My NEW Taki’s column: 2016 — The Bumpkin-ing

That was my original title, and they changed it, perhaps out of fear of the bumpkins!

The comments won’t be “JOOOOOOO!!!”-y so much as, well, bumpkiny…

Whatever the benefits of a Republican presidency, one of the unavoidable side effects is an emboldening of our side’s flakier elements, who weave two most unsavory obsessions—the occult and “pedophile rings”—into singularly elaborate and ultimately groundless conspiracy theories.

Sure enough, right on cue: Type “Pizzagate” into YouTube’s search engine and soak in the overblown paranoid hysteria.

These kooks and simpletons were harmlessly wrong about Harry Potter turning your kids into witches, and tragically mistaken about the “Satanic panic.” At the very least, they’re a colossal embarrassment, but they also undermine serious business undertaken by serious people.

A big difference this time around is that the president himself won’t be immune to the lure of such twisted, empty-calorie distractions. Trump used to be Birther-in-Chief, remember? And he’s on Twitter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB2MEbpWChA