Homeland Security Shares Unhinged AI Photo in Post on Immigration
The Department of Homeland Security has been accused of posting an antisemitic dog-whistle to online trolls—and even if that wasn’t the post’s intention, it was certainly the result.
“‘Communist?” DENIED. ‘Terrorist?’ DENIED. ‘Globalist?’ DENIED,” said the post, which included a photograph of an AI-generated “Chad” in a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services hat, complete with Habsburg-like super chin and exceptionally developed trapezius muscles.
Beneath, the account included a link to sign up to be a so-called “Homeland Defender,” the latest in a pathetic series of ploys to attract deportation fanboys to work for the federal government.
Prominent liberal X user Will Stancil claimed that “globalist” was an intentional reference to Jewish people. “This is a smirkingly antisemitic post about Jews, and everyone involved in its creation knows that, as well as the intended audience,” he wrote.
The term “globalist” historically has been used by the far right to refer to a conspiracy theory that Jews control global events, but has more recently been co-opted by others on the right as an alternative to “nationalist.”
But the original meaning remains, and DHS’s latest post certainly caught the attention of the far right. The official account even engaged with users who responded with memes popularized by “groypers,” the followers of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.
“Are you TRYING to recruit me Homeland Security Account? Because you have my attention,” wrote one account, including a meme of Pepe the Frog, which has been added to the Anti-Defamation League’s database of hate symbols.
“You know you want to!” the DHS account replied.
Another user using the screen name “RAW EGG NATIONALIST” responded to the DHS’s post with an image of a man smoking a cigar, receiving a call from the “Based Department,” whose caller ID was an image of Pepe the Frog. The DHS account responded, urging the “Patriot” user to call the ICE tip line.
It has never felt more clear that the DHS Office of Public Affairs is staffed with terminally online right-wing trolls.