When you were a kid, did you lie on your back and look up at the clouds and try to see object shapes in them? One cloud might have resembled an elephant. Another might have looked like an airplane.
In a way, this is what liberals in the twenty-first century have begun doing as a matter of course every time they find some outwardly innocent object that they can exploit to promote one of their causes.
Take the object discovered Tuesday near Fraternity Row at the University of Maryland. The item found lying on the ground by two passers-by generated enough angst to warrant a campus-wide email announcing that “out of an abundance of caution, we are looking into this matter and conducting a review of our cameras in the area.”
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
So what was the object? A swastika? A verbal slur against women or the LGBTQ community? Nope. Here is what they found:
In case you can’t make it out, it’s a piece of discarded plastic. Some observers claim they see a noose. Others see an elephant or an airplane.
After an initial probe, the campus police filed a report at the university’s website reading:
Earlier today, we were notified of a knotted piece of plastic wrap laying on the ground in the 7500 block of Baltimore Ave. An officer met with two individuals who were walking south when they noticed the item. Police were notified out of concern for possible hate-bias.
Preliminary investigation reveals that this type of material is used to contain and protect loose items during transport.
The last sentence sounds almost like a dig at those who believe this merits an investigation.
Jaime Hurtado, whose Twitter bio identifies hims as the “DM” (district manager?) of a group representing the interests of marginalized students at the school, tweeted out this message:
#UMD This was found under a tree at frat row. Police say that since it wasn’t hanging…it’s just trash ???? Make your own conclusions pic.twitter.com/p8BJjQoxWf
— Jaime Hurtado (@Protect_UMD) June 27, 2017
Among the responses on Twitter:
Hahaha umd admission standards must be incredibly low.
— Dion (@Gojjira) June 28, 2017
If you are interested (not trolling) I can tell you EXACTLY what that is. And there are tens of thousand made daily in warehouses in the USA
— RussellMac (@RussellMacIII) June 28, 2017
This was seen at a dock. People said that they were docking their boat… looks like they’re tieing a noose to me! All boaters are racist! pic.twitter.com/NH5qJIQ2k1
— Jack English (@JackEnglish01) June 28, 2017
I’m sure that’s truly terrifying to some lobster or whatever aquatic creature it is that generally becomes entangled in plastic garbage
— Dudley Snyder (@DudleyNYC) June 28, 2017
Go to class!
— FrankFeces (@FrankFeces) June 28, 2017
Stop it. Get some help. pic.twitter.com/8HYnVuvLmD
— TheBoredObserver (@ClearlyCaneda) June 28, 2017
The bottom line is that there is more than enough genuine hatred going around in the nation right now. No one needs to go out searching for new examples. Or to repeat the oft-cited wisdom of Groucho Marx (or is Sigmund Freud?), sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
