On Thursday, Lucy Lawless offered her Twitter followers an easy as pie masterclass on how to respond to an old coworker who has morphed into a delusional, conspiracy-theory-peddling Donald Trump supporter. The coworker in question was Kevin Sorbo, whom Lawless worked with on the ’90s TV series Hercules before landing her beloved spin-off, Xena. In the last two days, Sorbo has tweeted in support of false theories that antifa and “leftist agitators” were somehow secretly responsible for the violent Capitol siege that unfolded Wednesday, which Lawless could not abide.
“No, Peanut,” Lawless responded. “They are not Patriots. They are your flying monkeys,homegrown terrorists, QAnon actors. They are the douchebags that go out and do the evil bidding of people like you who like to wind them up like toys and let them do their worst. #keepingYourFilthyHandsclean #enabler.”
The tweet, issued with the swiftness of a digital chakram, has since been liked nearly 50,000 times.
X content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Sorbo was a vocal proponent of the January 6 protest against the fair and legal results of the 2020 presidential election, tweeting in support of Trump’s lies about voter fraud. On Wednesday, as Congress was certifying the election results, hundreds of Trump supporters surrounded the Capitol, eventually storming their way into the building and turning the mindless protest into an act of domestic terror.
But naturally, right-wing conspiracy theorists quickly started circulating the false claim that antifa was somehow responsible for the mob’s violent behavior. Sorbo has propped up those theories. “They don’t look like patriots to me...” he wrote Wednesday, quote-tweeting a false theory about “leftist agitators” that included a photo featuring a known QAnon proponent.
The actor has not yet responded to Lawless’s tweet, instead amplifying more demonstrably false theories and pledging his support for the outgoing president. Lawless, meanwhile, has reminded her followers to follow climate change activist Greta Thunberg, pushed Jack Dorsey to ban Trump from Twitter, and retweeted soothing videos of the late John Lewis reminding us that everything is going to be okay. Just in case you needed more evidence as to why Xena was the superior program from the Hercules extended universe.
— Cover Story: Stephen Colbert on Trump Trauma, Love, and Loss
— Rosario Dawson Tells All About The Mandalorian’s Ahsoka Tano
— The 20 Best TV Shows and Movies of 2020
— Why The Crown Season Four’s Prince Charles Appalled Royal Experts
— This Documentary Is the Real-World Version of The Undoing, but Better
— How Hero Worship Turned to Scorn in the Star Wars Fandom
— In Light of The Crown, Is Prince Harry’s Netflix Deal a Conflict of Interest?
— From the Archive: An Empire Rebooted, the Genesis of The Force Awakens
— Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.
