On June 19, 2021, a car struck two Fort Lauderdale Gay Men's Chorus members during a Pride Parade in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Unfortunately, one of the two men who got hit did not make it. At the time of the incident, details were yet to come out. However, that did not stop some of the Twitter blue checkmarks from speculating that the incident was intentional.
Even the mayor, Dean Trantalis, was quick to deem the crash intentional. To quote BBC:
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, who was at the parade, said the "horrifying" events had "terrorised" him and that he felt at the moment that it could have been intentional.
On top of that, he also claimed that because the truck narrowly missed Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's car, the driver deliberately aimed for her:
"This is a terrorist attack against the LGBT community,” Trantalis told Local 10 News. “This is exactly what it is. Hardly an accident. It was deliberate, it was premeditated, and it was targeted against a specific person. Luckily they missed that person, but unfortunately, they hit two other people."
As a result, the #DeathSantis hashtag trended on Twitter (see thumbnail) through the previous evening and this morning... and then, it suddenly stopped. What happened?
Police investigation revealed that the driver of the truck that struck the two members of the chorus was also a part of the group. To reference BBC again, the driver was 77 years old and had ailments that kept him from walking. As a result, he was selected to drive the lead vehicle.
Police has not filed charges against the elderly man (yet) and hypothesized that the truck accidentally accelerated which led to the unfortunate accident.
What has transpired over the last 24 hours or so shows everything wrong with outrage culture. Just because a tragic incident happened at an *Insert cause* event, it does not automatically mean that the person or people who caused that incident are anti-*Insert cause*. That is completely fallacious reasoning.
However, that did not stop the blue checkmarks to let their emotions take precedent over logic and blame Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the accident. Even worse, their tweets spread around like wildfire. Soraya Chemaly's factually incorrect tweet, for instance, received 1,200 retweets.
This is not the first time this has happened either. In fact, this is just one amongst the many times people do not bother to investigate and verify before passing judgement. Some are just not interested in the truth and want to gain internet clout for saying what's "socially acceptable". Others simply lack the critical thinking and emotional control to pump the brakes before formulating an opinion.
Whatever the reason is, this needs to stop. No matter how tragic the situation is, one must always practice restraint. Leave emotions and personal biases out of the equation. Be open to all possibilities, gather information, verify the information, and then, pass judgement.
