CARTOON: Good Riddance

From cartoonist Clay Jones on “Good Riddance,” conservative trolls, and how not to make an ass of yourself on social media

Within minutes of the announcement of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, a lot of liberals went to town expressing their excitement and happiness in the event. A lot of those people are friends and readers of mine. I’m not comfortable with that. I understand not liking the guy, and I didn’t. I was not a fan of his rulings and opinions. I do view his tenure on the Supreme Court as detrimental to the country, but I also believe he still deserves a level of respect. I am not opposed to voicing a negative opinion about the dead, if I believe it’s based on fact, but I will not celebrate. I wouldn’t want it to happen to someone I like.

And it has happened to someone I like. What I’m attacking here is the belief by many conservatives that insulting the dead and vulgar comments are new things exclusive to liberals. That alone is another reason not to make a social media ass out of yourself. You just give your political opposition ammunition to use against you, and they’re not entirely wrong. I don’t like helping them.

They have done it, too, whether they want to admit it or not. Conservatives suffer from short memories. A conservative friend of mine I enjoy going back and forth with stated he had never seen conservatives react the way liberals did in regards to Scalia. What you choose to believe doesn’t determine facts. What amazed me is my friend is a huge fan of Breitbart. He posts stories from that site on a daily basis, and if you ever need confirmation that conservatives can be vile and vulgar human beings, just scroll down to the comments section. Then take a shower.

Andrew Breitbart, who has since passed away lived long enough to rejoice at the passing of Ted Kennedy. He stated that Kennedy was a “villain,” a “duplicitous bastard” and a “prick.” He continued with, “Kennedy was a special pile of human excrement.” He wasn’t the only one. In addition to media personalities, Twitter lit up from conservative Kennedy haters.

At least Kennedy is the only example, right? No. Of course not. They trolled Beau Biden to the point that Fox News had to shut down it’s comment section on the story.  Even Jimmy Carter’s cancer news got the conservative troll treatment. There are other examples, but I’m tired of posting this stuff.

My point is that there are jerks on both sides. I would rather talk about the atmosphere at the moment than the dead, which is what I did with my first cartoon on Scalia’s death.

My advice regarding speaking of the dead in the immediate aftermath is that if you can’t say anything nice….

claytoonz.com/2016/02/16/good-riddance-3