Robby Starbuck
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Right-wingers have filled this void with a baseless narrative that Cook was, as the chairman of the College Republicans put it in a post on X with nearly two million views, “targeted for her conservative beliefs, hunted, and killed in cold blood.” To be clear, there is zero evidence, as of this writing, that Cook was targeted for her conservative beliefs. It’s not impossible, but it’s just as likely—or significantly more likely, considering that most extremist-related murders are committed by white supremacists—that the shooter targeted Umurzokov for being an immigrant. By farthe most logical possibility, given that the shooter fired 40 rounds into a crowded classroom and hit 11 students in total, is that this shooting was not targeted at any one individual—that he wanted to kill as many people as possible at Brown, regardless of what they believed.
And yet, the right’s declarations of victimization, honed after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, have been immediate and relentless. One right-wing influencer wrote, “The left is going to target and kill every effective Republican they can find.” A fellow at the Heritage Foundation with almost a million followers on X wrote, “If you don’t absolutely destroy left wing extremists, they WILL be emboldened.” Republican elected officials joined in, with New York City Council Member Vickie Paladino writing that the attack “was perpetrated by the leftist activist and targeted Republicans.” Another post read, “This happened because Antifa (and all the like groups) wasn’t liquidated after Charlie Kirk was assassinated.… The time to respond harshly was months ago, but now is better than never.” Musk shared that last post, which has more than 30 million views.
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If the rumors are true and the Brown University attack was an attack on college Republicans then I think you can draw a straight line from the lack of aggressive response to Charlie’s death to this. If you don’t absolutely destroy left wing extremists, they WILL be emboldened.
Quote
End Wokeness
@EndWokeness
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Dec 14
BREAKING: Brown University victim ID'd as Ella Cook (19), VP of the Republican Club
ELON THIS WAS CENSORED RTANGLENEWS
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The Heritage Foundation
https://www.heritage.org › press › robby-starbuck-joins-heritage-visiting-fellow-lead-new-capital-markets-initiative
Robby Starbuck Joins Heritage as Visiting Fellow to Lead New Capital ...
Apr 2, 2025WASHINGTON—The Heritage Foundation announced today that renowned conservative advocate Robby Starbuck, host of the Robby Starbuck Show, is joining the organization as a visiting fellow for its ...
The Daily Wire
https://www.dailywire.com › news › exclusive-robby-starbuck-joins-heritage-foundation-to-continue-fight-against-woke-corporations
EXCLUSIVE: Robby Starbuck Joins Heritage Foundation To Continue Fight ...
Apr 2, 2025Conservative activist Robby Starbuck is joining the Heritage Foundation as a visiting fellow, where he'll lead an effort encouraging corporations to drop left-wing ideologies, and instead, prioritize merit.Starbuck, who has led successful campaigns to get corporations like Tractor Supply, Home Depot, Harley Davidson, John Deere, Jack Daniels, and even Walmart to ditch the left-wing diversity ...
Videos for robby starbuck heritage foundation
"The more we draw those lines between the past and the present, the more likely we are to defeat [the Left]." - Heritage Foundation Visiting Fellow Robby Starbuck The communism coming from the American Left is not new, but defeating it is harder when too many American students haven't been taught the history of this poisonous ideology. | The Heritage Foundation
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Heritage Visiting Fellow Robby Starbuck is suing Google for defamation. Here's why: | The Heritage Foundation
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Conservative activist sues Google for defamation: I have to protect my reputation
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Fox News
Activist Robby Starbuck joins Heritage Foundation to urge companies to abandon DEI
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justthenews.com
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Conservative activist sues Google for defamation: I have to protect my reputation
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MSN
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The Heritage Foundation on Instagram: ""The more we draw those lines between the past and the present, the more likely we are to defeat [the Left]." - Heritage Foundation Visiting Fellow Robby Starbuck The communism coming from the American Left is not new, but defeating it is harder when too many American students haven't been taught the history of this poisonous ideology."
