Wishing I stayed under the rock

Photo by Ben Karpinski on Unsplash

“What? Have you been living under a rock?”

That’s what we say to someone who hasn’t been plugged into whatever is happening that seems all-consuming to everyone else. For me, I’ve been under the rock to the degree that I knew nothing about Lindsay Clancy.

On the surface, the trial is interesting enough. Was she actually responsible for her actions, or was the postpartum psychosis real and she was unaware of right and wrong? I honestly don’t know, but the trial will give us a clue.

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What gets me, though, is the online phenomenon of people not just excusing Clancy for murdering her children, but for actively attacking her husband for what happened.

They’re blaming him for the murder, basically, and that makes me wish I’d stayed under the rock.

This is like all the people who swore Luigi Mangione did nothing wrong. He never denied killing Brian Thompson, but it’s cool because Taylor Lorenz thinks he’s dreamy.

Likewise, Clancy has admitted to murdering her children, but her husband is the bad guy because…what? He wasn’t a controlling ass who forced her into therapy against her will? She apparently admitted to having “intrusive” thoughts, but he didn’t freak out over it. Yes, he probably should have, but I’m going to let you all in on a little secret: I have intrusive thoughts, too. Sometimes, they come out enough that I get a little rattled.

I’ve never murdered anyone because of them. Part of that is because I’m an adult and I seek help if I think I’m a danger to someone.

If Lindsay Clancy was suffering from psychosis, then no, she probably couldn’t have gotten help for what she was dealing with.

But the problem is that there are a lot of Monday morning quarterbacks on TikTok and Instagram throwing ice at the wall in the bathroom in some kind of act of solidarity.

Look, I’m not saying that Patrick Clancy is a saint. I don’t know the guy, and he said he forgave Lindsay, then divorced her and remarried, all before the trial. That doesn’t sit well with some, and I can understand that. On the other hand, Lindsay murdered his two children! It’s easy to say you forgive something like that, but I damn sure couldn’t trust someone who did that ever again.

Yet the problem is that too many people are absolutely convinced that the murdering woman is the innocent here simply because of the husband’s completely legal actions.

“He should have overseen her mental healthcare!”

And then he’d have been branded a controlling jackass who made her feel like she was crazy.

See, that’s the problem. Patrick had a tightrope to walk, too, and we know he made the wrong choices, but we have hindsight. We know it was a mistake because we know the outcome. He didn’t necessarily.

He might be a terrible human being. But he also might just be some dude trying his best in a tough situation, only to come home after buying takeout and some medicine for his daughter to find his entire world shattered.

But it’s not about him.

It’s about the need for so many people to lash out at the man simply because he wasn’t clairvoyant. He didn’t see the future and act appropriately, so everything is his fault, and women are completely enraged at his mere existence.

The truth of the matter is that while Lindsay might well have been suffering from some kind of psychosis, the women who are supporting her and acting as if she’s the true victim here aren’t. Not medically speaking, anyway.

They’re just nucking futs.

Honestly, if my wife were one of them, the kids and I would be moving out right away. I’m not playing.

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It’s not that they’re talking about postpartum rage because it’s at the forefront of people’s attention in a calm manner so people understand it. They’re cosplaying as the ones suffering from that rage in the bathroom, then trotting off to social media to use their ice toss as a virtue signal.

They’re once again defending a murderer, all while pretending the people they disagree with politically are evil.

I want to ask how they reconcile this in their minds, but the answer is that they don’t. Not in any way, shape, or form.

Lindsay Clancy’s story is tragic. Patrick Clancy’s is, too, even if simply in a different way.

Fascination with the trial I sort of get. Attacking the man who didn’t murder his children, though?

It makes me wish I’d stayed under the damn rock.

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