On a day when governments around Europe have decided to look at the possibility that right wing extremists might be everywhere, some soul searching needs to be done by both the pundit class and the political elite.
When the story first broke every knowledgeable expert that could be dragged out from under a rock was pontificating about Al Qaeda and the problems of Muslim immigration into Europe. A great deal of sanctimonious bullshit flowed under the bridge of hyperbole.
Europeans were dying and it must be the work of Al Qaeda. Although not "privileged" to be watching TeeVees pulpiteers in the US, I believe that the initial BS deluge was the same. Even some political leaders who should know better joined in the chorus of blaming the first organization they could think of; Al Qaeda.
We have reached such knee jerk heights after terror charts of such psychedelic meaninglessness and the constant barrage that Muslims are evil. Around the whacky fringes of the blogosphere some are claiming that this is some Liberal conspiracy to blame nice white folk. Black flag operations have already been howled about.
As the story unfolded these same experts did a complete 180 degree fandango and suddenly became all knowledgeable about domestic terrorism. I wonder who took this drivel seriously?
In a world where a ravenous 24h news cycle sucks the intelligence entire populations, for politicians and even some pundits this might be an important lesson:
Get the facts right before you get on your fucking soapbox.
There is enough fear and loathing going around to fill one of the great lakes without actually having to feed it with verbal diarrhea. It's this type of lack of the facts that gets people hurt, we have enough problems with the positively crazy without feeding the flames with half-baked commentary.
The next time some professional pundit starts speaking without the facts I believe that I have an appropriate solution:
Put them in the stocks and throw rotten tomatoes at them, a win win all round if I might say so, they can scream and we can have a good giggle.
Words matter and so do the facts, god alone knows that even with the facts at hand there are enough idiots around to see a conspiracy under every rock without encouraging them in the first place.
So to every expert out there I have this to say.
To avoid looking a complete moran; take a deep breath and wait five minutes before you speak, you never know it might save a life.