By David Cole, Taki’s

Throughout my life, I’ve often been accused of lacking empathy. It’s a critique that goes back to high school, when I was a compassionless bully. And I’ll admit, I do have an empathy problem, but only when it comes to imbeciles.

I just can’t muster sympathy for the stupid. I don’t hate them; I don’t even blame them (no one’s at fault for the intelligence they inherit). But when imbeciles become an obstacle, I have zero tolerance.

Hence why I’ve been unable to summon sympathy for the 1/6 rioters. I know that makes me an outlier on “the right,” but to me it’s not a right/left issue. After 9/11, the press was filled with weepy tales of this or that akbar who’d been “unfairly” sent to Gitmo. “He was only al-Qaeda’s cook! He only went to Afghanistan on a spiritual quest!”

Too bad. Shouldn’t a’ been on a battlefield after people acting in your name slaughtered 3,000 Americans.

In June 2006, when three Gitmo inmates killed themselves in a suicide pact prompted by despair over their imprisonment, my response was “Your little adventure in jihad didn’t end too well for ya, huh?”

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