Gabriel Giffords & the Rightwing Hate Machine: On The Bogus Equivalency Between Right/Left Extremism

[Hissyspit]

http://peterdaou.com/2011/01/gabriel-giffords-and-the-rightwing-hate-machine

Gabriel Giffords and the rightwing hate machine (on the bogus equivalency between right/left extremism)

January 9, 2011 by Peter Daou

Reaction to the horrific Arizona shootings, where six people were slaughtered including a 9-year-old girl, quickly congealed along clear-cut lines:
a) The left blamed the right, pointing to violent imagery and language from Sarah Palin to the Tea Party.
b) The right furiously denied blame, with some trying to pin the shooting on the left.
c) Among public officials, pundits and press, the common impulse was to draw the typical false equivalency between rhetoric on the right and left.
At least one person was not buying that false equivalency:

“When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.” – Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

We do not yet know whether the Arizona massacre was directly fueled by rightwing rhetoric. But we do know this: one of the most dangerous myths promulgated by the media and political establishment is that there is a comparable level of extremism among conservatives and liberals, that left and right are mirror images.

Even the most cursory perusal of rightwing radio, television, blogs and assorted punditry illustrates a profound distinction: in large measure, the right’s overarching purpose is to stoke hatred of the left, of liberalism. The right’s messaging infrastructure, meticulously constructed and refined over decades, promotes an image of liberals as traitors and America-haters, unworthy of their country and bent on destroying it. There is simply no comparable propaganda effort on the left.

The imbalance is stark: Democrats and liberals rail against the right’s ideas; the right rails against the left’s very existence.

The result is an atmosphere where bigotry thrives, where science and reason are under assault, where progress (associated with progressivism) is frowned upon. And it’s an atmosphere where violence becomes more likely. Pretending this is not the case is to enable it.

The deeply-etched themes that run through American politics reflect the right’s successful framing: Democrats and liberals are wimps, Republicans and conservatives are gun-toting patriots; Democrats and liberals despise their country, Republicans and conservatives are the only ones willing to protect it; Democrats and liberals want to intrude on your freedom, tax you and bankrupt the nation, Republicans and conservatives want to give you freedom, liberty and wealth. The current of eliminationism infusing the right’s worldview is an inevitable outcome of such contorted impressions – it’s a natural impulse to want to destroy that which is (supposedly) destroying you.

MORE

[Tesha]

1. Rec #5... (NT)

[muffin1]

2. A big K&R

There really is no comparison. As stated in your OP, of course there are crazy people on the left, BUT - BIG BUT - they are NOT in leadership positions (Palin, King, etc). They do not have their own 'news' programs (Beck, Hannity). We shun our crazies while they celebrate theirs.

[slackmaster]

3. The equivalency is very real, but it's easy to mask and deny it by restricting your scope to the US

And to the past two or three decades.

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_red_brigad...

http://www.baader-meinhof.com/

Automatic unrec for group narcissism. Telling yourself that violence is something that only "they" do risks making it easier to justify transgressions by "our" side.

[Hissyspit]

5. No, it's not EQUAL.

And the point IS he is talking about the U.S.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hissyspit]

8. No, I'm disagreeing with your disingenuous analysis in the service of a right-wing talking point.

"Equal" was in all caps to emphasize the meaning of the word. I wasn't reacting emotionally at all, but then you throw in an insult.

[slackmaster]

10. I haven't insulted you or anyone else

I'm challenging the hubris behind the cited piece in the OP.

[Hissyspit]

13. "Please take care of yourself"

Completely unnecessary.

OP is clearly addressing the current context in the United States. There is a blatant pattern of media analysis/trope/meme misrepresenting the level of violent rhetoric and actions in this country. It is very real, whether conscious on the part of the participants or not. Recognizing this is not "group narcissism."

Here's discussion of NON-equivalence in our current political context:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2011/01/judging-from-his-internet-postings.html

...and maybe the gunman had no idea why he was aiming for Giffords either, maybe he didn't know how she voted on health care or what her position on Arizona’s draconian immigration law was. It would be a kind of relief if Loughner operated not out of any coherent political context but just his own fevered brain.

