‘DEI did this.’ Bridge tragedy spurs conspiracists and culture warriors.

It’s a hallmark of the current political era that putatively serious pronouncements by putatively serious public figures are often impossible to distinguish from the most outlandish of dark satire.

For example, the message emanating from across the political right in the days after the tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore could be summarized as: Wokeness did it!

Yes, populist politicians and right-wing media figures have really, truly suggested that the deadly bridge collapse was somehow the result of racial diversity, the Biden administration’s immigration policies and (figure this one out) its increased infrastructure spending. As the satirist Dave Barry likes to say, we are not making this up. It wasn’t that long ago that the only acceptable response to a national tragedy from any politician, of any party, was to set aside partisan rancor and bring the country together. Today, one edge of our political spectrum views every topic, no matter how catastrophic or heartbreaking, as fair game for disinformation and demagoguery. That’s the darkest joke of all.

A little after 1 a.m. on Tuesday, the MV Dali, a 980-foot container ship, lost power as it was departing the Port of Baltimore and approaching the Key Bridge.

With the crew helpless to navigate, the ship drifted into one of the bridge’s pillars, collapsing it. Before the collision, the ship radioed a mayday, prompting local authorities to divert traffic from the bridge and undoubtedly saving many lives. But construction workers filling potholes on the bridge were thrown into water below.

The bodies of two of them were recovered Wednesday. Four others were missing and presumed dead as of Thursday. What caused the power failure that caused the collision isn’t yet clear, though investigators quickly determined it wasn’t deliberate.

Still, wondering about terrorism is natural in the immediate aftermath of such tragedies. Responsible political leaders, though, should always refrain from reckless public speculation. It’s unsurprising that among those who chose recklessness anyway was conspiracy-mongering Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA., who tweet-suggested it might be “an intentional attack” before anyone knew anything.

What was more surprising, but perhaps shouldn’t have been, is how many of Greene’s right-wing fellow travelers chose to go even further down various rabbit holes, most of them filled with partisan opportunism and some of them truly bonkers. The latter includes references to DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) policies. These are efforts by many in both the private and public sectors to foster racial and other forms of tolerance and diversity among their workforces. But the political right has designated it as their latest racial bogeyman, in the mold of CRT (critical race theory).

“DEI did this,” tweeted Florida congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini, above a video of the bridge collapsing, with no further explanation of his reasoning.

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, discussing the bridge collapse on air, managed to raise the specter of “the potential for wrongdoing or the potential for foul play given the wide-open border.” Because everything is the border.

American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp wondered in a Newsmax interview whether the collision was possibly caused by workers who were unqualified due to COVID lockdowns. Because everything is COVID lockdowns.

Then there was the especially galling suggestion by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., in a Newsmax interview that wasteful federal spending was somehow to blame — specifically, spending from the Biden administration’s massive infrastructure and climate reform package.

“We’re not spending it on roads and bridges … it was mostly Green New Deal,” she said, instead of “things that are the government’s purpose, just like this.”

Two problems: One, the

Biden package (which Mace voted against, before returning to her home state to take credit for the resulting projects) has in fact added some $110 billion to road and bridge infrastructure and another $17 billion specifically to port infrastructure — this after the Trump administration’s utter failure to achieve any of its stated goals on infrastructure.

And, two, there’s been no indication there was anything structurally wrong with the bridge before it was struck by a 100,000-ton ship.

This accident presents a tragic loss of life, a major economic challenge to the Baltimore region and an alarming technical failure that requires thorough investigation, in that order. That so many political or media figures would see it as an opportunity for clicks or votes is its own kind of tragedy.

The St. Louis Post-dispatch