When the Zeitgeist hits different.
“In some dark corners, this man is being hailed as a hero. Well, that’s just the problem, isn’t it? It’s not just coming from the dark corners.”
A healthcare CEO was assassinated in New York City last week and I don't think I've ever seen a reaction like this.
When Donald Trump was shot a lot of people were happy about it but they still kept some sense of decorum. Every time someone expressed disappointment that the shooter had missed they would follow up with. "but of course murder is wrong and I'm glad he's alive" or some other contradictory statement.
When the Oceangate tragedy happened it was more of a "play stupid games win stupid prizes" type reaction. In both instances most of the people in my social media circles were not sympathetic.
But the people's reaction to this is downright......... Jubilant
Nobody is regurgitating the expected platitudes or qualifiers when expressing joy about this unless they're in a public facing job that pays them to do so. It seems public sentiment no longer defaults to civility. Or maybe I'm kidding myself and it hasn't for a long time.
The man who stands accused of this crime is being held up like a modern day Robin Hood. The Internet is filled with fan art and folk songs praising his act of "heroism". I put the word heroism in quotes because I don't want to elevate or condone any of this, I think I just wanna sit back and see how it plays out.
I'm wondering if this is one of those turning points in history that we don't see as a turning point until we're well passed it. Like The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand or the Launch of the iPhone
Is this the next Kyle Rittenhouse? or only the next Harambe?
I can't imagine that they would want to put this man in front of a jury. Keeping in mind that by the time this goes to trial we will all be knee-deep in Trump's America and looking for a little karmic payback.
Ultimately, this reaction feels like a culmination of something deeper: a collected frustration with unjust systems and a boiling over of discontent that's expressing in the unlikeliest of ways.
Maybe this is the new normal manifesting itself. Our version of their rules. Stooping to their level while being able to tell ourselves were not stooping to their level. I'll leave it up to you to decide who I mean when I say "their"
we can debate this back-and-forth until the cows come home. Nobody knows for sure.
This is where we live now. But does it have to be how we live now?