Are Right-Wing Extremists Coming Out of the Woodwork?
Perfect timing. Right on the heels of my gentle reminder that threats from the anti-American Right-Wing lunatic fringe must be heeded, despite the recent conservative leadership's denial that such threats even exist, we have an attack by gun-toting white supremacist James von Brunn, 88, who shot up the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. A security guard named Stephen Tyrone Johns was killed in the incedent.
So, let's see; in recent months we have the shooting today at the Holocaust Museum, a murder last week of an abortion practitioner in a Kansas church, and anti-government zealots killed police officers in Pennsylvania and Florida. Perhaps it is time (once more) for our Right-Wing friends to engage in a little reality check and re-read that Department of Homeland Security memo entitled, Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. Of, course, conservatives are notoriously bad at heeding threats described in official documents.
Salon's Joan Walsh wondered today if Right-Wing hate speech can lead to murder and none other than Fox News's (that's right) Shep Smith decries internet-bred, "hate not based on fact." Check out Shep (video via Talking Points Memo):
If you get a chance, watch the film "Sometimes in April." It's a docu-drama about the genocide in Rwanda in the mid 1990's. Radio broadcasts of hate-speech figured prominently in the fomentation of the violence.
Comments
i will hand it to shepard smith, when the chatter gets really crazy, he usually leans toward common sense. he's one of the few on fox news that i can stomach (that doesn't mean i'm a fan). he's one of the folks on the right that i'll watch to see how center right are taking things. i used to do it with tucker carlson as well, but he's leaning further right for the cash these days.
anyway, i don't want to give him too much credit. i will if he takes his own network's talking head shows to task. though, i've already seen their talking points have circulated and they are burying the event as a lone gunman. though, how will they handle it if more and more take the same path?
Posted by: vitas | June 11, 2009 10:42 AM
I find myself often agreeing with Shep Smith. I won't summarily dismiss him just because he's on Fox News. That leans too close to what some of our friends on the right do in regard to ANY other news outlet.
Posted by: Derek Phillips | June 11, 2009 11:21 AM
oh, i don't dismiss him. just not going to rave about him.
hell, i prefer bloomberg business news over most of this stuff anyway.
still... bravo for shep stepping up.
Posted by: vitas | June 11, 2009 2:32 PM