In Defense of my Demon Allegations

Another day, another feminist being accused of witchcraft.

In the last 24 hours, I’ve become the target of a right-wing conspiracy accusing me of performing satanic rituals with Doritos. I wish I were kidding—but apparently, snack-based witchcraft is where we’re at in this election cycle! What started as a simple tik tok about chips is now being spun into something straight out of The Exorcist. My friend Simon made this to cheer me up while I was mid-Menty B, and it perfectly sums up my google alerts today.

WTF HAPPENED

As you know, I spend most of my waking hours online, and I make a point of jumping on trends to amplify issues I care about. When I got the chance to interview Governor Gretchen Whitmer for my new show Chip Chat, I decided to promote our conversation using one of the many trends currently circulating online.

I chose the 'Feeding a Friend' challenge because it felt fitting, given that we were eating together. This trend has been used hundreds of thousands of times on tik tok by people of all backgrounds and beliefs. It’s been used by celebrities like Stephen Colbert, Jeremy Allen White, and Kylie Jenner to build engagement and promote their own projects—just like Chip Chat!! Since the Governor is a huge fan of the CHIPS Act (who isn’t!), it felt even more on the money. Also, I love Doritos and I have been extremely vocal about it. It all made sense!

@colbertlateshowNo matter what we do, all we think about is Jeremy Allen White. @FX Networks #Colbert #TheBear

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But if there’s one thing the far right excels at, it’s turning something lighthearted and fun into an elaborate and utterly bizarre narrative. And somehow, in a matter of minutes my tik tok became a target.

are you well?

The premise of Chip Chat is simple: I sit down with fascinating guests, we eat chips, and we talk about everything from current events to personal stories. Fun, right? Apparently, not so much for the far right, who have decided that a Dorito in our hand must be a symbol of something far more ominous. In fact, they’ve even gone as far as suggesting it represents the Eucharist, even though I’m clearly seated on a couch, not kneeling. Also, what? They’ve amplified it to their base, and now thousands of people are discussing a conspiracy that I somehow made a video about a ritual. It's peak absurdity.

The Art of Manufactured Outrage

Let’s get one thing straight: the video was supposed to promote my new show and highlight a real issue—the CHIPS Act. The Biden administration passed this piece of legislation to boost U.S. tech manufacturing, create jobs, and reduce our reliance on foreign suppliers like China. It’s a win for the economy and a win for workers. I thought I’d have a little fun with it—after all, it’s about CHIPS, and who doesn’t love a good snack? FOX NEWS THAT’S WHO.

ARE YOU GUYS OKAY?????

But instead of focusing on the actual policy and the interview, the right-wing media machine spun the narrative into something ludicrous, with claims that we’re attacking religion or pushing a hidden anti-church agenda. They’ve amplified it to their base, and now thousands of people are discussing a conspiracy that’s rooted in misinformation. It's peak absurdity—and yet somehow, unsurprising. The far right has a well-documented habit of taking harmless content, twisting it into something nefarious, and amplifying it through their media echo chamber. And sprinkling in a healthy dose of misogyny in it too!

What They’re Really Distracting From

This kind of manufactured outrage isn’t new. We’ve seen it before, whether it’s Dr. Seuss or Mr Potato Head or... apparently, Doritos. The right-wing media thrives on distracting their base with fake scandals so no one pays attention to the actual policies that impact their lives.

While they focus on turning chips into a conspiracy, the actual policies Republicans are pushing—like Project 2025—would dismantle protections for disabled Americans, gut Medicaid, and roll back decades of progress. But sure, let’s freak out over a tik tok.

What makes it even more absurd? This tik tok trend has been done by countless others without incident. But when two women join in (and one of them happens to be a powerful force) suddenly the conversation shifts, turning her into something sexualized and sinister. Whenever women occupy space, especially in the public eye, there’s always someone ready to twist and pervert it. It’s all projection of the way their twisted minds operate.

Even worse, Republicans are out here accusing a Dorito of being sacrilegious, while they support an adjudicated rapist who sells Bibles for profit and defrauds the American people. Imagine getting outraged about a chip, but not rape?

So sure, this whole saga has been stress-provoking on a personal level, but what’s far more disturbing is how it reveals where we’re at right now… The right-wing media thrives on concocting fake scandals to keep their audience inflamed and distracted. Whether it’s about feminist women conducting satanic rituals or Haitian immigrants eating pets, these fabrications become real because they keep talking about them. And even once they’ve been corrected, they just double down.

So let’s let them hyperventilate over chips, while we continue to love one another and find the common ground they’re desperately trying to convince us doesn’t exist. After all, it’s telling that in a conversation where Governor Whitmer expressed her openness to meeting with her kidnappers to understand their motivations, and her willingness to seek common ground with women who oppose abortion, the right-wing machine instead chose to manufacture an insane conspiracy about Doritos. Real conversations—ones rooted in empathy, curiosity, and mutual respect—are exactly what they fear most, because those dialogues expose the cracks in their manufactured outrage and reveal that we share far more than they want us to realize. It’s easier to control people when they’re divided, but much harder when they start to listen, connect, and see each other’s humanity.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more chips to eat and more loving conversations to have.

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