Whenever some gun nut massacres a bunch of people the Right tries to downplay it as if it is not evidence of a serious problem. And now that Islamic terrorists have massacred a bunch of people, it is the Left’s turn–the Facebook Left, at least–to say that it is not a sign of a serious problem. The idea that both types of massacres could be a serious problem seems to be an illogical impossibility in the minds of both Left and Right. It is simply not conceivable. If the Left is upset about gun nut massacres, then the Right cannot be upset. And if the Right is upset about Islamic terrorism, then the Left can’t be upset. In fact, the two sides cannot agree in the most histrionic, extreme ways possible. Each goes to absurd degrees to denigrate the concerns of the other aside. The Right calls the Left cowards for being frightened of gun nut massacres. The Left calls the Right stupid for thinking that Islamic terrorism is something to be worried about. The Right says that people concerned about gun nut massacres are dangers to the Republic. The Left says that people concerned about Islamic terrorism are racists. Of course, neither side genuinely gives a flying fuck about the actual murdered people, and both go to extremes to never name the victims’ names or mention the funerals of the other side’s massacres. All either side cares about is scoring debate points on Facebook. That this zero sum political gamesmanship is by definition amoral is beyond their comprehension, so locked are they in this virtual mortal combat. After all, it can’t be amoral since each has morality so completely on their side. Politics has come to this, and the dead are just pawns.

Of course both Left and Right will assume, after reading this, that I support the other side.