Wolf-Scat Spread by the Pack Behind the Scrim

I’m sick of these claims that the Jacksonville shooter—and others like him—is just one more “lone wolf.” This guy wrote manifestos to his parents, “the media,” and federal agents about his plan to kill black people. These hate-filled killers are very much aware of a large crowd of yea-sayers in our country; they act as they do, NOT because they just thought it up in their own little heads, but rather because they know there are others—many others—who would support and even praise these febrile animosities. Just look around you, Americans! Hatred unto death is now a ”thing” in our society. And it is emboldened, facilitated, and even sanctioned by our diseased fascination with guns. Not lone wolves, we are a lone country among nations. American exceptionalism at its worst. I am reminded of how Chief Justice Roberts argued for the SCOTUS majority that the United States had, in effect, “learned its lesson” so as not to cripple voting rights in “previously” oppressive states. As soon as SCOTUS cut the legs out from under The Voting Rights Act, which had served us honorably and well since the mid-1960s, state legislatures leaped to disenfranchise voters not of their own party. Not a problem of a few rogue politicans, but a concerted effort by large numbers—though not majorities—who could not bear to share power equably as The Constitution urged us. Both of these catastrophes for our democratic republic happen because of “playing to a crowd” who have little interest in combatting deadly hatreds in BOTH cases.