When coal miners were being laid off by the thousands because of political hostility to their industry, they got little sympathy from those whose industries were ascendant. “Learn to code” was the advice the miners got on the internet.

Now that “journalists” at outlets like the Huffington Post and Buzzfeed are being laid off, a number on the right have gone down memory lane, urging the “journalists” to learn to code. This is, apparently, a hate crime. There has been a lot of “learn to code” buzz in recent days, but I will limit this post to a single tweet:

Is anyone surprised that telling a laid-off journalist–unlike a coal miner–to learn to code, is a fatal offense on Twitter? Of course not. I’d guess some of those laid-off “journalists” are applying for jobs at Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple, etc. The New Class defends its own.

I suppose if press workers had more self-awareness, they would wonder why so many people cheer the demise of their industry. But introspection is not something we expect from reporters.