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Robby Starbuck: Full interview on DEI & more
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YouTube
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Robby Starbuck EXPOSES Woke Cigarette Companies! 🔥🔥🔥
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YouTube
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The Eerie Connections Between Communism and the American Left
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Just The News
https://justthenews.com › nation › culture › activist-robby-starbuck-joins-heritage-foundation-urge-companies-abandon-dei-esg
Activist Robby Starbuck joins Heritage Foundation to urge companies to ...
Apr 2, 2025Activist Robby Starbuck said he would lead the Heritage Foundation's capital markets initiative, encouraging companies to prioritize ethics and merit by dropping DEI.
Michael Patrick Leahy
https://michaelpatrickleahy.com › tennessees-robby-starbuck-takes-on-new-role-with-the-heritage-foundation-as-a-visiting-fellow
Tennessee's Robby Starbuck Takes on New Role With the Heritage ...
Apr 9, 2025Robby Starbuck, Tennessee political commentator and documentary filmmaker, recently took on a role at the Heritage Foundation as a visiting fellow to lead the conservative think tank's capital markets initiative.
deepnewz.com
https://deepnewz.com › us-domestic-policy › robby-starbuck-joins-heritage-foundation-visiting-fellow-to-lead-capital-markets-590e523b
Robby Starbuck Joins Heritage Foundation as Visiting Fellow to Lead ...
Apr 3, 2025Robby Starbuck has announced his new role as a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, where he will lead an initiative focused on corporate policies. His work will aim to persuade corporations to adopt more traditional values and end Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices in corporate America. Starbuck..
https://www.linkedin.com › posts › robbystarbuck_some-news-i-will-be-a-visiting-fellow-at-activity-7313715748017770496-gic8
Some news: I will be a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation for ...
Some news: I will be a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation for the next year! I'll be advising them and leading their capital markets initiative as we work to restore sanity in corporate ...
SHRM
https://www.shrm.org › about › press-room › van-jones-and-robby-starbuck-to-engage-in-dynamic-panel-discussi
Van Jones and Robby Starbuck to Engage in Dynamic Panel ... - SHRM
Sep 9, 2025He is now the Head of Capital Markets at Heritage Foundation. Van Jones is an Emmy Award-winning CNN host, bestselling author, and social entrepreneur dedicated to justice, opportunity, and ...
The Heritage Foundation
https://www.heritage.org › staff › robby-starbuck
Robby Starbuck - The Heritage Foundation
Robby Starbuck is a Visiting Fellow for the Capital Markets Initiative at The Heritage Foundation.
https://www.facebook.com › heritagefoundation › videos › heritage-visiting-fellow-robby-starbuck-is-suing-google-for-defamation-heres-why › 2507647832946263
Heritage Visiting Fellow Robby Starbuck is suing Google for ... - Facebook
Heritage Visiting Fellow Robby Starbuck is suing Google for defamation. Here's why: | The Heritage Foundation | Facebook 4d Heritage Visiting Fellow Robby Starbuck is suing
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Robby Starbuck | Some news: I will be a visiting fellow ...
582 likes, 11 comments - robbystarbuck on April 2, 2025: "Some news: I will be a visiting fellow @HeritageFoundation for the next year! I'll be advising them and leading their capital markets initiative as we work to restore sanity in corporate America. This is in addition to my ongoing work to end DEI in
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Semafor
Conservative social media activist Robby Starbuck on his lobbying plans ...
Apr 17, 2025Robby Starbuck, who has become a boardroom boogeyman by pressuring companies including Walmart, Lowe's, and Harley-Davidson to abandon DEI efforts, told Semafor that he plans to formalize his efforts through a lobbying group "to ensure that this never happens again."
- [
New York Post
Robby Starbuck's trick to getting companies to drop DEI - New York Post
Mar 29, 2025Before President Donald Trump ended federal DEI programs by executive order, Robby Starbuck ended them at some companies merely by using the power of speech.
