Margaret Sullivan, media columnist at the Washington Post, is disgusted at the things the Twisted Right is saying about the surviving students from Stoneman Douglas high school.

Here is the often-appalling pundit Dinesh D’Souza, outright mocking the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, after they showed their disappointment in a state legislature vote on assault weapons on Tuesday: “Worst news since their parents told them to get summer jobs.”

Recall for a moment: These are teenagers whose friends were brutally murdered less than a week ago.

D’Souza, who has a huge social-media following precisely because he sinks so low, so often, also tweeted out his cynical scorekeeping: “Adults: 1. Kids: 0.” And he took a shot at what he called their “politically orchestrated grief.”

There was a backlash, and today he tried to say he was talking about the media, but no one believed him.

But there was far worse out there. Emma Gonzalez, the Douglas High student who made an impassioned speech last week, became the object of the worst kind of racism and sexism.

One Twitter user called her a “brown bald lesbian girl” — disparagement that got some approval from a state legislator’s aide, the same aide who was fired Tuesday for telling the Tampa Bay Times the students were paid and coached actors.

“Both kids in the picture are not students here but actors that travel to various crisis when they happen,” wrote the aide, Benjamin Kelly, speaking of Gonzalez and David Hogg (whom I interviewed last week). That was, of course, a lie.

I wonder how much of this is being fanned or even started by our new companions the Russian Troll Army.

D’Souza’s apology and the legislative aide’s swift firing suggest the wind is blowing in a new direction.

That’s encouraging.

It would also be encouraging to see news organizations who employ those who spread lies taking some remedial action, too.

CNN, for example, pays former Congressman Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) as a political commentator. Here is his point of view, as expressed in a tweet: “O really? ‘Students’ are planning a nationwide rally? Not left wing gun control activists using 17yr kids in the wake of a horrible tragedy? #Soros #Resistance #Antifa #DNC.”

Those hashtags. The trolls have gotten to him.

But also – what does he even mean? What does he think he means? “Left wing gun control activists using 17 year old kids in the wake of a horrible tragedy” for what sinister hidden purpose? What is the concealed motive supposed to be? Using them how? We want gun control in order to reduce the number of gun deaths. Why does Jack Kingston pretend that’s sinister? Why shouldn’t we want to reduce the number of gun deaths? What other bizarro motive could there be? Why does Soros have to be roped into it?

And yes, why the fuck does CNN pay him? There are conservatives who don’t talk stupid shit like that; why not pay them instead?

We have met the Troll Army and it is us.