The following piece is crossposted from ePluribus Media and continues the theme underlying Inappropriate Political Discourse: The Blood of Patriots and Tyrants -- namely, that the calls for violence and the incitement brought on by the right-wing propaganda prophets of doom must end, else the violence they spark will likely backlash against them with even more vehemence than they are capable of comprehending...and the only real losers will be the innocent, who truly want nothing more than to live their lives in a nation that upholds the principles of truth, justice, democracy, freedom and to promote the general welfare.
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It's begun. The wackos have all begun to unwind and step out from behind their stately faux patriotism with their lunatic friends, fomenting rebellion and attempting to instigate violence. It's an insidious fifth column of propaganda and divisiveness, delivered through auspices of free speech yet fooling few in the rank desperation of their calls to incitement.
-- GreyHawk, Inappropriate Political Discourse: The Blood of Patriots and Tyrants
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Yes, I've just quoted myself. And now I'm going to quote a recent piece by David Neiwert of Crooks and Liars, which I strongly recommend you read and share: There's a reason the Obama-hating crazies are coming out of the woodwork --
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When people become the subject of a relentless campaign of demonization -- especially by the use of grotesque smears that make them out to be monsters and provably false "facts" that have the concrete effect of unhinging people from reality -- it will only be a matter of time before the lethal violence breaks out.
And while the concern for Obama is well-placed -- he is, after all, the focus of all this hatred -- there is only a remote likelihood of anyone actually succeeding in harming him, since he is very well protected indeed. What's far more likely, in fact, is that some innocent bystanders in his vicinity will be harmed -- or, moreover, that the crazies will decide that instead of harming Obama, they will take out their hatred on his supporters.
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Neiwert firmly hits the nail on the head and drives the point home by quoting an excerpt from the Knoxville church shooter's manifesto, which I'll repeat here. I've highlighted the bits that stand out for me:
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This was a symbolic killing. Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book. I'd like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I know those people were inaccessible to me. I couldn't get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same. It's the only way we can rid America of this cancerous pestilence.
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We cannot afford to forget the lessons of history. The piece I'd written and quoted from at the start is a piece that begins with an infamous and oft-quoted reference to an incident that is well known in history: the murder of Thomas Beckett, as incited by a King.
The fools and liars of the right are no Kings, but they do wield the powerful tools of information that grant them a great deal of power to influence others to act. With such power comes great responsibility, and that's where these bastions of self-proclaimed morality fail most miserably: they attempt to abdicate, with great fervor, any responsibility for their roles in inciting violence.
Should they succeed, however, in setting a spark to the powder kegs they've so thoroughly primed throughout the nation and igniting a wave of violence among the unstable that continues and surpasses that which they've already stoked, they should be aware of the likely backlash they'll unleash at the same time: a weary, irritated and outrage-fatigued nation has grown tired of the constant assault and inane, dangerous banter that interferes with the attempts of real adults to address the problems facing our nation. Problems that these self-same Kings of Fools have, through their incessant chatter and tomfoolery, protected and fomented and exacerbated.
It is at the hands of these tired, constantly beset-upon patriots that the fates of these fools will rest. One spark will be all it takes to ignite the violence that the right-wing propaganda prophets have put into place, but for many who see and watch helplessly in hopes that cooler heads and leaders will somehow find a way intervene and dissipate the growing danger, there will be only one way to stop the incitement once the violence begins -- and taking matters into their own hands won't be an alternative that the frightwing's fearmongers will be able to talk their way out of.
The blood of Patriots and Tyrants will mix in an even bloodier confrontation, muddied by the silenced idiocy of the fools and liars that stirred a nation toward violence, and the only ones who'll stand to lose the most will be those innocent bystanders who simply wanted a nation built on principles of freedom, democracy and the promotion of the general welfare for all.
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Other pieces that are related in nature: - Neither Conservative Nor Christian Be They
- The Wolf You Feed
- The Devil Quotes Scripture: The GOP's Damning Hypocrisy
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