Right-Wing Violence on the Rise, Irresponsibly Urged on By Conservative Media

In my mind, it started last July when Jim Adkisson entered a Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee and murdered two people. His four page suicide note is the rant of the archetypical angry and dispossessed man who feels his plight is the fault of "liberalism." He spent much of the final page urging other, equally dispossessed Americans not to go down alone, but to take out as many liberals as they could.

On the 4th of this month Richard Poplawski shot and killed three policemen in Pittsburgh after they were called to his home. Poplawski was a conspiracy nut by most reports. He feared new measures from the Obama administration that would take away his guns; he also spoke on various websites of how Jews were controlling the country and how we would soon descend into a race war.

There was an increase in right-wing violence and militia groups during Clinton's term as president. The Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 killed 168. Eric Rudolph bombed a gay nightclub and the 1996 Summer Olympics. But there were other crimes as well, like an increase in abortion clinic bombings and shootings. I emphasize that I'm not speaking of mainstream conservatives here, this militia activity only applies to the most extreme fringe of that movement.

Most people can watch Glenn Beck cry for his country and walk away unscathed, but there's some unstable individuals who are being pushed to the edge by this "Obama backlash." And I think it's somewhat attributable to right-wing hyperventilating and hyperbole. Both Jim Adkisson and Richard Poplawski were big fans of the most extreme talking heads for conservatism today, which also happen to have a huge megaphone. Adkisson was found to have books by Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Bill O'Reilly. Poplawski posted Glenn Beck videos on various web sites. I am not for censorship, and my real concern is that the fuse has already been lit for a number of people who just needed a spark.

The bigger problem is, more inevitable and powerful forces are at work here. Homeland Security sent out a warning just today[1] that the recession, Obama's election, rumors of gun restrictions and the inability of returning military to reintegrate into society create a perfect environment for the rise of right-wing violence. HS, however, in no way links violence with the media. The media itself however, slow-witted as it is, has finally began to link the recent barrage of shooting sprees we have seen across the nation with our economic recession. And the killings committed for political reasons have been far outnumbered by those of the average desperate individual who just wishes to spread his pain around before he off's himself.

I'm not calling for censorship, but I have a bad feeling that a "big one" is coming down the pike. These people aren't afraid to use force and they're only pacified when we prove to be a country open-minded enough to "elect" a borderline retard to the White House.

Conservatives Love to "Tea Bag," Who Knew?

Anyone paying attention to politics right now knows of these "tea parties." Literally they Republicans are THRUSTING these sweaty, frenzied bags down the throat of the public. But seriously. First of all, it has been exposed that these aren't grassroots movements at all, but are in fact manufactured from above with the appearance of coming from below, exactly like the culture war itself.[2]

But more important to me is the tone at these rallies isn't anti-tax. There are people holding up signs at these rallies against socialism, gay marriage, immigration, evolution and questions as to whether Obama is an American citizen. These are just the worst, left over elements we saw from the McCain-Palin rallies who have co-opted a legitimate libertarian message which was largely created by Ron Paul supporters months ago. These people have no coherent message; these are sore losers plain and simple. I hope they come across much like the 9/11 truth movement.

============================
Footnotes

1. http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf
2. http://www.prwatch.org/node/8334