The tragic assassination attempt against US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords which resulted in at least 6 deaths was the result of the right-wing vitriol against "The Government" that is spewed out every day on the radio, on Fox News, and the blogs. Combine that incendiary rhetoric with the cult of guns and you have laid the groundwork for "Second Amendment Remedies" advocated by Tea Party politicians.
The sheriff of PiMA County is so far the only public official who dares to speak the truth about the tragedy:
By declaring Arizona a “mecca for racism and bigotry” and blaming heated rhetoric on the right for the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik gave voice to those looking for a cause of Saturday’s violence.
With Democratic party leaders for the most part showing restraint in their comments following the shootings, Dupnik expressed at a news conference Saturday night in Tucson what many liberals were thinking, but hadn’t yet said.
“Let me say one thing, because people tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol that we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that,” the sheriff said during a press conference. “That may be free speech, but it’s not without consequences.”
A commenter on the Web site of Der Spiegel makes a good observation:
Wenn ein Verein wie Frau Palins Tea Party den blanken Hass zum Mittel der politischen Auseinandersetzung macht, dann steht es jedem Demokraten zu dieses zu kritisieren.
Wer den Hass dazu noch in einem Land sät, in dem es mehr private Schusswaffen als Einwohner gibt und diesen auch persönlich gegen politische Gegner richtet, der kann sich einer Mitverantwortung für solche Taten nicht entziehen.Ich hoffe nur, dass die rechten Brandstifter in den USA endlich zur Besinnung kommen, bevor sie das Land in den Abgrund reißen.
(When a group like Ms. Palin's Tea Party uses pure hatred as its primary means of political discourse, then every democrat must criticize this. Who ever sows the seeds of hate in a country where there are more firearms than people and directs this personally against political adversaries cannot absolve themseles of responsibility for such acts.
I only hope the right-wing arsonists in the US come to their senses before they pull the whole nation down with them into the abyss.)
Attentat in Arizona: Im Fadenkreuz von Sarah Palin
US-Abgeordneter kritisiert Sarah Palin nach Anschlag auf Gabrielle Giffords
0 comment
There is so little we hear about Palin at this side of the Ocean. So does she incite people to actively go after the political opponents?
I have lost count of how often the authors at eureferendum.blogspot.com have promoted mainstream British / EU representatives to be shot as the only way of getting rid of them.
So would you consider this to be hate speech as well, keeping in mind that these guys are among the only ones who demand referendums on EU treaties and membership?
Zyme,
If they are advocating violence, then yes, absolutely, I condemn it as hate speech.
My assumption is that it is far more difficult – but not impossible – for crazy people to obtain automatic weapons in Germany.
To be honest, I am almost with you when it comes to private persons and their access to weaponry.
For me it is an indicator of the level of progress in a society. The less weapons ordinary people and the police carry, the more refined the society is.
But I also think the argument is valid that unarmed citizens make easy prey for absolutist rulers backed by a professional army. Which is not a problem for me either, as I do not oppose those in principle 🙂
Do you expect the right to bear arms to be modified in the US in the foreseeable future?
David, If America is your idea of a Libertarian paradise I would hate to see your concept of a police state doing body scans and invading halve the world to spread democracy militantly. Aber ich weiss night, David, perhaps you are right America at least from an African perspective seems like a place with few non-lunatics.
Despite the fact that Jared Lee Loughner was a psychotic loner with “left-wing” beliefs according to those who knew him, the establishment has hastily exploited yesterday’s tragic shooting in Tucson to demonize conservatives, libertarians and gun owners while ordering Americans to “tone down the rhetoric,” which is nothing more than a euphemism for stifling dissent and coercing people to roll over on Obamacare, bailouts and whatever big government is preparing to unleash next.“The nation’s caustic political climate has become a suspect of sorts in the rampage that left six dead and a lawmaker critically injured in Arizona. Already, appeals are being heard to tone down the rhetoric,” reports the Associated Press, in doing so framing the debate and profiting from the actions of a deranged lunatic to launch a fresh assault on freedom of speech.