CNN
https://www.cnn.com › 2024 › 08 › 28 › business › dei-john-deere-harley-davidson-robby-starbuck
Robby Starbuck, the right-wing activist riding a wave of ... - CNN
Aug 28, 2024Robby Starbuck, a former Hollywood music video director and turned conservative activist, has caught fire campaigning online against some major American brands' diversity, equity and inclusion ...
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Robby_Starbuck
Robby Starbuck - Wikipedia
Robby Starbuck (born Robert Starbuck Newsom, [1] February 27, 1989 [2]) is an American conservative social media activist and former music video director, and documentary filmmaker.
Sustainability Magazine
Has Activist Starbuck Made Camel-maker Reynolds Cut its DEI?
Jun 19, 2025Anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck Global tobacco firm Reynolds American Inc. is the latest US-based company to cut its DEI programmes, continuing the fallout from President Trump's campaign
Financial Times
https://www.ft.com › content › 0c8974ee-60bf-4edb-839c-bc24b8ecbc81
Robby Starbuck: the activist pushing US companies to ditch their DEI vows
Sep 5, 2024All of the companies Starbuck has contacted about their DEI policies told him they would make changes, including retailer Tractor Supply and Jack Daniel's whiskey maker Brown-Forman, he said.
Robby Starbuck
The Robby Starbuck Show
Here's one of my more wild takes… I think President Trump will ... be the President that discloses the existence of alien life before he leaves office. The President that does this will be etched in human history forever. It's just too historic to leave for someone else. Agreed?… Robby Starbuck 9h
Newsweek
https://www.newsweek.com › trump-endorse-robby-starbuck-tennessee-congress-1673121
Donald Trump Supporters Denounce His Decision Not to Endorse Robby Starbuck
A number of Donald Trump supporters have openly disagreed with who he wants elected in Tennessee's 5th Congressional District, believing the former president should have picked Republican ...
Bloomberg Law News
https://news.bloomberglaw.com › esg › from-megadeth-to-maga-robby-starbuck-is-having-a-moment
From Megadeth to MAGA: Robby Starbuck Is Having a Moment
Robby Starbuck is a long way from Hollywood and, as he tells it, the liberals who canceled him for "coming out" MAGA. But not even Starbuck - conservative activist or conspiracy theorist, depending on who's talking - might've imagined he'd end up here in Tennessee, with two shaggy mini Scottish
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Robby Starbuck is a right wing influencer and activist
Robby Starbuck, a right wing influencer who has led manufactured online outrage campaigns to get companies to roll back their DEI policies, has officially been hired by Meta as an advisor to root out “ideological and political bias” in their AI product...
Right-wing ex-director finds a business in boycotts
Conservative influencer Robby Starbuck has made a name for himself by attacking companies for having inclusive policies
Written by Vesper Henry
Published 10/01/24 mma
Apparently not sated by their attacks on Bud Light and Target over LGBTQ support, right-wing media have repackaged their boycott efforts as attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion. Robby Starbuck, who has a history of inflammatory rhetoric against LGBTQ people, has found his niche among right-wing media by leading a string of relentless online attacks on companies such as Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, and more, applying pressure on companies to rescind their DEI policies and positions.
