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The day after

Yesterday, a senseless act of non-random violence struck this city. A man, mad at the world and blaming liberals for his personal ills, targeted the innocent congregants of a progressive church in Knoxville, killing two and wounding seven. Like everyone else in Knoxville, I've spent the last couple of days in a state of shock over this.

Described as disliking "blacks, gays, anyone who was a different color or just different from him," the (alleged) murderer stated in interviews with the police that he "targeted the church because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ... ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of major media outlets." These statements echo the sentiments expressed in a four-page letter found in his vehicle after the shootings. A search of his home turned up virulently anti-liberal books by the usual suspects Hannity, O'Reilly, and Savage.

This was no random act. The (alleged) murderer targeted the congregation of the Tennessee Vally Unitarian Universalist Church precisely because of the progressive views of its members. Whether this is labeled a hate crime or terrorism, the effect is the same: a group was targeted for violence because of the socio-political views of its members. The man who did this is cut from the same cloth as Eric Rudolph, Timothy McVeigh, and Theodore Kaczynski.

Meanwhile, followers of the aforementioned Hannity et al. predictably disavow any link whatsoever between the explicit incitements to violence perpetrated by right-wing hatemongers and yesterday's shootings. If this community is going to heal at all, step number one must be the identification and repudiation of the obvious link between hate speech and inevitable action carried out in its name.

As usual, Rikki Hall says it a lot better than I ever could.

Yesterday in Knoxville, two people died, seven were wounded, 200 more were traumatized for life, and my city was deeply injured because one man chose to see demons where influential hatemongers told him they lived.

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Published Monday, July 28, 2008 8:50 PM by RussMcBee

Comments

Monday, July 28, 2008 7:06 PM by vagredajr

# re: The day after

This man shares an ideology with another set of murderers: the Taliban and Al Qaeda. There are plenty of American neo-Jihadists, but they aren't Muslim, they are Christian soldiers who see liberals as "the enemy," just like Rush Limbaugh tells them to believe.

We have an American Taliban and we have only just begun to see the depths of their depravity.

Monday, July 28, 2008 7:25 PM by RussMcBee

# re: The day after

I have a hope, albeit a slim one, that the people of Knoxville may awaken after this and stand more or less united against the kind of hate speech spewing from their local radio stations which spurred this murderer to action.

It could happen; just look back at the way Knoxvillians disavowed and spurned the racists who descended on our town and who marched in response to the media's coverage of the Christian/Newsom murders. The racists were driven out of town through derision and scorn.

History can repeat itself in Knoxville, and sometimes even in a good way.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 5:24 PM by zeitgeist669

# re: The day after

Long time friend and reader, first time poster.

Hannity, O'Reilly, and Savage have nothing to do with what happened here. This is a totally unhinged person who decided that hurting others was his best course of action.

Let's not forget that the Beatles are the reason Charles Manson killed. Helter Skelter, man. It's so clear.

Do not validate the rantings of a madman simply because he says he shares views with people with whom you disagree. Are the opinions of any of the above talk show hosts worth listening to? That's an entirely different discussion. The answer is, "Not really. Not anymore than those of Al Franken or any other (although possibly relatively unheard of) liberal media folks.

This man came unglued and caused unimaginable harm to scores of people. The only person to blame, however, is the man himself.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 5:39 PM by RussMcBee

# re: The day after

Manson didn't find validation for his world view from the Beatles; he merely used a song title as a metaphor for his already fully developed pathology. That is a world apart from the deluge of right-wing hatemongers who are given legitimacy every day by the mere fact that they are permitted such a huge audience in commercial, "mainstream" media. The murderer in this case saw not just metaphor but inspiration in the works of Savage et al., who have actively called for the killing of liberals.

The Beatles never exhorted anyone to commit murder.

His rantings are not "validated" because he found common ground with mass-media hatemongers; he did, however, find justification for his actions in their words, and probably inspiration from them.

For a long, but by no means exhaustive list of right-wing eliminationist rhetoric against liberals, start here:

http://tinyurl.com/2adazs

To draw a parallel between rhetoric like that and a Beatles song is to cheapen and ignore the effect that real incitements to violence entail.

Whether they're worth listening to or not, such people have a vast audience, and their programs and writings are given legitimacy by the networks they work for, and by the sponsors of their hate-filled programs.

Hate is their merchandise, and it sells very well.

This is more subtle than a direct cause-and-effect; a madman who sees authoritative-sounding media figures justifying the murder of his countrymen is still a madman, but he's a madman sharing company with a lot of like-minded souls who sell millions of books.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 11:27 PM by revelator

# re: The day after

> This is a totally unhinged person who decided that hurting others was his best course of action.

Indeed, and that is something that's been going on forever.

However, when a totally unhinged person chooses, among all the myriad possibilities, an abstract concept 'liberalism', as the target of his rage, then it's pretty hard to deny the phenomenon is real.

Half the population doesn't know what the word liberal actually means, with any serious depth, yet they know how to use it freely in any context that inspires suspicion, anger, or hatred inside them.  Just last week in PA I heard it in the clubhouse at the golf course.  Later that week, my Father asked me 'are you a liberal', in exactly the same tone of voice I would expect if he was asking 'are you gay'.  All he really knows is that it's a word associated with some kind of bad people who are trying to destroy our way of life.  How did half the populace become conditioned (in the last decade or so) to respond to a word 'liberal', that is essentially an abstract concept, with such uniform and universal contempt?  It's pretty obvious that only mass media is capable of pulling off that sort of mass brainwashing.

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