RE: the right wing hate screamers, do you recognize the hypocrisy?

[Big Orange Jeff]

When musicians (including rappers) sing about cop killing, misogyny, dealing drugs, etc., it's a blight on society, and they're influencing our young people to act in the same manner.

However, when the right-wing noise machine rails against anyone who dares disagree with them (calling them mass-murderers, traitors, etc.), they're just exercising their rights to free speech. Anyone who follows through on their thinly-veiled threats is just acting out on his own, and it's pure coincidence that they frequent hate sites and read all the same books and tune into all the same TV and radio programs.

Don't get me wrong, I could do without both, but at least the musicians can claim artistic license, and that they don't really believe the lyrics. Perhaps we should keep holding Limbaugh's, Hannity's, Coulter's, O'Reilly's, et al, collective feet to the fire until they're forced to admit that they really don't believe what they're spewing - although I have my doubts about Coulter.

[Christa]

1. K & R

Logic is not really a trait right wing whiners posses.

[patrice]

2. This is the ESSENTIAL problem. How can anyone work with/trust Hypocrits?

It isn't as though the Left Wing does not contain contradiction, but Liberals, being by definition all inclusive and, therefore, SITUATIONALLY grounded, BEGIN from the perspective that there are contraditions and THE task is to integrate conflict/contradiction into a whole.

RWers begin from the perspective that there is ONE TRUTH for all and they are the owners of that truth and this fact justifies their acquisition of any and ALL power, including the power to make "exceptions" to the ONE TRUTH, exceptions that surprisingly somehow always seem to serve their drive for power and wealth.

People would agree with RWers MUCH more on the Principles if they weren't such bad models of the very principles they are trying to force on others and 1,000,000 dead Iraqis, which has to have included something like 2-300K DEAD CHILDREN, is a perfect example of their lying un-trustworthy

HYPOCRISY

[malaise]

3. It's the same people

The right wing corporate music industry decides which music to promote. None of those rappers would be on the air without the support and encouragement of the said right wing corporate producers, owners or media.

The promotion of violence is a right wing industry. Remember who owns the private prisons (uncle Dick has more than a few million invested in them).

[lunatica]

4. I don't see any difference. Hate is hate whether you sing it or scream it

[stray cat]

5. We push for free speech and yet want the right hate speech shut down

Few people are completely consistent.

[havocmom]

7. we want advocacy for violence shut down

and many of us have made that point when it happens here at DU too.

[Big Orange Jeff]

8. You make a good point, but free speech does have its limits (per SCOTUS, I believe)

Like yelling "FIRE" in a crowded movie house or making verbal threats to the POTUS, some speech does need to be limited. If I went on the air advocating the killings of Limbaugh, Savage, Coulter, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc., I would be arrested - and rightly so.

My questions are, should artists that advocate violence (i.e, Cop Killer) be held accountable? Should the hate screamers be liable for the Roeders of the world? Where is the line, and how close should they be allowed to come to it before they get the visit from the FBI?

(edited for grammar)

[surrealAmerican]

9. The other point here is:

Free speech does not include free use of public airwaves.
If the Limbaughs, Savages, Coulters, etc. were screaming on street corners or distributing hate-filled pamphlets this would be their right. That is not what they are doing; they are misusing a public resource. We own the broadcast spectrum collectively.

[Big Orange Jeff]

10. Great point, but I think we're still in some gray area here.

When W removed Helen Thomas from her priority seat in the White House briefing room, many DUers felt it was a form of censorship. The Right Wing Hate Machine would say the same thing if their heroes were removed from the airwaves. That's why I ask these questions and why I feel serious, high-level discussions are necessary.

At what point does it cease to be free speech? Is it when they use the public airwaves? Is it when a follower commits a heinous crime? Is it when they ask questions that make the White House uncomfortable?

At what point do their statements become an incitement of violence? Do they have to specifically state which actions they want their minions to take?

These are questions that, to me, need to be debated now, before someone else becomes another victim.

[havocmom]

6. to the Greatest page with this one

:thumbsup: good point