People who respond to things in irrational or incoherent way on some or maybe more levels demonstrate the types of thought patterns as exhibited by the gunman. Will all the trolls and hateful sacks of feces who post comments blaming Palin or the Tea Party for the tragedy commit acts of violence themselves? No. But is there a chance that one might? Yes.
Given the ramblings of the suspect prior to the shooting, one can only reason that people with irrational thoughts that border on the derangement as displayed by those who will attack others online for being Palin or Tea Party supporters are capable of committing such violence.
This blogger recommends that anyone directly attacked by someone on Twitter, Facebook or in a forum or comment section of an article keep a record of the screen name of the attacker or attackers.
Anyone deranged enough to think that Palin or Tea Party supporters have something to do with the shooting are deranged enough to hallucinate that Palin or Tea Party supporters are violent and could in fact react psychotically believing they have to defend themselves. As a result, they could become violent themselves being under a false delusion that Palin or Tea Party supporters are violent.
Also, anyone mentally unstable enough to blame Palin or the Tea Party for the tragedy are unstable enough to do anything... for no reason at all.
I'm serious. Keep an eye on these people.
UPDATE: Tweet from MelissaTweets:
RT @ewerickson: The left and media, in perpetuating the lie that the shooter was a tea party activist, may incite violence against the rightAre Liberal Journalists And Bloggers Trying To Have Sarah Palin Assassinated? In A Word, Yes.
This is sick: I hate it when I wake up and Sarah Palin is still alive. h/t Rush Limbaugh
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ReplyDeleteI respectfully disagree. He was deranged, to be sure, but (1) he was more libertarian-right wing than any other accurate descriptor; (2) Palin had placed a graphic gun-sight target over the Congresswoman's picture--which Palin's folks promptly removed immediately after the shooting (why would they do that if they didn't feel they had done anything wrong); (3) it doesn't make sense that a lefty would shoot a liberal Democrat, now, does it? Really? I suspect you'll attack me now, because that's what your side usually does, but I wanted to make my point anyway. Have a nice day, and please pray an end to violence like this.
ReplyDeleteActually, it does make sense. Kos had her on their hit list because in their view she wasn't liberal enough. They deleted the post that said "She's dead to me now!" as soon as this broke.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the "gun sights" are concerned, that was a media generated controversy. I can show you examples of Democrats using the exact same symbolism on their "target" maps. The media accused Palin of inciting violence to distract from the fact that the health care vote was incredibly unpopular.
He sounds like a garden variety nutcase to me, and according to a girl who knew him, he was quite leftist had a history with Giffords that stretched back to 2007. Although there are parts of his political philosophy that smack of Alex Jones.
As for why they removed it (I don't know, have they?) maybe because everyone and their mom wants to lynch Palin for this now, even though it wasn't her fault?
ReplyDeletematt, I don't attack people for stating an opinion that's different than mine. Our side is not the side that screams "he betrayed our country" at George W. Bush or relentlessly calls Sarah Palin names and expletives. Look at the dialogue of those on your side.
ReplyDeleteTo respectfully disagree with you, I ask, do reasonable people who have gone through elections for years where the words "target district" are used or where elections are described as a "fight" and debates are referred to as "shoot outs" all of a sudden lose their ability to intelligently understand the difference between symbolisms and hyperbole and real explicit calls for violence.
If it had been any other candidate who used surveyor symbols on their map, no one would say anything about it. But because it's Palin, they look for anything.
May I submit to you exhibit A: http://dlvr.it/DQ91Q
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