“How DARE You Say Our Rhetoric is Dangerously Violent! You Make Us So Mad, You…You… We Have Guns!"

[Pamela Troy]

On April 3rd, an editorial by Charles M. Blow appeared in the New York Times. Its title is “Pitchforks and Pistols.” Its subject is the increasingly violent rhetoric coming from the right, and the danger it poses when coupled with a drastic upsurge in gun purchases:

As the comedian Bill Maher pointed out, strong language can poison weak minds, as it did in the case of Timothy McVeigh. (We sometimes forget that not all dangerous men are trained by Al Qaeda.)

(Please note the date of this editorial by the way. April 3rd – the day before Richard Poplawski decided to murder three cops, apparently because he believed they were going to take away his arsenal. This very young, very troubled, very violent white supremacist had several guns, one of which was an AK-47.)

The picture of Mr. Blow that accompanies the editorial indicates that he is African American.

Time for yet another adventure in cognitive dissonance in Freeperland.

Some of the people at Free Republic seemed, weirdly enough, outraged because they agree with Mr. Blow about the possibility of violent rhetoric leading to violent action. These are naturally sprinkled with occasional comments from Freepers like this guy, who apparently don’t bother to read the messages that surround his:

“And Michelle Bachman and ‘armed and dangerous’? It's this thing called a figure of speech.” !

Riiight. A figure of speech. That’s why the thread is replete with posts like these:

”After that we need a million-patriot march on Washington. ”
(replies) “Doing that would be a stunning achievement; Doing it armed would be another.”

“Doing it armed with torches and pitchforks along with lots of tar and feathers might be effective.”

Be sure to wear your bedsheets and hoods while you’re at it. That’ll give such a march the touch it would need to put it in historical context.

And here come some more, uh, “figures of speech.”

”As you also uneasily note, we have also spent some time buying up every bullet in sight, perhaps in case your ilk decide to press the issue to it's ultimate conclusion, perhaps not….Mr. Blow, just because you love the chains which still rest lightly upon your arms doesn't mean the rest of us also desire them or will accept them without a whimper just because you and your masters plan your revolution to be slow and bloodless…If you and your masters are wise, you will back off!”

”Since you are entertained by our pain caused by the destruction of all that is good and just... the very essence of the Nation that GOD through our Founders gifted us with... perhaps some day I too will be entertained by your pain... a pain that could be very real and very well deserved.”

“The Left wants to take over the country without a shot being fired because they hood-winked the stupid young and paid off the welfare class to win a plurality in ‘08. After all the blood shed by people much more valuable than they, they think we should forget freedom and don the serf’s rags without a whimper because they are now in charge. They should expect a fight from patriots.”

(How DARE this uppity member of the “welfare class” object to feeling physically threatened! Doesn’t he understand that this is as it should be?)

And then of course, there’s his race to consider:

“I refuse to believe there's a black man named Charles M. Blow.
Decatur Washington or Rufus Ellerington maybe ... but not Charles M. Blow.”

“ (Accompanying a picture of Charles Blow) “Any reason to believe Mr. Blow is incapable of independent thought?”

(Messages posted in response to the above) “Looks almost clean and articulate...dont he?”

“Looks im-potent”

“Another affirmative action hire at the New York Slimes?”

“I guess if he really wanted indigestion, he could read about the Founders. Given his skin tone and attitude, I wouldn't be surprised if he considered them nothing more than white slave owners.”

Aside from the content of this guys article, it is obvious that he was an Affirmative Action hire based on his prose.

One of them posted Charles M. Blow’s email address. I wonder if there’s going to be a follow up column from him that includes some of the “Free Republic” inspired messages he got. It would be interesting, that’s for sure.

And help to drive home his original point.

[noiretextatique]

1. curious things about freepers: what are they so mad about?

it's not like bush was a great president or that anything he did was great. what exactly do they want? more wars? more of the lower of taxes on the wealthiest 1%? more catastrophic deregulation? more homeless people?
more religiously insane control over women's bodies and science?
poor deluded jerks.

[walldude]

3. Odd aren't they? It seems that in order to function

they need an enemy. When their people were in power driving the country into the ground it was the terrorists, now it's the Democrats, who apparently caused all this by letting the Republicans do whatever they wanted.

[zeemike]

4. What they want is a Fascist country

Complete with gas chambers equipped for the "final solution"

[Warpy]

5. They're angry because they're scared and stupid

and have absolutely no idea of why their lives have turned out differently from the sitcoms of the 50s. They thought they were growing up into an orderly and predictable world in which good things came to you if you obeyed all the rules and deferred gratification.

Since they're stupid, they haven't enough upstairs to realize how the world was rigged against them once the New Deal was destroyed. They are suckers for any right wing ranter who comes along and tells them that poor women who were abandoned by men and have children to feed are their problem. Or black people whose schools were underfunded and who are spotted a few points on their SATs. Or liberals, out of power since 1969, who didn't stop the corporations from raping the country but who continued to rob them to give to the undeserving poor even though they were out of power with no means to do so.

