Will Republican “Hate Talk” be the spark of violence in the future?

by Alice Friedemann, Oct 9, 2014

As long as trucks keep delivering goods, enough food is grown and distributed, then even if times get a lot worse, I believe that the social fabric will fray but there won’t be chaos and massive social unrest.  As long as the 1 in 5 now, and 4 out of 5 in the future keep getting their food stamps, people will put up with a lot — already are.

But at some point down the oil production decline curve, there are likely to be sudden catastrophic breaks – war in the middle east, financial collapse, oil shocks, and so on.  This could lead to social unrest and violence.

I discussed earlier how it might unfold in “How will the violence play out in the USA?“, now I want to look at politics as another fault line.

Timothy Egan poked the Republicans for being a big source of our problems, in the October 9th, 2014 New York Times “Why do we re-elect them?”:

“Voters should consider exactly what Republicans believe, and what they’ve promised to do. It ranges from howl-at-the-moon crazy talk and half-truths to policies that will keep wages down and kill job growth. Let’s start with the Republican Ryan Zinke, a square-jawed former member of the Navy SEALs who is likely to be the next congressman from Montana. Earlier this year, he said, “We need to focus on the real enemy” — that is, the anti-Christ. And who should that be? Why, Hillary Clinton. O.K., he’s just one talk-radio spawn from the Big Sky state. Lock the man up in a room with Ayn Rand novels. But Mr. Zinke is not a lone loon. More than 1 in 5 Republicans last year told a pollster they believed that President Obama was the anti-Christ. It’s harmless hyperbole, you say. The 114th Congress will not take up the matter of what to do with the Beast at the end times. But they will hold crucial votes on whether one of the world’s largest users of energy — us — can curb carbon emissions enough to mitigate climate change. Here Mr. Zinke is practically a lefty in his party. He says climate change is not a hoax, which puts him at odds with 58 percent of Republicans who believe that it is. But then, he says that the matter is not “settled science.” Oy vey. One more time: 97% of climate scientists agree that warming over the last century is very likely because of human activity. It is settled, except in the science-denial party. Only 3% of Republicans in Congress have been willing to go on record to accept that consensus. Good thing gravity is not under discussion.  There is one more deep-held red state belief that could explain our national cognitive dissonance. Two-thirds of Republicans think people can be possessed by demons. We don’t need a new Congress. We need an exorcist”.

But Egan’s digs don’t begin to get at the heart of the matter. The genocide of the Tutsi’s in Rwanda arose from Hutu “Hate Talk” radio that exhorted Hutus to kill Tutsi’s.  The “Hutu Ten Commandments” called for the supremacy of Hutus in Rwanda, exclusive Hutu leadership over Rwanda’s public institutions and public life, complete segregation of Hutus from Tutsis, and complete exclusion of Tutsis from public institutions and public life.  The Commandments declared that any form of relationship between Hutus and Tutsi women was forbidden; and that any Hutu who “marries a Tutsi woman”, “befriends a Tutsi woman”, or “employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or a concubine” was a “traitor” to the Hutu people. It denounced Tutsis as “dishonest” in business whose “only aim is the supremacy of his ethnic group”; and declared that any Hutu who did business with a Tutsi was a traitor to the Hutu people. The Commandments declared that “The Hutu should stop having mercy on the Tutsi” and referred to the Tutsis as “common Tutsi enemy” [wiki “Hutu Power”.
“The radio encouraged people to participate (in mass genocide) because it said ‘the enemy is the Tutsi’. If the radio had not declared things, people would not have gone into the attacks.”   —Rwandan Genocide perpetrator, interviewed by Straus (2007) from Propaganda and Confict: Theory and Evidence from the Rwandan Genocide by David Yanagizawa-Drott, Harvard University, August 2012

Republican’s aren’t calling on dittoheads to shoot liberals (yet)

When I started writing this I thought a comparison of right-wing Republicans and Hutu’s was going way too far.  But to my horror, it wasn’t.  I am sickened, repulsed, dismayed by what I discovered in just an hour of internet research.

I know many Republicans don’t subscribe to this nonsense, but they aren’t speaking out, there’s little national outrage or backlash from middle-of-the-road Republicans.  William F. Buckley successfully held off the wing-nuts a long time — he denounced Ayn Rand, the John Birch Society, George Wallace, racists, white supremacists (starting in the 1960s), and anti-Semites.  Where are the Republicans trying to keep this from getting out of hand now?

