Fox Loudmouth Rhetoric Comes Home to Roost
"The American Dream of the middle class has all but disappeared, substituted with people struggling just to buy next week's groceries."
This comment comes not from Paul Krugman or a lefty think tank, but from a discharged GI writing his hometown newspaper in Lockport, NY, during the winter of 1992. This GI would later blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people. When he was executed in July 2001, it was easier for elected officials and talking heads to dismiss Timothy McVeigh as a monstrous lone wolf than to confront the substance of his beliefs.
McVeigh's outlook resonated beyond the paranoid hate of right-wing conspiracy theorists.
Add a dash of nativism, government bashing, and racial resentment to McVeigh's economic anxiety and you have a fetid brew of white, right-wing terror. A terror that flared again in James von Brunn's museum shooting spree.
After Barack Obama's exultant 2004 speech to the Democratic convention, the white supremacist Samuel Francis rued "the moment when America ceases to be a nation defined and characterized by the white racial identity of its founders and historic population and is transformed into the non-white multiracial empire symbolized and led by people like Obama."
A Census prediction that made headline years ago, is now becoming a reality: By 2042 whites will no longer be a majority. This already palpable demographic shift has sparked considerable terror among a cadre of white Americans -- a fear that whites will be politically and culturally moribund in their "own" land. And we've seen this anxiety reflected on screen: American History X, Falling Down, Gran Torino, etc. Beyond extreme violence, this terror takes more nuanced, quiet forms in everyday life.
As Bill O'Reilly told John McCain in 2007:
"But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, of which you're a part, and so am I. They want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have. They hate America, and they hate it because it's run primarily by white, Christian men."
McCain nodded patiently.
The paranoid vitriol of white supremacists has frequently merged with mainstream political "debate." Racially singed viewpoints once grumbled by white nationalists like von Brunn, Timothy McVeigh, William Butler, Jared Taylor, and the Minutemen -- and whispered sotto voce in private homes -- now air publicly in conservative debate.
The right-wing echo chamber has stolen, polished, and marketed the political hobbyhorses of white nationalists. Establishment, dye-in-the-wool conservatives stole the extreme right's positions and buffed their rhetoric to make it more mainstream.
Decades of right-wing rhetoric is coming home to roost.
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l.imbaugh owes dems and the prez an apology!
Wright versus Wrong.
"the moment when America ceases to be a nation defined and characterized by the white racial identity of its founders"
This is the root of the entire problem ...................... When the first settlers came to this land it was NOT unpopulated ................ There was a thriving civilization here of NATIVE AMERICANS, this country NEVER belonged to the WHITE MAN.
After years of native american genocide and land theft, the myth of this country being the land of the WHITE MAN continues.
The african population DID NOT voluntary come here, and they NEVER were given a level playing field on which to thrive.
Although this country has become a melting pot of ALL nations, it has been controlled by white men (not even white women). Now that the balance of ethnic power is changing, they are desperate to cling to what they have always WRONGLY perceived as being their inalienable right............... And so they do what they do best .......... Try to cease power through VIOLENCE and TERROR .............. They did it with the native americans, they did it with the slaves, they did it during the civil war, they did it via the KKK and Jim Crow, and now the fight continues on the immigration front and the racial front................... Even though EVERY white person today can trace their original roots back to persons who IMMIGRATED to this country.
Yes the hateful race baited rhetoric has certainly come home to roost.
:)
Amen.
Well said.
Poor white folks. They aren't even the minority (yet), and it's driving many of them crazy. This is just a taste of what other groups have felt for generations. When Blacks and others wanted to be treated equally and with respect, they were told to shut up, or at most, demonstrate non-violently. These conservatives tell their minons, stock up on guns and ammo!
Hate kills. Colorblind, politically blind, economically blind. Hate kills. Always has always will; unless we stop it.
Prayer: God please take care of all the hate filled ungodly right wing people in our Nation at this time, they know not what they do.
They certainly do know what they're doing. I'm praying for the DHS people who have to contain these vicious thugs.
Amen, brother. Blinded by hate. May God have mercy on their evil souls.
See Michael Rowe's Profile
Superb post.
See Richard M. Benjamin's Profile
Thank you, Michael.
