Today, it came out that a Facebook application ran a “political poll” asking whether or not the president should be killed.

It was quickly snapped up and capitalized on by liberal political blog “The Political Carnival” as a way to demonize the conservative mainstream pundits (Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News):

“The hate speech, the threats have gotten completely out of hand. And those who have incited viewers and listeners … are responsible for a good part of this horrific activity.”

I’d more or less expect this – the call for any sitting governmental representative or official’s death is reprehensible, and to attach such actions to either political party is a good way to polarize and conquer the electorate.

What was perhaps even more surprising was the reaction of the technology blogosphere’s readership today. The site that got the Techmeme headline on this to a site called “Who Runs Gov: The Plum Line,” and the comments on the story, for the most part, were bizarre:

roxsteady: I don’t care if facebook didn’t conduct the poll. They should at the very least be fined for even allowing it. Don’t they have some kind of filter for this trash? I hope they’re fined. $20 million sounds good to me!

americafirster: I can bet … the creator has to be either an Israeli or one the many israel-firsters living here.

Bill Greene: I agree with Americafirster, it is probably someone in Israel. They hate Obama even more than the wingnuts here and are used to a culture of political assassination. This is all extremely sickening to watch.

Raul X. Garcia: This was more than likely put up by a front for the RNC. There have been many, many, Obama bashing polls posted on Facebook, and very sadly effective I must add.

Responses to posts elsewhere weren’t much saner. At CNet:

Orion Blastar: How do you know that the secret service didn’t create the poll to find out who answers anything other than "No" to it to be added to Obama’s enemies list?

Pete Bardo: The poll was probably an FBI sting operation. Vote yes and we’ll come looking for you!

lcview: The right wing is definitely behind this in some way, shape, or form. All their loud mouth talking heads constantly spewing hate speech, could certainly lead to their followers acting out violently. This poll is to justify their actions…you know, acting on behalf of the majority (so they think). This should not be taken lightly.

Cyberbullying the President

Here’s the bottom line: I’ll be incredibly surprised if anyone over the age of 12 created this poll.  I’d also be incredibly surprised if Facebook or the polling software company came up with a way to screen for these types of unprotected speech.

Yes, threatening a sitting president will land you 20 years in the slammer. Yes, it’s morally reprehensible. Yes, it’s an incredibly stupid thing to do.

Is it surprising? Not in the least.  One of my friend’s favorite things to say about the Internet is that it’s the home for all the world’s hate and kinks. It’s humorous, but it’s true. Everything unfolded here just as it should have – and I have no doubt that the creator of the poll will be traced and duly punished. There’s little reason to get up in arms, just as there’s little reason to get up in arms when the village idiot moons a bus full of nuns.

Stupid crap happens, and the perpetrators of stupid crap will be caught and punished. End of story.

I’m sure that we here at SiliconANGLE will be following this story to it’s natural conclusion, if for no other reason than we’re morbidly curious, now that it’s received so much attention.