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We talk about it all the time here in the progressive blogosphere. But today, Krugman brings it out front and center in the New York Times. The rightwing hatemongering media machine, folks like Murdoch Media, The Washington Times, the AEI, the Heritage Foundation, the Limbaugh-O’Reilly-Hannity-Beck alliance that screeds and distorts and twists and eggs-on until we see a dead doctor, a dead security guard, family men both.
What do these purveyors of hate and division tell these victims’ families? Not our fault? Politics ain’t beanbag? What do they tell their own families, once the front door closes and it’s just them theirownselves and their mirrors. Do they like the look of what they see? Really, Mary?
The tactics of hate. It’s just words. Ask Frank Luntz, he’ll tell you. Wordwhoring is the be-all-end-all, the policy doesn’t matter, the truth doesn’t matter, just who gets their side "out there" first and loudest. Right, Cokie?
The thing about the Big Hate is, once it gets the blessing of Teh Village, the Establishment, the "mainstream" then those folks are just as culpable. Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear, an oh, pish-posh, let’s just keep it mysterious doesn’t distinguish you from the vilest of the hate culture. Does it, Peggy?
Or maybe just ask the folks at Buchenwald…those who lived right next door.
Salute to Krugman for standing up to hate today…here’s just a bit of what he has to say:
one important thing that the D.H.S. report didn’t say: Today, as in the early years of the Clinton administration but to an even greater extent, right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment.
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supposedly respectable news organizations and political figures are giving aid and comfort to dangerous extremism.
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Yes, the worst terrorist attack in our history was perpetrated by a foreign conspiracy. But the second worst, the Oklahoma City bombing, was perpetrated by an all-American lunatic.
crossposted at Prairie Sun Rising
7 Comments
thanks Prairie. rec. didn’t know about Krugman’s piece
Eugene Robinson is on it as well
encouraging to see folks picking up the thread
yes thanks Prairie, your posts are always good.
Thanks, cbl2 and Elliott. I just ran across a letter in the print Strib and updated my homeblog — adds to the conversation.
UPDATE: A Letterwriter in the Minneapolis Tribune notes a darker side–the RNC itself is part of incendiary speech tactics, given the cynical use of Jon Voight and his inflammatory words at their GOP dinner. Some Confederacy you’re pallin’ around with these days, Sister Sarah.
High Kansas Sunflowers at you Prarie. Let’s face it W. F. Buckley never made sense, and if they hadn’t changed the law in 1987 to let nonsense
go on the air like Drug Rushblo, we’d be somewhere better off. Jon Voight’s
another brain-washed radical nationalist, like Roni Raygunzap who didn’t know a tree in the ground from an Arizona cactus brush. 1980-1992 & 2000-
2008 was like giving John & Allen Dulles the royaltys & residuals to the movie sequel RED DAWN II.
Krugman is amazing. Glad that brainiac is on our side
I was thinking about adding Dr. Laura to the list after I heard her giving counsel about the morning after pill…such a fright, you know, because one would suffer the guilt of bringing death to the unborn….I don’t know where she went to medical school, but there are laws against practicing without a license.
While I certainly agree with everything Dr. Krugman wrote, it’s a very short, and contemporaneous take on an obvious problem. Unfortunately, it’s solution is neither obvious nor simple, and the pitfalls of over reacting are huge. It’s a bad strategy to wildly condemn pukes like Beck, O’Reilly and their ilk as having blood on their hands. Maybe they do, but then what about films, video games and artists like Tupac? Considering the explicit hate speech and who profits from it, it will pretty hard to argue claims of false equivalency. And the slope gets more slippery from there. Forget Fox and focus on ourselves and forcing our leadership to quit playing footsies with jerks like McConnell and Boehner. Reid and Pelosi could make their lives miserable every time they embrace the reactionary John Voights of their Kalvern, eventually they’ll get it. Our leaderhip is susceptible to our pressure, Fox News isn’t.