I have mixed feelings about Melanie Austin. I can’t help but feel sorry for her, but I know she doesn’t want my sympathy. I don’t blame the Pennsylvania state police for hauling her “off to the nuthouse” considering that she was inciting violence by posting about the need to hang Bill and Hillary Clinton and President Obama, but she has a point that she “didn’t get there on my own.” She’s been exposed to a ton of misinformation designed to deceive her and bilk her out of money. I feel badly that she won a sexual harassment case that awarded her north of $400,000 in damages only to see it overturned on appeal. I don’t really have an opinion on the merits of the case since I didn’t sit in court and hear the facts, but I can understand the disappointment she must have felt.
I also don’t like seeing her singled out like this, held up as example A of how unhinged and intolerant Donald Trump’s supporters can be. Yet, the reporter, Stephanie McCrummen, didn’t do much more than spend a couple of days with her during the Republican National Convention and report what she said and did. She brought the criticism, as well as the attention of law enforcement, on herself. At the same time, when she argues that she can’t be crazy because there are so many people out there who think just like she does, she is unfortunately correct in the latter part of that assessment. How many people are we going to certify as insane?
Maybe close to half the country deserves to spend some time in the nut house getting their medication sorted out.
She suffers from crippling anxiety, which makes me feel compassionate. But then I think about how she spends all day reading rightwing conspiracy sites that are designed to ramp up her level of fear and paranoia. I wish she wouldn’t do that and I have to hold her accountable for it, but I also am angered that these sites exist to prey on people like her.
Most of all, I can’t decide if it’s good to expose this women’s very personal voyage into craziness because it’s part of a wider phenomenon that needs to be understood, or if this is more of a way of dismissing all of Trump’s supporters, most of whom who aren’t quite this nuts.
