Occasionally I like to take a dive in the deep end of progressive lunacy. That’s when I click over… not to Slate… not even to Salon… but to Jezebel.
The outrage du jour: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted something nice about John McCain after he died on Saturday.
Can you imagine?
From the headline, you might guess that you’re about to read a fair-minded examination of the unhinged response to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet. It reads, “These 3,600 Comments Are None Too Pleased With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s John McCain Tweet.”
But of course this is Jezebel, so there’s going to be nothing fair-minded about it at all. Or even simply, uh, minded.
So what did AOC tweet to raise such a stink? Just that “John McCain’s legacy represents an unparalleled example of human decency and American service. As an intern, I learned a lot about the power of humanity in government through his deep friendship with Sen. Kennedy. He meant so much, to so many. My prayers are with his family.” It’s the kind of generic condolence sent by any decent human being, and it’s the first sign I’ve seen that the New York socialist might actually be one.
But that’s not good enough for Jezebel or 3,600 Twitter jerks. Although to be fair, the first bit of Whitney Kimball’s Jezebel tract tried really hard to at least appear even-handed. She wrote:
There’s a heaping pile of “wtfs” and trash GIFs in here, but the intermittent critiques mainly pinpoint her choice to praise McCain’s political record rather than offering a simple condolence. “I still support you, and I’m sure most of the people criticizing you also do as well, but it is disappointing for you to lay praise on such an awful man. You could have just sympathized for his family, said nothing etc.,” one follower tweeted. Others accuse her of pandering and drifting from her own hardline principles, while defenders and conservatives jumped in to attack the critics for vitriol.
So far, so good. Kimball even pauses to ask the relevant question: “McCain’s record does represent the views Ocasio-Cortez has defined herself, and the fight she’s leading, against–does that fight pause for R.I.P.s?”
We’ll get to that in a moment, but the next line is exactly the kind of deep-end Kool Aid which makes the occasional visit to Jezebel so fun: “John McCain was, by mid-20th century ideations of American imperialism, a war hero.”
That’s the opening sentence of a Freshman year paper sure to get an A at most of your finer, overpriced schools.
After a brief (and obligatory-sounding) recitation of the hells McCain endured as a POW, the author reminds us that McCain “was also on his 23rd bombing mission, prepared to kill people, potential civilians included, when he was shot down.”
The rest of the article is more of the same.
So if the relevant question is “does that fight pause for R.I.P.s,” clearly, the f****** was asking for it, if you ask Jezebel.
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