- ## Starbuck has targeted companies on X (formerly Twitter) for having DEI policies or otherwise supporting the LGBTQ community
- Starbuck targeted companies for supporting LGBTQ employees and the LGBTQ community. Starbuck attacked Tractor Supply over LGBTQ-related training and employee events, funding for Pride events, and for providing insurance coverage for gender-affirming care, all of which he said “disturbed” him. Starbuck also admonished John Deere for providing the same coverage for employees and their children and attacked Harley-Davidson for signing on to a letter opposing gender-affirming care bans, supporting the Equality Act, and being a founding member of Wisconsin’s LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce. Twitter/X, [6/6/24, 7/15/24, 7/23/24, 7/31/24]
- The right-wing pundit also made sweeping attacks against corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in general. Starbuck attacked Tractor Supply for several large donations to DEI efforts and organizations, as well as increasing racial diversity at the management level. In his crusade against John Deere, he pounced on the company’s global DEI initiatives, claiming they were “being forced on their Latin America and India branches.” These attacks are consistent with ongoing right-wing assaults on DEI. Twitter/X, [6/7/24, 6/21/24, 7/9/24, 7/12/24; Media Matters, 2/7/24, 4/5/24]
- Starbuck credits his social media crusades for policy changes, though media coverage suggests he is exacerbating ongoing policy shifts. Tractor Supply, Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s, Ford, Molson Coors (owner of Coors Light), and Brown-Forman (owner of Jack Daniels) joined a growing list of corporations that have disbanded LGBTQ and race-based employee resource groups, dismantled inclusive policies, halted funding for Pride events, or made other similar cuts. While Starbuck has taken credit for all of these policy changes regardless of the extent of his attacks on each company, several have indicated that these policy changes are part of an ongoing shift resulting from last year’s Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action. USA Today, [8/2/24, 8/28/24; NBC News, 8/27/24; Twitter/X, 8/22/24, 9/3/24; Fortune, 9/19/24; The Washington Post, 9/17/24]
- Starbuck has denied that his efforts are designed to harm businesses even though he explicitly claimed the opposite last year and celebrated market declines. In one of his attacks on Harley-Davidson, Starbuck claimed, “My goal with this reporting is never destruction. My goal is to inform consumers about the values major companies are adopting so they can make choices about what they’re willing to support. That’s not cancel culture, it’s capitalism.” However, when the conservative boycott against Bud Light reached a fever pitch, Starbuck appeared eager to do damage, saying, “You need to punish these brands. Never go back. … We now have full proof of concept we can sink products and severely damage companies who go woke.” Amidst his attacks on several companies, Starbuck made sure to highlight dips in stock market value. Twitter/X, [7/23/24, 5/22/23, 7/24/24, 7/25/24, 8/6/24]
- Starbuck has gained publicity from these online firestorms. Starbuck’s X account, which currently has over 600,000 followers, has seen an uptick of traffic since he began these corporate attacks in June. The account gained 28,000 followers that month, another 43,000 in July, and another 72,000 in August. Prior to that, Starbuck often gained less than 10,000 followers per month. Starbuck has expressed delight in the fact that his attacks “repeatable,” and has vowed to “change things one by one.” SocialBlade, archived [9/5/24; USA Today, 8/2/24; Twitter/X, 6/28/24]
- Prior to his anti-DEI escapades, Starbuck directed and produced music videos for prolific stars such as Natalie Portman, Snoop Dogg and Akon.Starbuck claims he was blacklisted from Hollywood for his conservative views after endorsing Trump in 2015. IMDb, archived [10/1/24; Robby Starbuck, archived 10/1/24]
- ## Right-wing media have backed Robby Starbuck’s corporate attacks
- The Daily Wire has kept a record of Starbuck’s successful targets. The right-wing outlet covered Starbuck’s successes against Tractor Supply, Harley-Davidson, Jack Daniels, and Lowe’s. Several articles highlighted Starbuck’s vexations with LGBTQ-related initiatives specifically and the outlet quoted him as attaining “another win for our movement,” which he said “gets results.” The Daily Wire, [6/28/24, 8/20/24, 8/22/24, 8/26/24]
