Saturday afternoon, I read about how the U.S. had bombed the only hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, which was being staffed by the French volunteer group, Doctors without Borders.I recalled the 2004 U.S. bombings of a hospital in Fallujah. So I tossed out a tweet –
Blowing up that Kunduz hospital is a small price to pay in the greater campaign to rid the world of extremist violence.
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) October 3, 2015
Nattie Roman responded with a great quip –
@JimBovard @scotthortonshow "You mean we were supposed to blow up insurgents? I thought you said surgeons."
— Nattie Roman (@TsarKastik) October 4, 2015
Her tweet got lots of pickup – boosted after I replied, “Close enough for government work.”
Then Wick Allison, the chairman of the board of the American Ideas Institute, the publisher of the American Conservative (where I’m a contributing editor), replied with a message aimed at me and Clark Stooksbury, another contributing editor who had retweeted (or favorite) my original line:
@JimBovard @clarkstooksbury Sorry you weren't in it. Might have introduced a different perspective.
— Wick Allison (@wickallison) October 3, 2015
Allison later clarified that he lives in an “irony-free zone” and missed my attempted humor.
After Angela Keaton @antiwar2 kindly retweeted my original line, the topic reheated. Here’s an insightful response from a twitter user named DJkilllist
Go fuck yourself, you terrible motherfucker https://t.co/8zdw7d1Oyz
— djkilllist (@djkilllist) October 5, 2015
On Saturday Kevin McKenzie replied to my original tweet, so I tossed out another line exonerating all government killings:
.@kevinmckenz Govt. killings are never extremist because they are done for the good of the people.
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) October 4, 2015
Alas, this was not well-received by Twitter users calling themselves Anarchoantihero and Lo
Please do us a favor and shoot yourself in the fucking head… https://t.co/O93FqUAj6f
— Ayn Randy Savage (@anarchoantihero) October 5, 2015
Hey, kill yourself. https://t.co/l5wzp5St9s
— Lo (@Lo_b_) October 5, 2015
Regardless, I continue to have unbounded hope that social media will cure all the ills of Attention Deficit Democracy.
If nothing else, my Twitter account will increase the number of people who dance at my funeral – or who at least do cartwheels upon hearing of my demise.