The 24 hour hot take rule
Some right-wingers jumped to blame immigration advocates or leftists for the Minnesota assassinations -- and still haven't corrected themselves.
When an act of political violence occurs with unclear perpetrator or motives, it's generally sound policy to refrain from speculating about those subjects for at least 24 hours.
Unfortunately, after yesterday morning's assassination of former Minnesota Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and attempted assassination of Minnesota Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, quite a few right-wingers among my acquaintance shared on social media far-fetched theories that the lawmakers had been targeted by someone on the far left or a pro-immigration advocate -- this at a point when the suspect was still unidentified. These theories were vigorously pushed on X / Twitter by an array of prominent MAGA influencers led by Elon Musk.
This was always an unlikely speculation, to put it mildly. Hortman and Hoffman were liberal Democrats and both cast the deciding vote for their parties in the organization of their chambers. As of Friday, the Minnesota lower house was evenly split 67-67 between DFL (the local Minnesota name of national Democrats) and Rs. With Hortman's murder, the chamber has now become majority Republican, 67-66. The Minnesota Senate was split 34 D to 33 R. Had Hoffman been killed (he is expected to survive), that would have become a 33-33 split. I'm advised that the split is unlikely to matter practically as the legislature is unlikely to reconvene until February; in similar circumstances, I've seen merit in having a lawmaker from the other party volunteer to refrain from casting a vote until voters can fill the vacant seat, so that evildoing can yield no victory that democracy couldn't.
Not many hours later, police named as a suspect Vance Boelter (who is still at large) and the attempts to blame the murders on the left or Democrats stood starkly revealed as crazy talk. A private security contractor described by a close friend as a Trump supporter, Boelter was also a particular kind of preacher who ranted on about the moral decline of America. You can watch some of his religious speeches online, and suffice it to say they ain't Unitarian Universalist Pride Month material. Police also said Boelter left a hit list including abortion providers and advocates as well as such progressive figures as Gov. Tim Walz, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Sen. Tina Smith.
Anyone with eyes to see knows that the propensity toward violence in American politics these days isn't confined to just the "other" side from whichever one we adhere to. If we're to curb that propensity, maybe we should refrain from demonizing the entire opposite party as hating America or in league with its enemies, or blaming the entire body of adherents of that opposite party for the worst acts of its worst believers.
I checked up on the social media of some of the friends I'd seen spreading the early junk from the hours before Boelter was identified. As of this writing, few of them have updated the record or conceded that events didn't confirm the suspicions they promoted.
Perhaps we should examine the personalities and events that contribute to the creation of these monsters. For monsters are not of the right, nor are monsters of the left, but they do live amongst us.