Did freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say Christianity should be ignored as "superstitious nonsense"? No, that's not true: the article comes from a liberal satire website and Ocasio-Cortez is Catholic.
The claim originated from an article published by Taters Gonna Tate on January 3, 2020, titled "AOC Says Christianity Should Be Ignored As 'Superstitious Nonsense'" (archived here) which opened:
Democrats are well-known for being anti-Christianity. They do everything they can to dismiss our beliefs as evil or stupid and they refuse to accept Jesus into their lives. In addition, they are often known to try to pass laws that are in direct conflict with our Christian views.
One of their resident communists, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, recently relayed her opinion of the religion of the true God. She referred to the faith in question as "superstition" and "ridiculousness." Her ignorance was on full display and it was astounding.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
AOC Says Christianity Should Be Ignored As "Superstitious Nonsense"
Democrats are well-known for being anti-Christianity. They do everything they can to dismiss our beliefs as evil or stupid and they refuse to accept Jesus into their lives. In addition, they are of...
According to the Pew Research Center, AOC identifies as a Catholic, and the New York Democrat has tweeted about her religious faith often in the past.
This is not the first time that some have felt the Congresswoman's faith has been questioned.
In April, Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to Trump, appeared on the CNN show "State of the Union" following attacks on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka and a shooting at a synagogue in Poway, California, and spoke out the Ocasio-Cortez, saying:
I see officials who get a lot of air time and ink like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman, who tweets many times about the mosque but never once about the people being killed in Sri Lanka.
Ocasio-Cortez shot back in a tweet:
Hello Ms. Conway,
-- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 28, 2019
On Easter I was away from tech visiting my grandmother in Puerto Rico, which continues to suffer from the White House's incompetent disaster response.
Are you trying to imply that I am less Christian? What was the point of you bringing this up on national TV? https://t.co/TIypLf2CaB
The site in question also has a long history of publishing satirical information. Taters Gonna Tate is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. Blair has been in a feud with fact-checking website Snopes for some time now and has also criticized other fact-checkers in the past who labeled his work "fake news" instead of satire. In reaction to this, he has rebranded all his active websites and Facebook pages so they carry extremely visible disclaimers everywhere.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites that often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past, but new ones keep cropping up.
Here is a video of Blair explaining how his process works:
If you are interested in learning more about Blair and the history of his sites, here is something to get you started:
The Ultimate Christopher Blair and America's Last Line of Defense Reading List | Lead Stories
STORY UPDATED: check for updates below. Yesterday Eli Saslow at the Washington Post wrote a fantastic article about Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has been trolling conservatives and Trump supporters online for years and occasionally even made a living out of it.
If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer, it is, of course, also fake news.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes tatersgonnatate.com as:
A site that publishes false stories and hoaxes that are often mistaken for real news, part of a network named America's Last Line of Defense run by hoax perpetrator Christopher Blair.
According to NewsGuard, the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
We wrote about tatersgonnatate.com before. Here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Thousands of Young Trump Supporters Did NOT Show Up At Local Recruiters To Volunteer For Duty
- Fake News: Trump-Owned Property In Agrabah NOT Burned To The Ground By Terrorists
- Fake News: Nancy Pelosi Did NOT Say Trump Must Apologize To Iran 'Or Else'
- Fake News: NOT Caught On Tape: Pelosi NOT Exposed Offering Bribes For Votes Against Trump
- Fake News: CA Gov. Newsom Did NOT Pardon 1342 Prisoners So ICE Couldn't Deport Them
