David DePape — the man who allegedly attacked Paul Pelosi — has been "blogging for at least 15 years, with his views growing more extreme over time."

Rolling Stone reports. 

[In his] subscription-model blog... he vented rage over Covid-19 precautions and espoused beliefs shared by the conspiracist QAnon movement. The page also includes dedicated sections for Holocaust denial, climate change denial, transphobia, racism, misogyny, voter fraud conspiracy theories, Second Amendment absolutism, screeds against groomers and “pedos,” and trashing actress Amber Heard, the ex-wife of Johnny Depp....

In an Aug. 23 post on his personal blog, DePape wrote, “How did I get into all this. Gamer gate it was gamer gate.”

Gamergate was an online misogynist harassment campaign that stretched across 2014 and 2015. It originated as a backlash to feminism and women in the video game industry...

DePape’s digital trail extends [back] beyond Gamergate. In 2007 and 2008, he was spamming Reddit with links to an earlier blog, “The Loving God.” The last link he shared on Reddit directed to a post on the subject of “Human Sacrifice,” which he wrote is “more common than you think.”

“Other than Satanism I know of at least one Major religion with millions of devout followers around the world. That believes in the power of human sacrifice,” he claimed, going on to allude to the Christian rite of the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. “This evil religion is so common you probably have heard of it. You may even practice it,” he concluded....

Note that Pelosi is Catholic.

DePape continued blogging sporadically in the years that followed, asking philosophical questions like, “What if you woke up and realized your whole life had been a dream?” But the same blog, purportedly focused on the subjects of “Science and spirituality,” also veered into darker territory. In a 2017 post on “Materialism,” Depape wrote, “You are just a piece of meat,” and that “Love and caring are a chemical DELUSION.” He then included several photos of piles of dead bodies in Nazi concentration camps, captioning them “Hail Dehumanization,” “Hail Racial Supremacy” and “Hail Survival of the Fitest.”

Is good spelling an aspect of fitness?

While Depape’s internet output was inconsistent over the years, he became extremely prolific on his current blog in late August, initially posting several times a day....

[T]hroughout 2021 used his Facebook page to share videos in which MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell falsely claimed that the 2020 election had been stolen, as well as transphobic memes and links to anti-vaccination websites. Also on Facebook, he promoted the idea that the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection was a sham... and... that George Floyd died of a drug overdose... [and] that shadowy elites are using the Covid-19 to drastically reshape society as we know it....

When this story first broke, I wondered whether it would fit "the GOP narrative — we're in a horrific crime wave — or the Democratic narrative — domestic terrorism." At this point, it seems to be the latter.

Gamergate...

ADDED: Writing this post, I thought of Gamergate as an old hobbyhorse, but publishing this and clicking on the tag, I see I've had 3 other posts this year with the Gamergate tag. I'll have to give this more thought.

It's interesting to see that back when Gamergate took place, in 2014, I only had one post with that tag, and it said: "This interests me even though it's partly about 'Gamergate,' the controversy that I refuse to get up to speed on."