Kellie Leitch’s campaign manager attacks critics using ‘alt-right’ slang borrowed from Internet porn

If Kellie Leitch can’t handle an out-of-control staffer, what can she handle?

That’s one question sure to be on many minds up after Nick Kouvalis, the Conservative leadership candidate’s campaign manager, bragged he’s “on solid ground” following another Twitter meltdown late Saturday night.

While the world was responding with outrage and mass protests to U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order banning refugees and citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, attention in Canada turned to Leitch and Kevin O’Leary – two leadership candidates awkwardly impersonating Trump’s campaign.

Judging by his reaction, that seems to have gotten under Kouvalis’ skin.

Responding to tweets calling Leitch a cheap imitation of Trump, Leitch’s campaign manager lashed out at a constitutional scholar, accusing him of dishonesty and “treason.”

Not only that, Kouvalis told University of Waterloo professor Emmett Macfarlane he is a “cuck” – that’s short for “cuckold,” referring to a husband with an adulterous wife.

Though the term was popular in Elizabethan times, “cuck” has made a quasi-comeback in recent years thanks to online pornography and the so-called alt-right – a loose coalition of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, right-wing trolls and other extremists energized by Trump’s presidential run.

As the New Republic’s Jeet Heer pointed out when he looked at the word cuckservative, the term plays on anxieties revolving around race and masculinity to vilify moderate views and encourage extremism:

“The term has emerged out of the white supremacist movement as a term of abuse for white conservatives deemed race traitors unwilling to forthrightly defend the interests of white America. Borrowing shadings from porn (‘cuck’ is a genre where husbands, often white, watch their wives have sex with other men, often African-Americans) and geek culture (‘cuck’ is a much-deployed sneer on 4chan the imageboard website).”

That’s what Buzzfeed’s Joseph Bernstein said too:

“The term’s connotations are racist. By alluding to a genre of porn in which passive white husbands watch their wives have sex with black men, it casts its targets as impotent defenders of white people in America.”

You’d think Leitch’s campaign would want to stay away from that, considering they’ve already received two separate endorsements from anti-immigrant white nationalist groups. 

Needless to say, accusations of treason and cuckoldry managed to earn Leitch’s campaign some attention:

Is this actually the campaign mgr of a leading candidate for Conservative leader? “Cuck”? “Treason”? Seriously, why not go the full Pepe? https://t.co/DNTFHKXrZo

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) January 29, 2017

Hey @NickKouvalis, long time listener, first time caller: what’s your take on this whole “white genocide” thing? https://t.co/DNTFHKXrZo

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) January 29, 2017

Meanwhile, here’s how Kellie Leitch’s campaign manager addresses a respected expert in Canadian constitutional law. https://t.co/Po6kjkTNXi

— Paula Simons (@Paulatics) January 29, 2017

Is “cuck” going mainstream in Canadian politics now? https://t.co/7sTnJL9lR1

— Les Perreaux (@perreaux) January 29, 2017

Kellie Leitch campaign should have done some in-house values screening https://t.co/mnNg5M03hd

— Robyn Urback (@RobynUrback) January 29, 2017

So… will reporters be asking Leitch if she stands by her campaign manager’s language? https://t.co/tvzXYlZmps

— Duncan (@detaylor) January 29, 2017

This makes me sick. https://t.co/zqXbFYvuGO

— Gord Perks (@gordperks) January 29, 2017

Leitch’s campaign manager proceeded to spend the better part of the next hour sending angry tweets at people:

PressProgress reached out to ask Leitch’s campaign if she stands by her campaign manager’s comments.

Leitch’s campaign did not respond. 

^{Photo: Twitter.}