Beck's Attacks Trigger Death Threats

If anyone thinks that the vitriol that Glenn Beck spews on his radio and TV shows doesn't stir people to aggressive and hateful action, they should take a look at the postings on his website, The Blaze, about Frances Fox Piven.

For two years Beck has targeted the political science professor as a Marxist Machiavelli whose writings constitute a manifesto for a radical revolution.

But in recent months Beck has escalated his hate campaign against Piven, a professor at the City University of New York, former vice president of the American Political Science Association, and former president of the American Sociological Association. He labeled Piven one of the "nine most dangerous people in the world," and "an enemy of the Constitution."

Not surprisingly, this has led to a dramatic rise in ugly threats to the 78-year old Piven

Finish this long article at http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/23-0

I reccommend reading this interview from Der Spiegel too and consider the content of both.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Schneider, on Jan. 8 in Arizona, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head at close range and killed six people. While the world searches for explanations, you write, in your recent book "Das Attentat" ("The Assassination"), that an assassin like Loughner is not crazy but the product of hyper-rationality. What does this mean?

Schneider: Every assassin is a perceptive observer and interpreter of signs and events. For him, nothing happens by accident. He scrutinizes the world in search of hostile intentions, and he imagines conspiracies everywhere. To us, the outcome seems insane. Yet logic and rationality are key components in the paranoid suppositions arrived at by the assassin. Paranoia is not irrationality but hyper-rationality. Loughner is a very typical example.

SPIEGEL: As if he had read your book.

Schneider: Yes, almost.

SPIEGEL: What's so typical?

Schneider: First of all, from his subjective perspective, Loughner acted in an extremely moral fashion. The paranoiac is saving the world from a threat. He disconnects his system of interpretation from everything else and, within this system, reestablishes an order that is no longer frightening for him. Second, Loughner left behind messages, which is always part of a rational assassination plot. It would seem to be an act that he had spent a long time thinking about and preparing. Third, it was a political act. In the assassin, mania, which can be expressed in endless ways, takes on a political form. Think about the video in which he talks about currency and the gold standard. These are fundamental sign systems in Western societies -- and he wants to renew or replace them. That is delusional, but it is an attempt to establish contact with power.

Here's the link to the rest of the interview: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,740665,00.html

They want the violence and they get it.

I hope that Al Sharpton's going after Limbaugh will turn out to be only the tip of the iceberg for dealing with all this. Not that I trust the FCC. But Sharpton told Ed Schultz that they would succeed if the rest of us keep pushing and don't let go of the issue of hate speech in general.

we need to see to it that "some day" comes very soon.

Personally I think e could still take the country back but it ould entail inflicting a lot of "karma" on Beck, Limpballs, Hannity, Levin, Weiner, Garrison, and the other 1000 or so purveyors of hate that constitute terminal cancer. A little dirty, perhaps, but relatively small price to pay.

Saw many links in the Common Dreams piece, but no indication this was among them, sorry if it's already here.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVeu29OnStk>

I understand the designated driveler at Fixed Noise is proudly defending their JYD, insisting they see messaging that is responsible, while in my head, I'm hearing that adolescent whine fantasize about murdering two different people while on the air. (Nancy Pelosi and Michael Moore)

The Tuscon shooting brought some expectation that a high profile voice would be silenced, I just never expected it would be one who did the job with a sense of responsibility to the public. Baffling and shameless.

recommended

o yeah, that is OK with the network.