Sounds like there aren't any "Black Christian Men" in power according to a lot of
these comments.
There are a lot of radical people in this world....some choose to act on their
beliefs and some are a little more rational.
McVeigh killed a lot of innocents because he was a radical. Who did he hurt...
not the white christian man that he seemed to blame all the troubles on.
Most of these posts are against the "right wing" talk shows....How abou the
left wing liberal talk shows. Is there any difference.
It just depends on which side you are on and that is what you choose to believe.
How about looking at both sides occasionally and decipher what is really going on. Both sides are not always right and both sides are not always wrong.
Expand your minds once in awhile and quit being so Partisan.
You only hear on the news shows what they want you to hear anyway.
A lot of people were killed in the OK City bombings, of all colors, just as there were Muslims killed in the Trade Towers.
And yes, actually, there IS a difference. Liberal talk shows don't try to tell people to go kill folks they disagree with. My guess is you have never listened to them.
Burning incense and praying to idols will fail when compared to modern surgical technique for fixing a case of appendicitis. There are two viewpoints there regarding illness. But ONE is correct.
Making the spurious claim that there is equivalence between right wing talk shows and the liberal talk shows will get you nowhere, just as fast.
This is just black helicopter stuff. Timothy VcVeigh=right wing extremist. We've heard this one before. The left tried to link the shooter at the Holocaust Museum to the conservatives. When it was discovered how much his philosophies were just plain crazy that argument blew up, but the flow of propaganda just continues. http://theclosetconservative.com
" Black helicopter stuff"???
How does "just plain crazy" differ from what goes out over the airwaves from Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, Michael Savage, or Bill O'Reilly? For that matter, how does it differ from the straight-faced rantings of Michelle Bachmann, Tom Tancredo, and others who represent the right wing in government?
Timothy McVeigh self-identified as a "conservative" --- whether he was an extremist or not depends on your definition. Most of us, though, would argue that his actions were more "extreme" than most in the white/Christian/nationalist fringe, because most of them didn't blow up Federal buildings. So yes, "right wing extremist" seems to be a very reasonable label for people like McVeigh.
As to your claim that "the left tried to link the shooter.... to the conservatives", the left didn't do it: Mr. von Brunn left a voluminous written record testifying to his beliefs. The left didn't invent Mr. von Brunn, and reporting the shooter's own written and spoken words in an effort to understand his crime isn't putting a liberal slant on the news, it's just good reporting.
Sorry, but just because you blog about something doesn't make it true. The shooter at the holocaust museum was a member of FreeRepublic, Stormfront, and several other right-wing sites. He was a right-wing racist. You can't run away from it now after fanning the flames for months.
As it becomes more difficult for conservatives to maintain their selfish and non-sustainable lifestyles, and as the corporate giants dismantle the middle class, the petulance they display becomes uglier by the day. Why not just come out and say it, you cannot handle the idea of a man of color sitting in the White House, and you are willing to do and say just about anything to try and maintain the status quo?I would respect this stance a lot more than the attempts to create a seperate reality that is based in lies and innuendo. Greed and stupidity brought us to this point, only wisdom and creative new policies will get us out of it. If you are too selfish to admit this, think about your children, and the world you are creating for them.
In some ways this article is self-defeating. The problem comes not in differences in color, but in socio-economic status. While many of these neo-nazi nuts blame people of color for their problems, what they need to look at are the actual people causing the problems and mainly themselves. The reason they don't have a job. 1) others in the same country aren't taking jobs instead they are being shipped overseas 2) it's easier to focus negative feelings on others instead of improving yourself and taking responsibilty. 3) we're in a recession and everyone is losing their job regardless of color.
Bigotry and Racism are basically the qualities of the poor and/or stupid. Inciting them in others is the work of those that seek power and dominence. Reading some of the right wing comments on here only seems to prove my point.
Your argument falls the moment you said Bigotry and Racism are basically the qualities of the poor and/or stupid. Rush Limbaugh is fabulously wealthy, cunning and nasty, and a dyed in the wool racist.
May I suggest "bleached in the wool," instead?
The same could be said of Jesse Jackson,Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan (I have heard much more antisemitic speech from these three than any main stream right wing figure) and others associated with the Left.
Racism and hatred belong to no particular race or political party!
