When Ken Bone, looking comfortable in a chunky red cable-knit sweater with a handy zip, became an internet sensation after posing a question on energy policy towards the close of the second presidential debate, the whooping adulation and flurry of memes which followed were less inevitable than a hasty and spiteful backlash.
For the record, Ken – a coal plant operator from Illinois, who was invited to ask a question by the data company Gallup as an undecided voter – wondered of both candidates, ‘What steps will your energy policy take to meet our energy needs, while at the same time remaining environmentally friendly and minimising job loss for fossil power plant workers?’, an impeccably worded, gently probing, tripartite marvel of a question. And his red sweater was in fact only his backup ensemble, a late switch after he split the seat of his preferred olive suit.
Trump bemoaned the Environmental Protection Agency putting energy companies out of business, repeatedly describing the situation as a ‘disgrace’, while Clinton waffled on the need to remain energy-independent, touching in the process on oil prices and renewable fuels. But their answers were irrelevant, because all eyes were fixing firmly on the Bone Zone. By the time he wandered about the stage post-debate with his disposable camera – electronic devices were strictly prohibited – Ken’s star had been born.
The trouble for Ken began in earnest when he opted to allow Reddit users to ask him anything out of the sheer kindness of his own heart. But Ken – perhaps displaying a certain naivety, or compelled from deep within to remain utterly transparent – undertook the AMA using his everyday Reddit account.
Scurrilous news sites were quick to look into Ken’s comment history, and without hesitation they determined that a scandal was afoot. They cited the fact that the married Mr. Bone had commented on several forums showing women in various states of undress, including those devoted to ‘RealGirls’ and to women clad in bikinis mid-pregnancy. He had admitted to a form of felony insurance fraud, forging car insurance documents to secure a job as a pizza delivery driver while he waited a couple of months for his real papers to come through. And he reported graphically on the sexual satisfaction he had gained post-vasectomy, noting ‘There’s nothing like being able to go bareback’.
So far, so what? The insurance fraud was minor, his sexual proclivities a personal matter hardly worthy of note. But more seriously, Ken was accused of what some even called ‘disturbing’ remarks regarding the effective murder of Trayvon Martin, and the Jennifer Lawrence nude photo leaks. Yet in both instances Ken’s comments demonstrated someone looking evenly and responsibly at the issues at hand.
In the case of Trayvon Martin, he hardly downplayed the tragedy of the teenager’s death, but offered the fairly middling opinion that whatever the morality of the situation – and he called George Zimmerman a ‘big ole shit bird’ and a ‘bad guy’ – Zimmerman’s actions could be considered legally justified. The space afforded by the sorry state of Florida’s gun and self-defence laws makes this conclusion especially hard to refute. On Jennifer Lawrence he used the sort of crude language typical of the internet, but to a self-critical end, taking responsibility for viewing the stolen images rather than seeking to pass blame onto the actress for somehow allowing her pictures to be leaked.
Elsewhere Ken Bone showed himself to be more than an average citizen: quick-witted, sensitive, and kind. His Reddit comments have him sympathising and offering sage advice to rape victims and transgender people, engaged and informed regarding the energy sector and its environmental effects, and boasting wide-ranging interests from fantasy to gaming to jurisprudence, from wiffle ball to ice hockey to taekwondo. Not only in this election cycle but in general, it is rare for someone subject to such furore to come out better than anyone could reasonably expect.
