Intellectually I know there are plenty of ignorant, hateful people out there. The crazy woman spewing CT all over the Santorum event was a perfect case in point. But we tend to shake our heads at people like her, dismiss her fevered rantings about Obama trying to nuke South Carolina as the product of a crackpot.
When Santorum refused to refute any of the crazy, but instead reinforced her by referring to the President as a 'tyrant,' I was irritated. Allowing that sort of thing any mainstream validation only emboldens them. Hell, I'm waiting for Orly Taitz to come out from under her rock one of these days, although her 15 minutes have long passed their 'sell-by' date.
Then there's Glenn Beck, announcing he's leaving the Republican Party because apparently they're just not wing-nutty enough for him. Whatev. He also slid into irrelevance years ago, and he's welcome to the three viewers (listeners?) he shares with Alex Jones.
But knowing that they're out there in some amorphous fashion is far different than seeing them in pack mode. Over the metaphorical fold, if you will...
Wandering through the evil book of Faces this morning, I came across an article which found its way into my feed because one of my friends had made a comment. She's someone I knew in high school, many, many, many years ago, and her politics and mine have diverged, shall we say sharply, since then.
Out of curiosity, I clicked through to see what she'd said, and was utterly horrified.
The piece from some conservative rag, naturally, concerned Michael Brown's mother and stepfather potentially facing charges for attacking vendors selling t-shirts bearing the picture of their son.
I'm fortunate to have two very-much-alive sons, so I can only imagine how they felt, and have no idea how I would have reacted in similar circumstances. But the commenters at this website certainly did.
Not a single one that I read (and full disclosure, I couldn't read them all) had any sympathy for a grieving parent, any doubt as to their guilt.
They were the most vile, hateful collection of words I've read in a single place, ever.
I'm not young, I'm not naive, but I still found it shocking that people would write things like this. And this isn't the wild world of anonymous blogging, this is frickin' Facebook, and these people have their real names and pictures attached to these comments.
I never did find the comment written by my friend. Probably for the best. I'd still like to believe that she's a decent person, but if you're known by the company you keep, that belief may not last very long.