Over the past few years, each time a right-wing individual has committed some sort of heinous or threatening act, the conservative demagogues immediately throw up their hands in unison and scream, "Don't blame this on me!" They seem to think they can spew words of vitriolic hatred and yet they bear no responsibility when someone utilizes their mean-spirited rhetoric as a prime motivation for action.
You see, for the most part, this is one of those core issues that separates the left from the right. I rant quite a bit about my disgust with the capitalist system and the oligarchs who maintain it. For me, however, the issues I address are systemic, in nature. I am not suggesting that the people who implement the system are evil; no, the system itself is amoral. I understand (to a certain extent) that the decision-makers have to play by the rules of this amoral system, lest they be thrown out and chewed up like the rest of us.
Conservatives, on the other hand, demonize particular individuals or a whole class of people based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or country of origin. While people like me are interested in transforming social, political and economic relationships, rabid conservatives want to defeat, exile or nebulously get rid of those they disagree with.
I advocate change through nonviolent and peaceful means. Many demagogues on the right use militaristic phraseology and turn almost every issue into a divine battle between goodness (what they believe) and evil (anything they disagree with).
When a person waylays others with a constant barrage of violent-tinged rhetoric, it becomes a difficult proposition to step away from those words when someone else decides to utilize that imagery to commit atrocities. While this does not mean the demagogue is legally liable -- though that decision sometimes is left up to juries and judges -- one would think that it might motivate the hate-spewers to reexamine their putrid speech.
In the wake of the slaughter in Oslo, this does not seem to be the case at all. The demagogues refuse to see their own role -- no matter how indirect or slight -- in the carnage wrought and, for this reason, we can be assured that more such episodes are on the horizon.
You see, for the most part, this is one of those core issues that separates the left from the right. I rant quite a bit about my disgust with the capitalist system and the oligarchs who maintain it. For me, however, the issues I address are systemic, in nature. I am not suggesting that the people who implement the system are evil; no, the system itself is amoral. I understand (to a certain extent) that the decision-makers have to play by the rules of this amoral system, lest they be thrown out and chewed up like the rest of us.
Conservatives, on the other hand, demonize particular individuals or a whole class of people based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or country of origin. While people like me are interested in transforming social, political and economic relationships, rabid conservatives want to defeat, exile or nebulously get rid of those they disagree with.
I advocate change through nonviolent and peaceful means. Many demagogues on the right use militaristic phraseology and turn almost every issue into a divine battle between goodness (what they believe) and evil (anything they disagree with).
When a person waylays others with a constant barrage of violent-tinged rhetoric, it becomes a difficult proposition to step away from those words when someone else decides to utilize that imagery to commit atrocities. While this does not mean the demagogue is legally liable -- though that decision sometimes is left up to juries and judges -- one would think that it might motivate the hate-spewers to reexamine their putrid speech.
In the wake of the slaughter in Oslo, this does not seem to be the case at all. The demagogues refuse to see their own role -- no matter how indirect or slight -- in the carnage wrought and, for this reason, we can be assured that more such episodes are on the horizon.
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