Advertisement
Tech

10 awful comments about the Charleston shooting—and one that’s painfully true

The more these tragedies occur, the more scripted the tweets become.

Photo of Joey Keeton

Joey Keeton

Article Lead Image

The way some people react on Twitter to acts of tragic violence has become eerily predictable. Practically everyone had a take on Wednesday night’s deadly Charleston church shooting, and the sentiments they expressed on Twitter said a lot about them. Here are 10 examples of comments that reveal more about their authors than they intended—plus one example of an actual American hero saying something smart and, we’d like to think, bipartisan.

Featured Video

1) Alex Jones warned that  Obama will use this tragedy to grab your guns.

Advertisement

2) Bill O’Reilly reacted the same way.

Advertisement

3) Conservative Pastor E.W. Jackson pointed out that the tragedy could have been averted if only the victims in the church had been armed. 

Advertisement

4) Stepping away from the gun control issue, Adam Baldwin made sure that people knew that drugs and insanity were behind the shootingbut definitely not racism.

(Sorry, this embed was not found.)

5) Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) posted a motivational poster for his own quote that involved a bridge against a sunsetfor reasons we’ll never understand. But he needed to show that he cared…

Advertisement

… before getting back to the real issues at hand with his next tweet. Thanks for being so sweet, Mitch. 

Advertisement

6) In an effort to remind us that both parties can turn a tragedy into a political opportunity, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also weighed in on gun control.

Advertisement

7) The National Rifle Association ignored the tragedy, instead attempting to link to a Facebook post that explained something about guns, but failed, and linked to the entire page instead. 

Yes, lay low for now, NRA. The three top publicly traded gun companies all rallied, and their prices closed up today. The fear of gun control will probably continue their rally tomorrow—this is good news for your industry!

Advertisement

8) Nancy Grace reiterated how much of a bombshell it is that a quiet [white] loner could commit a crime like this.

Advertisement

9) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was quick to point out that this was the act of an “individual,” a concept that has worse implications when taken out of the context of a tweet

Advertisement

10) Al Sharpton reminded everybody that he was, indeed, in Charleston. He then sent several follow-up tweets to assure people that he was meeting with a great deal of people, which is surely a huge help to everybody involved and not, in any way, a giant distraction for them.

Advertisement

11) And now for your palette-cleanser: Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who was brutally beaten in the first civil-rights march from Selma to Washington, weighed in. It took two tweets—because it was 100% accurate.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Image by Max Fleishman

 
The Daily Dot