TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Erick Erickson:

The point of all of this is not to blame Ted Rall, Mr. Obama, Media Matters, MSNBC, any other particular person or group on the left, or the left in general. It is also not to say in any way, shape, or form that the guy is of the left. If, however, we take the evidence as presented and not as the media and left would have it presented, the shooter very clearly is not of the right.

More precisely, the shooter is neither left-wing nor right-wing. He is crazy and evil — a word not used enough. The guy is very clearly not of the tea party movement, not a Dittohead, not led by Sarah Palin, me, or anyone else on the right.

What’s concerning about yesterday’s tragedy was not just the attempted murder of a Congressperson—it was how quickly people, using the power of the web, decided the shooter’s intentions and who, based on those intentions, was responsible for helping push him to violence. It turns out the issue wasn’t so clear-cut.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that violence-tinged rhetoric used by Palin and others recently is okay; it isn’t. But we should be worried by this, because if, God forbid, something like this happens again, the web can spread misinformation with lightning speed and may precipitate even more tragedies, based on it.