Real life events are proving as we speak that even the MOST ridiculous things that Republicans say have consequences.

Despite going into Tuesday night’s debate already armed with the knowledge that what he was about to say was untrue, Donald Trump refused to back down from the myth that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were stealing and eating people’s pets.

That led to a rash of hilarious memes on Facebook and X, with nearly universal acknowledgment that the whole premise was simply absurd. And that’s to be expected. Every time Trump says something bizarre or patently untrue in the face of evidence, people tend to make fun of him.

I know I do here sometimes.

In fact, I even posted a picture on my personal Facebook account of my own two cats with the caption “Don’t Snack On Me.” My cats would be more of a buffet, really, since together, the two of them weigh about 51 pounds.

The sad reality is, however, that as funny as it may seem to just brush off Trump’s comments as preposterous, people really do believe this stuff.

And not just die-hard Trump supporters, either. There’s an entire subculture of people in America who DO vote, but don’t have the first idea about anything that’s going on. They just know what they heard from a friend, and they take it as gospel truth.

But there’s another subculture, thankfully much smaller, but still just as real. That’s the people who believe it, and want to do something about it. During the civil rights era, this led to lynchings, performed by folks you might meet at church.

Byron de la Beckwith, the man who murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers, did so because after schools were desegregated, he heard from a friend that Black male students were planning to rape and kill little white girls.

But if you can believe it, it’s worse now than it even was then.

Now you have right-wing talking heads who spread this nonsense on purpose, knowing it’s not true. Heck, there’s an entire news organization that gets away with saying anything they want because they went to court after they were sued and successfully argued that they were “entertainment” and not news.

I think you know the name of that channel.

And there are specific examples of it happening — remember Bill O’Reilly’s televised war on Dr. George Tiller, a physician who provided abortions to at-risk women who desperately needed them? When Scott Roeder assassinated him, he confessed that he’d been drive to the act by what he’d seen on O’Reilly’s program.

Today, there are reports in the Haitian Times that immigrant parents are afraid to send their children to school in Ohio. Not just Springfield, but throughout, especially since none of the people spreading rumors about pets being abducted and eaten could produce any evidence of it happening in Springfield.

Instead, pictures of unrelated incidents from Canton and Cleveland made the rounds as things that were supposed to have happened in Springfield.

The parents are right to worry, as well. This morning, Springfield’s City Hall was evacuated after a bomb threat was called in.

So review the timeline: The rumor spreads online. It’s immediately refuted by city officials in Springfield. JD Vance repeats the rumor during a rally. It gets stronger, even as the city fights harder against the falsehood. Numerous statements are issued that there is no evidence that any of the pet-eating is happening.

Then Trump says it at the debate on Tuesday.

Mind you, these aren’t illegal immigrants. They’re just plain immigrants. They’re concentrated in Springfield because jobs were plentiful there when they moved in, many of them YEARS ago.

Immigrants reported to the Haitian Times that they weren’t just scared for their kids. They’ve had their homes attacked, their cars vandalized more than once. Haitians are terrified.

And unfortunately, it’s part of the fabric of racism that’s woven into America. JD Vance knew that he could spread the lie (that had already been debunked) because it would appeal to exactly the kind of people he knows will vote for the Trump/Vance ticket. How did he know? The Haitians in Ohio — the state that Vance is a SENATOR for — have already been under attack.

A Haitian immigrant got in a traffic collision in which a young boy, Aiden Clark, died, and Republicans who know they can count on people’s racism immediately seized on the opportunity to condemn them all. It’s gotten so bad that the Clark’s parents have begged them to stop using their son’s death for political gain.

They won’t. And cat memes don’t fight racism very well. Enjoy them, but make sure you’re reminding people that none of what we’re making fun of is real. Trump and Vance are delusional, and so are the people who actually DO believe that Haitian immigrants are eating cats.