Now They’re After Butterflies
The National Butterfly Center, located in Mission Texas is (was) the North American Butterfly Association’s (NABA) “flagship facility and a primary focus of its efforts aimed at educating the public about the value of biodiversity, the beauty of the natural world, the wonder of butterflies, particularly, and the powerful role they play in maintaining healthy ecosystems and sustainable food resources.” The NABA was founded in 1993 to study and preserve the butterfly populations that migrate between North and South America, and hold butterfly counts and other conservation programs to protect these delicate creatures.
Why am I writing about a butterfly sanctuary? Because it was forced to close indefinitely in late January after suffering years of harassment by QAnon followers and other rightwing nutjobs who believe that the sanctuary is not really a butterfly center, but actually a hub for child sex trafficking. Remember PizzaGate where some idiot shot up a pizza shop believing bullshit that it was being used by cannibalistic Democrats led by Hillary Clinton for child sex trafficking? Well, the same thing has been going on now for 4 years at the butterfly center after rightwing grifter and pal of Steve Bannon, Brian Kolfage, unleashed a barrage of false accusations in retaliation for the center filing suit to stop TFG’s construction of his border wall right through the sanctuary. Kolfage, who, along with Bannon, is under federal indictment for fraud over their “We Build the Wall” project that duped a whole lot of gullible people out of about $20 million. Kolfage is well known for releasing nonsense and wild conspiracy theories into the rightwing Noise Machine to attack his perceived enemies. He’s been banned from social media for all kinds of things including spreading conspiracy theories and creating fake accounts, but his followers do most of his dirty work now for him.
One of those followers is a fringe candidate for Congress from Virginia, Kimberly Lowe, who is apparently so far out there that she was even uninvited to the anti-immigration “We Stand America” rally recently in South Texas, but she took the opportunity while there to “investigate illegal immigration and sex trafficking” at the butterfly center with her friend who was apparently posing as a Secret Service agent. It went about as you’d expect, with a physical altercation between the center’s director, Marianna Treviño Wright, Lowe, and her friend. Lowe had demanded to see where the “smuggling” was going on, and, well, you can guess the rest. The center had planned to close for the duration of the rally, but is now closed indefinitely due to the danger posed to the center and its staff by nutjobs.
It’s easy to stand back and shake your head at the nonsense that proliferates on social media, but this stuff is so corrosive that it’s actually endangering lives and has poisoned all reason, threatening the very foundation of our system of government. It’s especially bad in Texas and other red states where this nonsense has infiltrated once mainstream conservatism and goofy conspiracy theories are now repeated by elected leaders. Since the base is now crazy, and gerrymandering has cemented it in, I don’t see a path for a return to any kind of reason.
Gosh! Yes, I feel for the butterflies but I ain’t surprised. Qanon-ers are also life members of hte Flat Earth Society!
1Perhaps one way to push back against the toxic minority is to send some love to the Butterfly Sanctuary. They do have a
“support” section on their website.
https://www.nationalbutterflycenter.org/support-nbc/donate-now
2I would guess the Q-Logic goes something like this:
American butterflies don’t need sanctuary. Therefore they must be harboring & abating Mexican butterflies. And child sex trafficking. And smuggling.
3The other tragedy has been what it has done to the issue of actual human trafficking. I have a coworker that prides herself on working with trafficked kids in the Houston area. One of my daughter’s former teachers does the same. They tell/told fantastical stories about who they’ve encountered along the way. The seem like decent enough people, so I have no reason to doubt their sincerity or lucidity.
However, I’ve always wondered how widespread this is. Early on in the pandemic, people were actually saying that children should not wear masks because it could keep them from screaming in a parking lot should someone come by to abduct them. I asked some of them if this were actually a thing and they couldn’t or wouldn’t answer. I asked someone else how many people he actually knew that were victims of trafficking and he went on this diatribe about how he was abused as a kid.
Unfortunately, nuance is not a widespread thing. I know trafficking exists. I know it’s horrible. Nobody in their right mind is for it. Yet, can’t we all acknowledge that it is not nearly as widespread as these nuts want us to believe? Can we dispense with the dumbassery of claiming Democrats and Hollywood are all secret traffickers? The collateral damage to those fine folks actually combating it is palpable. No one can be quite sure whether they have a screw loose or are simply fighting the good fight while all the other nuts blow everything out of proportion.
4I already commented about this yet another domestic terrorist attack on previous threads, so a couple of links and a quote [and couldn’t resist commenting].
And urge y’all to donate to or join the Butterfly Center.
I used to live down there in the Valley, a few miles down river from where the Butterfly Center now is. It didn’t exist back then, but the butterflies were even more numerous, moths too. I found one butterfly or moth? outside my front door one morning that had a wingspan almost a foot across, bigger than most birds. Used to have butterflies rest briefly on the boat many miles out in the Gulf, as they crossed to Mexico and Central America [some fly straight across the Gulf].
The Valley wildlife is amazing, but fragile.
National Butterfly Center:
https://www.nationalbutterflycenter.org/
Texas Butterfly Festival:
https://www.texasbutterflyfestival.com/
“…The Remarkable Rio Grande Valley:
Renowned for a volume and variety of wild, free-flying butterflies that cannot be found anywhere else in the country, deep south Texas is home to the country’s premier butterfly event, featuring:
Field Trips & Educational Activities for Beginners – Experts
Private Gardens and Guided ‘Hot Spot’ Tours
The North American Butterfly Photo Contest.
And FREE Community Day fun for the whole family!
The National Butterfly Center is honored to host the 26th Annual Texas Butterfly Festival, and provide attendees a remarkable and rewarding outdoor experience. Registrants will spend 3 days exploring renowned public lands and private properties with world-class trip leaders, when you may reasonably expect to see more than 60 species in a day.
Two years ago attendees from 24 states and 3 countries registered to experience one of the most biologically-diverse areas in North America, with the assistance of expert guides.
Come see for yourself why the Rio Grande Valley has earned worldwide recognition for its outstanding butterfly and birding spots, inviting thousands of visitors each year to discover its remarkable assortment of preserves, refuges, nature parks, trails, and more.
Whether you are an accomplished naturalist or a beginner enthusiast, the Texas Butterfly Festival is the place to be! Here, many eyes make for exciting discoveries, including U.S. records, super rarities, subtropical strays, seldom-seen species, ‘life’ and chase butterflies that may only be found in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV), where the river winds its way toward the Laguna Madre at the Gulf of Mexico.
5This unique region encompasses no fewer than 11 different types of habitat, from tidal wetlands to riparian forest, brushland scrub to prairie savanna, and is home to more than 1,200 different species of plants, 500 species of birds, 200 vertebrate species, roughly 300 species of butterflies, and over 90 species of dragonflies!…”