Reading this headline at NBC News you might be confused about who was shooting whom in Nashville Monday. “Fear pervades Tennessee’s trans community amid focus on Nashville shooter’s gender identity,” the headline reads. The subhead adds, ““We were already fearing for our lives. Now, it’s even worse,” one transgender advocate in the state said.”

So in little more than a day the story has gone from a trans woman shooting children to fear of a backlash against the trans community. Indeed one activists is angry that the police revealed the shooter was trans at all.

Aislinn Bailey, the acting president of Tri-Cities Transgender, a trans-led support and advocacy group based in Johnson City, Tennessee, said her initial reaction to news that the suspect was transgender was fear.

“I knew that as soon as anyone mentioned that, it was immediately going to become the center focus instead of what should be the focus, and that’s gun violence in this country,” Bailey said…

“I think it was unethical and highly suspect that information like that, which they had to have known could cause backlash on the trans community — releasing information like that without it being verified, that’s unconscionable as far as I’m concerned,” Bailey said.

She added, “We were already fearing for our lives. Now, it’s even worse.”

Of course it’s not at all clear that the police released this information without it being verified. The police have the shooter’s manifesto and other writings which were apparently found in her car. They have suggested there could be some connection between the shooter’s identity and her actions. In short, they have more evidence than the public at this point. There’s no reason to think this is unverified at this point.

Another activist is quoted in the story saying that organizers of a protest scheduled for this weekend are “scared s**tless” there will be a conservative backlash. The uncomfortable reality is that, right now, lots of people are pretty angry and understandably so. That tends to happen when children are murdered. People should be angry. Indeed, gun control advocates including the ones in the White House, clearly want them to be angry, specifically at Republicans.

JEAN-PIERRE: "What I will say to Republicans in Congress is, 'What are you going to say to these parents?'" pic.twitter.com/hhydORYA07

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 28, 2023

So there’s a sort of double bind created by the left and the media. On the one hand if conservatives get angry about a mass shooting of children by a deranged trans woman they’re responsible for an incipient backlash against all trans people. On the other hand, the White House and the media are stoking anger at Republicans and no one at NBC News will write an article saying it could lead to a violent backlash against them.

And this brings us back to “stochastic terrorism” which only ever gets talked about in one direction. If a right-wing nut shoots someone the right is responsible for giving him violent ideas. If a trans woman murders children we skip immediately over her ideas and her manifesto to concern about the right-wing backlash to her actions.

This is an ugly game that is only allowed to happen because 85% of the media is made up of progressives who either don’t notice that it’s happening or notice and quietly cheer it on. That’s also how you get stuff like this, from near the end of same story:

Last year, there were at least 140 incidents of protests and threats directed at drag events, which have deep roots in the queer community, according to the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD.

Just last week, one man was arrested and another was left bloodied as dozens of people protested a Drag Story Hour event in New York City…

That’s completely accurate. What the authors don’t tell you (unless you click the link and read through the previous story) is that both the man who was arrested and the one who beaten were there to protest. In other words, the guy who got his face bloodied at Drag Story Hour was beat up by someone on the left, not the other way around. No one was arrested for that though.

So the real lesson here is that everyone is in danger when people get angry and seek to make victims of other people. We saw a deadly example of that yesterday. Could someone angry about that lash out in response at trans people in Nashville? I sincerely hope nothing like that happens but it’s possible. It’s also possible we could see a copycat attack by another angry trans person before the week is out. I sincerely hope we don’t see that either.