Wingnut Week In Review: Speaking Ill Of the Dead

Two tragic events this week gave right wingers an opportunity to show some humanity and decency. As usual, wingnuts did not exactly cover themselves in glory. Instead of rising to the occasion, they sank to new lows.

Most Americans were sad to learn that beloved comedian and Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams took his own life earlier this week. Within minutes of the news, the web was full of tributes. Williams’ fans and colleagues alike remembered his talent and kindness — even as the world learned that Williams’ had struggled with severe depression of late.

Not everyone was so kind. It’s been considered socially inappropriate to speak ill of the dead sinceChilon of Sparta admonished "Demortuis nilnidi bonus” ("Of the dead say nothing but good”) around 600 BC. That didn’t stop wingnuts from chiming in less than 24 hours after Williams Death.

If we tallied up who brought the most joy to the most people in his life — Rush Limbaugh or Robin Williams — it’s safe to say Williams would win hands down. As for Limbaugh? Well, comedian Lewis Black said it best.

The country was rocked midweek by the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was unarmed when he was shot and killed by a police office in Ferguson, Missouri — where the population is 67 percent black and the police force is 94 percent white. Brown’s death came less than a month after Eric Garner — another unarmed black man — was allegedly killed by an NYPD officer’s use of an illegal chokehold. Brown was the second unarmed black man killed by police this week, after Ezell Ford was allegedly shot by LAPD officers while he was lying on the ground.

Brown’s death set off angry protests in Ferguson, which police met with paramilitary force, and constitutionally questionable treatment of protestors and journalists. Naturally, that set wingnuts off.

Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowrey, in a CNN interview after his release, invited Scarborough to put down his latte and come down to Ferguson and do some actual reporting.

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Here’s the rest of the best of the worse in wingnuttery this week: