An idealistic Millennial couple who bicycled through the wilds of Muslim central Asia in the belief that “humans are kind” and that “evil is a make-believe concept” have been murdered by Islamic terrorists.

Americans Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, both in their 20s, were among four cyclists killed last month in Tajikistan by two Islamic State terrorists who first rammed them with their car, then stabbed and shot them.

An ambulance arrives where four tourists were killed when a car rammed into a group of foreigners on bicycles south of the capital of Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a car-and-knife attack on Western tourists cycling in Tajikistan that killed two Americans and two Europeans. (AP/Zuly Rahmatova)

Now their fate has been given added poignancy – or, some would say, bitter irony – by the discovery of a blog written by Austin revealing a hippyish optimism tragically at odds with reality.

As the Pluralist reports:

“You read the papers and you’re led to believe that the world is a big, scary place,” Austin wrote.

“People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil.”

“I don’t buy it,” he continued. “Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own… By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind.”

Some ungenerous souls are suggesting that Austin and Geoghegan ought now to be eligible for a posthumous Darwin Award; that they more or less invited their fate with their hippy naivety.

Cycles are left where four tourists were killed when a car rammed into a group of foreigners on bicycles south of the capital of Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a car-and-knife attack on Western tourists cycling in Tajikistan that killed two Americans and two Europeans. (AP/Zuly Rahmatova)

This seems a mite unfair: cycling through Tajikistan isn’t like, say, cycling through ISIS-held Syria or Iraq. Indeed, at the time of the incident, the U.S. travel advisory was Level One – the lowest risk level.

Also, it smacks of ungraciousness and Schadenfreude. Of course we know that the way liberals think is stupid and wrong. But surely we’re not so harsh as to believe that the punishment for their mental illness should be death?