A mass shooting happened Tuesday at YouTube’s headquarters in California, and it might be impervious to politicization.
An animal rights activist named Nasim Aghdam allegedly wounded three people before she apparently turned the gun on herself, marking the only confirmed fatality of the day.
It’s not exactly clear at the moment why Aghdam shot up YouTube. Early reports suggested she was targeting an ex-boyfriend, but police ruled out specific targeting on Wednesday. Her father said she was upset with YouTube and one of her last videos — she made dozens of bizarre videos on the platform — complained that the tech company was demonetizing her content for being too “left-wing.” (RELATED: YouTube Shooter Posted Bizarre Anti-Meat Videos)
Aghdam used a handgun in her attack, a weapon that is not in the crosshairs of gun control proponents. She’s also a woman of Iranian descent, an identity that doesn’t lend itself to left-wing narratives about the threat of angry white men.
The shooting appears to be the case of just one deranged woman taking out her anger over a perceived wrong. There’s no larger political connection here — whether it be terrorism or gun control.
However, liberals were very eager to politicize the shooting when it was first reported. Leading the pack, actor Michael Ian Black immediately blamed the shooting on the “terrorists” over at the National Rifle Association. (RELATED: Hollywood Celebrity Blames The NRA For YouTube HQ Shooting Before The Facts Are Known)
“Another shooting. I’m going to politicize the fuck out of it, and so should you,” Black said in one of his tweets. “The NRA is a terrorist organization.”
Black and others doubled down on their assertion that the NRA was at fault when challenged by critics who pointed to the lack of information available on the shooting.
“No, I don’t know who the shooter is. It doesn’t matter if they are an NRA member. Yes, I know how they got the gun: the NRA and its blood-soaked lackeys made it possible for that person to get it,” the washed up comedian explained.
Other verified Twitter users claimed the NRA directly motivated the shooter by making videos critical of YouTube. In a very civil manner, these gun control advocates asserted the gun rights group made terroristic threats to YouTube and should be responsible for all violence against the tech company.
“The NRA called for its members to ‘fire back’ at sites like YouTube and ‘overwhelm these leftists in California.’ The NRA is a terrorist organization,” tech entrepreneur Fred Benenson argued.
It’s highly unlikely that a left-wing vegan was motivated by NRATV videos. But don’t expect an apology from the journalists and celebrities who tried to make the connection anyway.
Every mass shooting in America is bound to be politicized by the Left before the blood has even dried. Regardless of circumstances, a crazed gunman is always in league with the NRA.
But when faced with facts that counter the narrative, journalists prefer to let the story die.
Aghdam’s background and motivation are too off-script to keep her rampage in the news. It’s hard to make a case for taking AR-15s away from rednecks when your perp used a handgun and makes trippy pro-vegan music videos.
In an ideal world, Americans would wait until basic facts emerge to politicize shootings. In reality, we will likely see this kind of behavior for every shooting going forward.
At least we can expect the YouTube shooting to not figure in any future left-wing narratives, unlike the Gabby Giffords shooting. The New York Times was still falsely blaming Sarah Palin in 2017 for that 2011 attack, even though the gunman was proven not to be politically motivated. That bit of fake news was just too appetizing for liberal narratives to warrant a cursory fact check. (RELATED: NYT Has Been Pushing Palin-Giffords Falsehood For Years)
While we can’t expect an apology from the people who blamed the NRA for the YouTube shooting, no major media outlet will advance their fake news.
Gun control advocates believe an assault weapons ban and a gun registry will prevent future tragedies. Tuesday’s shooting disproves that theory, so don’t be surprised when the story suddenly disappears from the front pages.
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