Welcome to 2019 post-America

Identity politics is often silly, even ridiculous a lot of the time, but it also gets downright vicious:

Things got interesting at New York University (NYU) Friday during a vigil for the murdered Muslims in New Zealand. Chelsea Clinton showed up and things went downhill from there. A Muslim student was unhappy about Chelsea being invited to attend the vigil and that many speakers were non-Muslims. She tweeted out her displeasure after she participated in the event.

Her friend, who is Jewish, then lit up Twitter when she posted a videoof the Muslim woman tearing into Chelsea Clinton, who is pregnant and blamed Chelsea for the mass shooting in New Zealand because of a tweet. That’s right. In the young woman’s mind, Chelsea’s tweet to Rep. Ilhan Omar in response to Omar’s anti-Semitic tweet which led to the anti-hate resolution is the cause of the shooting. You can’t make this stuff up. The tweet is deleted, but here’s the dialogue from the original video:

“This right here is the result of the massacre stoked by people like you and the words that you have put out into the world,” one student responded. “I want you to know that. I want you to feel that deep inside. The 49 people died because of the rhetoric you put out there.”

To which Chelsea responded:

“I’m so sorry that you feel that way. It was certainly never my intention. I do believe words matter. I believe we have to show solidarity,” Clinton stated when approached by students.

Poor Chelsea. All she could say was that she is sorry that the out of control student feels as she does. Then people standing out of the camera’s shot began yelling at Chelsea and asking “What does that mean?” All Chelsea’s tweet to Omar said was that elected officials should be expected to not traffic in anti-Semitic remarks. That was a perfectly sane response to a member of the House who has now clearly shown herself to be anti-Semitic. Encouraging Omar to knock it off was a very normal reaction. 

It is hard to believe that we are at a place now that young women like these two friends think it is perfectly rational to blame a pregnant woman with a famous last name, who amounts to an innocent bystander for a national tragedy in another country. But, this is where we are. And, of course, the attack on Chelsea had to go up on social media. And now the Muslim woman is tweeting that she’s under attack and receiving threats. Gee, who saw that coming? 

I really don't know how we heal this. I really don't.