So earlier this evening, after learning we had another tragic mass shooting in America, I traveled over to Twitter to get details. I read up on this and that, that and this. The scene. The number of victims. The pure nightmare of attending a happy event, only to wind up overwhelmed by carnage.
Then, after getting what I needed, I had the misfortune of seeing the feed of someone named Tom Odell.
Who posted this …
And this …
And this stuff shouldn’t surprise me. I don’t know Tom Odell, but odds are pretty good (based upon society and social media) he’s one of the hundreds of thousands of citizens who has had his brain melted by the nonstop #MAGA blender goop that is Hannity/Limbaugh/Carlson/Ingraham. I mean, how else to explain a man (who IDs himself as “Retired • Teacher • Business Executive”) replying to a call for gun control after a tragedy by noting that, um, Democrats are to blame, because they’re always the killers? Would a teacher—an honest-to-goodness educator—post such vile? Someone who works with children? Someone who promotes education, open-mindedness, unity? No, of course not. At least not one I know.
So who is Tom Odell? Sort of a mystery. He has a blog that came and went. An address exists. Phone number, too (I’m not listing them, obviously. The goal here is certainly not to harass the man). I guess what really gets me—in a, “What the fuck is wrong with people?” way—is the implication that Democrats are the ones doing all the killing with guns, and that’s why (ah ha!) Democrats are anti-NRA and pro-gun restrictions. Which actually makes no sense, because if we were so into killing wouldn’t we want more pro-killing laws, to keep our passion fruitful? Wouldn’t we be huge NRA supporters, because their gun restriction laziness helps our cause?
More to the point, wouldn’t Tom Odell—retired teacher—do a little more fucking research before posting a couple of graphics designed by “Politifake.org”? For example, here’s a list of all the mass shootings in America this month (“mass” meaning more than one victim) …
Now, for all I know all these incidents involved registered Democrats pulling the trigger. Or maybe they were all registered Republicans. I have nary a clue. Neither does Tom Odell—because while he sure likes “Stick it to the libs!” memes, he does not seem to be much of a fan of research. What I do know (because I took a whopping 15 minutes to look this stuff up) is Dylann Roof was no Democrat. And Robert Gregory Bowers was no Democrat. And Stephen Paddock was no Democrat. And Devin Patrick Kelley was no Democrat. And Christoper Harper-Mercer was no Democrat.
I can go on and on. But what’s the point? I could tell Tom Odell that, in the aftermath of 9.11, Donald Trump not only lied about helping with the Ground Zero cleanup, but bragged on live television about now having New York City’s tallest building—and it wouldn’t make a dent. I could tell Tom Odell that Trump’s entire financial backstory is a sham—and it wouldn’t make a dent. I could tell Tom Odell that Donald Trump Tweeted out images of Hillary Clinton with a Star of David and a pile of money—and it wouldn’t make a difference (Ilhan Omar is the anti-Semite, after all). I could tell Tom Odell that the whole #FAKENEWS phenomenon he loves to cite in Tweets was created by a man who invented a fake publicist and hung fake Time magazine covers throughout his golf courses. I could tell Tom Odell that—on golf trips alone—Donald Trump has cost taxpayers $105 million thus far (making this re-Tweet from Tom sorta misguided). Hell, I could tell Tom Odell that Trump was never (as stated) an actual gun-carrying member of the NRA.
I could say all that, and it wouldn’t make a sliver of difference.
Because men like Tom Odell—powerless, sad, aching for the world to take notice—are here to spew venom and bring it to the socialists.
Truth and sincerity be damned.
