Tomi Lahren once again drew backlash over a particularly incendiary take, this time likening social distancing measures to slavery.
At this point, it feels like a damned if you do, damned if you don’t type of deal whilst covering Tomi Lahren. On one hand, some of her takes appear clearly designed to stir up controversy through sheer provocation, thus providing further coverage for her page. On the other, those types of tone-deaf takes can feel important to highlight nevertheless, given how deeply they highlight the divide between political demographics in American society.
Rich Polk/Getty Images
Seeing as the entire United States seems to be collectively quarantining — though some states have decided to speed up the reopening process — a permeating frustration has begun to bleed through the cracks. Many have chosen to politicize the quarantine measures and analyze them through that particular lens, and it appears Lahren did exactly that yesterday afternoon. In a tweet since captured by a few eagle-eyed users ready to pounce, Lahren can be seen likening the public’s quarantine compliance to “wilful slavery” — all but opening a veritable pandora’s box of shit in the process.
Once again failing to read the room (though Lahren likely knew exactly what she was doing), the conservative pundit wasted little time in catching backlash from those eager to take her down a notch. Regardless of how you might feel about the stay-at-home directives being enforced, slavery remains a dark blight in human history and one that should not be used to make flippant comparisons. As of this moment, Lahren hasn’t responded to her since-deleted tweet, but that hasn’t stopped the backlash from spreading like…well, the simile all but writes itself.
