One of the worst symptoms of our online world is that being first is more important than being right.

Because politics and culture both circle the drain of instant gratification, virtue signaling, and viral clickbait, taking your time to pause and simply wait for information is no longer seen as the expected first response of a mature adult.

Quite the opposite is now true. When a politically charged narrative explodes onto the scene, you must either swallow it wholeheartedly or prove yourself to be disloyal to your own movement.

This is precisely what we’ve seen in recent days regarding the story that former President Donald Trump may soon be arrested in the latest chapter in the alleged hush money scandal involving porn star Stormy Daniels.

On Saturday morning, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to suggest that “illegal leaks” indicate that he’ll be arrested this coming Tuesday.

"NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!" Trump wrote in his trademark all-caps.

This was then followed by a call for donations .

But what evidence do we have for this impending arrest? According to a Trump spokesperson , "There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DA’s office, to NBC and other fake news carriers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his Witch-Hunt to the next level.”

Yes, Trump might be arrested in the coming days or weeks. But he also might not be arrested, and there is a monumental difference between Trump pointing out that the justice system has been weaponized — a true statement — and Trump claiming that he’s going to be arrested based on nothing other than illegal leaks and scattered reports from — as he puts it — the “fake news” media.

Now, it is indeed true that Trump has continued to face absurd levels of partisan attention from lower-level politically motivated actors, such as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg . It is also true that this obsession with Trump is often motivated by waves of funding from radical left-wing sources, such as George Soros .

But as conservatives — given that we claim to live in a world of facts over feelings — shouldn’t we wait for the facts before grabbing our proverbial pitchforks, let alone before grabbing our proverbial pitchforks and attacking those on our own side for insufficient loyalty to Trump and therefore conservatism all while other more important stories (such as the Biden family's apparent Chinese money laundering scheme ) slip away?

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), an open supporter of Trump, tweeted , “Pay attention to who is being silent on what is currently happening to Trump.”

Human Events editor Jack Posobiec mirrored this notion, tweeting , “Pay very close attention to which conservatives are silent on the Trump indictment.”

And Vivek Ramaswamy — polling at 0% in Morning Consult’s GOP primary tracker — randomly inserted himself into the narrative, using the situation to try to draw a line between himself and the rest of the GOP, claiming that “the silence from the rest of the GOP field is deafening.”

He then called on “GOP donor class favorites” Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley to join him in “calling on the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to abandon the political persecution through prosecution of the 45th president,” even giving them a 9 a.m. deadline.

These calls to action are wrong on multiple levels.

First, “silence” in the face of limited facts is not the same as silence in the face of indisputable evidence. These activists are acting as if Trump has already been dragged off in handcuffs. The truth is that none of this has happened and, yet again, two things can be true at once.

One: The justice system is politically corrupt and dangerously influenced by donor money, particularly on the local level, and with a demonstrated obsession with Trump.

Two: Trump may or may not be arrested on Tuesday, but we don’t have any reliable evidence to work with.

In times like this, those who pump the brakes and wait for actual information aren’t the traitors. They’re the adults in the room.

Ian Haworth ( @ighaworth ) is the host of Off Limits with Ian Haworth .