The Seduction of Hatred
More than the other blogs on my admittedly limited radar, this place calls attention to the sentiments and expressions of the hate group elements as they are courted and inflamed by the more extreme elements of the Republican Party. A sample of these posts includes:Dancing with a Snake (1/29/09)
Toxic Talk (3/01/09)
Toxic Distraction (4/15/09)
Darkness (7/21/09)
The McCain/Palin campaign opened Pandora's box with the Alaska governor's lack of regard for the implications of stirring a pot best left unstirred. The entire country got to see McCain inhale a dose of the stench when a woman called Obama an Arab. When McCain properly rejected the utterly false assertion, the mob booed him for noting reality.
The mob remains, but instead of McCain's, "No m'aam" we see the continued instigation of the animosity with deliberately designed fictitious sound bites (“cuts the number of health care providers”) and easily grasped images ("death panel") that pour nitroglycerin onto the flames.
The election of the first African American President was de facto going to inject energy into the extremist militias and white supremacist movements, and in a perfect storm the intentional fanning of similar sentiments via a misinformation campaign regarding health care puts the country on a collision course with acts of terrorism having nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, perhaps the most knowledgeable source of information about militias and hate groups, has published a report The Second Wave - Return of the Militias (the complete 24 page PDF) documenting the disturbing escalation of activity on the part of people eager for a reason to shoot or worse, another version of Timothy McVeigh's Oklahoma City bombing. From the report, Authorities around the country are reporting a worrying uptick in Patriot activities and propaganda. "This is the most significant growth we've seen in 10 to 12 years," says one. "All it's lacking is a spark. I think it's only a matter of time before you see threats and violence."
We have already seen the threats. Does anyone really think a staged lynching of an effigy of an elected official is about health care reform? The death threats continue to multiply and now number over a dozen.
The Republicans may indeed seduce the hatred with which they flirt. I don't think they fully comprehend what happens next.
posted by x4mr at 5:48 PM
16 Comments:
Totally agree with the whole post.
Our country is turning to hate.
Some of us remember the hate of the 1960s due to knee jerk reaction from the civil rights movement.
We are taking big steps backwards, thanks to the HATE spewed by the GOP/rightwingnuts.
Just because you SAY "the HATE spewed by the GOP/rightwingnuts" doesn't make it true that no legitimate cause for concern is motivating the populace.
You forget that the hate foisted on Bush was far more intense (how may effigies burned, village idiot stickers, general betrayus', camp-ins at his ranch?), but of course you dismiss that as okay because it was "justified." Despots always need a villain to rally their troops (think Hugo, Sun). It is clear that this space hates, yes hates, anyone who does not LOVE, yes love, the new Obama/Pelosi world view. You don't see your own hate. No one ever does when it's "justified."
Obama and Pelosi are in fact making the biggest socialist grab in modern US history. Excuse me for believing that government bureaucrats will do a far worse job managing my healthcare. Tort reform should be at the heart of the debate, which your God-man POTUS refuses to even address as part of the problem. Why do you suppose that is?
Could the POTUS's other professions have anything to do with it? Or, the fact that lawyers are a major funding block for the liberal agenda because they make their money off the trade?
How do you defend handing the legitimate interests of GM's shareholders and bondholders over to the unions? Right, its because you believe the collective rights of a minority group exceed those of the balance of society. Ironic, since its the very pension funds of the average worker who owned the stock and bonds to begin with. It all boils down to the latest fascist regime out-extreming the prior one. The flames of extremism are fanned by the likes of these recent posts screaming about how extreme the OTHER guys have gotten.
Go ahead, remind me of how these blogs are arranged to work (extremism is okay, 'cause we need to emphasize our points, unlike a traditional intellectual argument where parties feel any obligation toward objectivity and self deprication).
While at it, explain to me why the POTUS's affiliation with ACORN is a good thing because although they are corrupt to the core and absolutely use Gestapo tactics, they're wrapped in a moral cloak of invinsibility, so we should look the other way if we know what's good for us.
Wasn't that the Catholic Church's original defense (think inquisition, Pastor/boy mentoring)?
And, finally, do you think you can use my Policon moniker when you report me to the POTUS's "special task force on dissenters" or will you be needing more intimate information?
Wise up X4mr, it wasn't the lady from Alaska who unleashed the beast. It's everyone who facilitates extremism (a corrupt mainstream media spawns Savage Limbaughs, which spawns Amys and Keiths, which.. turn, turn, turn.
Get out of my light. Like Diogenese, I'm looking for an honest man, someone with BALANCE, not just a penetrating wit, loud voice, and a political cause.
FACT: Hitler was a liberal, and then he wasn't.
