Selective Outrage

Eugene Robinson writes,

Since the 9/11 attacks, we have demonstrated that when alienated young men who are foreign-born and Muslim kill innocents, we will do anything in our power to keep such atrocities from happening again.

Shamefully, however, we have also shown that when alienated young men who are not foreign-born or Muslim do the same, we are powerless.

Robinson was talking about the failure of the Senate to pass a gun purchase background check law, but it goes further than that. The Texas plant explosion that killed 14 people and injured about 200 is fading from memory even as media are obsessing over every detail of the Boston bomb case. Mike Elk writes,

On Friday, as cable news networks sought desperately to fill airtime while waiting for the latest news in the aftermath of the Boston bombings, a friend asked me, “How come there’s no manhunt for the owner of the Texas factory, which did far more damage than the Boston bombers?” He was right to wonder. …

…After all, while it remains difficult to deduce what may have been the motives of the alleged Boston bombers, it is not so difficult to postulate what was behind the explosion at the West Fertilizer Company’s plant: the failure to follow the science of workplace safety. The plant had 1,350 times the legally allowed amount of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, yet hadn’t informed the Department of Homeland Security of the danger. Likewise, the fertilizer plant did not have sprinklers, shut-off valves, fire alarms or legally required blast walls, all of which could have prevented the catastrophic damage done. And there was little chance regulators would learn about the problems without the company reporting them: Not only had the Occupation Safety and Health Administration not inspected the plant since 1985, but also, due to underfunding, OSHA can only inspect plants like the one in West on average once every 129 years.

One suspects the factory owner is a native Texas white guy, so no, nobody cares. Had he been an immigrant from the Middle East or Latin America, however, he’d be a public enemy now.

Getting back to alienated young men … there does seem to be something that drives some young men to do damnfool things, whether shooting up a movie theater or becoming freelance jihadists. Maybe radical ideology is not the cause of the murderous impulses but just the package the murderous impulses crawl into, to give them some shape. Charles Pierce writes of the younger Tsarnaev,

What are they all going to do if this guy just turns out of be a pathetic, murderous follower of an unhinged older brother? What are they going to do if there’s no “cell,” and if he doesn’t declare his allegiance to jihad in court? What if he is, as he still appears to be, merely Dylan Klebold with a funny name and a pulse? We are supposed to be seeking justice here, not a public blood sacrifice to the gods we’ve made of our fears. What do we do if the truth denies us that?

Truth? Who needs truth?