Who deserves condemnation: Trump or Fresno State lecturer?

Surely we’re living in the Age of Irony. When then-candidate Donald Trump egged on his supporters to rough up protesters at campaign rallies – a quaint practice that nostalgically lives on today (see Berkeley) – those on the right couldn’t give a flying deuce.

When he made sport of the disabled, boasted of sexual assault, shot off his mouth, and lied through his teeth (I speak of our president now, leader of the free world), the right sat on its hands.

Then among us comes us this poor sap at Fresno State with as itchy a Twitter finger, apparently, as the maximum president himself. His tweet was intemperate and provocative and elicited a firestorm of condemnation as well as a crowd-pleasing petition for dismissal.

Words matter. The truth matters. Sometimes their paths cross, though rarely in the fog of white noise that passes for politics today. The history lecturer’s tweet was a lame attempt at irony; the president’s endless blitzkrieg of mendacity is a savage attempt to subvert democracy. Which offense offends more? Which deserves condemnation?

This story was originally published April 18, 2017 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Who deserves condemnation: Trump or Fresno State lecturer?."