. . . and while I’m at it, what the hell is this?

No. No. No. This is not the story. The story is not “MAGA.” It’s not “influencers.” It’s not people “seeking to elevate the issue of violent urban crime” or “accuse mainstream media of under-covering shocking cases.” The story is violent urban crime and, as Axios itself just illustrated, the mainstream media’s grotesque tendency to under-cover shocking cases. The story is this murder, and the guy who committed it, who should not have been on a train waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting traveler, because the existing criminal justice system should have contained him. If it were, indeed, the case that “MAGA” were particularly exercised about this, it would make no difference whatsoever. But it’s not even true. This sort of thing is pre-political. It raises questions that everyone other than progressive weirdos care about — normal, quotidian, legitimate questions that have informed our politics since the dawn of time. There is no well-adjusted person in America who read this story and thought, “but what does MAGA think?” or “but which side of the partisan spectrum does this help” or “I sure hope this doesn’t lead to people thinking badly of the mentally ill.” Those reactions are unhinged, abnormal, bizarre. For shame. For shame. For shame.