Ah, Hoosier pride. You coastal elites can laugh at us yokels out in the square-shaped states all you want, but we can stage fake hate crimes to raise awareness of important social issues too!

Elizabeth Choi, WISH-TV:

A staged hate crime, that’s what investigators believe happened at a church in Brown County. Investigators say a church organist, fearful after the outcome of the 2016 election, vandalized the church he worked at to “mobilize a movement.”

26-year-old George Stang of Bloomington has been charged with institutional criminal mischief, a class A misdemeanor…

According to court documents, Stang admitted to committing the crime out of fear of the election results. Stang, identified as being homosexual in court documents, said his parents are not very supportive of him because he is gay. He said he wanted to “mobilize a movement” but didn’t want the media attention that had resulted.

This is what we call “Fake but accurate.” There are bad people in the world who do bad things, but when you want to raise awareness about it, sometimes you can’t find an example near you on short notice. That’s when it’s time to fake your own hate crime.

Hang in there, George Stang. Stephen Colbert doesn’t approve of your place on the spectrum of sexual behavior, but the rest of us have no problem with it.

If you fell for Mr. Stang’s hoax, don’t worry about it. Happens to the best of us. And even me!

P.S. From a few weeks ago: Indiana State Professor Fabricated Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes. Take that, you city slickers. The heartland is #wokeAF.

P.P.S. Even my own alma mater is #resisting! So proud.