How much does right-wing rhetoric contribute to right-wing terrorism?
Yesterday, a man and a woman shot two police officers in a Las Vegas restaurant after saying, this is a revolution. Then they draped their bodies in a Gadsden flag. According to reports now coming in, the couple (who later killed themselves) appear to have been white supremacists and told neighbors they had gone to join the protests in support of anti-government rancher Cliven Bundy. It was one more incident of right-wing terrorism that, while not exactly an epidemic, has become enough of a trend to raise some troubling questions.
What Im about to say will raise some hackles, but we need to talk about it. Its long past time for prominent conservatives and Republicans to do some introspection and ask whether theyre contributing to outbreaks of right-wing violence.
Before I go on, let me be clear about what Im not saying. Im not saying that Republican members of Congress bear direct responsibility for everything some disturbed person from the same side of the political spectrum as them might do. Im not saying that they are explicitly encouraging violence. Nor am I saying that you cant find examples of liberals using hyperbolic, irresponsible words.
But what I am saying is this: there are some particular features of conservative political rhetoric today that help create an atmosphere in which violence and terrorism can germinate.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/06/09/how-much-does-right-wing-rhetoric-contribute-to-right-wing-terrorism/?hpid=z3
randys1
(16,286 posts)denying them medicaid or Karl Rove doing the most despicable garbage to get the most corrupt humans alive in power, they are all absolutely responsible, the names are too many to list.
WHEN we decide to call the right what they are, domestic terrorists, we will begin to resolve this, but as long as we pretend they are some viable opposition party with credible ideas, we are doomed.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts).... then why are hundreds of billions being spent on advertising?