I go for coffee, and ruin someone's fun

This morning, I was in my local coffee shop, and the woman behind the counter showed me how she'd gotten burned. The burn had occurred while she was baking, but the man behind me--Mr. charity golf shirt with a cell phone--didn't know that, and quipped "Too bad this isn't McDonald's--you could sue."

I turned around, did my best confused smile, and said "What do you mean?"

"You know, McDonald's--hot coffee--lawsuit..."

"Oh, you mean the coffee is multiple degrees over the federal safety level and the government has warned McDonald's repeatedly how unsafe it is, and McDonald's ignores the warnings, is in contempt of federal standards, and then someone has an accident?"

He looked stunned. Then he said, "I didn't know that."

On the one hand, of course he didn't know it; the news media went out of its way to protect McDonald's and make everyone think that 79-year-old Stella Liebeck schemed to part poor McDonald's from its money. On the other hand, I knew the facts of the case, and there really isn't much excuse for Mr. Quick Wit's not knowing them.

But Americans aren't interested in learning facts. What they are interested in is making fun of victims, whether they are rape victims, victims of corporate negligence, victims of natural disasters, or victims of smear campaigns. The thread of sadism in the national conversation is getting thicker every day.