(Untitled)

[hummingwolf]

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.

Comments

[hummingwolf]

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.)

[flewellyn]

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.

[hummingwolf]

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

[szeretni]

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.

[hummingwolf]

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.

[kitten_goddess]

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.

[hummingwolf]

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