It was not that Scott McKay’s views were unknown before he attended a gathering at Rays of Light, a so-called wellness center in Port Washington last week.
McKay has gained notoriety spreading antisemitic lies and QAnon conspiracy theories on his streaming service and at speaking engagements around the country.
He has combined this with a take-no-prisoners approach in politics, including attacks on local school boards.
Melanie D’Arrigo, a Progressive who has run for office Congress twice and is a founder of Port Washington-based LGBTQ+ organization, said she was harassed and falsely accused of trying to stop the McKay event.
D’Arrigo said the Friday before the event in Port Washington she started receiving “hateful” messages that accused her of being a pedophile and child sex trafficker on her Facebook and Instagram accounts.
She also said she also received comments with “homophobic slurs” on photos from Gay Pride events.
The source of the false accusation against D’Arrigo and the online is unclear.
But the tactics are familiar to McKay and his followers.
McKay has marshaled his supporters to engage in opposition to mask rules at schools, urging them to “carpet bomb these boneheads with emails” and “beat the shit out of them,” the Daily Beast reported.
“You forkin’ scumbags will not walk away from this clean,” McKay said in a video, addressing Ankeny, Iowa, school board members last year. “Believe me. Because when this army, the Patriot Streetfighter nation comes at you, you’re forked. So I would say, run the white flag up the pole now because if you haven’t realized at this point with these ladies that they’re coming, all you shitheads, there will be nowhere to run. There’s nowhere to run. You’re all hypocrites, you’re forkin’ scumbag losers.”
And then there is the message McKay spreads, which includes the kind of lies about Jews that have for centuries spurred some of the most horrific mass murders in human history.
Many Jewish people, McKay has said, are working “under the cover of this religion called Judaism” to carry out a massive and evil conspiracy that began in the 8th century so that they could ‘murder children’ and consume them and eat their hearts.”
These fraudulent Jewish people, McKay said, have perpetrated 9/11; set up banking systems “in exchange for the child blood sacrifices;” and engineered presidential assassinations of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and William McKinley.
McKay, who goes under the moniker “Patriot Streetfighter,” has also praised Hitler as a like-minded ally.
The Jewish people, he said, “created” and “manufactured” Hitler to profit from the war, but “Hitler sought to create a banking system for the people and the free world” separate from his Jewish creators and their evil banks.
“Hitler was actually fighting the same people that we’re trying to take down today,” he said.
McKay combines these antisemitic lies with closely related QAanon tropes that falsely allege Democrats, celebrities and non-Jewish religious figures are part of a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles that runs the world.
Included on the list are President Joseph Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George Soros, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, Ellen DeGeneres, Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama.
Many QAnon supporters also believe that, in addition to molesting children, members of this group kill and eat their victims to extract a life-extending chemical called adrenochrome.
And, according to QAnon lore, former President Donald J. Trump was recruited by top military generals to run for president in 2016 to break up this criminal conspiracy and bring its members to justice.
OK, some might say, but McKay and other QAnon followers are a fringe element with little or no influence. Right? Wrong.
McKay has 228,000 followers on the Rumble streaming service and has hosted many prominent conservative activists and Trump supporters.
They include Trump lawyer Christina Bobb; Trump adviser Roger Stone; Iowa state Sen. Jim Carlin; violent rhetoric-spewing election denier Joe Oltmann; election conspiracy theorist Seth Keshel; and former New Hampshire U.S. Senate nominee Don Bolduc.
McKay gained further prominence in his featured speaking role on the far-right ReAwaken America tour, which was founded by Clay Clark and Michael Flynn.
Flynn, a retired United States Army lieutenant general who was the 24th U.S. National Security Adviser for the first 22 days of the Trump administration, has been recruiting “An Army of God” that believe Christianity should be at the center of American life and institutions.
The ReAwaken America tour also featured QAnon influencers, anti-vax activists and election fraud conspiracy theorists, according to the Anti-Defamation League
In addition to McKay, its “featured tour speakers” have included conservative activist and talk show host Charlie Kirk, former Chief of Staff to the acting Secretary of Defense under Trump Kash Patel, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former Trump advisor Peter Navarro, My Pillow Guy Mike Lindell, and far-right radio show host Alex Jones.
Donald Trump Jr. has also spoken on the tour. And the tour’s best-known “featured speaker” is Eric Trump, who, along with McKay, spoke together in Nashville, Tenn.
McKay posted a picture of himself with Eric Trump last year and wrote that he “says his Dad loves what we’re doing.”
The Port Washington event was an extension of these efforts.
The outline of the event said McKay would “dive into the secrets of the Under Ground Tunnels and explore fascinating insights. Plus, we’ll address the crucial issue of child trafficking and pleading to protect and safeguard our most vulnerable assets.”
Child trafficking is a serious problem around the world that deserves our attention.
But you can bet that is not what McKay was talking about.
The Under Ground Tunnels?
“There are superhighway systems,” McKay said of the alleged underground child trafficking system. “There are fully built unoccupied cities under this country and around the world.”
When asked in a Q&A how McKay got his map of the alleged tunnels, he said he doesn’t remember and that he got it from someone else.
McKay apparently doesn’t want evidence to get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.
How did this traveling freak show come to Port Washington?
Shurka, who is Jewish, said the event hosted at the wellness center was to bring awareness to the pervasive issue of child sex trafficking.
He said McKay’s comments have been twisted by other people – notwithstanding the many videos and podcasts online to the contrary.
Shurka also has a business connection with McKay.
He founded UNIFYD, a “nonprofit faith-based” organization that offers a streaming service and alternative medicine products used to treat a wide range of diseases, including cancer and autism, according to its website. McKay owns a UNIFYD center in Dallas. Shurka’s family operates the Port Washington center.
To its credit, the Port Washington Democratic Club released a statement prior to last week’s event, castigating antisemitic comments made by McKay and urging individuals not to attend the event.
Kim Keiserman, president of the Port Washington Democratic Club, said they released the statement because it is their mission to promote democratic values and speak out against hate. She said the club thought the community had the right to know this event was being hosted.
“It just shows that people everywhere need to be aware of what’s happening in their community, we need to be willing to speak out against hate even when it’s uncomfortable and we have to tell the truth,” Keiserman said.
The Democratic Club was later joined by Town of North Hempstead officials of both parties and Democratic state Assemblywoman Gina Silletti in condemning McKay.
But we are disappointed that we have yet to hear from other Nassau County officials at all levels.
There are some people who will dismiss McKay and his followers as idle threats.
But Jan. 6 tells us that we do so at our own peril. The time to stamp out the hate is now. To do so, we must all respond to McKay and all those who promote these bigoted fantasies.
