talk radio in Rwanda genocide story seems too familiar

[yurbud]

I was watching a movie about the Rwanda genocide, and they made a point of having the radio going in the background throughout with the incitement to kill their neighbors from talk radio.

It struck me what a small distance it would be for Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, and certainly Michael Savage to take that additional step.

Certainly all of them have done it in terms encouraging the killing of Arabs outside the US, and it's a small step from calling liberals traitors to saying what needs to be done to traitors to telling people to take these matters into their own hands.

This could be a real problem in a couple of scenarios:

1. Another terrorist attack whips people into a frenzy and the right uses it as an excuse to get rid of their potential political adversaries.

2. Through some miracle, the left regains a meaningful foothold of power in the senate or house, and use that power to investigate the sins of the Bush administration.

A couple of questions come up.

Would this kind of incitement work here?

Would there be any way to neutralize it if it did?

There was a hopeful sign the other day when those cops in Florida stood up to Jeb Bush's agents who tried to take Terri Schiavo against a judge's order, but I'm not sure how this would play out on a large scale.

[solinvictus]

1. Yes, I'm afraid incitement would work here.

Savage Weiner, Hannity, Limbaugh, and others are the soul of moderation compared to others on shortwave. Savage and Hannity have already called for "liberals", Democrats, and about anyone else who opposes their agenda to be incarcerated or forcibly disenfranchised.

Neutralizing it? My answer is to shoot the bastards if and when they come for you. If a mob of Freepers assembled and went on the warpath, take a few out in the middle of the crowd and watch the cockroaches scatter. That's why I adamantly oppose any further gun control measures and advocate anyone here to arm themselves. Freepers are armchair warriors and most lack the physical courage to surmount a confrontation.

[yurbud]

2. I would not recommend fire fights

they spend a lot more time dealing with weapons.

I want to avoid Rwanda, not outdo it.

[solinvictus]

4. A firefight beats a slaughter..

I'd rather go down shooting/fighting than being helplessly murdered. I'd make a bet on my own knowledge of CQC over the vast majority of Freepers. Remember, these guys are likely Cheeto-munching mouse-clicking extremists who wouldn't know a land navigation course from a hole in the ground.

[yurbud]

6. What is CQC?

[solinvictus]

7. "Close Quarters Combat"

Urban fighting.

[jonnyblitz]

3. i can hear it. "kill the liberal cockroachs"

"Hotel Rwanda" made me think of this, also.

[SmokingJacket]

5. We like to think we're special here, but we're not.

If it happened somewhere else, or sometime else, it could happen here.

The only thing keeping something like the Rwanda genocide or the Third Reich from happening again is people being aware that it *could* happen, and working damn hard to make sure it doesn't.

[yurbud]

8. Krugman had the same feeling-- see link to article

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/opinion/29krugman.html

[southlandshari]

9. good discussion thread on this

here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3373349

Was the movie you were watching on HBO? If so, I saw it last week and had the same unsettling thoughts.