I have to admit to having been naive.

Eli Dicken proved that I was stupidly optimistic about people. That was never his intent. He just did something more noble and heroic than any one of us could hope to do in our lives, only to be met by undo scrutiny, what-ifs?, and lies to diminish what he did.

I was socially aware enough that, when the footage regarding Kyle Rittenhouse came out, he would be unjustly slandered. I knew, to some extent, that despite the fact that Rittenhouse was clearly and obviously acting in self-defense, there would be a mob that would turn him into a monster and not care about the facts.

What I wasn't prepared for was the extent. Hell, there are still people who think that he shot black people. There are still people who believe that he crossed state lines with a gun and that his mom drove him. There are still people who think that it's illegal to cross state lines with a gun. There are still people who don't know the basics of self-defense law.

If Eli Dicken's story had preceded Rittenhouse's, I wouldn't have been so naive about the extent of the stupidity and/or evil of the Left. I've yet to see anybody on the left of center acknowledge the heroism of this young man who didn't defend himself, he could have gotten away, he risked his life to save others. He successfully saved others. He saved countless lives.

Still, that's not good enough. He's either buried or slandered by the leftist media. It's because a good guy with a gun can't exist in their minds. The moment that you have a gun, you are necessarily a bad guy in their minds. They have to believe the lie because their narrative doesn't fit the truth.