Heads Up!

by: geno

Thu Feb 12, 2009 at 21:07:00 PM CST

( - promoted by herding old cats)

I strongly encourage everyone to read what Sara wrote over at Orcinus on Tuesday about the shooting in Knoxville last year. The guy got life in prison. A very good sign. He was inspired by GOP hate-talkers, and wrote a manifesto explicitly stating that he was committing a hate crime against people like us.

Sara has some excellent advice for dealing with this problem. I don't see how we can avoid an uptick in these incidents, and in public appearances by groups of white supremacists, at least in the short term.

I agree with her assessment that Limbaugh, Hannity, and their ilk are painting targets on us for the lunatic fringe. There are some eerie parallels here to the early stages of some very bad incidents in other countries that I have studied. I'm not saying this to alarm anyone. What I am saying is that forewarned is fore-armed.We can handle this if we stick together and locate some resources to educate ourselves and deal with this like good people. We do not have to lie down and take it.

geno :: Heads Up!

Sara's advice is doubly important for folks who who do public advocacy on lefty issues or associate with real-world lefty groups. It is required reading if you are an in-your-face, take-no-prisoners Leftist.

I have a MUCH stronger statement on this up at my place, and it's probably going up at Corrente before I turn in tonite.

Would love some input as to whether or not you folks think this bears a LOT more attention. Once I get established again, I'm only going to have the resources for a few quality posts every week; I need to focus; and this hits us where we live. So please chime in and let me know if you would like me to keep spending time on this on a regular basis.

The number of comments I see on that last diary is very encouraging; I'm going to catch up and will have the next installment of the series in a day or two.

Tags: Hate, White Supremacy, be prepared, (All Tags)

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Heads Up! | 2 comments

I can'think of a helluva lot more important than this. (4.00 / 1)

Words have meaning and words affect actions. I am a very strong defender of freedom of speech, and I believe that attempts to restrict that freedom must move forward very carefully. But, hate crime laws are based on the fact that violence based on hatred of a class of people - race, color, age, nationality, sex, sexual preference, etc.constitute a different, and more serious kind of crime.

It is also clear that the kind of "hate talk" perpetuated by Bernard Goldberg, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Mike Savage can certainly lead to an upswing in that very specific kind of violence. While I would be reluctant tosupport "hate talk" laws, I certainly feel that economic boycotting of sponsors of these venom-spewers is totally appropriate. I would march on a picket line in front of their broadcasting studios. Anything at all that can be legally done to silence these hate mongers would have my wholehearted support.

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead

by: piggieheart @ Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 14:38:18 PM CST

Dealing with This (0.00 / 0)

I am inclined to agree 100 percent. and this is very emotional for me (in case that didn't come through).I do not like where this is going.

BUT, I have to say that I should have been a bit more careful and thought this thru before I jumped. This is a complex issue. The constitutional issues are important, and must be dealt with at the outset. We do not want to set ourselves up to succumb to shock doctrine tactics.

This is an issue where a lot more information is warranted, and we need to take principled action, and we need to do our best to put together a risk assessment, then a plan for approaching this politically. The important thing for now is to support the people like Sara who have been doing most of the heavy lifting on this for a long time, and above all, if we really do think this is so important, keep this on the radar, even though it is dwarfed by many other concerns, until we can persuade a lot of other people to press this issue.

I felt as though I needed to write both of those pieces last night, and I stand behind what I said in this post. But I have been concerned all day that I did not take proper precautions against evoking more fear than this warrants. We've got to teach people to stop supporting politicians and policies out of fear, and we've got to avoid reaching for it as a tactic of persuasion. Mass manipulation based on fear played a huge role in getting us into the dire situation we are in.

Your ideas about taking action are good ones, especially boycotting the sponsors. I think that might do some good if enough people would participate, especially in this economic environment.

I can't think of anything more important than this either. And thank you for for the feedback.

It's more fun if you comment!

by: geno @ Fri Feb 13, 2009 at 18:29:29 PM CST

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