Good Question: How Does Violent Talk Lead To Violence? - WCCO News

[mzmolly]

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Candidates shooting at the health care bill, comparing their opponents to terrorists and putting congressional districts in the crosshairs. It’s a volatile political dialogue in America, and with the shooting attack in Tucson, Ariz., targeted at a Representative, many are asking about the violent rhetoric. How does violent talk lead to violent action?

“Metaphors matter,” said Edward Schiappa, professor and chair of the Communications Studies Department at the University of Minnesota.

"Not that someone’s going to buy a mug with a crosshairs over a Democratic donkey and that triggers the idea to go shoot a Democrat," he said.

“This participates in a climate of political rhetoric right now that’s really volatile,” said Schiappa.

Because of the rarity that politicians are murdered in this country, Schiappa said that’s not really an easy thing to research.

“There’s a lot of research that has been done on the smaller steps that lead you there,” he said. “The disruption of town hall meetings, the breaking of windows over the vote on the health care bill last year, we see a pattern emerging of opposition so strong it’s led to violence,” he said

So what happens to someone who takes this kind of talk and turns it into violent behavior?

“We call it literalizing a metaphor,” said Schiappa.

Most of us never have problems with literalizing a metaphor; we get that the imagery of a call to arms is a call to political action.

But during the 2008 election, as the anti-Barack Obama rhetoric ratcheted up, so did the number of death threats.

“We do know ratcheting does provoke stronger emotions, stronger attitudes and we do know attitudes lead to actions,” said Schiappa.

... More at link below ...

A video of the original report can be viewed toward the bottom of the page ~ see http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/01/11/good-question-violent-talk-violence/#comments">HERE

Please take a moment to help out in the comment section at WCCO if you don't mind. The discussion is currently dominated by right-wing apologists.

[DeSwiss]

1. K&R

"To me, it suggests possible paranoid schizophrenia," said Dr. Jonas Rappeport of Maryland, a retired forensic psychiatrist who assessed defendants convicted in assassination attempts on former President Ronald Reagan and former Alabama Gov.George Wallace.

Abuse of drugs such as methamphetamine can sometimes cause similar symptoms, Rappeport added. Schizophrenia tends to show up in the late teens or early 20s, said Dr. Robert Sadoff, a forensic psychiatrist based in Pennsylvania, who has assessed more than 10,000 criminal defendants, about 3,000 of whom were charged with homicides.

"Most mentally ill people are not violent at all," and can lead productive lives with proper treatment, Sadoff said. Untreated, a small percentage become so disconnected from the external world that they can't judge what's real and what isn't. That's when delusions can take hold, said Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist who has assessed high profile killers, including Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Timothy McVeigh and Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber.

The most dangerous type of delusion is the belief that one is being persecuted in some way, because "it's the one that most often leads to violence," Resnick said. Such people can strike out in the belief they're protecting themselves from future harm, or in retaliation for imagined past harm, he said.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_f4631ce3-4210-5a82-bbb6-7408c94511a2.html">link

[mzmolly]

2. Thanks DeSwiss.

:hi:

[DeSwiss]

11. You're welcome!

:hi:

[rfranklin]

3. Corollary: Most Republicans are mentally ill...

and comprise the subset of mentally ill who are prone to violence.

[calimary]

4. Metaphors DO matter.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Here, what I posted on this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x178076

Yes language does matter

[mzmolly]

6. Well said.

And, frankly frightening. sigh.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. We are living the Chinese curse

and it will not get better before it gets much worst.

[mzmolly]

8. I fear you are right.

eom

[HuckleB]

9. K & R,.

[mzmolly]

10. Thanks

Huck. :hi:

[mzmolly]

12. More: Environmental Influence on Violent Psychotics

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2011/01/10/environmental-influence-on-violent-psychotics/

[upi402]

13. ads = propagand. it works or they wouldn't spend the precious cash n/t

[mzmolly]

18. Good point. And, no one would claim Hitler's hate speech didn't motivate

a nation.

[Bigmack]

14. Even with people who are not mentally unstable...

violent talk is dangerous because it "disinhibits" both the speaker and the listener.

Once the violent thought has been uttered several times, the speaker and the listener are less inhibited in saying it again, and even acting that violent thought out.

If Rush says that liberals should be killed, and Beck says they are evil and Nazis and should be removed.. and they both do it often enough, even mentally healthy people are less inclined to think such actions are terrible.

[LostHighway]

15. Just look at the language of 'regime change'

We invented a euphemism for invading other countries, it took, and now has become part of our regular vocabulary legitimating the idea. How much more dangerous is it if it's not euphemisms we're talking about but metaphors involving actually killing people, i.e. putting a target on them. I think it's pretty clear that when joking about killing people, liberals in this case, becomes a semi-regular occurrence on TV and the radio, and advocacy of violence below that, either to people over there or to people over here, becomes something regular, that it's a signal that actually doing it isn't that bad.

Just ask some questions: if you believe that accused terrorists should be shot without a trail, who else do you believe should be shot? If you believe that democrats are terrorists, or terrorist supporters, do you think that they deserve to be shot?

[WinkyDink]

16. This is news? I think "demogogue" is a fairly old word.

[mzmolly]

17. News?

Today it is, unfortunately.

[mzmolly]

19. One last related note. "Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization"

http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf