"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity"
-Ann Coulter-
We've been hearing about the dangers of song lyrics and video games for decades and of course there's some statistical correlation, according to some researchers, between constant exposure and violent behavior. Why is it then that we're not hearing about the effects of the unrelenting barrage of furious denunciations of the various straw men set ablaze by the religious right and the political right? Why aren't we concerned about the effect on Jim Adkisson?
Dubious denunciation has been around since the Biblical prophets, but we've certainly outgrown hand copied parchment scrolls as the medium. We have blogs, we have newspapers, newsletters, e-mail; we have radio broadcasts, we have 24 hour opinion shouting by people like Michelle Malkin, Anne Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and others. Anger, hate and bigotry can be spread faster than Smallpox and we have enough angry opinion to drown out reality. For some men like Adkisson, it's been enough to push him into domestic terrorism.
So when Jim Adkisson, an unemployed truck driver, killed two people and wounded six others with a homemade and illegal sawed off shotgun at a Tennessee church last summer, it was because he hated the "Liberals" he perceived as infesting the Unitarian Church. He still hates them so much that he smiled as he entered a guilty plea yesterday and was sentenced to life without parole.
So when Ann Coulter, for instance, proclaims a "Fathwa" against Liberals and blames everything from 9/11 to the current failure of Republican economic policy on "treasonous" Liberals in her hysterical and incessant way, when she advocates the poisoning of Federal Judges and armed assault on Islamic countries: when the American public sits mesmerized in front of Fox News and their endless fantasies about "terrorist fist bumps" and sneering, condescending and fictitious stories about "Liberals" conspiring against us all, perhaps it's time we remember the Riot Act. Perhaps it's time we saw these wealthy commercial hatemongers in the same light as we see the bearded Bogey men from Afghanistan who incite people to blow up infidels.
At least Jim Adkisson admitted his motives, even if he has no remorse.
With freedom of speech comes a grave responsibility for the words we speak.
ReplyDeleteThe Rush Limbaughs, Ann Coulters and Rev Wrights of the world poison and inflame others and in doing so share the guilt of the riotous, insane acts of people like Adkisson.
Speaking our minds is one thing and I would never want to infringe on that, but there should be consequences to speaking violence and hate that results in violent and hateful acts against members of our society.
Captain, I’m hoping we will be able to change the debate in the near future. Until now, these abusers of the airwaves hide smugly behind their free speech rights, accusing us on the left as being ohhh sooo PC (politically correct). They sneer, they jeer, they taunt with impunity. But that is the wrong argument to have with these idiots. When we look at them in the context as pathological abusers, it changes the argument. It makes them more unsavory, and more likely to have national advertisers avoid their programs.
ReplyDeleteIt is unclear whether we will ever be successful in having the Fairness Doctrine reinstated, but at least, by emphasizing the relationship between abuse and political violence, we might marginalize them to the extent that people pay less attention or shun them ... especially advertisers.
That is also why I want to join forces with Spocko, whose campaigns against hate radio are legendary.
The main way the radio goons succeed is by sucking up all the discursive air, rerouting their opponents' energy either to silencing them or combating their stupid hollering with reason. Neither tactic works -- you cannot shout down a blockhead in any energy-cost-efficient manner, and you cannot persuade a fool with rational argumentation. With regard to some of the more prominent goons, I rather doubt that they believe anything they say: it's all tactical -- they know they are just "rerouting" otherwise good energy coming from their opponents. All you can do is replace their brutish babble with intelligent, interesting commentary that doesn't even attempt to engage them directly. Waste your time on them, and they win.
ReplyDelete