For all the whining I see on this site about r@c1sm, I sure see a lot of prejudiced comments. True, they aren't the typical definition, but that is still what they are. Your piece is a perfect example of it, as you could have easily made your point about Fox without mentioning the color of anyones skin. You paint with a broad brush, and I can only assume what your book "Whitopia" is about...
Look at yourself in a mirror before you decry the prejudices of another.
What?
I agree :)
Except that the people being talked about themselves are the ones playing the race card and exhibiting a victim mentality. "Poor me, all these people of color hate me because I'm a White Christian male. The only way I can fight back is to oppress them more than I have so I feel better about myself."
Epic Fail.
Thankfully there are so many White Christian males who don't act in this way, really are a credit to humanity, with little to no issues with people of other ethnicities, other religions, or women. As usual it is the aberrations that get the publics attention.
What are you talking about?
I can't see any reference in the article to the decades of hate preached by the The Reverend Jeremiah Wright . Should Obama and his wife be predisposed to assassinating white people because they sat through all of that.
Oh, and what about the lefty-muslim that killed the army security guard between the two "right ewing" killings. Very selective memories on this site.
He was not a lefty, nor was that his apparent motivation. That guy was a MUSLIM EXTREMIST, you know, the people we have been at 'war' with for the past 8 years?
Keep up your talking points though. People recognize that you guys are the ones that are preaching the violence, yet decry the same behavior in others.
Oh, and we didn't make the connection between the DHS report and conservatives, you guys did that yourself quite nicely...
Religious extremist. Therefore, right wing. VERY right wing.
Right wing forms of government (fascism, dictatorship, etc) are very much advocated by religious extremists, who seek either a monarchy or a theocractic police state.
There's a reason US conservatives have such a long-standing love affair with Saudi Arabia: it's because THAT is the government model conservatives are trying to create in America. Swap whatever flavor of fundamental Christianity wins in the right win with Arabia's Wahhabism, and that's the conservative dream.
There are a lot of people on the far right claiming fascism, communism (which is in actuality a dressed up dictatorship), and whatever else are actually "liberal" forms of government. That's because it's being said by stupid people who don't know what they are talking about.
Liberals are all about freedom. Give the power to the people, and you get democracy. Therefore, the "far left" is that scariest thing of all... a free and democratic government.
You don't see any reference to that because it doesn't exist. **rolls eyes**
Maybe you should stop trying to find an equivalent racist on the Left so that you don't have to take responsibility for your rhetoric. For one, you won't find one (the muslim thing is quite a lie), and two Republicans are so high on people taking responsibility it's about time they followed their own advice.
Reverend Wright neither taught nor encouraged the assassination of white people. In fact, a large portion of his congregation was white, as were many of his theological colleagues who often visited the church.
Of course when you form your judgment of an individual's forty-year ministry on 24/7 out-of-context soundbites selected and looped by Sean Hannity to distort a man's reputation for political gain, then it's understandable that you don't know what you're talking about!
The Muslim convert who killed the army security guard was not a "lefty," he was an extremist. I don't recall anyone calling Al Qaeda "lefties," yet it was their mindset that this young man shared. His motive was to kill the people (US soldiers) who were killing "his people" in Iraq and Afghanistan! This is not a left-wing Democratic predilection.
Wright did not preach hate. Get it straight. Decades? Get a grip.
Wright preached hate for 20 years... and Obama sat there for most of them.
Ultimately; We humans are one species (among many) on one planet. We need to learn to celebrate what we have in common, not our differences; they're irrelevant.
Everyone should be aware that Limbaugh and Beck are actively engaged in making their "base" believe that the far-right Holocaust deniers and Nazi sympathizers have their origins in the far Left. And they do it with a straight face---and their listeners are believing what they say.
IMO, this is an orchestrated attempt to deflect blame for the tragedies that have happened in the last week or so.
We have to fight these nonsense assertions as strongly as possible. People can't just go walking around thinking Hitler was a Leftist. History does not rewrite itself for the convenience of Beck and Limbaugh.
Of COURSE that's coming from Limbaugh.
I've seen that idea pop up in half a dozen semi-illiterate comments, in the last couple of days. Of COURSE Limbaugh mentioned it, the day before. That's how it always works.
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