Bryan Fischer

Likely and declared GOP presidential candidates are lining up to win the approval of Bryan Fischer, a radio talk show host and spokesman for the American Family Association. His entire career is based on leveling venomous attacks against gays and lesbians, American Muslims, Native Americans, progressives and other individuals and groups he detests. He wants to redefine the Constitution to protect only Christians, persecute and deport all American Muslims, prohibit gays and non-Christians from holding public office and impose a system of biblical law.  While Fischer’s views are undeniably shocking, what is most disturbing is his growing influence within not only the Religious Right but also the Republican Party (People for the American Way).

Republican Ken Cuccinelli

Cuccinelli, Virginia gubernatorial candidate, compared the deportation of undocumented immigrants to pest control [FYI, the Hutus called the Tutsi’s cockroaches].

Michele Bachmann

At a campaign stop in New Hampshire during her presidential bid, Bachmann alleged that the administration was “aiding and abetting” an Islamist plot to take over America and the rest of the world, calling on people to read about the Islamic “belief system” and find out “what they truly believe” just like how “the most important thing a person could do in World War II during that conflict was to read the book that the leader of Germany wrote.” rightwingwatch.org

Glenn Beck

Beck is more hateful and crazy than the Hutu’s!  Below is an excerpt from People for the American Way:

Radio and TV personality Glenn Beck plays a unique and extraordinary role in our political discourse, and an increasingly messianic figure who claims that he has been divinely anointed to lead the nation back to God.  Central to Beck’s influence is the intensity of his fans’ devotion to him.  And central to the danger he poses is his willingness to stoke fear, anger, and hatred among those fans with a toxic, if lucrative, mixture of conspiracy theories and charges that America is on the verge of being destroyed by enemies from within.  In Beck’s world, those enemies include not only President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders, but also progressive advocacy organizations, unions, and even churches that promote social justice as a part of their religious mission.  What Beck preaches is that these are not merely political opponents with policy disagreements, but agents of evil whose goal is the destruction of America and who will stop at nothing – including the deaths of millions – to advance their freedom-destroying plans. Beck has also raised the stakes by claiming a divine mandate for his view of the Constitution and the U.S. government.  He has not only attacked President Obama’s politics, but has called the president’s views on the nature of salvation “evil” and “satanic.”  Beck and David Barton, the Religious Right pseudo-historian he promotes, claim that their views of limited government and the Constitution are divinely inspired. So progressives are not only un-American, they are un-Christian and anti-God.

“If we do not put God at the center of our own personal lives and the center of our country, we will not survive,” Beck said in August. “The country will be washed with blood and then someone will have to start over, and God only knows how long that takes.”

Beck’s propaganda traffics in alarmism, paranoia, racial resentment, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.  These would make for a combustible mix at any time.  But it’s an even more dangerous combination during a time of widespread economic hardship, when so many people are hurting and increasingly desperate.  While backing politicians who don’t believe the government has a role in addressing that pain, Beck offers explanations that can deepen the desperation.

“Times of threat bring increased aggression,” 21-year CIA veteran Jerrold Post told Politico last fall.  “And the whole country’s under threat now, with the economic difficulties and political polarization.  The need to have someone to blame is really strong in human psychology. And once you have someone to blame, especially when there’s a call to action, some see it as a time for heroic action.”

For some troubled Beck fans, that “heroic action” has meant taking up arms against the nation’s “enemies” as Beck has defined them.

Beck has suggested that the Obama administration is looking for a “Reichstag moment” that it would use to seize military power and put an end to democracy.  But that’s not the worst charge: Beck has said that the progressives – or, in his mind, communist revolutionaries – in the administration are willing to pursue their goals with genocidal violence resulting in millions of deaths.  “The revolution of 1776 was a picnic compared to what the revolutionaries of today would like to do,” he charged, “It’s not a lot of fun. Usually millions of people die.” Here’s more: “Great and powerful evil is on our doorstep…it is starting all over again…it shows you how close we came to falling into the same kind of trap that Europe did, that led to 70 million dead in China, led to 40 million dead with Stalin, 10 million dead by Hitler. We were this close. The progressive movement, it’s the same thing, we know better than you, we’re smarter than you…it’s not about freedom, don’t let them lie to you, it’s not about democracy, it is about control.”

On his June 10 show, Beck warned that “anarchists, Marxists, communists, revolutionaries, Maoists” have to “eliminate 10 percent of the U.S. population” in order to “gain control.” They couldn’t achieve such a goal when Richard Nixon was president, Beck stated, because “the family was together” and the government under Nixon “wasn’t as corrupt as it is now.” Beck added: “Now they can. Now they can.”
On a smaller scale, when speaking to a woman who called in fearful that the Obama administration will want to kill her because she’s going on disability, Beck agreed that they would.

