If Only They Could Read

There’s a profile of Jared Loughner at the New York Times that is mildly interesting, but doesn’t say much you probably don’t already know if you’ve been following the news. The weird part of the story is that rightie bloggers are linking to it in outrage because (they think) it says that Loughner was “affiliated” with right-wing groups.

But it doesn’t say anything of the sort. The article stresses, over and over, that Loughner was highly isolated from everybody, probably including his own family, and living in his own psychotic world. He wasn’t “affiliated” with anything or anybody except for the voices in his head.

For example, ZIP at Weasel Zippers actually quotes part of the story that (he thinks) makes a claim of affiliation, and nowhere in the quote does it say anything about affiliation. It says Loughner soaked up some of the ideas he found rattling around on the web and incorporated them into his imaginary world. And, yes, these ideas were primarily (although not exclusively) out of the Right. He also seems to have thought the sky is orange.

Unbelievable. I guess if you want to be mad about something badly enough, you make stuff up to be mad about.