Unfortunately, these reactions are not really aberrations in human history. This is a primal human reaction that is devoid of logic. But that has not stopped some people from attempting to justify Thompson’s execution on the sidewalk—and their gruesome reaction to it—on the basis that the company he ran is allegedly horrible or that he was being investigated for various crimes. However, at the end of the day, it does not matter whether Thompson was guilty of the crimes and injustices that he is accused of perpetrating. It is simple—if one thinks about it for more than two minutes—to extrapolate how the principles being espoused to justify Thompson being killed would quickly result in the complete collapse of the social order.

As Jeff Bezos noted in his editorial explaining why The Washington Post would not be endorsing a candidate, trust in the media is even lower than that of Congress. Should journalists, like Taylor Lorenz, really be trying to justify killing people because you think they are bad and terrible? That might not turn out too well for the media.