture? I would like to share it on FB but I know conservatives will say it’s fake if I don’t quote a source. (Even then they may say it’s fake.)
— Karissa Knox Sorrell (@KKSorrell) June 12, 2018
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Well, thankfully, the source was found. According to the Daily Wire, it actually came from a protest by the Brown Berets de Cemanahuac, Texas Chapter, who had decided to dramatize the issue by putting kids in mock cages.
Yes, it seems that this whole thing was a fake designed to draw attention to, um, something. Much like every liberal protest I’ve seen over this policy, it’s designed to stir up the maximum amount of emotion with a minimal amount of fact.
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At least they didn’t pull a Samantha Bee.
I really think that the immigration issue should be emblematic of just how deranged the Democrats’ policy on immigration is.
Their opposition has been nearly fact-free, instead relying on appeals to emotion so naked that they cross the line into demagogy.
Figures like Vargas — one of the more visible activists on immigration — can’t even be bothered to check where the pictures they’re tweeting actually came from. And, when it turns out they’re wrong, they keep the tweets up.
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What a surprise.
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