It took minutes for the internet to point out the irony in Florida rep’s transphobic ‘X-Men’ statements

The core of the X-Men franchise has long been the divide between Charles Xavier and Magneto. Xavier wants to show humans that mutants shouldn’t be feared, and everyone can co-exist peacefully. Meanwhile, the Holocaust survivor Magneto will go to any lengths to protect his people.

After hearing Florida Republican Webster Barnaby’s terrifying and deeply stupid speech comparing trans people to mutants, we’re finding ourselves siding with Magneto after all.

“I’m looking at society today and it’s like I’m watching an X-Men movie. When you watch the X-Men movies from Marvel Comics, it’s like we have mutants living among us on planet Earth. And some people don’t like it, but that’s a fact. We have people that live among us today on planet Earth that are happy to display themselves as if they were mutants from another planet. … The Lord rebuke you, Satan, and all of your demons and all of your imps who parade before us… That’s right, I called you demons and imps, who come and parade before us pretending you are part of this world.” 

Responses flooded in, pointing out that Barnaby seems to have totally misunderstood X-Men:

This is spookily reminiscent of the comics:

Worrying stuff when comic books come to life:

I mean…

We agree, 100% villainy:

The obvious jokes aside, this speech is straight-up terrifying, even more so when you realize Barnaby is very unlikely to face any serious consequences from it, other than being made fun of online. When a politician can launch into a frothing rant dehumanizing a persecuted minority as “imps and demons,” we’re traveling down a very scary road with a really bad destination.