- The Daily Wire also used Starbuck’s crusade to promote its own products. While lauding Starbuck for highlighting the inclusive policies of the above companies, the Daily Wire patted itself on the back, writing, “Of course, other companies are now ditching the DEI and LGBT nonsense, but don’t forget that Jeremy’s was brave enough to stand up against the wokeness.” The outlet then promoted its razors — which customers have complained are a low quality product. The Daily Wire, [9/6/24; Media Matters, 4/3/24; Rolling Stone, 5/25/23]
- The Daily Caller celebrated Starbuck’s efforts. The outlet founded by Tucker Carlson celebrated that John Deere was “done with identity crap” and acknowledged that Starbuck’s recent endeavors against these companies had drawn attention to the conservative social media influencer. The Daily Caller, [8/16/24, 8/23/24]
- Fox touted Starbuck’s activism and interviewed him on Fox Business. Fox News highlighted Harley-Davidson “slam[ming] the brakes” on DEI-related policies, claiming one biker called it a “long overdue mea culpa.” The network referred to Jack Daniels’ reneging on its DEI policies as a “stiff shot of ‘sanity.’” In his interview on Fox Business, Starbuck described his strategy of targeting corporations with presumably conservative customer bases, including Lowe’s. Fox News, [8/19/24, 8/22/24; Fox Business, 8/27/24]
- The National Review also lauded Starbuck repeatedly, celebrating that Tractor Supply was “getting off the activist hamster wheel.” The outlet called Tractor Supply’s surrender “a major win for both shareholders and conservatives interested in corporate engagement” and Harley-Davidson’s use of DEI “progressive dogma.” The National Review, [7/17/24, 8/21/24, 8/22/24, 8/28/24]
- ## Though he has previously claimed he doesn’t “hate gay people,” Starbuck has a history of using incendiary rhetoric against the LGBTQ community
- Starbuck previously defended the Reagan administration’s handling of the AIDS crisis and blamed it on gay people. In a Twitter thread about President Ronald Reagan’s mishandling of the AIDS crisis, which disproportionately impacted the LGBTQ community, Starbuck said: “Reagan couldn’t stop them from being promiscuous. Not his fault.” This rhetoric is consistent with the public perception of AIDS during the 1980s, when roughly 43% of U.S. adults believed “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior.” The 2015 short film “When AIDS Was Funny” revealed recordings of Reagan officials joking and laughing about a “gay plague” as death tolls rose higher. Twitter, [6/11/24; Gallup, 6/28/19; YouTube,
] - For years Starbuck has leveraged the anti-LGBTQ “groomer” smear liberally. Despite once claiming he does not “hate gay people,” Starbuck has been spouting the “groomer” smear, which emerged in recent years to disparage LGBTQ people as a danger to children. Starbuck has been an avid purveyor of the smear, saying, “If they don’t want us to say GROOMER, then we need to say GROOMER when we identify a GROOMER. … Now they want to add GROOMERS to the protected class.” He has branded a handful of public figures with this misnomer, as well as his own KitchenAid mixer after Dylan Mulvaney made a sponsored ad promoting the company’s products. Media Matters, [3/31/22; Twitter/X, 5/16/24, 7/22/22, 3/29/21, 6/7/22, 5/10/23]
* Starbuck has perpetuated claims that trans people are violent terrorists. In response to leaked documents from the Covenant school shooter, who was transgender, Starbuck said, “The trans cult perpetuated this mental illness and it led to kids being killed.” Months prior, Starbuck said of a nonbinary Antifa member, “More trans terrorism. This threat of real violence from this type of terrorism is rapidly escalating as they get more radicalized.” There is no evidence of a growing trend of transgender mass shooters. Fatal violence against transgender people has been on the rise, however. Twitter/X, [6/12/24, 4/11/24; USA Today, 2/23/24; CBS News, 10/13/22]
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Robby Starbuck on August 2, 2021, in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
In recent months, major companies have publicly announced that they are abandoning their diversity efforts. In at least two cases, companies were pressured into taking action by right-wing extremist and conspiracy theorist Robby Starbuck. He has succeeded in influencing corporate behavior through his social media account despite embracing racist conspiracy theories, anti-LGBTQ bigotry, and other fringe views. Following his recent successes, Starbuck has promised that he is just getting started.
