Conservatives spent much of Thursday mourning the sudden death of flame-throwing internet pioneer Andrew Breitbart — and fuming over the "astonishing outpouring of hate toward Breitbart from the Left." Among the "mean-spirited" blog posts and tweets from (presumably liberal) critics of the journalist-provocateur was a highly scrutinized tweet from Slate's Matt Yglesias: "Conventions around dead people are ridiculous. The world outlook is slightly improved with @AndrewBreitbart dead." Is cheering the death of a 43-year-old father of four a tasteless breach of decorum, or a justifiable reaction given Breitbart's own sometimes ugly tactics — including his own history of virtual grave-dancing?
Insulting the dead is just classless: "I don't see any purpose in getting my jollies trashing" Breitbart, says John Cole at Balloon Juice. I certainly didn't agree with him politically, but at a time like this, I'm just "really sad for his family." It's true that "Breitbart himself didn't feel constrained by any similar notions of restraint or respect for others," but we should all try to be better than that, and exhibit a "basic level of decency...."
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