Given how appallingly successful the conservative effort to carpet-bomb any political opponent as a child molesting “groomer” has been, it’s easy to forget that this most recent iteration of the Republican Party’s wholesale embrace of QAnon psychosis stems largely from the response to Florida’s bigoted “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, and in particular some (much belated) pushback from the Walt Disney Corporation.
First, a brief history lesson: In his 1982 short story collection Stalking the Nightmare, acclaimed speculative fiction author Harlan Ellison (of Star Trek, and The Outer Limits, and Terminator fame, among other examples) wrote about how he was ignominiously fired from a gig at Disney — on his first day, no less — after a company executive overheard him joking with his fellow writers about making an animated porno flick featuring Mickey, Donald, Pluto, and others proprietary characters (“fuck off, Goofy, fuck off! Get those seven dwarves in here ... ”). Har har har, very funny stuff, please clean out your brand new office, and get the hell out of here.