Make no bones about it – “tone down the rhetoric” means stifling dissent, it can have no other possible meaning. Because a lunatic decided to kill others in a bid to give his worthless life some meaning, Americans are being ordered to shut their mouths about Obamacare, endless bailouts, and the fact that their political representatives in Washington (with some notable exceptions) have ceased to represent their interests.
Arizona Sheriff Dupnik wasted no time in blaming the deaths on conservative talk radio and television presenters, despite the fact that Loughner was a “left-winger” who listed amongst his favorite books The Communist Manifesto.
“The vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business … This has not become the nice United States that most of us grew up in, he said.”
Dupnik then took a swipe at people opposing the growth of big government, wasting no time in blaming them for the tragedy.
“When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government,” he said. “The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on this country is getting to be outrageous and unfortunately Arizona has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”
Even before the identity of the gunman was known, the Associated Press was busy tying the massacre to Sarah Palin and second amendment organizations. We’re no fans of Palin, but the fact that the AP cited one of her campaign images that centered around targeting certain states as political battlegrounds to imply that Palin was partly responsible for the carnage, while ignoring almost identical “crosshair” images against Giffords put out by liberal groups, underscores how eager the establishment was to seize upon the tragedy for crass political points scoring.While blaming tea partiers and conservatives without a shred of connecting evidence, the likes of Associated Press, the Washington Post, and a slew of statist Obama worshipping liberal websites, conveniently failed to mention a savage hit piece against Giffords that had appeared just days before on the Daily Kos website (since pulled) which bizarrely invoked the word “dead” several times.
Indeed, as statists rushed to finger tea partiers as being responsible, they conveniently ignored the fact that Giffords was a pro-border control, pro-second amendment blue dog Democrat. In addition, the federal judge that was killed, John Roll, was a strong opponent of the Brady gun control bill. Giffords and Roll would make strange targets for anti-government extremists, since both of them have voting records that put them in alliance with most conservatives.
Despite this, the AP tried to use the shooting to attack second amendment rights by alluding to Giffords’ Republican challenger Jesse Kelly last year inviting supporters to join him at a pro-gun event.
“I don’t see the connection,” between the fundraisers featuring weapons and Saturday’s shooting, said John Ellinwood, Kelly’s spokesman. “I don’t know this person, we cannot find any records that he was associated with the campaign in any way. I just don’t see the connection.
“Arizona is a state where people are firearms owners — this was just a deranged individual.”
In addition, there was little mention of the fact that it was a responsible firearm owner who used his second amendment rights to help stop the carnage. It was reported that one member of the crowd interrupted Loughner’s rampage by shooting at him with his own concealed carry gun.
While the establishment continues to characterize the gunman as an anti-government extremist in a transparent ploy to chill dissent against big government, Loughner’s favorite You Tube video was a clip of someone burning an American flag. Forgive me if I’m mistaken, but I don’t recall seeing too many tea partiers burning American flags at political rallies.
When it turned out that Discovery Channel building gunman James Jay Lee was a statist zealot and a global warming alarmist, there was little call for anyone to “tone down rhetoric” about doomsday climate change scenarios. Isn’t it interesting that the establishment only demands we “tone down the rhetoric” when that rhetoric manifests itself as criticism of the state?
“Toning down the rhetoric,” or becoming afraid to speak out against the government, will do nothing whatsoever to stop mentally ill people with no political affiliations committing crimes.
By exploiting tragedies to coerce Americans into “toning down the rhetoric,” the establishment hopes to suffocate criticism of the state, opposition to Obamacare (next week’s hearings on a repeal have already been cancelled), and allow the march of big government to continue unimpeded. This is John Connor and if you read this, YOU are the resistance!
Please take your hateful rants elsewhere.
The right wingers are all over this, trying to blame the Left for this tragedy. I don’t know what it will take to calm these people down. They are so full of hate.
