The nut cases are all out in force.
When they come out of the woodwork of “progressive” base support for the current policies of the administration, then all opposition to their work is readily branded as violent. And all violence is, of course, the responsibility of Fox News and Sarah Palin. That’s easy.
First, there are some of Loughner’s videos on YouTube. (They are worth the watch, but probably only once.) They are not conservative as it reflects reality. Neither are they liberal in any sense. They reflect the mind of an anarchist and nothing more.
He rejected the Bible as propaganda. He rejected government manipulation of language. He promoted the idea that, somehow, we could create our own languages and currencies. These things from the video seem to us nonsense. But they make sense in another socio-political context. These words are a reaction to disintegration. He spells out some things that appear to reflect conservative concerns and some that seemingly represent liberal concerns. But because the expressions are so emotional and devoid of content, and because they say nothing in terms of the content of the criticism, and promote neither direction nor solution, they remain nonsense. His anarchy is not like Leftist revolutionary rhetoric. It is the rhetoric of the Unabomber. It is anarchy for the sake of anarchy.
Dave Neiwert, on the other had, blames anyone conservative:
It can happen, in fact, because conservatives so thoughtlessly and readily use violent eliminationist rhetoric when talking about “liberals” (to wit: anyone who is not a conservative). They will adamantly deny it, of course, but the cold reality is that this kind of talk creates permission for angry and violent people to act it out.
and
When the conservative movement’s True Believers are fed a steady diet of extraordinary warnings intended to induce a paranoiac, panicked fear — They’re Destroying America! They Want to End Your Liberty! Health Care Reform is the End of America! — and simultaneously fed a diet of suggestions that the solution is simply to do away with them (see Sean Hannity’s recent bit of eliminationist “humor”), then what other outcome should you expect?
I wonder how Neiwert sleeps at night. Maybe he thinks Nicolle Belle should trap Mitch McConnell in his home. Or is she merely giving permission for mob violence?
Probably the only half-rational conclusion one can draw from Neiwert’s post is that, supposedly, conservative opinions might cause leftist anarchists to act violently. Perhaps he should do some research before reporting the blame. What a shallow hack.
Malkin had the sense to show the inappropriate presentations of targets used by both sides. But not all are so sensible. Jed Lewison has no similar conscience. Still, I question whether target pictures have anything at all to do with this. As MM notes, even DailyKos, the bastion of the progressive web presence, pulled a bit of their inappropriate. Don’t bet that C&L has any sense to pull false or inappropriate remarks.