(Jan. 28) Can we all find not just some civility, but some basic human decency, please?
Background, before returning to that main point: Now that officials have released the videos and phone recordings related to the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of former speaker Nancy Pelosi, the establishment media is having a field day blasting some original right-wing media responses to the attack. Rightfully so. Numerous outposts on the right spread nasty conspiracy theories about the attack, and an astonishing number not only expressed no sympathy for Mr. Pelosi, but even suggested that he deserved it. (I deliberately choose not to dignify them by linking to them.)
There are no gray areas here: The people and organizations that did this were not just wrong but vilely so. No excuse, not in a million years, can justify the entirely baseless insinuations and even accusations about Pelosi, much less the lack of compassion. For the record, Pelosi suffered a fractured skull from the attack, along with serious injuries to his hands and right arm. Three months later, the elderly man is still trying to recover from his wounds. And the attacker made absolutely clear that his real target was then-Speaker Pelosi, whose kneecap he wanted to break.
Yesterday’s release of the recordings, though, confirmed every bit of the original police reporting that the attacker broke into the house rather then being invited in, that Pelosi did not know him, and that the actual attack was vicious and nearly deadly. The whole thing was horrifying.
Yet even after the proof was released, social media was full of people saying that because of the Pelosis’ political stances and alleged profiteering, nobody should feel sorry for them.
Repeat: An 82-year-old man gets awakened and terrorized at 2 a.m. by a home intruder, then beaten within an inch of his life with a hammer, but, well, the commenters don’t like his wife, so they say he deserves it.
What in tarnation is wrong with people?…. [The full column is here.]
