Their first Florida attempt failed and was overshadowed at the time by the more attention-grabbing giant Baphomet with Children statue that was supposed to counter the Oklahoma 10 Commandments monument. However, that monument has never actually been part of any successful “poison pill” action, meanwhile in subsequent years, local TST organizations across the country have successfully petitioned states to include their displays which range from “a three-panel poster board that looks like it was made by a high schooler on a deadline<\/a>” to “very decent, actually<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year, though, a display for Des Moines, Iowa, has captured much <\/em>more attention than usual, not the least of which because the right wing backlash led to a man actually assaulting the local Baphomet display in an act of protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s how the Associated Press<\/a> summarized the situation in Iowa that has generated hundreds of headlines since it started: <\/p>\n\n\n\n A Satanic Temple display inside the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines was destroyed, and a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot who was recently defeated in a statehouse election in Mississippi is accused of causing the damage. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis offered to chip in to the fundraiser<\/a> for the man who destroyed the display, which as of Dec. 19 was sitting at more than $75,000<\/a>. The Satanic Temple Iowa had their own fundraiser going, so far earning more than $6,500<\/a>. Doug \u201cLucien Greaves\u201d Misicko ramped up his media appearances<\/a>, challenging DeSantis to a debate. TST even got some favorable coverage in the New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In general, people will call The Satanic Temple’s activities “successful trolling<\/a>” or drawing attention to “the direct conflict between Christian Dominionism and the US Constitution”, claiming it’s the reactionaries who are falling for something every time.<\/p>\n\n\n In reality, the idea that the right wing is being hoodwinked assumes that they aren’t benefitting from exactly this, and that these conflicts do not boost both sides taking part in it, each running their own grift for their own reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Partially, this is dynamic exists because Misicko and Cevin \u201cMalcolm Jarry\u201d Soling are fundamentally reactionary Gen X edgelords whose politics never go further left than right-wing libertarianism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lucien Greaves probably does<\/em> legitimately hate Christian conservatives, but he hated them when he was in his white nationalist-adjacent <\/a>and openly pro-eugenics<\/a> period, too. Meanwhile, Cevin Soling gets along with the far right quite well for other purposes like opposing public schools<\/a> and decrying \u201cpolitically correct\u201d college campus culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason TST and the Christian nationalists are on the same side is that both of them materially benefit from pointing to the other as \u201cthe enemy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If Republicans didn’t have TST, they’d want to invent them (and have). The Temple is their perfect foil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
The display is permitted by rules that govern religious installations inside the Capitol but has drawn criticism from many conservatives, including presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. A Facebook posting by The Satanic Temple on Thursday said the display, known as a Baphomet statue, \u201cwas destroyed beyond repair,\u201d though part of it remains.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n![\"Looney](\"https:\/\/queersatanic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Ralph-Wolf-and-Sam-the-Sheepdog.jpg\")