When Wingnut BS Goes Bad

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/4/4/19227/19363

When Wingnut BS Goes Bad

by Steven D
Sat Apr 4th, 2009 at 07:02:27 PM EST

snip//

Yep. That's right. Three police officers were ambushed by some idiot who believed this insane confabulated fever dream of a rumor that Obama was going to come in the night and take away all his bang-bang toys. It's sickening. It's disturbing. And, for the families and friends of the three dead officers it must seem like some bizarre, surreal, absurdist farce. Except, of course, that it actually happened, and they will have to bury and mourn their loved ones because a band of ignorant jackasses (and more than a few right wing opportunists) invented a story that had no basis in reality, a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, but in this case tragically signifying the needless death of three public servants paid to protect their fellow citizens.

Just like the poor innocent congregants of Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church who witnessed the murders of two of their community because a deranged individual by the name of Jim D. Adkisson, a connoisseur of right wing hatemongers like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, decided to commit a hate crime as revenge against liberals, once more we see how the inane lies and fantasies spread by of a minority of spiteful, fearful, ignorant, bigoted and small minded people have resulted in the deaths of innocents. We keep saying it can't happen here, that we will never see a movement among certain members of our society to kill fellow Americans simply because of their political beliefs or status "government employees" or immigrants, or gays, or blacks, etc. We keep saying this country is not like Cambodia, or Rwanda, or other places where mass violence has erupted because of the hateful propaganda preached by a few power mad demagogues. And yet . . .

And yet these deadly incidents keep happening. And evil media clowns like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and even politicians like Michelle Bachmann keep screaming their twisted diatribes of hate over the airwaves, ratcheting up their deceitful, mendacious and dangerous rhetoric to levels we haven't seen since the days when the Klu Klux Klan dominated vast regions of this country in the twenties and thirties. Days when lynchings were common. Nor do we need to look that far back. It was only 14 years ago, during the administration of another centrist Democratic President that we suffered the worst act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by another crazy bastard who swallowed the far right lies hook line and sinker: a bastard named Timothy McVeigh.

McVeigh's tragic attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City came at a time when right wing hate radio talk shows and the National Republicans were in full on attack mode against President Bill Clinton and the evils of "Big Guvmint." The rise of right wing militias were in full flower. A time when a white supremacist made a Jewish community center in Los Angeles a free fire zone. And this all occurred during a time of economic prosperity and relative stability. Before Fox News had fully mutated into the master manipulator and fear monger it has become today. A time before Hannity and O'Reilly were household words, and Glenn Beck was just a small time radio personality and recovering ex-alcoholic, not the self described leader of the 9/12 Project whose motto is "We Surround Them," the "them" in this case being anyone who voted for Obama, or who isn't a white, gun loving, tax hating conservative Christian.

The longer the Becks and the O'Reillys and the Hannitys and the Limbaughs and the Savages and all their little wannabe imitators continue this campaign of fear and distortion, spreading hate and lies to their audiences and anyone those gullible enough to believe every misleading canard that they screech from their media pulpits, the more incidents like the murder of these three Pittsburgh police officers by deluded and unstable individuals will continue to occur.

Their eliminationist jokes regarding the deaths of liberals and other "Un-American traitors" were never funny, but they are quickly becoming downright dangerous to our public safety. To Your safety. My safety. Our children's safety. As more and more people lose their jobs the audience for this kind of deluded, scapegoating rhetoric grows larger every day. As does the chance that the violent language of these radical right wing agitators will erupt into more and more instances of actual violence. We already know that President Obama received an unprecedented number of death threats (and several actual foiled conspiracies) before he won election. How long will it be before one of these fruitcake dittohead followers of Beck and Limbaugh and Hannity and Savage make an attempt on his life, or the lives of other prominent liberal spokespeople and/or Democratic politicians?

Downplay the danger all you want, but remember, an animal is at its most dangerous when it is wounded and cornered. We are watching the devolution of the Mighty Right Wing Wurlitzer into an engine of mass insanity, one that could lead us all down a very dark and destructive path if we are not careful and cognizant of the very real danger it represents to our democracy and to our security.

nt

And causing far less loss of life.

With the added benefit that the perp gets shot or arrested and convicted.

Or to paraphrase a longer section of his quote:

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that hate, for lack of a better word, is good. Hate is right, hate works. Hate clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Hate, in all of its forms; hate for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.

And it has worked, hasn't it? It's getting the results they want. The few puny people who lose their lives, thanks to Limbaugh, O'Reilly and the like, don't matter. What matters are the masses of people terrified into flocking to their banners, listening to their shows, repeating their words and giving them more money, power and influence.

It's not that I like it, but nobody has presented an alternative that shuts these rabble-rousers up.

Beck, Bachmann, and the rest are trying to incite a war. Every day the hate speech is ramped up. Every day another insane winger follows their instructions. What will it take for us to fight back?

These people are demonstrating the repulsiveness of their positions taken to their logical conclusion.

that their killer, that young 23 year old, listened to the inflammatory rhetoric spewed forth by RW hate radio.

I wondered what I could do to let them know my feelings, & this is what I came up with:

I will write/email Limbaugh, et al & an politely, but in no uncertain terms let them know that this is not funny, not a game; they are inciting people to violence and murder.

I will also write/email "Sleep Number" people (big Limbaugh sponsors), and others that advertise on hate radio, and let them know what they are sponsoring. That they are sponsoring some dangerous people with a violent message.

Next I will be writing/emailing the stations, to let them know the type of violent rhetoric and its outcome that they are airing.

And finally I will continue contacting the FCC with dates & times of inflammatory, racist, sexist tirades that I hear from these RW HATERS.

I feel I need to do something for these families, and for the victims of the Unitarian Church murders.

Thank you for walking the talk.
:patriot:

I'll try to copy and send to other PM'ers. Let's share corp adresses, LTTE, letter templates, or other ideas. (I'm not a phone person, but others might be.)

Maybe I'll even start a thread which we can use and keep bookmarked for ourselves.

The Activist Group here seems quiet--
Meanwhile, I keep thinking of how UPS was convinced to quit advertising on oLIE-lly: through consumer response.

In a capitalistic world, it makes sense to start focusing on where the igneologues (ignorant + ideologues) get their funding. Corporate sponsors are one of their cash flow sources that we can influence.

the airwaves would be on fire condemning the ideology that inspired the crimes, and Congress would have introduce 15 bills to restrict left-wing propaganda.

We'll probably hear from Keith Olberman and that will probably be the only national voice that speaks to the right wing hate.

Steven D. nails it.
I'm sending this on in e-mails.
Recommending and Kicking.
:thumbsup:

They spread lots of lies and hatred to people with a warped world view. But, I don't see any definite links between Poplawski and any of the big names that are getting blamed for this. The belief that Jews have/will take over America is out there on the fringe, past mainstream wingnut kooks and on to the Oort Cloud of lunatics. I haven't heard mainstream wingnuts say the Jews are taking over. Some complain about Jewish influence but stop there.

...disturbed by a passing massive bloviating body, and falling into our local gravitational well...