Fact-checking the factless: How to make content-free statements and then ask, "What did I say that was wrong?"

Later in the day an announcement went up declaring that all public statements made at Deplorable Pride's Facebook page are those of its leader, Brian Talbert.

So now we know to whom to ask questions, if not how. After we asked some about his fundraising, Talbert blocked me from commenting on the Facebook page he says is the place to ask questions after I asked him some about his fundraising on June 14, telling me I had to ask them via Deplorable Pride's "Official Website." 

I can't do that, either, because it got hacked July 2 and isn't official any more. 

So I ask my questions here, as Mr Talbert knows how to find this page.

Let's parse my exchange with The Conservative Gay Voice.

Me:

"A tail too small to wag the dog, Deplorable Pride just posts the occasional bitter, tinny, arf."

I call this one true. Just read Brian Talbert's Facebook posts for Deplorable Pride. 

Like this one, also posted July 2:

It's quite a change of tone from June 9, when Talbert told the Canadian Broadcasting radio show As It Happens about his plans:

CO: There are a lot of gay Republicans in the United States. Are you getting support from them? 

BT: I'm studying to get support from the Log Cabin Republicans. I was reached out today by the national director of the Log Cabin Republicans. We're going to have a talk in the coming days. 

CO: That's a pretty strong and Washington based group so they are reaching out to you? 

BT: We are now part of, the Republicans have now included us, we are voting bloc inside the RNC. So that's how pro-gay we really are.

Talbert's short-lived outreach to the gay GOP was part of a charmingly incoherent- and bitter- word salad served to our neighbors to the north:

BT: There's nothing we were doing that would have violated any of those terms for us. I was going to be as pro-gay as I possibly could because I am very, it’s very well-known. I'm a very open gay Republican. I do not hide either one of them. I’m proud of both of them. They're the ones I'm showing that they're the ones that turned the back on their own kind when they expect the rest of the world to accept them for how they are. They're no different than anyone else. They can act like bigots either. They have to be stopped just like every other class of people that become a bigot.

CO: A lot of gay people believe that the US President Trump is anti-gay. Why do you as a gay man support him?

BT: Well Donald Trump honestly, is like the only Republican candidate to ever invite the gay group to be in the DNC. I mean the RNC. You know, his way to do that to extend that, he's not against the gays in anyway. He's said I’m nowhere, I’m not. But you claim I am. He said what the Supreme Court decision was asked if he was going to try to overturn the gay marriage. He said no. The Supreme Court ruled on that. It is over, it is the law of the land. And he supports it fully. His administration will not touch that that law. But yet everyone on the gay side, or the left side seem to say that we're all going to still go to concentration camps and everything. It's ridiculous. I believe that not only will he save my country, he will say my gay community. The man is a unifier in my opinion.

CO: He did say things of that nature while he was campaigning. But people in the LGBTQ community feel that after he became president, that he did demonstrate anti-gay sentiments.

BT: Well, I would like his example.

CO: I'll just give you the couple they've given. They point to the revocation of the federal guidelines saying that transgender students have the right to use school bathrooms that match their gender identity, and they also point to vice president Mike Pence, his choice for vice president, who signed a law that [crosstalk] I’ll just tell people, sorry, I'll just interrupt you just to tell so people understand what the reasons were.

BT: With Mike Pence, our float was not representing Mike Pence or any member of his administration. We were representing the 45th president of the United States and we would have represented the next one. Honestly, as a gay man. I know what it's like to have not had rights. I'm an older gay man. I'm 47. I know what it's like not to have rights or be respected or anybody. So I know what I've gotten. We do not have one less right than what any other person walking around in Charlotte, North Carolina doesn’t have.

CO: Can we just talk about Mike Pence for a moment, because he did, Mr. Trump did choose him as the vice president.

BT: I'm not I'm not getting into public policies of the United States. I am a gay man in North Carolina trying to fight my whole community. I'm not going to have to sit down and fight with about my country. I'm not doing that alone.

CO: But Brian, my point is only that–

BT: I’m interrupting and I don't want to be rude, but I'm not talking about Mike Pence, his beliefs. I believe everyone has a right to their own beliefs. No one has to accept me. That is not a right that I do have. I'm not answering for them or anything. I'm discussing about me being discriminated by my own community that is pissed off about Mike Pence doing something that they claim that I did. It’s a circle, there's a circle and Charlotte pride started it by discriminating against their own kind.

CO: And that’s the rea–

BT: They’re hypocrites, they’re the biggest hypocrites I have run into in my entire life.

CO: And that's the reason they're giving is the politics of this for the reason why you're being rejected.

BT: Every time you walk down the street, I don't know if you've ever been to a gay pride parade in the south down here but I guarantee you it is nothing but politics all the way down from one end to a gay pride to the other end. But it is always Democrat. It's always one-sided.

CO: Can you imagine any way in which you could still take part in the parade, with or without your float?

BT: Why do I want to be a part of something where they deny me even being a part of. I've had people tell me I can't even be a member of the gay community anymore, like they have power over that or something. You know what I'm saying?

CO: Is there any effort on the part of Charlotte Pride to reach out to you?

BT: No absolutely none.

CO: There's no common ground you can find with them? No way to talk this through?

BT: I want to reach common ground know when are you coming round because I've said this in every statement that I've made since this happened. The only way that any side is going to understand each other for gay republicans and gay liberals to get together is for us to sit down together and start talking to each other and stop vilifying somebody just because they're exercising the right to vote for the U.S. president.

[Log Cabin discussion, above]

CO: Brian I really appreciate speaking with you. Thank you.

BT: I'm sorry ma'am. I'm not a rude person and I do want to apologize to you. I do not have any ill-will toward me about that.

Like a teacher dealing with a fractious, rather dull, child, the host let Talbert down gently:

CO: No not at all. No need to apologize. We're just trying to understand. But thank you Brian.

On to Talbert's meme:

That's true, too. The White House didn't say boo. The White House Political Office called you June 26 ("OMG!" you squealed on Facebook), and then the President (who was said to want to know "all about this") started a tweet war with Joe and Mika.

As for your post to the meme, Mr Talbert, there is nothing to say is right or wrong about it, because it is devoid of context or meaning. It's all content-free hot air.

Which queens, Mr Talbert? And given your comments to CBC about sitting down with liberals and listening to one another, why all the slurs lately?

"Gay Pride" is a generic term. Which organization(s) or people do you mean? 

What do you mean by "Gay Pride did more damage to equality this year than any other group ever has!" I mean- again, which group? What did they do? And how do you quantify damage to equality? Give examples, please.

Who's included in "any other group ever has" and how far back does "ever" go?

Like, compared to the Nazis? Pol Pot? The Syrian Army? 

Milli Vanilli? William Shatner's Esperanto movie?

Who is the "you" you say lost all credibility, and according to whom?

Finally, can we have a number count for "The world was watching"? Trumpsters have a dodgy record when it comes to numeracy.

Explain what you meant, and I'll be happy to fact-check it.