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Loughner's inciters
Regardless of the political leanings of Loughner, who is probably psychotic, virtually all of the commentators that incited him were of the right wing - the Palins, Paladinos, Cantors, Mitchells, Limbaughs,O'Reilly's, Bachmanns, Becks, Robertsons, Grahams etc etc. It goes on and on and on. There is nothing comparable to this amount of irresponsible, lockstep and reckless inciting of violence on the left.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by TK on -
I'll agree that the hate mongering is much more abundant on the right, but I don't think we know enough about the situation yet to make a clear call on the situation.
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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on -
This may provide some answers as to an underlying cause of violence of this type.
Stochastic terrorism is the use of mass communications to stir up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable.
This is what occurs when Bin Laden releases a video that stirs random extremists halfway around the globe to commit a bombing or shooting.
This is also the term for what Beck, O'Reilly, Hannity, and others do. And this is what led directly and predictably to a number of cases of ideologically-motivated murder similar to the Tucson shootings.
At any given time there are hundreds of thousands of Americans with combinations of personality characteristics (such as emotional instability, a paranoid ideology, and a propensity for violence) that put them at risk of going off the deep end and becoming lone wolves. All it takes is the right push, the right nudge at the right time, to dislodge a few of them and send them on their way to fifteen minutes of fame surrounded by dead bodies.
So let's take Beck, Hannity, and O'Reilly. There is no question that their emotional rhetoric appeals to people who are emotionally unstable. And, since their audiences are tracked and analyzed in detail, there is no question that they know
Somebody sold a gun to this guy?
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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on -
Can I copy and paste this to another message board that I am on?
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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on
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Be my guest.
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Permalink Reply by Abnormal on -
This bipartisan system we have is nothing but hate mongering. They both feed on it.
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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on
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I just saw an awesome status on Facebook. Sarah Palin needs a swirly.
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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on
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Violent Rightwing Rhetoric Doesn't Kill People. People Living in a World Where They Hear A Lot of Violent Rightwing Rhetoric Kills People.
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Permalink Reply by ETres on -
There's zero evidential connection between Loughner's actions and conservative media - just wishful thinking on the part of the left. Contrarily, folks that knew him say he wasn't very interested in TV or radio.
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Permalink Reply by Kosak Grabovsky on -
While there isnt any evidence showing that Loughner had heard any of the conservative rhetoric, it still is dangerous. Most of what ive seen people talk about with (regard to the conservative rhetoric), is that it can produce incidents like this. He was more interested in government "conspiracies", such as going back to the gold standard and the government controlling people's minds through Grammer.
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Permalink Reply by eric stone on -
There's zero evidence for wishful thinking on the part of the left.
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Permalink Reply by eric stone on
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I think it's highly likely that they incited him on the basis of the fact that he chose a democratic congresswoman who had been "marked" for violence and whose party had been threatened with eliminationalist rhetoric from the far right.
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