At first I thought: ?It?s just as stupid as blaming video games for Columbine.?
However, the big difference is that while even the Columbine kids knew the games weren?t real Fox News and conservative politicians try to convince regular people to believe all sorts of absurd (conspiracy) theories; many of which are just outright lies. They manage to get regular people as outraged as they act and angry people who don?t have a camera in front of them might lash out in crazy ways. I don?t think the right wing is completely to blame but Fox News and Sarah Palin should take some of the heat instead of getting so defensive.
These are the people that are able to convince normal people that they have a say as to what a woman decides is going to be in her uterus. Some of them have managed to convince heterosexuals that homosexuality is a choice and if we allow them to marry, it will ruin heterosexual marriage. They?ve managed to convince a lot of people that every single other news outlet is run by some secret society of liberal Jews.
It would be one thing if they did it all in the spirit of the onion and all their overblown outrage was obviously fake. But they try to make it real and worst of all they try to instill this overblown sense of outrage into the people who (for some reason) take them seriously.
I respect what a lot of the what central & left leaning pundits have been saying in the interest of peace and that now is not the time to point fingers and that we can?t blame people who have crazy followers. I?m just looking forward to seeing what Bill Mahr has to say about the Arizona shooting because I know he wont have a problem pointing the finger directly at Sarah Palin and saying ?look at where your rhetoric is taking us.?
It?s easy to just be dismissive and say, they guy was just crazy but I never bought that. Now, unless they suffer from serious dementia or drug addiction, people usually only lash out in ways like we saw when they feel threatened in their real life. The Columbine kids weren?t driven over the edge by shooter games or by bad wiring in their brains, they had problems with people in their real life, people (as they were convinced) who ruined their lives and they wanted to ruin them right back. Crazy? Yes, definitely, but they felt threatened by bullies and people who were able to convince them they were real threats.
Now I have nothing against real conservative values: smaller government, lower taxes, and valuing our resources. I was brought up on many of these values. However, Fox News and frankly all of the conservative politicians don?t follow these values anymore, they just want to nay-say anything from the left (even the things that actually make sense), be incredibly bigoted, and give all the best tax breaks to already wealthy corporations and individuals. Worst of all they like to get people to overreact about all sorts of little things, many of which, shouldn?t have anything to do with government; especially conservative government. I just can?t say I?m all that surprised something like this happened.
However, the big difference is that while even the Columbine kids knew the games weren?t real Fox News and conservative politicians try to convince regular people to believe all sorts of absurd (conspiracy) theories; many of which are just outright lies. They manage to get regular people as outraged as they act and angry people who don?t have a camera in front of them might lash out in crazy ways. I don?t think the right wing is completely to blame but Fox News and Sarah Palin should take some of the heat instead of getting so defensive.
These are the people that are able to convince normal people that they have a say as to what a woman decides is going to be in her uterus. Some of them have managed to convince heterosexuals that homosexuality is a choice and if we allow them to marry, it will ruin heterosexual marriage. They?ve managed to convince a lot of people that every single other news outlet is run by some secret society of liberal Jews.
It would be one thing if they did it all in the spirit of the onion and all their overblown outrage was obviously fake. But they try to make it real and worst of all they try to instill this overblown sense of outrage into the people who (for some reason) take them seriously.
I respect what a lot of the what central & left leaning pundits have been saying in the interest of peace and that now is not the time to point fingers and that we can?t blame people who have crazy followers. I?m just looking forward to seeing what Bill Mahr has to say about the Arizona shooting because I know he wont have a problem pointing the finger directly at Sarah Palin and saying ?look at where your rhetoric is taking us.?
It?s easy to just be dismissive and say, they guy was just crazy but I never bought that. Now, unless they suffer from serious dementia or drug addiction, people usually only lash out in ways like we saw when they feel threatened in their real life. The Columbine kids weren?t driven over the edge by shooter games or by bad wiring in their brains, they had problems with people in their real life, people (as they were convinced) who ruined their lives and they wanted to ruin them right back. Crazy? Yes, definitely, but they felt threatened by bullies and people who were able to convince them they were real threats.
Now I have nothing against real conservative values: smaller government, lower taxes, and valuing our resources. I was brought up on many of these values. However, Fox News and frankly all of the conservative politicians don?t follow these values anymore, they just want to nay-say anything from the left (even the things that actually make sense), be incredibly bigoted, and give all the best tax breaks to already wealthy corporations and individuals. Worst of all they like to get people to overreact about all sorts of little things, many of which, shouldn?t have anything to do with government; especially conservative government. I just can?t say I?m all that surprised something like this happened.