Beck frequently charges that the left is planning to provoke violence in America to achieve its aims.  As Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank put it, “Beck has at times spoken against violence, but he more often forecasts it.”  Beck has said that progressives support “armed insurrection,” and that President Obama is “poking and prodding” the Tea Party to violence.

• “I believe these are the most dangerous two years of our republic. Because in the end, in revolutions, the real dangerous killers show up when things start to fall apart. When the nudge moves to shove, and the shove doesn’t work, the killers show up. It happens every time. That’s why we must be united for peace, we must be united with love, we must be united with God.” [The Glenn Beck Program, 9/27/10]
• “Violence will come. And violence will come from the left. Violence is part of the plan. Not mine, not yours.” [The Glenn Beck Program, 9/13/10]

Beck has repeatedly suggested that the biggest targets of his criticism – President Obama and philanthropist George Soros – may be planning to have him killed.  Last year he said, “[Y]ou can shoot me in the head … but there will be 10 others that line up.” Beck claimed that “the most powerful people on the planet on the left” were “not going to go away easy” because “[t]his game is for keeps. This is who controls the United States of America and its destiny.” He asked his listeners to “please keep me in your prayers, keep my staff in your prayers, for safety, for wisdom,” adding, “Just pray for protection, please.” [The Glenn Beck Program, 9/8/09]

Back in March, it was the Obama administration: “For those of you in the administration, who are coming after me … remember, you’ve broken three [of the 10 Commandments], let’s not make it four; thou shalt not kill.” [Glenn Beck, 3/23/10]

As inflammatory as all Beck’s previous charges have been, perhaps his most violence-inciting charge is that Obama and his allies are actually seeking the destruction of the Constitution and the United States itself.  In one show he portrayed the president pouring gasoline on the American people and lighting it on fire, and warned that Obama was “closing Gitmo and letting the terrorists onto the streets.” In May he suggested that Obama is “trying to destroy the country” and is pushing America toward civil war.  [The Glenn Beck Program, 5/19/10]

Okay – I can’t take it anymore, this story goes on and on and on with even more hate talk.  His books are bestsellers at amazon.com still.

Rush Limbaugh

Limbaugh’s 3 hour radio program is heard 5 days a week by millions of people.

Richard Myers, at dailkos.com has similar worries to mine. In his Oct 07, 2012 post “How Rush Limbaugh gets away with fomenting violence and hate against liberals; the poor; minorities” he writes:

“There’s significant reason to be concerned. A blogger activist who goes by the nick of Spocko has offered the alarming example of 3 Rwandan radio personalities who were convicted of genocide for inciting the murder of about 800,000 Rwandan citizens. Free speech is fine, but hate speech can have very serious consequences. Now consider this: the 3 Rwandans had one radio station with two transmitters. Rush has more than six hundred radio stations.

Does Limbaugh foment violence? Yes, without question — but conditionally, and via dog whistle. Just last week Limbaugh asserted, “I have to say, though, folks, terrorism is the greatest threat, because we can still defeat liberals without violence. So terrorism still, of course, represents a greater threat than the Democrat Party. We can handle them without violence. So far.”  [emphasis added] Trick Question on Terrorists and Liberals, October 3, 2012

This contemptible language not only dog-whistles the need to be prepared to conduct a civil war against liberals when and if it becomes “necessary”, it simultaneously equates liberals with terrorists.

Random Limbaugh quotes found on internet searches:

“From this day forward, somebody propose it, liberals should not be allowed to buy guns. It’s just that simple. Liberals should have their speech controlled and not be allowed to buy guns. I mean if we want to get serious about this, if we want to face this head on, we’re gonna have to openly admit, liberals should not be allowed to buy guns, nor should they be allowed to use computer keyboards or typewriters, word processors or e-mails, and they should have their speech controlled. If we did those three or four things, I can’t tell you what a sane, calm, civil, fun-loving society we would have. Take guns out of the possession, out of the hands of liberals, take their typewriters and their keyboards away from ‘em, don’t let ‘em anywhere near a gun, and control their speech. You would wipe out 90% of the crime, 85 to 95% of the hate, and a hundred percent of the lies from society.”
~Rush Limbaugh, The Rush Limbaugh Show, January 2011

“Obama is a clown. You don’t have to be a scientist to know that the President doesn’t know what he’s talking about when he says fossil fuels are the energy of the past. We have more oil than we need. We’ll never run out of it. It’s all we’ve got.”
~Rush Limbaugh, saying the world has unlimited oil despite what geologists and other scientists say, March 8, 2011

Limbaugh must have gotten tired of liberals accusing him of hate talk, so he retailed with “Examples of Obama hate Speech” that proves the opposite of what he’s saying and makes Rush look like an idiot.