Apparently Policon only either didn’t read or doesn’t understand points x4mr has made in earlier posts. First, to think the Obama administration is simply acting out of aggression is not accurate. Obama didn’t take over GM because he felt like running a car company. GM WAS GOING BANKRUPT!! They didn’t takeover AIG and the rest of the corporate whores because they felt like going into the finance business. The corporate clowns threw the country under the bus.
Policon and the rest of his greedy "free market" slime tanked the nation. If the free market worked (it doesn’t), the "bailout" would not be necessary. We wouldn’t need to be hemorrhaging $2 trillion this year to pay the tab for Bush AIG Incorporated’s orgy. We are in the shithouse because Policon’s ilk put us here, handing themselves billions in bonuses as they sold us out. Why he thinks the profit mongering insurance giants, whose executives make $100+M and whose profits have soared 400+% during the Bush atrocity will better manage his health care is anyone’s guess.
You’re right, Policon. There is plenty of hatred going around. As x4mr has already noted, however, our enemies are the three beasts of greed, corruption, and incompetence. Why do you feel such animosity towards government and yet have faith in the very organizations that are destroying the country?
Just wait, Policon, until you actually need a real procedure performed, one that will cost real money. That’s when you’ll get the letter from the HMO tyrant informing you that because you had a mole removed in 1987, you have a pre-existing condition and your policy is cancelled effective immediately.
The Bush/Cheney government by the rich for the rich has so raped this nation raw that now people are waking up. We see that the CEO of United Health Care makes a fucking $100,000 AN HOUR.
I don't think I will ever understand why the right fails to get that Europe works. Canada works. Bush Inc sold us to the corporate barons for the slaughter. We're declining.
To say we are the richest country is a misnomer. We have the richest set of corporate barons. The rest of the country isn't rich. Our per capita statistics on education and health are no better than the rest of the industrialized world. In fact, we're slipping.
We cannot sustain a system designed to give billions in bonuses to a handful of people. We cannot afford a health care system that gives half of every health care to greedy filth that is neither a health care provider nor a patient. Get Wall Street leeches out of the hospitals and clinics.
Good luck with the hate thing, Navigator. Your admission proves my point about offsetting hatreds.
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No Hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
Yeah, Policon, a world without possessions, religion, or nations. No greed. Sign me up.
The organizational structures we've inherited worked in the past but are increasingly obsolete. You are on the losing end of the political spectrum as population densities increase, and we're on track to hit 7 billion by 2011.
Wealth concentrating for profit corporations are deeply problematic and unsustainable in their current form. They eat too much, get too fat, and bleed us dry.
Hatred is fueled by fear, and in addition to the realization that "white boy day" is over, part of the terror behind the hatred is the recognition that the boomer train wreck we've known about for decades is now truly arriving. The mobs might as well scream about gravity. Taking off is optional. Landing is mandatory. Our choice is how to hit, and bitching at the pilot doesn't change the physics.
Furthermore, if Amy Goodman and Keith Olbermann are representive of the extremist elements on the left, then the extreme left is kind of lacking in extremism.
The fact is, the left does not court or pander to left wing extremists. The only left wing extremists I can even recall in recent history are some environmental groups and perhaps some animal rights groups. Most domestic terrorism, however, is identified with the far right.
If we can agree that Amy and Keith are not extremists, Policon, then provide some concrete examples of how and when liberals or Democrats have aligned themselves with leftist fringe groups. The reality is that Democrats tend to shun the fringe even when they have good issues.
You cannot find parallels between Republicans and Democrats with respect to their relationships with extremists and other fringe groups unless you make them up. But that is what talking points are all about, isn't it? Make it up and see if it grows legs. Your 8-12 8:48 PM rant is nothing but a litany of the current right wing talking points. And your reference to "Imagine" is totally hypocritcal. You don't want a "brotherhood of man." You want to deny health care to 50 million Americans, most of whom are the working poor.
Just for you, Policon:
The Times They are a Changin'
(Bob Dylan)
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
A most appropriate song, Liza.
X4mr is spot on as usual and Policon's citing John Lennon is a farce. I'll bet the farm that Policon is:
1. White
2. Male
3. Over 55
I'm not saying he is racist or full of hate, but he definitely buys into the corporate loving crowd who thinks what's good for the rich is good for the country. He's one of the tax haters who spew and foam at the notion of the transfer of wealth EXCEPT when wealth is transferred UP THE CHAIN.
Transferring wealth from poor/middle to the rich, which Bush and Republican Congress did MASSIVELY is just fine. Taxing the rich, however, is communism.
I like "white boy day" which in case you don't know is from the great movie "True Romance."