Starbuck, a filmmaker whounsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2022, initially targeted Tractor Supply, a publicly traded agricultural supply company. At the beginning of June, he announced to his 520,000 followers on X that “[i]t’s time to expose Tractor Supply.” Starbuck’s post, with a video accompanying it, alleged that the company provides “LGBTQIA+ training for employees” and funds “pride/drag events.” Starbuck also attacked the company for displaying “Pride month decorations in the office,” creating a “DEI [diversity, equality, and inclusion] Council,” and engaging in “DEI hiring practices.”
Starbuck spoke at length about Tractor Supply’s involvement in Pride events. He argued that “[t]he kind of sex you like is not an appropriate topic for work” and that “[e]vents built around the kind of sex people like to have should not have kids at them and should not be funded with the money we spend at Tractor Supply.” Starbuck encouraged his followers to boycott Tractor Supply and to contact the company to complain. In the following weeks, Starbuck posted dozens of times about Tractor Supply.
In late June, Tractor Supply announced that all roles pertaining to DEI would be eliminated, that all corporate DEI goals would be retired, and that it would no longer sponsor any “nonbusiness activities” such as pride events. The company also stated that it would no longer be submitting data to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the most prominent LGBTQ rights organization in the United States, for its Corporate Equality Index.
The idea that, in 2024, a pride parade is a subversive event that requires discussing the “kind of sex you like” at work is a fringe belief. But Starbuck has a history of embracing fringe conspiracy theories.
On July 10, Starbuck promoted the racist great replacement theory on X. “There’s no sugarcoating it,” Starbuck wrote. “Democrats want illegal immigrants to vote. It’s why they let them in.” The great replacement theory is the claim that Democrats are trying to “replace” white Americans with immigrants. The theory is baseless, but has proved popular among white supremacists, and has motivated multiple mass shootings. Starbuck acknowledges that he is promoting the great replacement theory, but argues that it is not actually racist. “You can’t call replacement theory racist when it’s literally out in the open now. I’m Latino and I’m telling you that the left in the west is trying to replace existing citizens (mostly white) with migrants from 3rd world countries,” Starbuck posted on X in February.
Starbuck also promoted wild claims about the purported dangers of the COVID-19 vaccine. In October 2023, following the death of actor Matthew Perry after years of struggling with drug addiction, Starbuck suggested Perry's death was actually caused by the COVID-19 vaccine. Perry was, according to Starbuck, “a big supporter of the COVID vaccines.” Starbuck called for an investigation of the COVID-19 vaccine “as a potential cause of any cardiac issues.” Starbuck has also shown support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine non-profit, Children’s Health Defense, calling it “fantastic” and saying it does “great work.”
Starbuck has also promoted "chemtrails," a conspiracy theory that "governments or other parties are engaged in a secret program to add toxic chemicals to the atmosphere," which he claims are part of a government effort to control the weather. In April, Starbuck wrote that major flooding in Dubai was not caused by “climate change” but was instead caused by “the use of weather modification” and “[c]loud seeding where chemicals are sprayed in clouds to create rain.” In response to the post, an X user commented, “Colloquially known as ‘chemtrails,’’’ to which Starbuck responded, “Correct.” According to scientists, “there is no evidence for the existence of chemtrails.” (While the UAE has attempted to use geoengineering to increase rainfall, it was not a contributing factor to the floods, according to experts.)
Starbuck also pushed the false claim that there is cannibalism occurring in Haiti, stating that “the country is now effectively run by a warlord named Barbecue who has a ‘cannibal gang.’” This claim, based on a viral social media post, is false, according to Politifact. The State Department said “it has received no credible reports about cannibalism in Haiti.”