And another comment: One mistake liberals are making now is to bring out the “mental illness” defense, which plays into the hands of reactionary gun lovers. You know, automatic weapons don’t kill six people and critically injure one, “people” do. I think this deliberate assassination of a public official was planned and carried out in a perfectly sane manner as a political act. And I’m sure that will become clear as all the facts emerge.
Live by the gun, die by the gun.
The “second amendment” was only made to bring Freikorps like in old Prussia to the US.
This system that has been relegated to history everywhere else not only lives on in the “national guard”, these words on a piece of paper also serve to screw an entire nation into barbarity and backwardness.
What is so striking is the lack of compassion and defensiveness of right wingers in this matter. They know they are wrong, and that is why they are so vehement.
Hattie
I think the reason is by now obvious. A mentally disturbed individual with a personal grudge (he went to one of her campaign meetings and she laughed at his nonsensical question) kills an elected official. The media without a shred of evidence immediately accuses the “right-wing rhetoric”. It is not a lack of compassion, for many there weren’t time for compassion as they where immediately accused as participants in murder. The reason these “right-wingers” are so obsessed with gun ownership is that the framers of the constitution would never have imagined or intended that the country would have a large standing army never mind continuous useless foreign wars. In that paradigm gun ownership is important for self-defence (personal and local). Historically political rights and participation always grew out of and was insured by the right to bear arms. It has always helped and limited governments from oppressing there own people. People should not fear there government, government should fear there people.
Speaker of the House John Boehner summarized many politicians’ reactions to Saturday’s shooting when he said, “an attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve. Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society.”
But tell me Hattie – Why should the life of a politician be worth 2cents more then a nine year old girl or anyone els for that matter? Politicians like Boehner by his own “rhetoric” is not serving people, he is serving politicians, they become a class unto there own, I call it the parasite class.
David,
When I see a title “The Triumph of Hate Speech” I immediately think the writer should explain what it is. I mean you have a lot of articles claiming one or other variety of “hate speech”. Now, I agree that Government officials should not have the right to insinuate falsehood or insult any ethnic group. The problem is that any “hate speech laws” wil most likely apply outside the parameters of government and party politics. Meaning individuals or private associations who air there opinions could be prosecuted and to make matters worse especially “speech” deemed dissident or critical of government.
Can you honestly imagine the Germans killing millions of Jews without the “hate speech” by government and the power they wheeled? Is it beyond you to imagine the Nazi’s prosecuting there opposition on the grounds of “hate speech” in those days? Can you not see that such legislation would be quickly adopted by most states here in Africa and the suffering that would be imposed with it?
I’ve never advocated restrictions on speech and am against the incitement laws in Germany and Austria.
On the other hand, when politicians urge citizens to commit “second amendment remedies” against the “tyranny” of the “government”, they are calling into question the legitimacy of our laws. They should be condemned in the harshest terms.
I personally am sick of the white nationalist Tea Party and its cult of guns and gun imagery.
Ok, I hear what you’re saying. I have never experienced such a society, over here it becoming increasingly difficult to get a weapon but it only mostly translates into criminals being the only ones with weapons and oh boy do they use them. I think calling the tea party, “white nationalists” is stretching it but I agree that politicians (employees) should not have that right. Over here they even the president will sing “kill the Boer, Kill the farmer” and it has translated into about 4,5% off the white farming community being whipped out in the most deranged cruelty. But I am weary of anti-hate laws and anti-hate-crime legislation as it could easily be used against. Even anti-discrimination has translated into single medium Afrikaans schools diminishing from about 3000 in 1994 to around 300 and as a minority you are so overwhelmed that the others within a short space become English single medium and all resistance is just written off as racist, and you are defenceless in the end.
I know you are not going to agree with this one but it is always interesting to entertain a different opinion and it would be interesting to hear your opinion on it, I only found it today: http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/NationalQuestion/survive2022.html
I am glad to hear that she is recovering. God bless their families.