The backlash to the backlash has started. First, Walter Palmer was
tarred and feathered on the internet for killing Cecil-the-Lion. Now, Palmer
has received death threats and had to close his dentistry practice and so the internet is
worried about mob justice. Jason
Gilbert on Fusion is spot-on. We all know that this ends with Walter Palmer making
millions of dollars and having his own “nature” show on Fox.
Let me play my role as the counter-narrative to the backlash to the
overreaction: Palmer is only getting mobbed because official justice has failed. Yelp reviewers
aren’t the heroes we need, but they are the heroes our dumbasses deserve
because we have so woefully failed to address this problem through normal
means. Every mob is always the same. Whether they’re using a keyboard, a rope,
or a guillotine, you’ll see the same freaking people. And their cause is always
the same: some perceived injustice that the nominal authorities have failed to
address.
Thing is, sometimes, the mob is right! You can’t eat cake if you don’t
have any bread, Ms. Antoinette. You can’t turn Rome into a structure fire and
then ignore it, Mr. Nero. You can’t shoot unarmed black people because
Emancipation still bothers you, Mr. American Police Officer. The mob will rise whenever the authorities fail to provide justice.
Unfortunately, the mob will also rise whenever they can’t understand how
justice works. And it will also rise whenever Chelsea is denied a penalty. Or
the Giants win the pennant. Or when it’s hot and people run out of Bud Light. A
mob is why we invented the word “unruly.”
