The Tragic Arkansas Shooting and Conservative Hate Speech

via AlterNet:



The Tragic Arkansas Shooting and Conservative Hate Speech

Posted by Steven D., Booman Tribune at 3:52 PM on August 14, 2008.

Conservatives have long called for the heads of prominent liberals. Looks like they got their wish.



I've waited to make my first comments about the murder of the Chair of Arkansas' Democratic Party. I wanted to make sure that there was no personal connection between the shooter and Bill Gwatney, and apparently there wasn't one. Instead, there are some initial eerie similarities between the shooter Timothy Dale Johnson, and the man who massacred members of the Unitarian church in Knoxville, Tennessee last month. Both, for example had just lost their jobs, and both were very, very angry about that fact:



Johnson apparently lived alone and had never married. Under most circumstances he probably would have continied this isolated, but not all together unproductive life. He probably had certain emotional difficulties with people. According to neighbors he kept to himself, yet was considered a model employee at target. Yet, after losing his job, the first action he decided to take was to murder a prominent liberal and Democrat, much like Jim David Adkisson decided to take his rage and anger at his personal situation out on the "liberal" church in Knoxville. Both chose to use firearms to murder innocent people they did not know personally. It is logical to assume that they both chose their targets to make a statement. Indeed, we know for a fact that Adkisson, the church shooter, wrote a specific hate filled manifesto detailing his reasons for targeting the most prominent "liberal" church in Knoxville for his massacre.

I don't think it is a coincidence that within a few weeks, another disturbed individual who had lost his job (at least by his own perception -- Target is denying they terminated him), chose to shoot someone associated with "liberals" and "Democrats." The right wing bloggers and talk show hosts can deny their complicity in these "random" actions, and, indeed, legally they are not responsible for the criminal actions of a few "rogue" individuals. However, their writings and commentary, widely disseminated has spread a culture where violence against liberals, Democrats, feminists, gays, blacks, immigrants, Muslims and any other out group is frequently expressed as "comedy" or in fantasies of wish fulfillment. They can claim all they like that they cannot be held accountable for the aura of hatred they have engendered in American society, but their protestations ring hollow. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/95112/the_tragic_arkansas_shooting_and_conservative_hate_speech/

Party leaders need to take appropriate action.

If you mean Republican party leaders, why should they take action? This is what they want - they have wanted this for years. If you mean Democratic party leaders, again I ask you, what party leaders? The Democrats seem incapable of understanding what is going on and where the fuck they are. They stand around tisk-tisking and wringing their hands and the RW goons are killing people. The Republicans have unleashed their version of the suicide bombers - the suicide killers. The republicans don't want to use bombers, too many "innocent" people might get hurt. No, it is better to for the republicans if their suicide killers take out only a handful at a time with firearms. This is only going to get worse...

head was big news for a week.

>> Both chose to use firearms to murder innocent people they did not know personally.

Isn't that "terrorism"? And aren't we fighting a Global War on it? I'm confused.