This is what terrorism looks like.
Jul. 28th, 2008 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumYesterday I got a phone call from my father about the church shooting in Knoxville.
He called me because he's affiliated, though slightly removed of late, with the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (which is the one which was shot up). He might have been worried I would think he was present, and worry he'd been shot.
The freepers of the world might not be have been able to crow about the need for more guns in churches (my dad has a CCW, from his days as a deputy sherrif, and carries). I say might because the people in the church reacted with gratifying speed and had the shooter disarmed and pinned within something like 15 seconds. My father (who was in the Marines, as well as having been a cop) might have pulled his piece, but I don't really think he'd have had a clear shot. Which would have been worth it, just to watch the freeperis' heads wrestle the cognitive dissonance of a guy with a gun being helpless in the face of concerted action by peaceful, "liberal" types (and, lest anyone think having a CCW and carrying a pistol all the time is something liberals can't do... my father didn't vote for Clinton in '92, he voted for Jesse Jackson).
All of, that, however, is by the boards. What really matters (and is going to be glossed) is hinted at in the headline for that piece I linked to.
Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity on accused shooter's reading list
The letter this guy (who appears, to have been planning suicide by cop, as well as the political statement) wrote make it, at the very least a hate crime. But as Orcinus has been pointing out for years, this is really terrorism, and of the sort we ought to be expecting; and trying to stop, because it is the most common sort.
The letter found in this guy's car said he hated liberals, because of how they were ruining the country, and that he couldn't get at the people they elected, so he was going after the ones who voted.
People like Medved, Micheal Reagan, O'Reilly, Coulter, Limbaugh, etc. have been saying this sort of thing for years. They get glossed with the nasty little rubric that it's humor, comedy, social commentary. All the while they spout that any liberal who says the least little thing they dislike is corrupting the youth/nation/world with terrible efficiency.
No liberal can make harmless jokes (or social commentary) but "C"onservatives who say that liberals need to be killed, (save for a couple kept pets in colleges to show how pathetic/dangerous they are) or the only way to talk to them is with baseball bats, or their candidates for office ought to be hanged for treason, or... well the list goes on, and I don't want to get more tedious; "C"onservatives who say such things aren't to be taken seriously.
They are only making jokes.
Well... the people who listen to those jokes, are taking up terrorism. The lone wolf style (as with Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph) which is hardest to stop.
But, as the Terrorism threat level is raised (hey.... it's an election year, have to keep people scared; so they will vote for Daddy, who promises he can beat up the monsters under the bed) the focus isn't on nativist bastards who want to bring on the Day of the Rope, and hang all the liberals from the nearest telephone lines and make examples for the rest of the nation.
No, we shall instead be told about all those nasty brown people who, "hate our way of life" and "despise us for our 'Freedom'™" rather than the homegrown types who are actually trying to supress our freedom, and destroy our way of life.
He called me because he's affiliated, though slightly removed of late, with the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (which is the one which was shot up). He might have been worried I would think he was present, and worry he'd been shot.
The freepers of the world might not be have been able to crow about the need for more guns in churches (my dad has a CCW, from his days as a deputy sherrif, and carries). I say might because the people in the church reacted with gratifying speed and had the shooter disarmed and pinned within something like 15 seconds. My father (who was in the Marines, as well as having been a cop) might have pulled his piece, but I don't really think he'd have had a clear shot. Which would have been worth it, just to watch the freeperis' heads wrestle the cognitive dissonance of a guy with a gun being helpless in the face of concerted action by peaceful, "liberal" types (and, lest anyone think having a CCW and carrying a pistol all the time is something liberals can't do... my father didn't vote for Clinton in '92, he voted for Jesse Jackson).
All of, that, however, is by the boards. What really matters (and is going to be glossed) is hinted at in the headline for that piece I linked to.
Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity on accused shooter's reading list
The letter this guy (who appears, to have been planning suicide by cop, as well as the political statement) wrote make it, at the very least a hate crime. But as Orcinus has been pointing out for years, this is really terrorism, and of the sort we ought to be expecting; and trying to stop, because it is the most common sort.
The letter found in this guy's car said he hated liberals, because of how they were ruining the country, and that he couldn't get at the people they elected, so he was going after the ones who voted.
People like Medved, Micheal Reagan, O'Reilly, Coulter, Limbaugh, etc. have been saying this sort of thing for years. They get glossed with the nasty little rubric that it's humor, comedy, social commentary. All the while they spout that any liberal who says the least little thing they dislike is corrupting the youth/nation/world with terrible efficiency.
No liberal can make harmless jokes (or social commentary) but "C"onservatives who say that liberals need to be killed, (save for a couple kept pets in colleges to show how pathetic/dangerous they are) or the only way to talk to them is with baseball bats, or their candidates for office ought to be hanged for treason, or... well the list goes on, and I don't want to get more tedious; "C"onservatives who say such things aren't to be taken seriously.
They are only making jokes.
Well... the people who listen to those jokes, are taking up terrorism. The lone wolf style (as with Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph) which is hardest to stop.
But, as the Terrorism threat level is raised (hey.... it's an election year, have to keep people scared; so they will vote for Daddy, who promises he can beat up the monsters under the bed) the focus isn't on nativist bastards who want to bring on the Day of the Rope, and hang all the liberals from the nearest telephone lines and make examples for the rest of the nation.
No, we shall instead be told about all those nasty brown people who, "hate our way of life" and "despise us for our 'Freedom'™" rather than the homegrown types who are actually trying to supress our freedom, and destroy our way of life.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 02:28 am (UTC)I've taught middle, high school and college. The number of times I've interrupted bullying behavior and gotten, "But I'm just kidding" as a response is hard to count. Every time I say something along the lines of: "If no one's laughing but you, you're doing it wrong." It usually makes them stop and think, but I still have to say it every time I catch it. We all have to be doing this, these days. And meanwhile adult members of our society are still acting like 8th graders.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 01:42 pm (UTC)