Do we generate hatred?

[Bandit]

Is DU a site that generates hatred which could cause some unstable person to do some unthinkable act? There has been many times that I have left this place burning with anger. I believe it comes not from the site itself but from the news of events and people discussed at this site, but these last couple of days has given me pause. I have never seen anyone ever advocate for violent behavior here, but at times this site seems to just ooze with hatred for Republicans and especially the entire Bush* Cabal. Is it healthy to vent in the fashion we do? Could we ever be responsible for some unstable person doing some harm? Probably not but IMO it is something to think about. :shrug:

[BlooInBloo]

1. (facepalm)

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. The violently unstable will not be at a liberal forum

[stray cat]

9. Missing sarcasm smilie or serious that all that post here are virtuous

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. You make a huge and hole-y leap of logic there

I did not say that all liberals (nor that all who post here) are virtuous. By limiting all of humanity to exist within only one option in your binary worldview of "violently unstable" and "virtuous", you make an error of proportions beyond any mathematician's ability to describe.

I said only that liberal fora do not attract the violently unstable.

Their hatred, violence, paranoia, xenophobia, and narrow-worldview is not fed at liberal sites - it is fed at rightwing, fundamentalist, ultra-conservative, and extremist sites.

[Vickers]

3. "I have never seen anyone ever advocate for violent behavior here"

There's the difference.

:thumbsup:

I've seen people advocate CHANGE, but not MURDER (even couched in the language Operation Rescue/Army Of God uses).

[stray cat]

8. I have seen blanket statements of hatred in mass and rejoicing at people's deaths

[camera obscura]

4. maybe some do... but one difference is that we allow dissent on this site

On sites like those anti-Tiller sites - and on far-right websites like FR - you get immediately banned for toeing the line. As I recall they even banned people for supporting the likes of Giuliani in 2008. On DU, there is - if you'll pardon the expression - a marketplace of ideas, in comparison to other sites that encourage the "who can be more extreme" mindset.

[lunatica]

5. I thought about this during the Presidential campaign

It was brutal

[MissMillie]

6. Maybe sometimes

but I wonder if it isn't really a by-product of our frustration with people who disagree w/ us on irrational grounds.

Not everyone who disagrees w/ us is irrational, but those that start out closed-minded can drive us into our own displays of intolerance.

The biggest problem I have in life are people who do things with the specific intent of "pissing off" other people. (I mean that in real life as well as online. It is humanity's worst trait.)

[stray cat]

7. Yes certainly - maybe not the norm - but elements on both sides practice hate speech

[iamthebandfanman]

10. i dunno, i think most DU'ers are talkers

more than action...ers.... lol...


and thats not a bad thing

(and just to cover bases, im not saying there arent people on DU out there fightin the good fight)


i think its wise for any movement to stay far away from violence.

it just doesnt do anything in this day and age to help your cause.

kinda pointless.

id hope everyone on DU is smart enough to realise that.

[JVS]

11. Only during the primaries!

;-)

[KittyWampus]

13. touche!

[zipplewrath]

12. The '60s

The left probably learned its lessons about the use of violence and violent imagery during the '60s. It's when you had alot of left leaning radical groups committing acts of violence. (Can anyone spell Bill Ayers?) We still have various environmental groups that use violence, although I don't think they do so against people right now. Wasn't Squeaky Frome left leaning?

The use of hyperbole in postings is not uncommon. We've had our share of "so and so should be water boarded" around here. The problem the right is having right now, and we saw it in the general election, is they are using hyperbole that cannot generally be recognized as an exaggeration. The speakers may think that the audience understands the exaggerated nature of the claims, but they are wrong. And the right has been working in the area of "coded language" for the last 20 years or so, language meant to mean one thing to a small minority, and be understood differently by the majority. The problem with this is that not everyone knows the code so people can engage in hyperbolic descriptions and not understand that they are communicating something literal to a portion of the population who has been trained to hear coded messages.

And the right knows all this, the Fox News guys, and the radio jocks, they know they are working this thin line. They know they are running these risks. They just don't care. Because they know that there is little anyone can do. We do have free speech in this country and we protect it pretty strongly. But those Operation Rescue folks better watch themselves. Phone numbers, postings, meeting minutes, whatever, it can be used to build a case about "known, or should have known" in a civil court case.

[kentuck]

14. I'll respond in depth as soon as I get back from the gun shop..

I have to buy up more ammo.

Not really. But that is more likely to be the reaction of the right-wingers than the far left.

[terrific]

15. Don't Hate People....

hate their message, hate their policies, and hate their plans.

[Uzybone]

17. Yes we have nuts here too

"long time DUers' who say stupid things like they are stockpiling guns because Obama is bailing out banks.