Nutters Attack Butterflies

Conspiracy nuts have been spreading health disinformation, fomenting violence, and generally threatening the very concept of democracy, but now they’ve gone too far. They’ve upset the National Butterfly Center.

The NBC, a nonprofit nature preserve near the US-Mexico border in Mission, Texas, shut down this week “for the immediate future” because they’re being harassed by crazy people who have convinced themselves that the preserve is a front for illegal border crossings and child trafficking.

Tensions between the benign butterfly lovers and unhinged lunatics have been escalating since 2017, when the Trump Administration began stomping on NBC grounds to build its border wall. The 100-acre sanctuary has been locked in lawsuits with the US government and private pro-wall groups ever since.

Last weekend rightwing groups held their “We Stand America” (sic) rally in nearby McAllen, TX. With it came a flood of threatening, abusive phone calls and emails to the center.

“We simply cannot risk the safety and lives of our staff and visitors during this dangerous time,” NBC said in a statement. “We still cannot believe we are at the center of this maelstrom of malevolence rising in the United States.”

You can still visit the Center’s website at www.nationalbutterflycenter.org. Scroll down and hit “Donate.”

Photo credit: Suzanne Cordeiro / AFP via Getty Images