But even so, the tragedy wouldn't change this basic fact: for the past two years, many conservative leaders, activists, and media figures have made a habit of trying to delegitimize their political opponents. Not just arguing against their opponents, but doing everything possible to turn them into enemies of the country and cast them out beyond the pale. Instead of “soft on defense,” one routinely hears the words “treason” and “traitor.” The President isn't a big-government liberal—he's a socialist who wants to impose tyranny. He's also, according to a minority of Republicans, including elected officials, an impostor. Even the reading of the Constitution on the first day of the 112th Congress was conceived as an assault on the legitimacy of the Democratic Administration and Congress.

This relentlessly hostile rhetoric has become standard issue on the right. (On the left it appears in anonymous comment threads, not congressional speeches and national T.V. programs.) And it has gone almost entirely uncriticized by Republican leaders. Partisan media encourages it, while the mainstream media finds it titillating and airs it, often without comment, so that the gradual effect is to desensitize even people to whom the rhetoric is repellent.

[bettyellen]

31. yeah, you did. that was condesending bullshit

[DCKit]

15. FAIL

Your tactic is transparent.

You need lots more practice, and an easier target.

[scarletwoman]

16. "Please take care of yourself" - you are implying that the OP has a PERSONAL problem.

That's a bullshit response, attacking the person rather than actually refuting the argument he's making.

Do you have the capability of offering a coherent debate point or not? Your post above does not demonstrate that.

[slackmaster]

19. "Do you have the capability of offering a coherent debate point or not?" is a personal attack

It's also pretty ironic.

[Hissyspit]

20. No, it's not. You are making a non-equivalence.

But THAT is ironic.

[scarletwoman]

22. I'm challenging you to argue honestly, not attacking you.

Your "take care of yourself" post was not an honest argument and I'm pointing that out.

[datasuspect]

24. it isn't equal at all

the right engages in seditious anti-government speech all the time. in a time of war no less.

[mmonk]

7. At this time in this country, the imbalance is from the right.

And we need to quit excusing it or we are part of the problem.

[slackmaster]

9. I don't believe anyone is denying that the problem here, now is on the right, or excusing it

We need to make sure we continue to be not part of the problem.

[Warren Stupidity]

17. I admit to watching Red Army Faction News 24/7

you are not really fooling anyone here.

[slackmaster]

21. Insert remark about "those who will not see"

:nuke:

[Warren Stupidity]

33. there is no equivalence to what the right here has been doing

even at the height of the radical new left more than 40 years ago, a different time and place, there was no equivalence. There was no Limbaugh, no Beck, no Fox Freaking News and its CNN wannabe, no continuous barrage of violent hateful rhetoric describing the mainstream other political party and its adherents as unamerican with frequent insinuations of the violence that ought to befall these outsiders - us here on this board for example, and Congresswoman Giffords explicitly. All directed and coordinated by the leadership of one of the mainstream political parties and pouring out of major media outlets. Walter Cronkite was not on the air supporting Huey Newton.

All of which is irrelevant anyway, as it was 40 freaking years ago. Right here and right now there is no equivalence. This is an exceptional situation, and I seriously question your motives for echoing the rightwing talking points here, now, under these circumstances.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. So you're saying Palin etc. are the right wing equivalent of Marx, Lenin and Mao?

Marx etc. were the inspiration of the 70s European far left violent groups; so Palin, Beck and Limbaugh are their present-day equivalent, being the inspiration of the 'political' murderers the US has seen in pas couple of years.

Yeah, I can buy that.

[fascisthunter]

36. what a bunch of fucking bullshit

I'm not surprised though...

[TheKentuckian]

38. We are talking about today, in the USA and you are defending the insanity of the Reich Wing

by attempting to pushing the equivalency malarkey assumably to give the Reich cover and to discourage and dampen any response.

Damn, I wish I could unrec a post.

[MsPithy]

42. Nonsense, and I really mean "in no way making sense."

By calling your comment nonsense, am I inciting violence? Can anyone imagine someone from the left making violent videos with the underlying message being "Single-payer health care for all!"

