This is a real phenomenon that is becoming normalized and if you are shocked or unaware of it, you are probably only paying attention to news outlets that stand to gain from outright ignoring it.

The second and perhaps equally disturbing component to this phenomenon is the mainstream media’s unwillingness to cover most of these incidents at all. Googling these types of beatings will lead you to almost exclusively conservative websites. That’s a problem. It should not be conservative news when a Trump supporter is beaten. Meanwhile, there was absolutely no hesitation from the media when Jussie Smollett came out with his laughable and since-debunked claim of being beaten by crazed Trump supporters in Chicago.

Regardless of your own political worldview or feelings on Trump, you should be able to see the false narrative the media has been attempting to paint. It is much more convenient for us to believe in the conservative caricature who is going to jump out at you with a noose, rather than the simple reality that not everyone who feels differently than you about the President is an evil person. But of course, it takes a lot less effort and thought processing to write off half of the American population as bigoted and evil.