Just 24 hours ago there were thousands of people on Twitter, including a number of journalists, who seemed ready to connect a mass shooting in Annapolis to the rhetoric of President Trump. It was the return of the old climate of hate argument. Today, the DOJ put out a press release about the arrest of a California man (his name is Markara Man) who sent threatening emails to FCC chairman Ajit Pai. One of those emails threatened to kill Pai’s young children and another included a photo of his family.

On or about Dec. 19 and 20, 2017, Markara Man, 33, of Norwalk, allegedly sent three emails to Chairman Pai’s email accounts. The first email accused Chairman Pai of being responsible for a child who allegedly had committed suicide because of the repeal of net neutrality regulations. The second email listed three locations in or around Arlington, and threatened to kill the Chairman’s family members. The third email had no message in its body, but included an image depicting Chairman Pai and, in the foreground and slightly out of focus, a framed photograph of Chairman Pai and his family. The FBI traced the emails to Man’s residence in Norwalk, California, and when initially confronted in May 2018, Man admitted to the FBI that he sent the email threatening Chairman Pai’s family because he was “angry” about the repeal of the net neutrality regulations and wanted to “scare” Chairman Pai.

Man is charged with a threatening to murder a member of the immediate family…

Needless to say, this is disgusting. And this nut wasn’t alone. You may remember that the actual vote to repeal net neutrality was interrupted by a bomb threat. No bomb was found, but the person responsible for that bomb threat later made a swatting call which resulted in a man’s death. And in January, Pai canceled a trade show appearance over “multiple” death threats.

Here’s a question. Generally speaking, which side of the aisle was militantly against net neutrality repeal? There wasn’t a neat partisan divide on this issue (at least compared to some) but many on the right mostly considered it overplayed issue while the progressive left was almost unanimously freaking out about it. You can take a look at this NY Times story presenting right and left perspectives for reference.

And yet, I don’t see any media types blaming the progressive left for the behavior of one unhinged moron in California threatening to kill someone’s children. The climate of hate argument really only operates in one direction. It’s a partisan ratchet that turns one direction. When it can be used to blame the right, as it was in Tucson or as many were doing in anticipation yesterday before the shooter’s motive was known, great. If someone on the left goes postal, as happened in Dallas or Baton Rouge or Alexandria, then we just don’t talk about the climate that might have influenced that person’s actions. It’s the most tiresome of all the left’s double standards but it never seems to change.