Americans who believe our political and media structures are proof that everything is meaningless and nothing matters because civilizational doom is imminent have been vindicated once again. There was a horrible shooting in California, and the Republican frontrunner sat for an interview with Alex Jones, the "amazing" 9/11 truther and gay frog evangelist. Another presidential candidate performed a freestyle rap: "Guns, guns, guns, I don’t like them guns."
The social media response to the shooting made us all grateful that we don't still live in that joyless pre-Twitter age, when shouting your opinions at anonymous strangers meant having to literally shout them into a crowd, or at least hold up some large flash cards in a public park or bus station. In those days, it was harder to know for sure who was walking around with an incorrect opinion about the hot issue of the day, making it nearly impossible for righteous citizens to courageously call them out and shame them publicly.
Politicians tweeted their "thoughts and prayers" for the victims of the shooting, which is the sort of generic instant response the media demands, and is typically deemed acceptable unless the tragedy in question involves guns in America (and no immediate link to Islamic terrorism), and could easily be prevented, as other politicians argued, by "doing something," and doing it "now."
The day did not lack for heroes. As is often the case, most of them were journalists and pundits. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, they tweeted and typed a courageous shame offensive against those politicians who "thought" and "prayed."
An early look at tomorrow’s front page… GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS: https://t.co/eKUg5f03ec pic.twitter.com/j4gEFg9YtJ
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) December 3, 2015
The only way to stop a bad guy with a useless sentiment is a good guy with a useless sentiment. pic.twitter.com/vBc7QNmMdS
— Michael B Dougherty (@michaelbd) December 2, 2015
Before the day was over, most of our problems had been solved.
Thanks for tweeting, following, & watching today as we shamed NRA bought lawmakers for #thoughtsandprayers. Together, we can make this stop. — igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) December 3, 2015
What we definitely won't get is real discussion that involves most liberals acknowledging that what they really want is an Australia-style mass confiscation and prohibition on gun ownership that would be wildly unpopular and just as impractical as deporting millions of illegal immigrants.
Instead, they'll keep insisting that the "ending gun violence" can be accomplished by taking a few votes in Congress. And what better way to win over your opponents than by mocking their prayers? Conservatives probably won't have much to offer, either. Some will inevitably keep insisting that an armed patriot with a revolver on his belt could have neutralized a squad of heavily armed gunmen, like the one that killed 89 people at the Bataclan theater in Paris.
But wait, our national "debate" is about to get even better:
Sources: Syed Rizwan Farook, male shooter in #SanBernardino massacre, was apparently radicalized https://t.co/KL3OFxBKwZ
— CNN (@CNN) December 3, 2015
So much for all the confident, baseless speculation spewed on major networks. If we're lucky, we'll get a renewed discussion on the merits of internment, and Donald Trump will say something crazy that drives the news cycle for several weeks. He already bragging about how tragedies are good for his poll numbers. We'll get a bunch of awkward, parsed arguments about how we should politicize the gun violence aspect of this attack, but definitely not the part about Islamic radicalism, or the fact that the attackers' neighbor declined to report suspicious activity because he didn't want to be accused of "profiling." And we'll definitely get another round of think pieces from secular atheist pundits—presumably some of the same ones who were just mocking people's prayers—about how we need to stop criticizing a particular religion, because that's exactly what ISIS would want. Meanwhile, here's what Ben Carson, who is running for commander-in-chief, is up to:
Carson repeatedly calls Hamas, hummus at #RJCForum — Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) December 3, 2015
Turn the lights out. Burn it all down.
UPDATE:
Trump signs woman's chest; WATCH: https://t.co/bm4QcHzE2A pic.twitter.com/bhTupX5f6l
— The Hill (@thehill) December 3, 2015