With Trump’s White House churning out a new scandal at least twice a day, it can sometimes be hard to remember a time before the absurdity, when Obama’s competency forced Republican pundits to harp on the president’s tan suit, and a single photo of Malia Obama smoking a joint at a music festival.
But even with Trump in power causing all of the mayhem he promised and more, right wing trolls still can’t get enough of Obama slander, attacking the former Head of State and his family with no end or goal in sight.
In the latest act of racist alt-right fake news, a clearly fictional website called “Nunadisbereel.com,” ran a headline claiming “Malia Obama Busted Buying 6 Pounds of Pot in Chicago.”
The story shows a lead photo with a random array of black people and the former First Daughter, reminding readers of Malia’s Lollapalooza smoke-out before claiming that the current Harvard student flew to Chicago to purchase kush packs and edibles.
The false narrative conjured imagery of Snoop Dogg, thuggery and the skull-cracking Chicago Police Department. It is blatantly racist, illogical, and false – but that hasn’t stopped social media trolls from sharing it over 2,000 times.
In the age of fake news, marijuana has become just another tool to try and discredit the right wing’s ideological foes – a hilarious absurdity if people didn’t actually take it seriously.
This isn’t the first time Malia has been caught up in the alt-right’s racist lies, with a separate fake news story earlier this summer claiming that Malia was fired from a job at the American embassy in Spain for cannabis use. No matter how far Malia gets from her one-time Lollapalooza screw up, it seems the Harvard undergrad won’t get able to shed the stigma of it anytime soon.
As legal weed takes hold across the county, and false propaganda pops up at every turn, telling the truth about cannabis, and the rest of the world’s happenings, is becoming as important as ever.
So when you’re looking for celebrity gossip or everyday political happenings, be sure to double check your sources and make sure you’re spreading fact, not fiction.