In short, they were basically decent people who got sold a bill of goods by the media and then had the rug pulled out from under them by the conservatives. The media are still lying to them when they want to affix blame and they don't have enough brain power to realize they're being lied to.

So they remain angry at all the wrong people.

[noiretextatique]

6. i still don't understand why they are so afraid

but i was never a part of that american dream anyway, so i couldn't buy into it. perhaps that's why i don't understand their fear.

[Echo In Light]

8. George Carlin refers to that American Dream as a "big red/white/blue dick being jammed in your ass"

Authoritarians are fearful people. They become nervous over those who don't exhibit obedience and servitude to "leaders," and status quo authority systems. And from there, nervous people = DANGEROUS people.

I, however, don't expect to see these folks actually mount an attack against the open society anytime soon.

[noiretextatique]

10. this makes sense...except

obama is now their leader :shrug: i guess he's only there because of affirmative action :rofl: racism and sexism fit nicely into their worldview.

[xfundy]

9. I know what they need!

A MONORAIL!

Let's all say it: MONORAIL!

MONORAIL!

MONORAIL!

[Butch350]

17. i think...MOSTLY STUPID!!!

[Tim01]

21. I actually agree with you.

And I think the invasion of privacy is much much worse than we will ever know. Wrecked economy. War in Iraq. And a long list of other stuff.
So far though, I am not convinced we have improved much. And I am getting that feeling more all the time.
Now Obama says he wants gays to have "civil unions" instead of marriage. WTF!

[paparush]

2. Where were all these Right Wing Tar & Feather Types while Bush was destroyng the country?

[Echo In Light]

7. "Revenge Fantasies Of The Impotent"

Great record by Alice Donut :)

[xchrom]

11. recommend

[Mopar151]

12. Boy Howdy....

”Since you are entertained by our pain caused by the destruction of all that is good and just... "
All that is good and just? What, lynchings and burning crosses? Queerbashing? Enron?
Jesus wept......

[Number23]

13. Freeper rhetoric, though often more violent and racist than that of liberals

is often no less crazy.

Sometimes I wonder if those on the far-left and far-right hold secret contests on who can come up with the craziest conspiracy theories and paranoid delusions.

[Fumesucker]

15. Seen any WMDs in Iraq lately?

It was a "conspiracy theory" to believe in early 2003 that they did not exist..

Military Commissions Act?

Patriot Act?

FISA and telecom immunity?

I could go on but I suspect you would never get the point anyway.

[Number23]

23. Wow, somebody took my comment real personally, didn't they??

Proving that old Southern adage -- "a hit dog will holler" -- quite decisively.

ETA: And if you think that any of those things you mentioned were ever genuine "conspiracies," fumes must not be the only things you're sucking.

See what type of comments you get when you're unnecessarily nasty?

[Pamela Troy]

16. Well, the difference is that far left crazies don't, as a rule, get cable

talk shows.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. 54% Is A Plurality?

That genius learned that word in 2000 (as in "George W. Bush didn't even win a plurality!") and thinks he knows what it means.

Obama won a significant MAJORITY. What a buffoon, huh?
GAC

[Beetwasher]

18. I Caught That Too

Hey Prof! How are you? Haven't seen in a while. :hi:

[BlooInBloo]

19. Looks like it's time for one of my go-to Greenwald articles....

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/02/self_absorption/

"The Right in this country -- meaning the faction that followed George Bush for the last eight years -- long ago ceased being a movement of political ideas and is driven by two, and only two, extreme emotions: (1) intense, aggressive rage towards their revolving door of enemies, and (2) bottomless self-pity over how unfairly they're being treated. As their imminent defeat looks increasingly likely (potentially on a humiliating scale), these two impulses are in maximum overdrive, feeding off one another in endless self-perpetuation (the more they lose, the more victimized they feel, the more they rage against their enemies who oppress them, etc.).

The Right's rejection by the public can't possibly be due to anything they have done. It can only be due to some extremely vicious enemy that oppresses them uniquely and so very unfairly. For the moment, they're only losing because The Leftist Mainstream Media hates them and is deeply biased against them. Blue Texan points out just some of the painfully obvious idiocy at the heart of this specific strain of woe-is-me-ism:

..."

[L0oniX]

20. They think they are the only ones with guns and ammo? hehehe

[wolfgangmo]

22. Good point

And this liberal is rated an expert sniper shot - 1 inch groupings of 10/10 at 200/400/800/1600 yards. I can print my name in bullets in continuous fire at 400 yards.

Any freepers feeling lucky?

BTW - I don't own a handgun. It's a useless weapon for home defense. Now a shot gun... just cocking that thing causes the bowels to clench for most people.