Is it that seemingly-normal people have really always been nuts? Or is it that social media is, in fact, helping to make them nuts?

Likely, it’s some of both. Chances are probably good that a lot of people with very odd ideas have always been walking in our midst, but with the advent of social media, their lunacy has been given a big, ol’ steroid shot.

Here’s one for you.

After the recent Hurricane Irma devastation that smacked Florida, the Miami Police Department shared a pic on Twitter of some unfortunate-looking souls locked inside of a jail cell, with the message, “Thinking about looting? Ask these guys how that turned out. #stayindoors.”

Well, as reported by Fox News, one journalist, Sarah L. Jaffe, was most displeased with that tweet, suggesting in her own Twitter response that restraining the criminal behavior was an act of “white supremacy.” Here we go:

“the carceral state exists to protect private property and is inseparable from white supremacy.”

Not only is Jaffe saying here that merely having a prison system is tantamount to white supremacy, but that, apparently, having and protecting private property is a white supremacist thing, too.

Or something.

Jaffe is no slouch as a scribe, having been published in a variety of high-profile publications, including The Washington Post and The Atlantic. On this, however, she found herself roundly butchered on social media for her bizarre expression. As one respondent noted, “They have prisons, crime, and private property in Nigeria too. And Egypt. And India. Nothing to do with white supremacy.”

Obviously. To most of us, anyway.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large