Rachel Maddow is pointing out the obvious when it comes to The Proud Boys and suggesting a nickname that they might like better? Or not.
The Proud Boys (along with the Oath Keepers) haven’t had a fantastic week, given that the House Select Committee that’s investigating the insurrection dropped subpoenas on them, and the groups won’t like what MSNBC ratings superstar Maddow has to say about their chosen monikers. It’s an amusing turn, given that these white nationalist groups apparently want to be perceived as tough, and the Southern Poverty Law Center describes them as an “alt-right fight club” while the Anti-Defamation League calls them a “right-wing extremist group with a violent agenda” who are “misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and anti-immigration.” And it’s hard to argue against Maddow’s take on their nicknames, as she related to Lawrence O’Donnell on The Last Word.
O’Donnell began by admitting that he really didn’t want to say these groups’ names aloud because “those Boys have nothing to be Proud of,” yet that’s the name also used in the subpoenas. Well, Maddow offered her take, which is that these groups have owned themselves. As she put it, the groups’ names “sound really gay.” She elaborated while reasoning that they really didn’t think things through:
“They both seem like they are referring to gay stuff, whether it is the Proud Boys in terms of gay pride or the Oath Keepers thing if you’ve read a lot around the politics around gay marriage and about being able to say your ‘I dos’ with your beloved. Both of those things, they have such a poorly-derived sense of camp and understanding about American subcultural text… I’ve always felt like they’re kind of playing themselves.”
WATCH: Looking for a different turn of phrase to explain our lead story tonight, @maddow suggests the phrase “Lesbian Avengers” to @Lawrence. #LastWord pic.twitter.com/yHYYQUeKmR
— The Last Word (@TheLastWord) November 24, 2021
She makes a valid point: the Proud Boys really didn’t see it coming with gay men began appropriating their hashtag for Pride, and it made them so very mad. And they won’t enjoy Maddow’s replacement suggestion, which would be “Lesbian Avengers.” Oh boy.
Well, good luck with those subpoenas, anyway?