Didn't the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran demonstrate just how horrible human beings can be?
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No, not the Indonesian judges, the firing squad, Joko Widodo, the heroin smugglers themselves or any of the other human cogs in the judicial, political and media juggernaut that ended in the pair's hearts being blown apart; I'm talking about the Australians who were openly thrilled their countrymen were dead.
Not only were there macabre celebration, some people were actually seething that so many others cared about or were moved by the plight of the two men. You only needed to glance at social media to see it.
As the hours ticked down to the killings, I read the following from that jolly minstrel, Kevin Bloody Wilson: "Regarding the impending Bali vermin eradication. Please note; A minutes [sic] silence is observed as a mark of respect. Do you politically correct, do-gooder f---tards really believe this pair of arse-wipes deseve [sic] respect? Feel free to unfriend me, then go kick yourself in the c---!"
I'm not Wilson's friend by the way; someone else posted his brain vomit on my Facebook page. It's standard stuff from Wilson, who has made a career out of swearing and being "irreverent". But I read the comments on his post, curious to see what response such a statement might provoke.
I was pretty dismayed. Hundreds of people weighed in, gleefully spitting on the graves of the Bali Nine ringleaders, denigrating anyone who had pity for them, tut-tutting about breaking the law, waving their fingers about the evils of drugs and - most astoundingly to me - saying their thoughts were with "the victims".
That's right - pity the poor heroin addict who might've scored some of the Bali Nine's smack 10 years ago had it not been for the AFP. As someone who has dabbled in drugs and been addicted to alcohol and cigarettes, I can honestly say I do pity heroin addicts. I'm thankful that I never tried it - with my addictive tendencies, I'd have died not long afterwards.
But I don't think most people feel this way, and I'm not buying the faux bleeding-heart nonsense from people pretending to have sympathy for "the victims" of the likes of Chan and Sukumaran. I'll guarantee that if the same keyboard heroes had their house ransacked by an addict trying to finance their next fix, they'd be straight on Facebook enraged at the filthy, thieving junkie mongrels who'd have to be f---ing idiots to stick needles in their arms in the first place, knowing what it leads to and all. Kinda like the way they fall over themselves to say, "Didn't the Bali Nine read the sign at the airport that says 'We kill drug smugglers?"'
It wasn't just Kevin Bloody Wilson and his legion of learned fans; people I know personally were on social media last week saying Chan and Sukumaran had paid a just price for trying to bring a harmful and addictive drug into our country.
The same people are perfectly cool with tobacco, "softer" drugs like ecstasy, coke and pot - not to mention alcohol which, to my mind, is the most malevolent drug this nation has ever tipped down its throat. I honestly don't get the level of hatred for heroin traffickers, dealers and users, er, victims. Sure, while it is illegal, people should be punished (not killed) for messing around with it. But smeared as the lowest of the low? It doesn't add up.
Of course, you hear terrible stories about people losing loved ones to heroin and often they blame the dealers or the drug itself. It's "evil" stuff, they say. In reality, it's just another drug - and it ruins far fewer lives than drinking and smoking do.
And the loved ones lost are among the zillions of humans who have been getting high - usually by choice - since we descended from the trees.
The real issue in all of this, of course, is the death penalty - you either support it or you don't. Since Australia hasn't had it for half a century, we haven't had to deal with it up close. When our countrymen and women are executed, it happens somewhere far-flung and we hear about it on TV - and in the 24/7 news cycle that means 24/7.
While there was overwhelmingly more support, sympathy and empathy for Chan and Sukumaran from Australians than there was bile from the Kevin Bloody Wilsons of the world, views like his were not insignificant. At press time almost 80,000 people had "liked" his Facebook post and it had been shared more than 16,500 times.
I can't help but wonder whether this side dish of spite might've been laced with some old-fashioned racism; Chan was an Asian man, Sukumaran dark-skinned and of Sri Lankan lineage.
What if Schapelle Corby had been carrying heroin instead of pot? What might the Chan and Sukumaran haters have said on social media if the Indonesian police had marched two pretty, white, female Australian heroin traffickers into the jungle at midnight and shot them in the heart?
I suspect, if such a thing were ever to occur, many of them might have a belligerent, offensive thing or two to say about Indonesians rather than congratulating them on a job well done.