I Have Nothing to Add to This Skittles Nonsense, Except That Nazis Would Have Been So Good at Twitter

This was definitely the dumbest and most insensitive thing I saw yesterday:

This image says it all. Let's end the politically correct agenda that doesn't put America first. #trump2016pic.twitter.com/9fHwog7ssN
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 19, 2016

On the other hand, was it any dumber or more insensitive than his "gas chamber" joke last week?

How does it rank against his father's tweet from 2012 "I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke"? Or that Ariana Huffington "is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man"? Or that Rand Paul is a "spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain"? Or that "An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud"?

I could quote horrifying tweets written by Trumps till next Tuesday and still have plenty to choose from. But Donald Trump Jr.'s is really something. Obviously, children in Syria are actually being gassed to death.

But it's all fun and graphics and sentence fragments on Twitter! Yeah, yeah, good thinking, a bowl of Skittles and something dismissive about how disposable and worthless and inherently dangerous Syrians are! That'll help daddy get elected, so it's worth it!

By the way, that Skittles photo is reportedly a photo taken by a refugee who did not give the Trumps permission to use it. He's identified by the BBC as "David Kittos, who does not follow Twitter." God bless him.

Conservative twitterer Joe Walsh wants everyone to know that he tweeted the Skittles "idea" first, back in August.

But the "idea" is older than that. I recommend this Intercept piece "Nazi Who Originated Donald Trump Jr. Skittles Analogy Was Hanged at Nuremberg."

First paragraph:

Donald Trump Jr.’s tweet comparing Syrian refugees to Skittles has deep roots. The concept dates back at least to 1938 and a children’s book called Der Giftpilz, or The Toadstool, in which a mother explains to her son that it only takes one Jew to destroy an entire people.

Anyway, enough "history," enough "facts." Let's turn back into the Twitter vortex, where this multicolored nightmare continues to play out:

Skittles. pic.twitter.com/inCjwrwzfd
— Nish Weiseth (@NishWeiseth) September 20, 2016

If you were selling guns to a bowl of skittles but knew 3 of the skittles would go on shooting rampages, would u allow skittles to buy guns?
— Richard K Herring (@Herring1967) September 20, 2016

Hey @DonaldJTrumpJr, this is one of the millions of children you compared to a poisoned Skittle today: https://t.co/SDSGw0eUIPpic.twitter.com/HuhY9RGvWW
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) September 20, 2016

I suppose if skittles were sentient and vulnerable, with the capacity to feel and suffer, and some skittles were children, I would eat them?
— Jon Mooallem (@jmooallem) September 20, 2016

Remember when Jesus was like, "ugh I really want to help you guys, but your brown skin makes me assume some of you are murderers. Skittles."
— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) September 20, 2016

Well, this is a gigantic deal that will get 1/1000th the coverage of @DonaldJTrumpJr's thoughts on Skittles https://t.co/TJ7AKR9Zbj
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) September 20, 2016

And the response from Wrigley Americas, the parent company of Skittles?

Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don't feel it is an appropriate analogy. We will respectfully refrain from further commentary as anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing.

I never thought I'd say this, but well done, Skittles.

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