Rhetoric Has Consequences

1. Around 4 min: We’re fortunate to have a really balanced community.

2. I guess it’s pointless to hope that this will actually inspire some soul searching on the parts of Palin, Beck, etc. Just look at the new troll/teabag apologists over on the earlier thread, already saying this had nothing to do with the people who “really love America”.

3. The shooter Jared Lee Loughner, according to one acquaintance, was a fan of “Anti-Flag”:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Flag

   Anti-Flag is a punk rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, formed in 1988, and known for its outspoken political views. Much of the band’s lyrics have focused on fervent anti-war activism, criticism of United States foreign policy, corporatism, U.S. wealth distribution, and various sociopolitical sentiments.

   Yeah…sounds like Palin. Exactly.

4. Whether or not he had a political motive, he was batshit crazy. And all a batshit crazy person needs is a loudmouth to point them to a target — which Palin and Company gleefully provided.

5. It’s not that Palin, et al, want some idiot to take their violent words seriously. It’s that they don’t care if some idiot takes their violent words seriously. They say whatever they think will rally their supporters, without bothering about the consequences.

   In any rational country, that’s negligent homicide.

6. Source Bailo?

7. Bailo, or the Scrotum of the Universe, needs no sources. He’s amazing like that.

8. William Gibson (@GreatDismal) retweeted @39forks: “If this was a school shooting, the student who posted the cross-hair map would be in custody right now.”

9. Canuck @2,

   Soul searching requires a soul.

10. your point, bailo? i enjoy a lot of music that i don’t identify with on any meaningful level.

11. Good point, Goldy.

12. If you’re a right-winger, treat yourself to a moment of “To-Thine-Own-Self-Be-True.”
    You got your wet dream to come true: somebody murdered a legislator who voted for the health care bill!

13. I could scream myself hoarse and not make a dent in the armor surrounding the minds of right-wingers. They have minds like steel traps: rusty… closed.

14. So when a mentally ill person murders a random citizen on the streets of Seattle the Stranger frames it as a medical and social justice issue. Your reporting very fairly focused on the institutional and personal failings that led to one sick person hacking another sick person to death in broad daylight.

    But when a mentally ill person murders a left leaning politician (shooting a nine year old girl point blank in the process) the true culprit it right wing rhetoric. That’s it case closed.

    You guys have your head so far up your own asses it is fucking astounding.

15. This is what a “Second Amendment remedy” looks like.

16. 14- yeah, I know. When it reaches the level of assassinations or attempted assassinations, it’s totally equivalent! And I don’t think anyone is saying there’s a direct causal relationship here. But alleged crazies aren’t susceptible (if not the most susceptible) to crosshairs pictures? I mean, that’s the first thing I thought about when I heard that Giffords was shot before I knew any of the details–that she was one of the crosshairs reps in SarahPAC’s sights.

17. “And I don’t think anyone is saying there’s a direct causal relationship here”.

    Yes, they are.

18. Really, are we saying that SarahPAC’s words and marketing campaign inspired Loughner to act? It IS different than just a suggestion of a climate of violent rhetoric coming from Palin, Tea Party, et al. which is what I see.

    Links, quotes?

19. Canuck @2 No doubt you know the cliche “It’s impossible to make someone understand something which their livelihood requires them not to understand.” If they limited themselves to moderate and factual statements, Beck and Rush would just be uglier Anderson Coopers, and Palin would just be, um, PTA president? They create their niche by going beyond the bounds of fact and reason, and they’ll never turn back or admit a mistake.

20. @19 And like true narcissists, they start to believe the lies after awhile, no doubt. As appalling as Palin’s politics are, she sounds just as awful in her personal life. Why, why does this appeal to fully half of the people in this country?

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