hummingwolf | (no subject)

From Slacktivist: "Only a crazy person would take what we say seriously."

Every few years, tragically, some poor confused bastard fails to realize that it's all a big game, a pretense, a lie. He takes them seriously and he takes their words seriously and he behaves as someone who believes what they say. So Paul Hill murders a doctor in Florida. Eric Rudolph bombs the Atlanta Olympics. Scott Roeder guns down a doctor in church.

And each time this happens all of the people who have, for years, been suggesting that such violent resistance is obligatory recoil in horror at the sight of someone treating their words as anything other than the disingenuous lies they were always meant to be.

You know, I was thinking when I woke up this morning that with all the news coverage about Saturday's shooting, Julian Assange must be feeling terribly left out. So when the first thing I heard after turning on the news radio station was that Julian Assange had compared himself to Gabrielle Giffords, I greeted the news with a certain lack of surprise. Then again, given what Sarah Palin and other rightwing superstars have said about the Wikileaks crew, the statement may have a point. It's a point hidden underneath a gigantic, bloated ego, but that doesn't mean it isn't there.

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Julian Assange had compared himself to Gabrielle Giffords

What??

That foul bastard is nothing like Rep. Giffords. He's arrogant, opportunistic scum, whereas Rep. Giffords, last I heard, was not a traitor, to the US or any country.

Ugh. I hate that man so very much.

Well, mostly the comparison seems to be that, just like some people have been using violent rhetoric when talking about politicians they don't like, some people have been saying the Wikileaks folks should hunted down and killed. Here's a press release from Wikileaks.

Infuriating as Assange may be, he's not a traitor to the US--he can't be, since this isn't his country. He could be a traitor to Australia, but I haven't heard anyone say so. (I think some of the documents on Wikileaks should be out in public, but I also think that that man is arrogant, opportunistic, misogynistic, and generally obnoxious. What fun.)

No, but he is a terrorist.

I think some of the documents on Wikileaks should be out in public

I disagree. There is nothing that has been released that has benefitted us by knowing it. Governments should not be transparent - there is no need for everyone to know everything. And in this world of near-instantaneous global information sharing, it should be even more protected.

No, but he is a terrorist.

Terrorists attack civilians to instill terror for political gain. Releasing classified documents, while it may embarass governments, does not instill terror.

How is he a terrorist?

i've heard sales of guns in arizona have gone up. um,if someone had had a gun at that supermarket,it still would be too late to stop that guy and/or other people might have been killed in a crossfire. well,i just hate guns anyway.

I don't hate guns, but there are places when they're not helpful, and a crowded supermarket is one of those places.

i'm concerned about how people will percieve the mentally ill too.would this guy have sought help if it had been more readily available? and then you open up the can of worms as to who decides who's crazy? i have no answers. just thinking out loud!

Ever since the Tea Party started and I heard and read some of the awful things they say and the rhetorics they use, I've been waiting for something like this to happen.

It's not a question about what party or what religion you have though, but a question of how you look at your opponents or those who don't share your opinions.

If you think everyone who don't think or do like you should be silenced - that's the problem right there.

As for someone being mentally ill...I have my own views on that. Everyone and anyone of us can be triggered or shaped into doing things we would never think we could.

And we're all influenced by things around us.
That's why it's better to focus on good things instead of bad, and it's better to try to understand rather than using violence.

I don't think this is a thing specific to the Tea Party. For decades, there are groups of Americans who have been sharing paranoid theories about all the ways they believe the government is out to get them. The Tea Party might appeal to the more mainstream of those paranoid types, but there are others who just give up on the political process altogether and prepare themselves for the civil war they're sure is coming. Those are the types who frighten me.

Everyone and anyone of us can be triggered or shaped into doing things we would never think we could.

Yes. Even people who are mentally ill are still influenced by their environment.

Thank you for your post. I have contributed to our current climate of rudeness by ranting about the Tea Party/Palin on and off LJ, but I can say I am not guilty of calling for violence. The worst I have said is that we should give Texas back to Mexico, but they have to take all the Tea Partiers with them.

Well, sometimes it's hard not to rant! But avoiding violent talk about one's merely political opponents is a good start.