The David Koch Death Hatefest Has Begun

A colleague approached me this morning and informed me he probably shouldn't say it but that he was glad that David Koch had died. I hadn't heard the news, but I told him very firmly that I did not wish death upon anyone. When my colleague called Koch a climate denialist, I reminded him that he also used his money for the arts, education, cancer research and prison reform. He ceded the point.


Under the circumstances, my colleague was probably more generous than most who dwell in the Twitterverse. Here is but a sample of the "mourning" Koch has received:


John Lurie: "It is rare to see uniformed joy and agreement on social media but David Koch's death has brought us all together in abundant delight!"


Jordan Weissmann: "David Koch was a villain who devoted his wealth to further enriching himself and his fellow plutocrats, while spinning us all toward environmental doom. I don’t believe in an afterlife, but if there is one, I hope his soul suffers for eternity."


Will Bunch: "I'm sure David Koch loved his grandkids or whatever, but the reality is that he and his greedy generation in Big Business and politics set the world on fire from Alaska to the Amazon, and now they won't be around to watch the flames consume the rest of us."


Oliver Willis: "When a bad person dies they don't suddenly become a saint. Their legacy of destruction and pain doesn't just float away. David Koch is dead, we have to deal with the fallout of his villainy for hundreds of years. So he donated to a museum. So fucking what?"


George Takei: "You have have all that money, but it cannot change the ending. Do good in the world with your time here on it. That is all I will say."


Since when is funding cancer research a bad thing?


Disagree with the political causes that Koch supported all you want, but if holding a view contrary to your own warrants being delighted at his death and hoping his soul suffers for eternity it doesn't say very much for left-wing thinking. Who the hell is Oliver Willis to cast judgment as to whom is and isn't a bad person. There is a G-d and Willis is not him.


Of course, Trump supporters are no better. I'm sure we would hear equally nasty sentiments from their corner of the Twitterverse if a noted Koch critic like Bernie Sanders were to suddenly pass away. The intolerance and lack of respect towards others for having a different point of view to the point of spitting on a body before they've been lowered in their final resting place speaks to a deep sickness in this country from which I'm not sure we can recover.


With that R.I.P. David Koch.