Starbuck was able to successfully pressure Tractor Supply without prompting any real scrutiny about his own extremist beliefs. Starbuck then repeated the process with farm equipment company Deere & Co., posting dozens of times about the company's diversity policies. On July 9, Starbuck criticized the company’s “LGBTQ & race based identity groups,” “total commitment to DEI policies,” and policy asking employees to list their “preferred pronouns.” Shortly after Starbuck began posting, the company announced it would be eliminating some of its diversity initiatives. Starbuck celebrated the partial win, but argued that the company should go further and eliminate all corporate diversity efforts.
Starbuck is now going after his next target. On July 23, Starbuck called for a boycott of Harley-Davidson on X, citing the company's hosting "LGBTQ+ events at the corporate office" and facilitating "LGBTQ+ & race based" affinity groups. Starbuck appears to be demanding that corporations not engage in any acknowledgment of LGBTQ employees or customers.
In an interview, Starbuck said “he and his researchers have identified 20 companies that could be ripe for a similar boycott.” Starbuck said that he “definitely proved a model” that involves targeting companies that appeal to a conservative clientele. In a post on X, Starbuck wrote, “DEI is poison and we won’t rest until the public knows how companies have strayed from American values.”
Starbuck’s anti-LGBTQ extremism
Earlier this year, Starbuck released a documentary called The War on Children.The documentary, which he created with his wife Landon Starbuck, centers around the idea that the LGBTQ movement is a sophisticated effort by the government, social media companies, and the medical community to corrupt and sexualize children. While promoting a trailer for the documentary, Starbuck said that the “war on children” is being waged by left-wing activists that “will stop at nothing to indoctrinate them, sexualize them, guilt them and punish them until they submit to their woke religion.”
In the documentary, which has 2 million views on X, Starbuck suggests that toxic chemicals are causing children to identify as LGBTQ. Starbuck claimed a study found that exposure to the pesticide atrazine in frogs purportedly turned them "gay” and caused them to mate with other male frogs. (An EPA review of the scientific literature found that this claim about the impact of atrazine on amphibians was false.) Starbuck says that no one wants to investigate the impact of atrazine and other chemicals on children. The theory was popularized by the notorious right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who claimed tap water was a "gay bomb." Jones asserted that the federal government was engaged in a "chemical warfare operation" designed to increase the LGBTQ population and lower birth rates. The idea that chemicals are impacting the sexuality of children, according to experts, is completely baseless.
The film includes interviews with conservative activist Riley Gaines, right-wing extremist Chaya Raichik (who runs the X account @LibsofTikTok), and a representative from The Heritage Foundation. The documentary also includes gotcha-style interviews with a drag queen and others. Rolling Stone reported that the Starbucks used “deceptive tactics” and “careful omissions” like “provid[ing] working titles for the film such asIdentity RisingandIt Takes a Village”to convince his targets to take part in interviews.
Starbuck frequently promotes anti-LGTBQ views to his social media followers. On X, Starbuck has said that “[p]ride events should be age restricted and only indoors.” Starbuck has also suggested that trans people want to assault women in public bathrooms and that displaying pride flags around children is “grooming and indoctrination.” In June 2023, Starbuck complained about book publisher McGraw Hill celebrating pride, calling the company “woke” and insinuating that those who support LGBTQ rights support pedophilia. “They say no matter how you identify, you should be accepted. That means a man can identify as a child,” Starbuck wrote.
Media ignores Starbuck’s extreme ideology
Mainstream media coverage of Starbuck’s campaigns against Tractor Supply and Deere & Co. do not mention his extreme beliefs or embrace of conspiracy theories. In an article about his boycott efforts, the Associated Press referred to Starbuck only as a “[c]onservative political commentator and filmmaker” and “a 35-year-old Cuban American.” NBC News referred to Starbuck as a “filmmaker.” The Wall Street Journal called Starbuck “a filmmaker turned conservative activist,” and Bloomberg described Starbuck as “a conservative commentator.”
Other publications that took a similar approach include USA Today (“conservative activist”), The Hill (“conservative activist”), and Newsweek (“[c]onservative political commentator and filmmaker”).
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