Smollett's story may be phony, but it shows the real danger of jumping to conclusions

Ruben Navarrette Jr. on Feb 21, 2019

It happened on both the oversensitive left, and the desensitized right. Liberals went off half-cocked and suggested the alleged incident was fueled by the same mood that helped elect Donald Trump. Conservatives cynically used the alleged hoax as an excuse to bash "identity politics."

If we wanted something to be true, it was true. If we wanted it to be false, it must be false. Why? Because this story wasn't about Smollett. It was about us -- about how we feel about anti-LGBTQ violence.

C'mon people, how broken are we? We've gone from not listening to not thinking. We see a tweet or hear a rumor, and we decide -- on the spot -- whether or not it's true based on our politics and our prejudices. Case closed.

Last month, when my brother -- who happens to be gay, so his antennae are up for stories like this -- texted me to share news of the alleged hate crime, I didn't buy it. The journalist in me was skeptical that white racist homophobes who voted for Trump but also watched "Empire" were roaming the streets of a Democratic haven like Chicago.

But people kept talking about the story. So eventually, I mentioned the alleged attack in a column about how it is that so many LGBTQ stories are in the news these days. And I was careful to use the word "alleged."

No matter. I still heard from readers who were eager to discount the whole column. Days before police arrested Smollett, they had already made up their minds that the alleged attack was a hoax. Like I said, we feel. We don't think.

Never mind Jussie Smollett. The justice system will take care of him.

Who's going to take care of fixing the rest of us?

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.