Cross posted from Rational Resistance:
We've seen a rapid swing on the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, from the initial charges on the left that the shooter was encouraged by wild rhetoric from the extreme right, to an almost immediate backlash from the wingers who denied that he was motivated by right-wing views, to even claiming that he is a leftist.
Now we have a report that examines the actual content of his writings and guess what: his writings are saturated by some of the most extreme, right-wing anti-government ideas, conspiracy theories, and lots of pet claims by the extreme right (denial of the legitimacy of paper money, for instance).
Is this a claim that he was acting at the direction of Sarah "Crosshairs" Palin? No. I'll stipulate that Crosshairs wasn't seriously trying to provoke an assassination attempt when she published her violent campaign poster.
But there is no question that, to the extent Loughner's writings set forth any political ideology, it is the ideology of the extreme right.
is “right” or “left” depending on when it takes place. A lot of the anti-government conspiracy stuff I remember from when I was a kid was very similar to today’s right-wing anti-government conspiracy stuff, but from a left-wing perspective.
I mention this because I think it’s easy to apply ideology to certain points of view which are actually kind of outside of anything sane or rational. Even though the right wing currently “owns” a lot of the guano crazy stuff that’s out there today, I consider it to be temporary custody.
Gabby Giffords didn’t answer the question, “What is government if words have no meaning?” He got annoyed because she didn’t answer his nonsensical question. Time to get over it, GMD.
Or so it seems.
Yes, we each must take responsibility for our own actions. No, our actions, and the beliefs that motivate them, do not come out of a vacuum.
If we see a spate of robberies by drug addicts, of course we should prosecute the perpetrators. If we are smart we also should promote wider access to addiction treatment. We should also look into mitigating the factors that lead people into drug use.
There is a concept being promoted right now, as it was during the Clinton administration, that violence is an acceptable end run around the political process. That concept is being promoted exclusively by the far (and not-so-far) right wing. The thought process is, “If we don’t get everything we want then the system is illegitimate, so we get to kill our opponents.”
Sure, Loughner was, and is, a prime candidate for serious mental health intervention. Nevertheless, his talking points were straight from the hyper-conservative hymnbook, as was his methodology. He shot his Congresswoman, not his family or a random convenience store clerk. The far right laid out an “acceptable” path of political action and he walked down it.
The GOP has been egging on the gun-fetishists, riding the tiger and hoping they could frighten and disrupt moderates and the left without actually drawing blood. So much for that idea. Marginalizing violence is going to be tough for a few reasons: It makes for great TV. It rewards people’s lowest instincts. It’s a simple, direct idea in a complex world. People are living distressed lives and are legitimately angry.
I’m not so much worried about civility as I am about boundaries. We need to stuff this “second amendment remedies” concept back in the box. We can be angry and vocal as long as we are clear that angry and vocal is the extent of it.
and mental health issues.
I’m reminded of my Lakoff – for the righties, seeking help for mental “illness” is for wimps and sissies, and we know how they feel about wimps and sissies.
There is an underlying homophobia and femi-phobia behind Lakoff’s Strict Father Morality model. We are all to pull our own damn selves up by our own damn bootstraps each and every time, without mercy.
A favorite aspersion to cast from the right is “maybe s/he should see a psychiatrist.” Seeking help for mental health issues, even mental wellness issues, is the ultimately sign of unmanliness.
Even praying to the sky father is looked down upon many, they are soldiers, moving onward… they already know what their father in the sky wants them to do.
Fox and hate radio know their demographic, they know (perhaps subconciously, since most of them are products of SFM homes) that their listenership is scared to death of the notion of mental weakness or illness, the very perception of it scares most of them shitless.
The record will probably show that Loughner, with all his obvious issues, never sought counseling, and was never evaluated by a professional until 6 people were dead.
Loughner is probably a product of an SFM household. One of the tell-tale signs to this observer is mom always being seen in the grocery store with a 30-pack, and people have come forward saying that she’s a nice woman. Dad is a loner…
Making inferences? Hell yeah. The biggest evidence, though, is Loughner’s love affair with his Glock 9mm that no one in his family saw fit to intervene in.