Hateful Speech From The Right
Eugene Robinson as an admirable piece in the Washington Post on the hateful speech we often hear from the Right. Yes, we do hear it from the Left periodically, but the Right is louder and much more hateful.
Vile? Evil? America-hating? Nugent doesn’t just characterize those with different political views as misguided or wrong. He seeks to paint them as alien and anti-American — as enemies of this nation, rather than citizens with whom he disagrees. In a subsequent interview, Nugent called Nancy Pelosi a “sub-human scoundrel” and referred to liberals as cockroaches to “stomp” in November.
And more about Allen West:
“There is a very thin line between communism, progressivism, Marxism, socialism,” West claimed this week. “It’s about nationalizing production. It’s about creating and expanding the welfare state. It’s about this idea of social and economic justice. You hear that being played out now with fairness, fair share, economic equality.”
West can’t really believe this nonsense. What he’s trying to do is delegitimize the entire stream of progressive thought that has run wide and deep through American history since the nation’s founding. Disagree with his views, West insists, and you’re not just a political opponent, you’re a godless Marxist.
This hateful speech is something we see a lot of here at Delaware Liberal, just read our comments. Maybe one day it will dwindle down to a few rabid people hold up in the mother’s basement, but until then we need to just keep on calling them out on it.
Tags: Allen West, Hate
Nugent, and many conservatives, are wishing for violence. It’s frightening that some of them will make their wishes come true.
And good on Robinson for making it clear that there is no equivalency to be had. And for asking Rmoney and Boehner if they find anything to endorse in what Nugent or West had to say. But then again, the GOP clearly has no investment in a halfway civil conversation since they are largely able to outsource that responsibility to Democrats.
Here at DL we encounter people who get to hide behind some anonymity in order to inappropriately vent their largely inappropriate anger. It is spectacularly cowardly. And seriously, if this speech is something I wouldn’t tolerate at the dinner table in my house, I’m not inclined to tolerate it here.
I love Eugene Robinson and liked his column. My only beef with it was that he suggests that calling someone a Communist is just as vile as what Nugent said. Of course, there are no Communists in Congress. But what if there were?
I think Robinson is taking umbrage to tying communism with progressivism.
Yes, and that is a good point, but still.
“This hateful speech is something we see a lot of here at Delaware Liberal” — kind of an ironic statement given the rhetoric that posters here use to describe Republicans and others with whom they disagree.
“Nugent, and many conservatives, are wishing for violence” — Don’t know and don’t care about what Nugent may or may not be wishing for, but then again, no one can seriously be suggesting that there aren’t some on the left who also are wishing for violence, or indeed, calling for it. 30 years ago no one would have ever heard (or cared) about Nugent or the left fringe; but, in this age of the internet and 24-hour news cycles, each side tries to use the fringe elements to characterize the entire other side and discredit their arguments. Those on this blog are just as guilty, and, indeed, seem to delight in highlighting the far right fringe while completely ignoring those on the left guilty of the same.
There it is. A Democrat did it once, so it is okay. Awesome critical thinking powers on display.
I’ll speak for myself. If I call some one an idiot because they make idiotic statements, I’m just being factual. There is a difference between that and the violent hate speech that the right wing engages in with shocking regularity.
Of course you now that AQuestion, but you can’t bring yourself to admit it.
Why can’t I think of any examples of left-wingers calling for violence out in the open in the mass media recently (i.e., not in the ’60s)? I can think of a lot of examples of right-wingers calling for “second amendment solutions” and such.