Comments on: SHEPARD STRAYS FROM THE FLOCK

By: Quick Hit « The Blue Door

Quick Hit « The Blue Door — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:46:49 +0000

[...] also interested in this piece by Ed over at Gin and Tacos where he postulates that some in the right-wing camp are baking slowly away from the nutjobs they [...]

By: Bugboy

Bugboy — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:57:03 +0000

I don't want to sound like I can read minds but the whole clip sounded like he wanted to say so much more. The way he looked right at the camera several times, like "yeah, I'm talking to YOU, America!" but trying to be overt like he wanted to keep his job.

By: Aslan Maskhadov

Aslan Maskhadov — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:27:48 +0000

I am starting to believe that Shepard Smith must have secured his contract by obtaining secret photos of Hannity blowing guys in a sauna somewhere. I can't think of any other way this guy could get away with what he does on Fox News. Others have been fired or cut off for doing much less.

By: Nan

Nan — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:03:26 +0000

If you look at the statistics compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center on various hate groups, it's been escalating steadily since Obama was elected. More incidents, more violence, more ramped up rhetoric. But you're right — Hannity et al will never own up to being part of the problem. . . and I noticed Glenn Beck is trying to paint the latest lunatic with a gun as a "leftist."

Along the same lines as what Kevin and Bugboy said, I tend to believe that a lot of the anti-Obama sentiment truly is unconscious racism on the part of many of the people who can't bring themselves to come right out and be overtly racist. They know they're not supposed to be racists, they may actually be decent enough humans that they don't want to be, so they rationalize by finding other handles: the mythical "not born in the U.S.," for example, or "he's a secret Muslim" fantasy. It's no longer acceptable (at least in polite circles) to hate someone for being black, but if they can turn him into the Other in a different way, then suddenly ranting becomes okay.

It's bizarre on multiple levels, because Obama is the epitome of the American mythos, the ultimate Horatio Alger story that proves anyone can grow up to be President. But, just like with Clinton (who was too poor white trash for the Eastern elites to tolerate), what people say they want (a meritocracy) conflicts with what they really want (white privilege), and things turn nasty.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:43:49 +0000

Bugboy, my advisor in grad school is very well-known for doing research on how the race/civil rights arguments of the pre-1960 America continued under new names. For instance, the intense debate about "welfare" that developed in the late 1970s was little more than newspeak for Negroes. Ditto the "War on Drugs", "our cities", and countless other debates. So your comment is pretty damn plausible, at least in my mind.

By: JABbering Stooge :: Two Must-Read Posts :: June :: 2009

JABbering Stooge :: Two Must-Read Posts :: June :: 2009 — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:20:54 +0000

[...] Ed at Gin and Tacos [...]

By: John

John — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:36:24 +0000

The unfortunate fact is that this is nothing new. This happens every time the right loses any sort of power in modern America. The right-wing talking heads begin stirring up the simmering pot of fear and paranoia amongst their base, using ultra-nationalist rhetoric and symbols to rally people behind their country as the ultimate cause — this is the mark of all fascist regimes. The country is greater than the individual, and maintaining national identity/purity is above all other considerations.

I think it was exemplified quite well by Hannity on his radio program… oh, either yesterday or the day before. Hannity was again interviewing that-one-Brit-that-agrees-with-us (notice of course that all Europeans are dirty socialists that should be ignored unless they agree with the right's world view), and said Brit said something about how certain people would balk at "say, the Hannity agenda", to which Hannity immediately proclaimed "You mean the FREEDOM agenda, the CAPITALISM AGENDA, the…" this went on for seven or eight different renames, each one using a tried-and-true jingoist/nationalist buzzword.

It's frightening, really, when you think about it. If you replace the word "socialism/socialist" in today's right-wing rhetoric with "communism/communist", you come so close to McCarthyism the old man himself would be proud. For some reason, none of them seem to realize this. But at this point one has to wonder if it's really a lack of realization, or a willful disregard of known facts.

After all, pro wrestling knows its audience. It caters to peoples' desires to see people beat the crap out of each other and throw around all kinds of foul insults. In the end, is right-wing rhetoric so different? Just catering to a bunch of people that *want* a reason to hate a large chunk of society for thinking differently than they do.

In the end, it's a known phenomenon that right-wing propganda incites the already-unhinged to go out and commit violence. But they will never admit to it, for to do so would be to reduce profits.

By: karen marie

karen marie — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:05:38 +0000

the opening salvos of denial of responsibility have been made.

the rightwing terrorists aren't inspired by what they hear on fox and other institutions of insanity, it's the obama effect.

if democrats had the country's best interests in mind, they would be calling for the president's resignation.

i'll bet actual cash money that by september that's what we're hearing from "the media."

By: comrade x

comrade x — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:02:34 +0000

Anyone who remembers the 1990s and Clinton's administration will recognize the pattern of Right wing domestic terrorism that has occurred since the elction cycle started getting ramped up back in July.
Here is a partial list:
12 July 2008: Luis Ramirez beaten unconcious by white men in Pennsylvania. He later dies of his wounds in 2009.
27 July 2008: Jim Adkisson shoots up a Unitarian church in Knoxville, TN and kills Greg McKendry,60, and Linda Lee Kraeger, 61. He confessed to shooting at the congregation because they were " too liberal."
In his home police found literature by Sean Hannity, Bill O' Reilly, and other neoconservative propagandists.
26 February, 2009: Danny Ray Baker opens fire on a party of college students, killing Pablo Corp- Torres, 23 and Racine Balbotin- Aragandona, 22, both of whom were Chilean exchange students. Baker described himself as a nationalist, Christian revolutionary.

31 May 2009. Dr. Tiller murdered.
9 June 2009. Longtime white supremacist James von Brunn opens fire at the National Holocaust Museum, killing a guard.
Maybe alongside the Iraq Bodycount website we can get one called Rightwing Loony Incited by Hate Peddlers Bodycount.