You may remember that on the Fourth of July, Holly Fisher, an archconservative military wife from Charleston, West Virginia, caused quite a sensation when she tweeted a picture of herself posing wielding an AR-15 in one hand and a Bible in the other. Fisher, also known as “Holly Hobby Lobby” for her ardent support of the fundie-run craft chain, put this out in response to a tweet she sent just over 24 hours after the Hobby Lobby decision of herself standing in front of a local Hobby Lobby store holding a Chick-fil-A cup and wearing a pro-life shirt. Apparently several of her followers thought that her original picture was missing a gun, a Bible and an American flag–so she obliged. That tweet drew its fair share of hackles, especially when PZ Myers and several others noticed the striking similarities between Fisher’s selfie and one taken by Reem Riyashi, a jihadist suicide bomber from Gaza known as “the White Widow.” The only difference between the pictures is that the White Widow, who blew herself and four people up in 2004, was wearing hijab and carrying a Qu’ran.
Yesterday, Fisher gave her first national interview since the flap over her latest picture broke out. To no one’s surprise, it was on Fox News–specifically, “Fox & Friends.” Watch here.
Fisher told Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Steve Doocy that she really doesn’t understand what the fuss is all about. All she was doing, she said, was “holding my First and Second Amendment freedoms in my hands.” She couldn’t believe that anyone would compare her to someone who “despises everything about this country.”
Fisher then gave a pretty revealing glimpse into her mentality–she actually thought she’d catch more heat from the picture of her posing in front of Hobby Lobby than the one of her posing with her rifle. As she saw it, her second picture represented “America’s founding principles.” When Hasselbeck asked her if she was trying to change liberal minds or encouraging her fellow conservatives, Fisher replied that she was telling her fellow conservatives that it was okay to stand up for what they believed in. She openly admitted she wasn’t going to change anyone’s minds, but was telling her fellow right-wingers, “You’re not alone.”
I’m not surprised by Fisher’s attitude at all. People like her spend most of their time in a bubble. Their Internet service is filtered, and they rely on the likes of Fox News, American Family Radio and The 700 Club for news. Where they can, they either send their kids to Christian school or train them at home with fundamentalist-infused homeschooling curricula. Even those who send their kids to public school do as much as they can to cut their kids off from the reality-based world.
I know–I was tricked into joining a hyperfundamentalist/hypercharismatic campus ministry in my freshman year at Carolina, and many of the kids in there were of that very same mentality. I find it hard to have much sympathy for her, though. After all, her husband was in the military, and it’s hard to believe that she wasn’t exposed to other views while following him around. Not only that, but according to her Facebook page, Fisher was educated in public schools, and graduated from a public university, Marshall University. So count me among those who think Fisher was being willfully tone-deaf.
That being said, though, two wrongs don’t make a right. Fisher has been the target of some pretty ghastly threats on Twitter and Facebook. Nobody deserves that, no matter how narrow-minded they are. All you’re doing is feeding the hatred. We liberals are better than this.
Let us know what you think at the Liberal America Facebook page.
Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
