SAN DIEGO — If there is one thing that Americans don't need, it's more whine. The latest vintage — which seems to be popular with young people — is particularly bitter. It's not fit for public consumption. It needs to be poured down the drain, so it can slither its way back to the sewer from whence it came.

Some things never change. When you're spiraling because life isn't turning out the way you thought it would, it helps to have a scapegoat. That way, you can tell yourself: "This isn't my fault. I didn't do anything wrong. The game was rigged. I'm the victim."

Jewish people know all about scapegoats. For 5,000 years, they've been blamed for everything that ever went wrong. In Biblical times, it was famine and plagues. Today, it's war in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

Why, on Oct. 7, 2023, the Jew-haters — who now infest both political parties — even found a way to blame Israel for a brutal attack by Hamas terrorists on Israel that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and sparked a war that leveled Gaza.

Of course, hate isn't rational. Sometimes those who despise Jews also resent Muslims.

This is one of those times. The two young men who shot up a San Diego mosque this week, and then live-streamed the attack, saw demons everywhere.

Police identified the suspects as 18-year-old Caleb Liam Vazquez, and 17-year-old Cain Lee Clark. The pair came across each other online, met in person, and hatched a plan that can only be described as pure evil.

You see, the Islamic Center of San Diego — which holds prayers five times a day and attracts thousands of people from throughout the region — also houses an elementary school that teaches Islamic and Arabic studies. As many as 140 children were in the building at the time of the attack, and they held each other's hands as they were shuttled outside to safety.

This could have been a different story, and a much bloodier one, if not for the bravery of three men: Amin Abdullah, 51, a security guard; Nadir Awad, 57, a neighbor of the mosque whose wife teaches at the school; and Mansour Kaziha, 78, an elderly handyman who helped out.

All three were shot and killed, while the children were spared. May the memory of each be a blessing.

"We call them our brothers in the community. We call them our martyrs and our heroes," Iman Taha Hassane told the Associated Press. Both the SDPD and FBI were quick to label the attack a hate crime. Hate, the shooters had plenty of. And it sprayed out like shotgun pellets.

Clark and Vasquez, both of whom died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, were an odd couple. Clark was white and called himself a "Christian", and Vasquez was Latino but identified with the "white race."

The two young men left behind a 75-page makeshift manifesto that invoked neo-Nazi ideology, misogyny, nativism and white supremacy. Authorities think the document was cobbled together — perhaps with the help of AI — from the garbage that exists in the dark corners of the internet. It was filled with vitriol aimed at women, Muslims, immigrants, Jews, Latinos, the LGBTQ community, and other groups.

The pair wanted to use violence to spark a civil war that they hoped would lead to a white "ethnostate." And they were in a hurry to get it done because they thought white people were being "replaced" by non-whites. And because every conspiracy needs a scapegoat, this entire replacement plot was supposedly dreamt up by ... wait for it ... the Jews.

Note that the racists don't consider the members of the tribe to be pure white. I guess they're more like off-white.

Not this replacement crap again. I'm so sick of this white noise. If white people are so convinced that they're superior to the rest of us, could they please start acting like it and come up with fresh material?

I was struck by a comment that a San Diego resident left on a YouTube video about the attack.

"This mosque never was an inconvenience or bothered anyone," the viewer said. "I don't know why these teens did such a horrible crime."

Really? Is that how we want to play it?

Americans need to stop playing dumb. We need to believe our eyes. We know very well why these atrocities keep happening.

It's the math, stupid. America is changing demographically. Soon, non-whites will be the majority.

This change has white people all out of sorts. It turns out they frighten easily. Before long, all hell breaks loose. And then things get really scary.

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Ilmi Amali Q.A at Unsplash