political violence is gonna increase
In the modern world people feel insecure. This makes them more prone to lash out in a violent manner.
Our politics are increasing debated with the clear inclusion of threats of violence. "If the opposition disagrees they will lead to Americans being killed by 'bad people'." (The Dems do this too. The clearest example at the national level was the NAACP's ad linking Bush to the dragging death of James Byrd. This ad used the threat of violence to influence Black voters.)
American political rhetoric has become shrill. And the Neo Con movement which controls the federal government is ideologically opposed to compromise, which the movement sees as weakness. Interest groups opposed to the Neo Cons see themselves getting steam-rolled. What they say or do doesn't matter. If one's voice is excluded from the political process with the threat of violence, he may seek other channels--outside traditional politics--to express himself.
These factors combine to produce a volatile situation that will lead to increased political violence in the next decade.
Media figures (Michael Moore, Al Franken, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, etc.) will be targeted along with politicians and organizers (people like King and Malcolm X). And bloggers are media figures and organizers. Apparently The Inside Dope received a threatening email.
Rich Miller has a post on a man arrested for threatening Lisa Madigan.
Our politics are increasing debated with the clear inclusion of threats of violence. "If the opposition disagrees they will lead to Americans being killed by 'bad people'." (The Dems do this too. The clearest example at the national level was the NAACP's ad linking Bush to the dragging death of James Byrd. This ad used the threat of violence to influence Black voters.)
American political rhetoric has become shrill. And the Neo Con movement which controls the federal government is ideologically opposed to compromise, which the movement sees as weakness. Interest groups opposed to the Neo Cons see themselves getting steam-rolled. What they say or do doesn't matter. If one's voice is excluded from the political process with the threat of violence, he may seek other channels--outside traditional politics--to express himself.
These factors combine to produce a volatile situation that will lead to increased political violence in the next decade.
Media figures (Michael Moore, Al Franken, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, etc.) will be targeted along with politicians and organizers (people like King and Malcolm X). And bloggers are media figures and organizers. Apparently The Inside Dope received a threatening email.
Rich Miller has a post on a man arrested for threatening Lisa Madigan.
posted by Carl Nyberg at 7:46 AM
5 Comments:
Apparently The Inside Dope received a threatening email.
Bloggers are both media figures and organizers. When the violence starts we will be targets too.
Lest there be any misconceptions, the threatening email that I received did not contain any threats of physical violence.
I run my site anonymously, which has driven many people bat-shit crazy apparently. This e-mailer was under a delusion that he knew who I was and then detailed what he would do to harm me politically.
It was only a threat of perpetrating some sort of political shenanigans against a person that this emailer erroneously thought ran my site.
It was serious, in that it contained a threat against a totally innocent victim, but the threat was not of physical harm.
Just want to make that clear.
And thankfully, the emailer, whomever they may be, sent another message the next day saying that they now realized they were mistaken and apologized for their actions. However, they maintained they had not made any threat. That's simply false.
But I'm grateful they realized their error before doing something that would be harmful to someone who didn't deserve it, and in the process, making an ass out of themeselves.
Thanks for sharing, Dope.
I stand by my analysis that we have moved into an era where destroying one's political opponents has become more fashionable and compromising is no longer considered desirable.
I find the left a little loopier than the right when it comes to extreme statements. They're awfully quick as of late to call someone a Nazi or Fascist.
Some of this is a legacy in our generation from the 1960s I think. Some pretty mundane disagreements get blown up into issues with universal themes. So whether my neigbor's monster playset for his kids meets the home-owner's rules for backyard construction gets truned into a human rights issue and he starts quoting Jefferson to the board.
Bill, I had to almost chuckle when I read your post, though not because it's doesn't contain a great degree of truth and the subject is serious.
The reason was that I recently posted a piece critical of Joe Lieberman for the variety of things he's done that I feel are disgusting in as much as it appeases and actually aids the right's agenda (something which I vehemently oppose)
At any rate, this attracted some vehement condemnation from commenters, which escalated until they resorted to accusing me of being a "Nazi" and stating that my views on Lieberman proved that I was "anti-semitic".
Of course, this caused me to blow a gasket, simply due to it's audacity and the fact that it was inconceivable how anyone could have possibly come to that conclusion.
At any rate, I've gotten over it and now it seems amusing. But it sure pointed out that there are those who make amazing leaps to the most scurilous charges and name-calling when they're unable to provide a fact-based argument either for or against anything.
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