Vince Vaughn shook Trump's hand at the LSU-Clemson game. But besides Twitter, who cares? Twitter lost its mind when Vince Vaughn shook Donald Trump's hand during the national championship game between LSU and Clemson. But why?

Bill Goodykoontz | Arizona Republic

People, they walk among us.

You see them at restaurants, walk past them in the aisles of supermarkets, maybe even — probably, even — live next door to some of them.

They are … Trump supporters.

Twitter exploded Monday night and Tuesday morning when Vince Vaughn, the actor best known for … well, lately just for being Vince Vaughn, showed up in the luxury box of President Donald Trump and shook the president’s hand during the national college football championship game between LSU and Clemson.

Then he kicked a dog and stole some gruel from the orphanage. Not really, but you’d have thought so from the reaction.

What the handshake outrage boils down to

“Vince Vaughn had the chance to stand up to a rapist, traitor, and child murderer, and instead he enthusiastically shook Donald Trump’s hand,” one tweet read. “(Expletive) ’em both.”

That’s a pretty good summation of the mood of things on social media, certainly among those who hate Trump, and their name is legion, at least on my feed.

In reality, however, the outrage boils down to two words:

Who cares?

We don’t get to control how other people act, after all. Vaughn has campaigned for Ron Paul, and has opposed gun control. It’s not a huge surprise that he might pal around with Trump, if that’s what he was doing.

While we’re at it, it’s Vince Vaughn. The last big thing he did was star in a season of “True Detective” — and it was the bad season!

(For the record, some sports fans were similarly outraged Monday night when New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and his family posed with Trump for a photo.)

'Twitter freaked out'

Sure, it’s notable when a semi-famous person shows up at a big game — Fox always uses the first row or two of seats at World Series games to show off stars of its new fall shows. This wasn’t that, of course. This was just Vaughn shaking hands.

Vince Vaughn shook the hand of someone he probably knew from hollywood long before the presidency and then Twitter freaked out because Twitter is full of sociopathic thought tyrants — Vicodank (@Vicodank1) January 14, 2020

“Vince Vaughn shook the hand of someone he probably knew from Hollywood long before the presidency and then Twitter freaked out because Twitter is full of sociopathic thought tyrants,” one person tweeted.

That’s overstating the case a bit, but truly, we are woefully divided, and there is little appetite and less patience for any differing opinion. Which is too bad, because different opinions are where the interesting stuff lies.

And there is no question Trump has changed things. His disregard not just for the conventional norms of the office but, more importantly, his disregard for the truth in matters both personal and presidential add fuel to what was already a pretty raging fire. It’s a challenge to the media that cover him. It’s a challenge to everyone. This isn’t a disagreement over whether Neal Peart, RIP, was the best drummer ever.

Let them shake hands. And know this

The stakes are considerably higher.

But trying to dictate who Vince Vaughn — Vince Vaughn! — shakes hands with isn’t really productive. In fact, it plays into the right's often disingenuous and erroneous criticism that the left is overly sensitive to, well, just about everything.

“I’m not a Trump support but as an American I know this is America & Vince Vaughn can chat with whoever he wants,” another person tweeted. “You don’t have to agree but you can’t prevent him from practicing his freedoms.”

Let him shake Trump’s hand. And vote for whom you’re going to vote for. That’s what really matters.

Bill Goodykoontz is a columnist for the Arizona Republic where this column first appeared. Follow him on Twitter @goodyk.