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Why do liberals make fun of “#Benghazi” all the time?

The hashtag was crystallized in Hillary Clinton’s January 2013 testimony at a Congressional hearing.

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the September 11, 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2013.
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the September 11, 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2013.
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the September 11, 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2013.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Zack Beauchamp
Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. His book on democracy, The Reactionary Spirit, was published 0n July 16. You can purchase it here.

The media and political firestorms around Benghazi have sparked a counter-reaction, typically among liberals who doubt the merits of the Benghazi allegations. This is often expressed with ironic use of the Twitter hashtag #Benghazi, and was crystallized in Clinton’s January 2013 testimony at a Congressional hearing, in which she barely attempted to contain her exasperation with Republican questions.

The progressive attitude, basically.
The progressive attitude, basically.
ABC News

Progressives often see the Benghazi controversies as driven by a sort of Obama Derangement Syndrome, wherein conservatives invent scandals that only make sense inside their own closed information feedback loop.

benghazi pillow
For liberals, a hilarious throw-pillow.
Cafepress/The Wire

So they mock #Benghazi. A lot.

☆。★。☆。★ 。☆ 。☆。☆ ★。\|/。★ B E N G H A Z I ★。/|\。★ 。☆。。☆ ☆。 ★。 ☆ ★
— max read (@max_read) October 23, 2013

Why didn’t Zach Galifianakis ask Obama about #Benghazi?#MainstreamMedia
— John Aziz (@azizonomics) March 11, 2014

One persistent liberal meme grew out of a particularly amusing tweet that turned Benghazi into a conspiratorial acrostic.

Hence, when you see weird acrostics spelling out Benghazi on progressive Twitter, like this one:

Now you know why.

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