Chaya Raichik, a real estate agent from Brooklyn who spends much of her free time running the wild LibsofTikTok account, is arguably best known for her fight against cancel culture. Now, Raichik and her cadre of Libs of TikTok are trying to take down people who joke about Donald Trump’s recent assassination attempt, a move that could be read as either blatant hypocrisy or an act of ruthless revenge .
As you might expect, Trump’s near defeat on Saturday sparked a lot of online chatter. Some of them taste good, but predictably, a lot of them don’t. In short: A lot of people are joking about assassinating Trump, which makes sense because social media exists primarily to provide tasteless jokes. However, Lechik decided to use this special moment to “have freedom” and complained to his employer about their lewd comments.
Raichik recently wrote on her Substack: “Countless deranged leftists They took to social media to wish President Trump dead. They expressed anger that the gunman missed his target. She further pointed out: “In fact, because of TikTok’s Libs, Ten crazy leftists have been fired Because we showed the world that they support the murder of President Trump.
Lechik appears to be telling the truth about her role in the removal of the aforementioned “leftists.” A video circulating online from the Libs of TikTok account shows someone confronting a woman at Home Depot. “You think the shooter was the shooter, right?” the person in the video asks the store worker, who allegedly made a comment on Facebook about the shooter’s target.
“I’m working.” The woman changed the subject and returned to her computer screen.
Hello @The Home Depot! Did you know that you hired someone who called for political violence and the assassination of the country’s president? Any advice? pic.twitter.com/L683dTcddB
— Libs for TikTok (@libsofttalk) July 14, 2024
On X, TikTok’s Libs posted the video and went on to tag Home Depot. “Are you aware that you employ people who call for political violence and the assassination of the country’s president?” the account asked the home improvement store. Home Depot eventually responded to the account’s post: “Hi @libsoftiktok, this person’s comments do not reflect Home Depot or our values. We can confirm she no longer works for Home Depot.
Right-wing activists have targeted big companies in this way before, often trying to intimidate them into denouncing progressive causes or firing top executives who supported them. It’s worth noting that the right-wing attack on Bud Light comes on the heels of a much-criticized ad campaign by transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Conservatives see this as a success in a culture war—an effort to roll back the influence of “wokeness” (read: LGBTQ) on corporate brands. Later, similar militants attacked a Target store celebrating Pride Month.
This right-wing activism, of course, comes after years of similar efforts by left-wing actors to target businesses and random individuals for violations related to racism, sexism, and homophobia. The funniest of those years occurred during the Trump administration, which resulted in a series of firings, expulsions, and blacklists, many of which were arguably an excess of the highly charged (and sometimes hysterical) climate of political rhetoric. reaction. For example, over the years you might have been fired for joking about a “microaggression.”
That said, none of this has anything to do with Raichik, a lunatic and opportunist whose main modus operandi for years has been to monetize the anger of the MAGA base. For example, her recent Substack post about the “crazy left” seemed like a cowardly money grab. The text is filled with hyperlinks, all of which redirect to a donation portal that reads “Exposing Anti-American Left Terrorists,” where visitors can donate ridiculous amounts of money—anywhere from $20 to $10,000 .
Even the conservative libertarian magazine Reason magazine has wisely called out Lechik’s hypocrisy, accusing her in a recent article of “cribbing from a play she allegedly hates.” Billy Binion writes: “No matter how you feel about the former president, cheering his assassination attempt is actually wrong. Weaponizing millions of followers and turning a random woman into A national pariah, having a mob attack her and leaving her unable to support herself – and possibly her family – because of her tasteless comments on social media is also wrong, man.
