I'm sorry, but I think the left is going overboard with the blame [View All]

[DaveofCali]

I think it is fair to say that this is a wakeup call about the potential (and already realized) consequences of the Right Wing Vitriol and other hate speech on Right Wing Media. Yes, this needs to be known.

However, I think the left wing is going too far in trying to directly blame the right wingers for this particular incident, especially given that there's no real evidence to say (yet) that this guy was pushed overboard by right wing media.

Take into consideration:

- Jared Loughner had a personal beef with Gabrielle Giffords, his grudge against her was about 4 years in the making starting when she didn't answer a question that he asked her well.
- Jared Loughner was antigovernment, period. The political books he cites really have only "anti-government" being the theme, you can't really pinpoint any significant political tilt, plus he didn't really read any modern right wing media inspired books.
- Gabrielle Giffords was the closest he could get to contact with the Federal Government (being his closest channel to the government.)
- There's no clear evidence that he became a hate filled potential killer because of Right Wing Media. He seemed to have been following extreme fringe ideas (like "conscience dreaming" and "mind control using grammar" and that "the world is an illusion"), stuff that really has nothing to do with the left and the right.
- While his writings did lineup with some far right wing conspiracies, there's still no clear evidence yet that he was a listener to right wing radio or that he was incited by anybody on the Right Wing to use violence.

Going and accusing the right wing of being responsible for this without any clear evidence IMO is jumping the gun, makes Right Wingers look like victims, and is detrimental IMO rather than limiting the message to being a "wakeup call". Hearing Karel and Mike Malloy, they really went overboard tonight IMO.