[quote=afx114]Agreed that there exists vitriolic assholes on both sides, but it’s a false equivalency to compare any of the left’s ill-advised statements to the right’s gleeful fetishization of guns, “don’t retreat, reload!”, “renewing the tree of liberty” and “2nd amendment remedies.” The comparison doesn’t even come close. I really was hoping the discussion wouldn’t turn into a left-vs-right thing, but it almost begs it.
Even if his personal motivations weren’t political, the fact that his target was a politician makes this an inherently political attack. Events like this don’t happen in a vacuum.
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Afx: Two things. First, with a little bit of research on the shooter, you’ll find that he was obsessed with Gifford as far back as 2007, and that his motivation does appear to be personal, not political (a la Hinckley shooting Reagan for his inamorata, Jodie Foster).
Second, it is not a false equivalency to compare Left to Right on this. No, I’m not condoning Beck or Limbaugh, because I do think they’re assholes and contribute nothing to the debate. But, for every Beck or Limbaugh, I can offer a Dylan Ratigan, or a Mike Malloy, or even a Bill Maher. And their speech is just as virulent and violent and they agitate and advocate death and violence with equal ferocity. Think about Ward Churchill’s comments following 9/11 (the “little Eichmanns” who perished in the Twin Towers). Or Nina Totenberg, or Susan Sontag, or Julianne Malveaux, who suggested, without a trace of irony or humor, that Clarence Thomas’s wife feed him plenty of eggs and butter, so he’d die early “like many black men do” (her words, not mine).
I’m sorry but there is an established culture on both sides, Left and Right, that espouses violence as an answer and literally treats its opponents as targets. The Left does it with a little more panache and brio (being the cultural elite and all), but its there and you don’t have to look far to find it.
