Thereโs a category of people I loathe writing about. Theyโre newsworthy only by virtue of committing a despicable act or spouting an awful ideology, and theyโre happy to capitalize on that infamy by seeking attention at every turn. This is a quagmire for writers: professionalism demands following stories wherever they lead but that often conflicts with a morality and better judgment that abhor feeding search algorithms which reward deplorable attention whores.
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Which brings me back to a name I hated typing yesterday, and even moreso today: Kyle Rittenhouse. Two years ago, at age 17, he killed two police brutality protestors with an assault rifle the law said he was too young to carry as he protected a business he didnโt own. Last year, he rode a self-defense argument to an acquittal on criminal charges over the killings. In recent days he was caught lying about matriculating at Texas A&M Universityโwhich says he definitely is notโonly to change his story and say he was going to Blinn Collegeโwhich also says heโs applied but is not enrolledโas a โfeeder schoolโ. In other words, getting away with killing two people wasnโt enough for Rittenhouse. Now heโs desperate for attention, which he seeks in ever more triflinโ ways. About the time I hit send on yesterdayโs story about his Texas A&M tale, Rittenhouse found another way to keep up his George Zimmerman act by trolling a grief-stricken country a fucking machine gun. He tweeted this video:
Rittenhouse rocks an American flag shirt (fake patriots always forget that federal law says, โThe flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery,โ) while spraying a quadrillion rounds from a gun no civilian outside of a Call of Duty session should have access to. In the video game, though, Rittenhouse probably loses because other players are also armed and can shoot back. G.I. Jackass ends the clip smirking at the camera and saying, โJoe Biden, youโre not coming for our guns.โ Ok, genius.
Rittenhouse has clearly chosen the path of the irredeemable. Not a full day after he posted the video before he was on Tucker Carlsonโs Fox News show again, whining about how tHe MeDIa WoNโt lEt hIm LiVe a nOrMal LiFe!โI canโt go to the store. Itโs hard for me to go anywhere without security. Doing basic things like taking my dog to the dog park is difficult, so they made it really difficult to be normal,โ he said, as host Carlson feigned interest and tried to figure out where his lips went. Thereโs zero chance heโll read this since he keeps busy with his studies at Blinn and training for World War III without actually being in the military. But if anybody runs into Kyle Rittenhouse, tell him โnormalโ people would read the room. Theyโd know the last thing the rest of the country wants to see as it buries and mourns dozens of innocent people slain by mass murderers with big guns is somebody spraying an even bigger gun and daring the president to take it. The last person they want to see it from is a guy who already got away with killing two people with the same kind of assault rifle that was used to mow down 19 children in a Texas elementary school and 10 Black shoppers at a Buffalo supermarket. Tell him if he wants to live โnormalโ, he should try acting like it, assuming thatโs a thing heโs even capable of.
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