They Died From Covid. Then the Online Attacks Started.

…

Just as cellphones have changed American policing, social media has transformed the way Americans chronicle their lives and, increasingly, their demise.

It has also resulted in many people leaving behind a trail of ideology that’s hard to untangle from their untimely deaths. And in a hyperpartisan culture plagued by “alternative facts” and debates over the most basic scientific realities of the pandemic, many among the vaccinated are eager to brandish such accounts as the final, indubitable proof that the Covid deniers and those who are anti-vaccine are dangerously misguided.

Tapping into the outrage are Reddit forums where there are entries focused on “suicide by Covid” and “awards” granted to those who died.

The cruel sentiments have migrated offline as well, manifested in things like gravestone lawn ornaments engraved with the phrase “I did my own research,” images of which were shared widely on social media before Halloween.

Colin Wayne Leach, a psychology professor at Barnard College who has studied emotions like schadenfreude and gloating, said the sentiments underpinning these websites are an outgrowth of the nation’s extreme polarization.

…

Read the whole story (subscription may be required): The New York Times