The Left’s effort to link Jared Loughner’s actions to
conservative talk radio, hate speech, Sarah Palin’s targets, etc.
had nothing to do with urging us all to consider the consequences
of political statements and symbols. Rather, it’s part of a
constant campaign to use the Web organize and energize its base
around sensational narratives consistent with an ideological or
cultural view as substitute for facts or events as they really
unfold. The deliberate use of the Web to create instant mobs or
spread fear has long-term consequences for our ability to function
as a society.
While the Left or liberal outlets are not alone in this
using the Internet for such purposes, they are more likely to adopt
and spread as “truth” whatever fits their narrative, ignoring facts
that conflict with the story line when they emerge. In recent years
MoveOn.org willingly posted hateful and untrue comments about
Israel and its supporters during the 2006 Lebanon War. Back then,
comments (which the majority of MoveOn respondents supported)
included: “Media owning Jewish pigs,” “sneaky
Jewish sympathizers!” and “As we’ve already agreed, most of these
GREEDY PIGS are Jewish.”
The Daily Kos was not far behind, allowing one blogger to
suggest “gassing Joe
Lieberman like a dog” and another comparing Israel’s foreign
minister to Adolf Hitler. The
Huffington Post recently ran a sketch depicting the
assassination of President George W. Bush.
I am not blaming these sites for the increase in
anti-Jewish hate crimes across the United States. Rather, they
demonstrate the extremes to which such blogs go to reinforce a
worldview and deviate from the facts. Blogs and websites can
promote conversations. But more often they create crowds — or mobs
— that make it more difficult and dangerous to address real
problems in a factual way: A “Google” search of “Sarah Palin and
crosshairs” yields 705,000 hits. Search for “Jared Loughner and
mental illness” and you get 57,000 citations.
Yet as soon as it became clear that Loughner’s rants,
online postings, and behavior had nothing to do with conservative
politics or Sarah Palin, a new liberal narrative emerged:
Loughner’s mental illness went undiagnosed and untreated because of
cuts in mental health funding. So conservative rhetoric didn’t pull
the trigger, conservative healthcare policies did. Hence, the
New Republic’s Jon Cohn
writes: “We may never know whether a better mental health care
system would have averted this massacre. But we can be sure that it
would avert some future ones.”
In fact, Arizona spends more per capita on mental illness
than 36 other states. Neal Cash, president of the Community
Partnership of Southern Arizona, the organization that provides
mental health services to Tucson and Pima County for the state,
told the Washington Post that while “$50 million has
been cut in the last two fiscal years — he said that no one
diagnosed seriously mentally ill has been turned down for
services.”
Nor are there high legal hurdles for court ordered
treatment: Arizona’s standard is need for treatment, not the threat
of harm to others or oneself.
Finally, several people brought Loughner’s behavior to the
attention of college and law enforcement officials, though it is
unknown if his parents were unable or unwilling to report his
behavior, even after being contacted by Pima Community
College.
It is difficult for people with severe mental illness to
avoid harm or violence even under the best of circumstances. Nearly
half of those with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder with psychoses
go untreated. They often don’t believe they are ill and their
families are often unable to get them to seek treatment or in
denial.
So solutions are limited. Increasing the use of
court-ordered outpatient treatment and medication is associated
with a reduction in violent behavior. But many people, particularly
on the Left, object to any form of imposed medical care or
increased use of medication. (A topic I’ll discuss in another
column.)
The Left’s online accusation orgy initially drained time
and attention from the courage, character, and grace of those
affected by or involved in the tragedy. But the genuine response to
crisis exposed the shallowness of the Left’s reaction and more. In
particular, the
words of John Green, the father of Christina Taylor Green, the
nine-year-old girl gunned down by Loughner last Saturday, brought
tears of comfort to our nation:
She came into the world on 9/11 and then at nine years old
she leaves it all on this terrible day. But we wouldn’t take it
back — any of the nine years we had with her.
It was all worth it. But we still believe in this
country.