By the way, I think we should remind all those who are so vitriolic in their hatred of THE GOVERNMENT,

Police, government
Paramedics, government
Firefighters, government
Sherif, government
FBI, government
Dr. Peter Rhee, Navy veteran, combat surgery experience, tangentially government

[sabrina 1]

44. Make a list of violent murders inspired by hateful rhetoric from the left

over the past few decades. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I can think numerous examples from the right.

If there are transgressions on our side, list them so we can condemn them please.

[eridani]

50. You are talking about people active in the 70s, along with the Symbionese Liberation Army

And even in Europe, the total bodycount nowhere near the toll from Operation Gladio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

[olegramps]

53. Bull!!!!

1. Rush Limbaugh: "I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus – living fossils – so we will never forget what these people stood for."

2. Senator Phil Gramm: "We're going to keep building the party until we're hunting Democrats with dogs."

3. Rep. James Hansen on Bill Clinton: Get rid of the guy. Impreach him, censure him, assassinate him."

4. John Derbyshire intimated in the National Review that because Chelsea Clinton had "the taint," she should "be killed."

5. Ann Coulter: "We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too."

6. Ann Coulter: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building."

7. Bill O'Reilly: "ll those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains."

8. Clear Channel radio host Glenn Beck said he was "thinking about killing Michael Moore" and pondered whether "I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it," before concluding: "No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong?"

[KG]

4. you don't even have to leave DU to find that kind of bullshit.

[muffin1]

11. Indeed

:thumbsup:

[Hissyspit]

23. Apparently so.

[upi402]

12. k/r n/t

[OneGrassRoot]

14. I love Peter Daou. K&R n/t

[malaise]

18. K & R

good read

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

26. Someone on the teevee machine brought up SDS last night

and the Weather Underground and the violence of those days - trying to make it equivalent to today's political atmosphere. Threw me for a loop for awhile but after reading posts here at DU it came into perspective for me. The left wing violence of the 60's was not endorsed or encouraged, openly or subliminally, by the establishment of the day. It was the Underground - the anti-establishment - the most radical of that group that engaged in violence to stop violence

[KG]

27. and that is the difference.

[Hissyspit]

28. Also, it was half a friggin' century ago.

[RufusTFirefly]

37. Bingo. Right-wing hate has been turned into acceptable discourse

As I said in another thread

Right wing nutjobs are given an undeserved air of legitimacy as well as a great big corporate media megaphone.

Meanwhile, anyone to the left of the DLC is marginalized or demonized.

Nothing a left-wing nutjob advocates will gain any traction.

[barbtries]

29. comments are closed.

i found the article really worthwhile but am distressed about the misspelling of Giffords's name. :(

[Hissyspit]

32. Yeah, I noticed that. Decided to leave it.

Then decided to change it, but the hour edit-time was up!

[barbtries]

43. he changed it

at the source happily. :)

[bettyellen]

30. "Democrats and liberals rail against the right’s ideas; the right rails against the left’s very exis

[Raksha]

34. So very true, and long PAST time to say it--loud, clear, often,

and IN PUBLIC, on the national media. No Democrat should ever allow a talk-show host or opponent to get away with the false equivalency. Our side needs to call them on it every single time.

"Democrats and liberals rail against the right’s ideas; the right rails against the left’s very existence."

[on point]

35. Concocted Delusional Propaganda vs Protest of Mis-deeds

There is no equivalence between the trumped up delusional nonsense of the right wing, be it the Whitewater fabrications, the Vince Foster conspiracy or the unjustified demonization of Obama vs the admitted acts of torture by Bush and the lies he told on the way to war in Iraq.

The democrats and the media have failed in calling into question the factual basis behind these things and why they are NOT equivalent. The lack of backbone in the dems leads to an ever smaller voice, an ever more right shift to appease the bullies on the right. This will never work and can only lead to yet more intimidation and ultimately to fascism.

The right makes up nonsense to destroy the dems. The left attempts to bring FACTS into discussion. The right then projects their own behavior onto the dems, and the media buys it and the dems refuse to fight. After all, if we (the repukes) make up malicious stuff, it, then the dems must do it too.

