How about the "Kill Sarah Palin" group on Facebook which has hopefully been taken down?
How about the "I'm sad when I wake up and Sarah Palin isn't dead" group on Facebook which was still up an hour ago?
We do not do a service to ourselves when we refuse to admit that people on both sides engage in this rhetoric. Only then can we get to the point that theirs is worse. It's like telling kids that smoking pot will make them a raging lunatic (a la Reefer Madness). They know it's bullshit so they won't listen to you about the real harms.
55. Yeah, because some nuts on facebook are exactly the same as prominent politicians
and right wing media nuts. It's really sad to see those on the left so completely willing to make the same false equivalencies that the right have been aching to trot out. Way to make their job easier for them.
put up the "assassins wanted" graphic over W. It happens. I'm not saying they are the same but the rhetoric that it doesn't happen on our side is silly. And helps us not.
65. it was "snipers wanted" not "assassins wanted"
I don't think Craig Kilborn is a great example, though, because he's not exactly a liberal icon (if he's even particularly liberal at all -- I don't know).
The graphic was certainly uncalled for, though, and was, appropriately, investigated.
10 years ago some has-been late night host makes a stupid skit and that's the best you can do? It DOESN'T happen on our side. A few random silly comments made over the course of DECADES does not equal the non-stop hate coming from the right. All the attempts to create an equivalence are downright stupid.
Both sides need to mellow out a little and just have decent discussions on the topic of the day. Both sides also need to realize that they sometimes are wrong and need to listen to the other side for the good of our country.
Here are your examples:
1) "A spoiled child (Bush) is telling us our Social Security isn’t safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here’s your answer, you ungrateful whelp:
Half of the people on your list are not Democratic Leaders and some of them aren't even Democrats. Opie & Anthony are not Democrats and have for the last few days been belittling the Democrats any chance they get. #16 is not attributed to Loughner, but nice try.
54. you really think the crazy kid was influencd by any of this?
I'm really surprised people are falling for this. This is starting to get insane, particularly when everyone is acting that as if in the history of political discourse we have never there has never been as much anger and vitriol a now. Poppycock! And you know what? I don't want us all to get along! I enjoy the fights!
This tragedy committed by one crazy person.... should have NO effect on the language or the battles we fight daily. I don't believe this kid was influenced by anyone but the voices in his head.
If people really think that speech is leading to violence? Where is it? Wouldn't we have countless tragedies occuring daily?
I made a simple statement. That's all. No inferences or reading between the lines (or rather over or under my one line) to be seen at all. I do not understand the response, but somehow my one simple one-line statement has greater meaning to others.
22. probably will even make a point of saying he regrets it. lets see. more than rw is doing
no one is asking right to pretend they didnt say it. no one is demanding that we pretend it is not inciteful language. we are saying, recognize what you do, own it and stop.
is the right doing this..... not at all. not even. not kinda.
olberman did. the one that was on his shoulders. not only apologized in the past but called himself out again this weekend. THAT is what the left is asking for.
that is ALL. that is not asking a whole lot of our people in the wake of these deaths.
(most of the post not to you, just piggybacked this rant off your post)
25. People are blurring real threats with stupid metaphors and symbols.
Edited on Tue Jan-11-11 12:55 PM by woo me with science
This is the same kind of thinking that produces "zero tolerance" policies that get kids expelled for drawing a bloody picture or carrying a GI Joe gun to school. It is the kind of thinking that gets stupid laws passed limiting our speech and our freedoms, in the guise of "protecting" us.
We have ALWAYS used battle metaphor for politics, just as we use it for sports. It rarely means that you actually want your opponent to be shot.
We must try to use common sense in evaluating each example, not throw everything into the same category and rule out all rhetoric that EVER mentions a gun or warfare.
There is a lot of purposeful disingenuousness in this argument by people trying to score points for their own side.
91. I'm not looking at it as comparative. I'm looking at it as a practical means
for disposing of the argument that we are hypocrites. I don't understand what is so terrifying about honesty, especially in the face of the sickening dishonesty of the other side i.e. I don't understand your argument though I've certainly heard it a hundred times in the last couple days.
The OP is merely a ridiculous right-wing talking point. Post a single comment from President Obamaor a single comment from some other Dem or Progressive and then claim that both sides do it. Complete and total bullshit!
Get back to us for this discussion after the left gets its own 24/7 hate spewing network (FOX) AND a Clear Channel radio network pumping Rush Limbaugh violence inspiring rhetoric to every square inch of America five days a week. Sure, we can discuss this issue of hate speech being equal all day long after we on the left get hundreds of Rush Limbaugh wannabe local right winger radio hosts from coast to coast. And, it goes on and on!
In short, the OP is complete nonsense and it is ridiculous on its face. There is no equivalency in scale at all!
46. well, it does raise questions about metaphor, I suppose
Where is the line between symbolic language and reality? When is it crossed? There was a really good analysis on The News Hour last night with the communication prof Kathleen Jamieson from Philly and a professor from Yale.
that believes "dancing with the stars" is the best show on television, I think you'll have a hard time explaining to people the not-so-subtle differences between the right-wing's constant usage of violent language and this single comment from the president.
50. Touche but it needs to stop now. Both sides. I'm getting sick of BOTH SIDES.
The majority of people who vote Republican aren't hateful people. The frenzied offensive by some Liberals to throw everything and any old thing out there just hoping something sticks just puts Republicans on the defensive, rallying around the hate speakers, for NO strategic gain.
This is some of the dumbest, most offensive, most juvenile, shit I've ever seen on the internet.
56. It was a quote from "The Untouchables", him being from Chicago and all.
But his critics and detractors will have to decide the direction from which to criticize: Is he a gun nut, or is he that socialist/communist who was slammed for commenting that some people "cling to their guns and religion" who therefore wants to take our guns away?
60. Please provide a link to the original quote. IIRC it went more like this:
"You don't bring a knife to a gunfight", which speaks to making sure you are on a level playing field, and prepared to give as good as you get, defensively.
So DO please provide a link to YOUR version. I'll be waiting.
62. It's a metaphor, used once--and it's not a clarion call to shoot Republicans.
Barack Obama didn't encourage people to come to rallies armed. He didn't tell people to threaten their Congressmen, and he didn't encourage the use of "Second Amendment remedies".
First of all, google your title, you might be enlightened by the results. Second, the quote everyone seems to be throwing around is a quote from The Untouchables. Read some of the speeches in which they were given to glean some context.
Bullseyes as a reference on a political map do not equate to rifle cross hairs. They just don't.
79. Did he pose many, many times pointing a gun at someone?
Did he continually and repeatedly use violent metaphors to charge up his base?
In hindsight, i'm sure he would choose words more responsibly now.
To equate this one statement with the years of hate Teabaggers and Republicans have been spewing is quite the stretch, but i suppose it makes everything the Right has done perfectly okay now.
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