Fanning fires

Published December 11, 2024

By Carter Wrenn

Back during the election as Trump battled Harris – on TV, across social media, on websites – pundits on both the left and right fanned fires. And hordes of people cheered.

Harris lost, Matt Gaetz strode onto the stage, new fires spread. Gaetz got out – fire spreaders locked eyes on Pete Hegseth, talking about sexual abuse and liquor drinking.

Then, out of a clear blue sky, last Thursday two columnists hit Hegseth for praising The Crusades…which the headline above their article called ‘brutal religious military campaigns’ by Christians against Muslims.

I guess that meant Hegseth isn’t woke.

Stoking fires gets ratings. And readers. But that was an odd fire. After all, Muslim armies marched into France before the Crusades and laid siege to Vienna after the Crusades.

The whole thing was silly. But that’s politics today.