To think this is equivalent is in fact one of the problems.

[niceypoo]

39. Thank you for that

We see it here on DU too, with liberals and progressives regularly being falsely compared to teabaggers by many of the 'Democrats' that post here.

[Overseas]

40. K&R. The right wing take over of our national discourse has been quite deliberate.

I hope we will see see Americans for Prosperity and other professional right wing PR firms sharing the blame for the latest right wing terrorism. Right wing PR firms that "helped" their constituents with their violent messaging should be rebuked along with Palin. Dick Armey should be called out too. And Charles Grassley was only criticized on token liberal news shows when he showed up at Tea Party rallies to stoke the fears about Death Panels. Professional right wing PR firms took public desperation after the Bush Economic Crash and turned it against the government as a whole. Getting desperate people to scream against the very things that could have reduced some of their anguish-- government assistance with more medical expenses, and government jobs repairing our crumbling infrastructure and greening it so our country could catch up with the international green technology markets.

Why do the false equivalency people have to reach way back to the 60's to find their violent people "from the left"? Because those groups were crushed through concerted government action. Furthermore, the private sector in the USA took advantage of the fear of left wing fringe violence in those times to crush public support for social and economic justice. Those who wanted to absorb the maximum amount of profit from their corporations, rather than sharing more with the workers who contributed to their success (as is done in Europe with government funded health care, longer vacations, and better social benefits overall), established more long term campaigns against balanced government, in which billions have been invested over the past 30 years. http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/powell_memo_lewis.html

The shift to the Right in our national media has not been a gradual response to naturally evolving public opinion, it has been a concerted campaign conducted on many different levels. Eric Alterman's book has many of those details well documented. www.whatliberalmedia.com And let's not forget the millions spent targeting our last Democratic president. http://www.thehuntingofthepresident.com/

The professional right wing PR organizations have been wildly successful in maximizing corporate profits over here. But at what cost?
http://www.alternet.org/story/149324/america_in_decline:_why_germans_think_we%27re_insane

In Germany, where they actually had the scary red army factions, they realized that making sure their workers retained more benefits and stronger unions would do more to quell the desperate craziness that drove the radicalism in the first place. I was hoping my Democrats would do that here. I hoped we would go all FDR at the beginning of President Obama's term, even with Medicare for All, using the millions of evictions (aka foreclosures) and the Bush Crash as the driving motivation. By now, millions could be feeling the amazing comfort of national health security, and the pride of being engaged in repairing our national infrastructure and boosting our country's ability to compete in green technologies, instead of the desperation of continued foreclosures and some health reforms but looming mandates and continued unemployment while the ravages of climate change strain even more of our crumbling infrastructure.

[truth2power]

41. Thank you, Hissyspit, for another excellent post. ...

I see they're out in force, already.

[scarletwoman]

45. Kick for one of the best OPs on this matter. (nt)

[Odin2005]

46. K&R, posted on Facebook.

[BobbyBoring]

47. There will be

Violence from the left!!

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/09/glenn-beck-violence-is-coming-and-it-is.html

[Hissyspit]

52. I had forgotten he had said that. Thanks for the reminder.

For many on the Right, of course, Loughner will be from the Left, no matter what the facts are, and Beck is proven correct. What's particularly infuriating is this concept and point of view being promulgated in the MSM.

Beck is a despicable con-artist.

[yoyossarian]

48. "Well, Hitler's bad, yes... but let's face it, Poland's no saint!" -- G. P. Bush, 1938

As the article says, NO comparable propaganda effort on the left.

We are SAINTS compared to them. We're ANGELS. Comparatively speaking.
REALLY.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x155928

[Johonny]

49. but Jon Stewart says they're the same

You got KO and his worse people in the world on one side and people calling for second amendment solutions, calling health care bill a death panel, saying Obama is a dictator, a communist, a secret African, OKing the killing of abortion doctors etc on the other side. So I totally see once again J Stew how the two sides are equal.

[Swamp Rat]

51. k&r