In my Oct. 2 article for The Federalist, I detailed a chilling 2,500 percent spike in indexed internet content pairing “Trump” with “fascist” over the past 10 years, with the biggest surge happening since mid-2024. This spike in dangerous rhetoric is evidence of a left-wing effort to dehumanize conservatives as existential threats.
From Hillary Clinton likening Trump’s rallies to Nazi gatherings to Kamala Harris branding him a “fascist” threat to democracy, the language has poisoned discourse and, as we’ve seen, inspired real-world harm — including assassination attempts on Trump and the recent murder of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk by a radical immersed in anti-Trump echo chambers.
This toxic playbook has now played out in microcosm in Austin, Texas, where a Reddit mob’s incendiary pressure campaign against a local farm not only forced an event cancellation for a conservative group, but allegedly escalated to death threats against the owners and their employees.
It’s a stark reminder: Words like “fascist” aren’t just insults; they’re weapons.
The saga began on Oct. 15, 2025, when a Reddit user in the r/Austin subreddit posted a thread titled “Yikes. Boggy Creek Farms is hosting Texas Public Policy Foundation.” The post lambasted the conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), my employer, as a “fascist” front for Christian nationalism, Project 2025, and billionaire oil interests, urging users to shame the farm into canceling a family-friendly event on regenerative agriculture and “Make America Healthy Again” for the TPPF-affiliated Liberty Leadership Council, a 40-and-under professional organization.
The event, which went on as scheduled at TPPF’s offices, featured Texas Republican state Rep. Helen Kerwin (mother of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins), the author of a bill to keep PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl) chemicals out of sewage-based fertilizer — a cause that one would presume would see support across the political spectrum.
Commenters quickly piled on, calling for boycotts, supplier drops, and even fake RSVPs to sabotage the gathering. One user equated hosting TPPF to platforming the Klan or Nazis, framing the venue’s desired “neutrality” as complicity with “oppressors.” The thread, which garnered hundreds of upvotes and comments, has since been deleted by the original poster, but its impact was immediate and devastating.
Owners Cave
Under this online onslaught, Boggy Creek Farm — a small, woman-owned urban farm in East Austin — pathetically capitulated the same day. In a social media statement, owners Carol Ann Sayle and Larry Butler announced the cancellation, claiming they were unaware of TPPF’s “full affiliations” and emphasizing their apolitical stance.
But the pressure didn’t stop there. What started as calls for accountability morphed into outright threats. In a follow-up Reddit thread titled “An update from Boggy Creek Farm,” users shared the farm’s anguished update: They were closing “until further notice” due to “hateful outlash and threats” via emails, calls, and since-deleted comments. These included explicit death threats against employees, family members (including children and an elderly woman), and threats to the property itself.
The owners described feeling “scary and fragile,” hinting at potential permanent closure or sale to developers amid estimated losses of $600 to $5,000. Perhaps to regain standing on the left, the owners may have posted a struggle session that the planned event wasn’t a “fundraiser” but “simply… a tour.” They then maligned TPPF as a “horrible,” “monster”-like group.
Boycotts are one thing — a legitimate exercise of free speech and association. But threatening violence crosses into criminal territory. Yet, because these threats emanate from the progressive left, don’t hold your breath for law enforcement action.
Austin Has Normalized Violence
In Austin, a hotbed of leftist activism, such tactics appear normalized — especially when tied to smears like “fascist.” Adding irony to injury, Boggy Creek Farm positioned itself as “neutral” in its cancellation statement, insisting it hosts diverse groups without endorsing politics. But a closer look reveals a history of ties to left-leaning causes that belie this claim. The farm has hosted events for the Travis County Democratic Party, whose official X account has repeatedly deployed the very incendiary language fueling this mess. On May 2, they posted: “100 days in —and the assault on our rights is only escalating. But we’ve been in this fight every damn day, and we’re not letting up. From the streets to the Capitol, we’ve organized, educated, and pushed back against the fascist Trump regime.”
“Fascist?” Really? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Even so, one Reddit user posted a suggestion to redirect the Oct. 18 “No Kings” rally — a protest against Trump “authoritarianism” — to TPPF’s offices two blocks south of the Texas Capitol rather than at the Capitol itself, writing, “For those that aren’t aware, TPPF is the public face of fascism in this town.”
When you call someone Hitler or label them a fascist, you’re not debating policy — you’re signaling that elimination is justified.
Conservatives must respond not with fury, but facts. Defend free speech. Relentlessly call out this dangerous rhetoric. Democrats: Dial back the Nazi slurs before more blood is spilled. The republic depends on it. If Austin’s farm fiasco teaches us anything, it’s that the left’s words aren’t harmless — they’re harbingers of dehumanization and violence, and it’s time to hold them accountable.
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