Frank Rich on the Giffords shooting

Not quite as insightful as some of his better work, but still worth reading: Frank Rich's 15 January 2011 column devoted to the Tucson shooting.

That Loughner was likely insane, with no coherent ideological agenda, does not mean that a climate of antigovernment hysteria has no effect on him or other crazed loners out there.

I've seen a few crazy lawsuits filed by crazy people. In each instance the complaint, the legal filing laying out the plaintiff's grievances, was a litany of conspiracy theories involving J.F.K., the CIA, the current president, the Pope, and a host of other well-known figures and institutions. The only common factor (to a sane person, anyway) is that all of these people and institutions were constantly "in the news," constantly being mentioned in various contexts.

A drumbeat of hysteria does have an effect on the irrational. It has an effect on all of us.