"White boy day" is over and yes, we are going to see a lot of mayhem. The pressure and hatred have nowhere to go as the Republicans (oh the stupidity!) TORCH their relationship with minorities. Actually, the violence has already started (Holocaust museum). There will be more.
By the way, health care is not a racial issue, right? Why are the mobs all white?
Anon, Liza, x4mr- here's one I really like. Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!!
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance
Some will fall and some will live
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs
Will water the meadows of France!
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes
It's about people being slaves to tyranny. I'm NOT white, male, and 55yrs old, but you sound like rebellious teens when you use that stereotype for directing your hatred (self hate?). I sincerely sympathize with your failures to get ahead in the competitive American society. And I agree that Asians, Africans, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Russians, etc, etc are gunning for our wealth. I disagree that it's a zero sum game that can only be run by government bureaucrats. Your willingness to deliver yourselves over to a utopian nanny state is severly naive and will not turn out well.
(PS- I'm a fan of the entrepreneur, the small businesses who create 85% of the tens of millions of new jobs this country creates when the government lets them. You know, the hard working, capital risking folks that China and India embrace, and Rahm and Barrack [and you] despise. I would solve the $100,000/hour problem by turning incentivizing entrepreneurs to outcompete with the big corporations we all loathe. So far, the POTUS has done nothing but tax, scold, and despise small business.)
Policon sure loves to make stuff up, such as our hatred of small business. He does not recall that x4mr and I agreed at this blog how small businesses are not part of the corporate dysfunction killing the country, an issue that involves the corruption of excessive size and influence, which doesn't happen in smaller firms. Also, I can think of no instance where Obama has a done a thing to harm small business, nor have I heard him say anything suggesting hostility to small business.
Policon also assumes x4mr, Liza, and myself have failed to get ahead in America's competitive system. I don't know about Liza, but last I heard x4mr has a PhD and a good job with a university. Universities have outstanding health care. While no jet setter, I'm doing fine. Get ahead of whom? Policon must feel quite proud to be ahead in a functioning meritocracy where people get what they deserve. He clearly believes the system is fair and has no concept of sociology 101.
Denying that he is an older white male is downright comical. No way, Policon, are you a woman. No way, no how, not on this earth. That you have the audacity to deny you are an older white male just proves how clueless you are regarding the distinction. Your very language, the words you use and your descriptions, scream white male.
And I agree that Asians, Africans, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Russians, etc, etc are gunning for our wealth.
I'm clear that by "our" you refer to Americans, not whites, but guess what? Only white men talk like that.
One of the major problems facing small businesses is having to provide health insurance for employees if they are required by law to do so.
This also becomes a problem for older or disabled or less healthy workers because they are less likely to be hired when they present an increased insurance risk (and most of this would be obvious at an employment interview.)
I've got to say that I don't understand Policon's latest song lyrics. How do you get from wingnut talking points to imagining a world without a heaven or countries or possessions to proclaiming that you will be a slave no more all in the same discussion?
Policon, I just can't imagine what you've got left after all that.
JFC.
This is about people who are scared to death because there is a BLACK man in the White House.
My old, conservative, Forever Republican, Missouri-born mother would be eating all the anti-Obama crap up, if she hadn't died 2 months ago.
Back in January, she was saying Obama was "too ..young, inexperienced" to be President. I translated that to mean "too Black."
And she a woman who enlised in the Army in 1942 to serve her country.
RIP, Ma.
Regarding the actual subject of the post, all of the hatred being stoked, it is painful to witness and yes it is going to get worse, and yes people will be killed, and yes there will be (ironically) domestic terrorism committed by the people who love Sarah Palin.
I know quite a few Policons. His profile is that of a successful businessman, probably real estate or the owner of a franchise like a few Alphagraphics or Subways. The more respectable version had to struggle in a risky beginning. The less respectable got into the game courtesy of daddy. In either case, he deserves credit for succeeding in his business.
He has no grasp of the barriers that prevent many others from doing what he did. Nav's remarks are bullseye accurate. Pol is male, and meaning to or not he projects "having arrived" as the young NEVER DO no matter how rich. Since Pol is lying about gender and age, he probably is about Ethnicity.
Pol doesn't know what he doesn't know about the readers here. If he did attend college, it was business or accounting, etc., not a liberal arts education (sociology, philosophy, political science, psychology, literature). Sure, snobbish, but part of the problem with this country is its denial of the value of knowledge and education (think Sarah Palin).
If I recall, x4mr was born as a blogger at Art Jacobson's deep and insightful "The Data Port" back in its day (no longer active). This place took it even further.
I challenge Pol to have the courage to tango with Nav, Liza, and x4mr and LISTEN to what they think. When he tells them what they think, he's flying blind.
Pol is prolly someone like Bruce Ash.
Rise of Hate Groups
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