Let's Stop Paying Attention To George Zimmerman

George Zimmerman has done it again. Having achieved notoriety after being acquitted in the murder of Trayvon Martin, the Florida man periodically makes it something of a point to get the attention of the American public by making asinine remarks. This time, Zimmerman accused President Obama of turning America against him and said that he did not "feel guilty" for surviving the incident in which he fatally shot an unarmed, 17-year-old Martin. Cue both incredulous laughter and the growing feeling that we really need to stop paying attention to him.

In an interview posted online Monday by his lawyer, Zimmerman shared his thoughts on how Obama weighed in on Martin's shooting and said that the teenager "could have been his son." Zimmerman said a lot of things that, honestly, we're not going to give voice to here. For a brief summary so you can get the idea, despite his alleged innocence, Zimmerman — suddenly a law expert, it seems — was hyper-defensive about the president extending his consolation to the parents of a child who died an unjustifiable death. But I digress.

As infuriating as Zimmerman is, what's worse is that he is given a platform to voice his opinions to the public, further exacerbated by the Internet and social media. The knee-jerk reaction to such inanity is both swift and rightfully enraged — Zimmerman is a man already deeply loathed by the general public, and his comments definitely don't do anything to help.

His opinions are exasperating, of course, but should we, as informed members of the public, shower Zimmerman with attention — albeit negative — every time he says (or tweets) something stupid? Is there value in his words? I'd venture to say that his remarks, possibly like his process of rational thought, are void of any spark of substance.

Instead of validating his obvious need for attention, perhaps a more astute way to deal with Zimmerman is simply to deny him the satisfaction being talked about. Some people, like Zimmerman, love to be hated — why not just ignore them instead? If we disregard his remarks as the whining of a grown man who feels persecuted because people are angry that the judicial system let him off the hook for shooting an unarmed teenager to death — and to be sure, Zimmerman is a whiner — not only will we be spared from his displays of idiocy, his 15 minutes of undeserved time in the spotlight can finally come to an end.

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