Ann Coulter  Quotes from wiki

When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors. Remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (25 February 2002)

God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees. God said, “Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It’s yours.” Making references to Dominionism and Genesis 1:28, on Hannity & Colmes (20 June 2001)

Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac. We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now.  We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war. “This is war“, Townhall, 12 September 2001

From Slander : Liberal Lies About the American Right (2002)

Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do.

Treason : Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (2003)

• The portrayal of Senator Joe McCarthy as a wild-eyed demagogue destroying innocent lives is sheer liberal hobgoblinism. Liberals weren’t cowering in fear during the McCarthy era. They were systematically undermining the nation’s ability to defend itself while waging a bellicose campaign of lies to blacken McCarthy’s name. Everything you think you know about McCarthy is a hegemonic lie. Liberals denounced McCarthy because they were afraid of getting caught, so they fought back like animals to hide their own collaboration with a regime as evil as the Nazis.

• “McCarthyism” means pointing out positions taken by liberals that are unpopular with the American people. As former President Bush said, “Liberals do not like me talking about liberals.” The reason they sob about the dark night of fascism under McCarthy is to prevent Americans from ever noticing that liberals consistently attack their own country.

• Liberals have a preternatural gift for striking a position on the side of treason

The Democrats complain about the Republican base being nuts … The nuts are their entire party … They’re always accusing us of repressing their speech. I say let’s do it. Let’s repress them. … Frankly, I’m not a big fan of the First Amendment. Comments at the University of Florida (21 October 2005), as quoted in “Coulter courts Gainesville” by Jessica Riffel, in The Alligator (21 October 2005)

 

I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East and sending liberals to Guantanamo. “Live and let spy“, Townhall, 23 December 2005

In 1960, whites were 90% of the country. The Census Bureau recently estimated that whites already account for less than two-thirds of the population and will be a minority by 2050.  One may assume the new majority will not be such compassionate overlords as the white majority has been. If this sort of drastic change were legally imposed on any group other than white Americans, it would be called genocide. Yet whites are called racists merely for mentioning the fact that current immigration law is intentionally designed to reduce their percentage in the population. “Bush’s America : Roach Motel” (6 June 2007)

Tony Perkins

President of the Family Research Council, chief sponsor of the Values Voter Summit. Now a widely recognized spokesman for social conservative causes, Perkins served two terms as a Republican legislator in the Louisiana House of Representatives before launching a failed bid for the U.S. Senate in 2002. Perkins has: Praised a Uganda bill that would have condemned gays and lesbians to death as an effort to “uphold moral conduct that protects others and in particular the most vulnerable.” Warned that LGBT rights advocates will launch a holocaust against Christians, placing those that oppose same-sex marriage into “ boxcars.” (People for the American Way).

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This is more depressing than Peak Oil and Climate Change.  I can’t go on, there is endless material on the internet about Republican hate Talk.  The right-wing attempts to counter with “liberal hate talk” are hilarious and pathetic.

I still can’t figure out how the tremendous gun ownership of Americans will play out, but it looks like Republicans have more guns – anywhere from 41 to 56%, and Democrats from 23 to 31%:   2006 gallup poll: 41% percent of Republicans personally own a gun, compared with 27% of independents and 23% of Democrats.  2010 General Social Survey, said gun ownership among adults that identified as Democrats had fallen to 22%. It remained at about 50% among Republican adults. The blog fivethirtyeight reports that the 2008 exit poll asked voters if there was a gun in their house and the results were 56% of republicans and 31% of democrats had one.

I am not a Republican, obviously, but I wouldn’t say I’m a democrat either – both parties – all parties as far as I know, ignore biophysical realities.  Scientific issues are not on their platforms usually, and certainly aren’t the main issues, so the decay of infrastructure, overpopulation, and so on are ignored.  Politics causes people to filter reality by labeling ideas as liberal or conservative rather than looking to science for guidance.  Politics totally ignores most of the issues on my website — the real issues that truly matter for a reasonable future of the remaining species on the planet.