Remember Nadal Hasan? He's the guy who allegedly shot and killed fourteen people at Fort Hood in 2009. In the wake of the shooting, many people assumed it had something to do with post-traumatic stress disorder, a very real problem faced by returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. And then it came out that Hasan had never served in either of those places. And then it came out that he allegedly had some radical ties. That didn't make the problem of PTSD any less important, but the facts of the case didn't fit the original narrative.
I've been angry at some of the rhetoric coming from conservatives for years now. Sarah Palin's crosshairs map was an outrage, and the fact that she did't remove if after Congressman Giffords complained is equally disgusting. And we're all familiar with the weird violent fantasies of some conservative talk show hosts and cable news personalities.
We must remain outraged and angry about their language, and remain disturbed that nobody on the right really seemed to care about this type of language. But much as we would want to fit the Tuscon tragedy into our narrative about conservative rhetoric, we can't. Because based on what we know, their comments had nothing to do with this. Not directly, not even indirectly. It's like blaming an angry Jimmy Carter supporter for John Hinckley.
By all means, let's continue to confront Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sarah Palin and other popular conservatives with their vile language. But in the absence of any evidence whatsoever, to associate them with what happened in Tuscon is rash.
It reminds me of the way people rushed to blame Marilyn Manson (who's more articulate than most psycho talkers) for Columbine. There, the link was actually less tenuous, because those shooters actually listened to Manson's music. We have no evidence whatsoever that this guy even knows who Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck are. So it does not do us any favors to blame them for this. Furious at their kind of talk, yes, but not blame for what happened. Ultimately, it will just give them what they so readily crave: victimization.
Every indication is that this shooter was a deeply troubled person who, acting along, killed six people and seriously injured others. That is outrage enough.