...for shits and giggles that Jared Lee Loughner grew up in a void and the violent rhetoric and imagery that permeates our national political discourse had no relation whatsoever to his actions.
Let us leave aside any notion that people are affected by growing up in a culture in which it's acceptable to a Republican president for his lunch guests to say things like "I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus—living fossils—so we will never forget what these people stood for," and in which those sorts of things are said routinely and considered perfectly normal, where exhortations to violence against ideological opponents are widely regarded with the same sort of head-shaking, resigned, vaguely amused exasperation as the latest casual disgorgance of racial bigtory from Uncle Fred (as if that doesn't matter, either).
Let's get that perfect world of undiluted disconnection in our heads.
Now answer me this: In that magical world, why would anyone feel inclined to vociferously defend their use violent rhetoric and imagery?
Sure, the answer is "free speech." The objection to the principle of censorship, even self-censorship.
But that's a lousy answer, if you claim not to mean to convey and incite violence with violent rhetoric and imagery.
Free speech isn't about the actual words you use; it's about the ideas that you convey. There are many ways to express the same idea.
The only idea that must be conveyed using violent rhetoric and imagery is violence.
[Trigger warning for fat hatred and discussion of eating.]
So. The fact that I am not a fan of Jamie Oliver and his mission to shame the world into thinness (and his insufferable devotees) will not exactly come as a surprise to regular readers. Which is why I generally try to resist writing about every example across which I stumble of Oliver's increasingly obnoxious crusade.
But this description of a scene from his show Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food, from Dr. Arya Sharma's "The Pedagogy of Obesity Reality Shows" (which I strongly recommend you read in full), is just beyond the everloving beyond:
Jamie returns to Natasha's house to find that she is once again feeding her daughter cheese-chips. "Sorry, I'm just embarrassed," Natasha says eventually. "I don't know how it gets like this. I really try with money, I do."Sharma adds that, in another episode, "another woman explains to Oliver, 'The thing with you, Jamie, is you live in a bubble. You've got no bloody idea what it's like for us.'"
Jamie, looking confused, replies: "Look," he begins, "I'm not going to say to you that I understand, because … well, erm, I don't."
Natasha gets tearful, and explains that during the week she had spent all of her benefit money on bus fares and overdue bills, and had little left to buy the ingredients for the recipe that Jamie had taught her.
As Jamie stands in the kitchen Natasha cries. "Come here," he says, moving towards her to hug her.
"Get off," she says, pushing him away.
The Pope is outraged that parents are being influenced by celebrities and their WEIRD BABY NAMES, and has commanded that Catholics give their children proper Christian names. If they don't want their families to BURN IN HELL! Or something:
The pope, who baptized 21 children on Sunday at a traditional annual ceremony at the Vatican, said afterwards that every new member of the faith acquires the character of a son or daughter of the Church "starting from a Christian name."He also noted that "Christian names are an 'indelible sign from the Holy Spirit' that help protect family life." So if your family is fucked up, you can blame your parents for giving you a pope-unapproved name. So there. And if you're named Mark or Mary, and your family is fucked up, that probably means you haven't given enough money to the church.
Italian newspapers had a field day with the story on Monday with headlines such as "Give your children Christian names."CNN just literally ran like a 10-minute segment on this important news.
One mainstream newspaper dedicated an entire page to it, including lists of names, an interview with a pastor, and a personal account by a man who recalled that priests in Italy at one time only allowed names of Italian saints.
A street is covered by a flash flood in Toowoomba, Queensland January 10, 2011. Residents in Australia's third largest city, Brisbane, sandbagged their homes against rising waters on Monday, as police warned people in smaller outlying towns to be ready to abandon homes as forecasters predicted more heavy rain. [Reuters Pictures]Parts of Australia are currently being devastated by massive flooding, of the scope that recently ravaged Pakistan, India, and China.
Three: The number of years in prison to which former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been sentenced by a state judge for conspiracy to launder money.
State Senior Judge Pat Priest, citing the need for those who write the laws to "be bound by them," briskly rejected DeLay's impassioned argument that he was the victim of political persecution and improperly accused of breaking the law for doing what "everybody was doing."DeLay has promised to appeal the verdict to higher courts.
Priest said he agreed with a jury's verdict in November that DeLay had committed a felony by conspiring to launder corporate money into the state election, and ordered bailiffs to take DeLay - who was wearing a navy blue suit and his trademark American-flag lapel pin - to jail immediately. That was averted only when DeLay's attorneys quickly posted a $10,000 bond.
Priest also sentenced DeLay to five years in prison on a separate felony conviction of money laundering, but agreed to let him serve 10 years of community service instead of jail time for that charge.
No details yet on the suspect, other than that zie has been arrested:
Authorities responded Monday to a threat against Sen. Michael Bennet's (D-Colo.) Denver office, Bennet's spokesman said.
The FBI and U.S. Capitol Police arrested an individual suspected of making a threat to the Colorado Democrat's state office, said Adam Bozzi, the senator's communications director.
"We can confirm that there was a threat against Senator Bennet's office and that the FBI is working with the Capitol Police to have arrested the individual responsible for the threat," Bozzi said in a statement.
"Michael has full confidence in the law enforcement agencies handling the case and remains focused on his job serving the people of Colorado," Bozzi added.
[Trigger warning for violent imagery.]
"Until we have more definitive information about the shooter, pointing fingers at who might bear responsibility for the Tucson, Arizona, massacre only contributes to what we must end in America: a toxic political environment."—CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen, who adds that "this is not a moment to point fingers and make accusations [but] to pray for the victims."
Embedded within Gergen's admonishment is the damnable lie that pointing out this act of violence does not exist in a void is the same thing as placing blame for the massacre.
One of the most classic ways to avoid accountability is to accuse people asking for it of (mis)placing blame.
And now, with shades of the ever-popular rightwing lament that being called on one's racism is as bad or worse than being a victim of racism, calling out purveyors of violent rhetoric is just as bad as being an eliminationist oneself.
Cool.
This blogaround is brought to you by Shaxco, one of many engineering firms hard at work on the Progressive Peace Machine.
Peter Daou: Gabrielle Giffords and the rightwing hate machine (on the bogus equivalence between right/left extremism)
Shark-fu: …comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.
Mustang Bobby: The Pattern Takes Hold
Latoya Peterson: [TW child abuse, slut-shaming] The Wall Street Journal Explains “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”
Sady: [TW for sexual assault and violence] Running Toward the Gunshots: A Few Words About Joan of Arc
Kelly Oakes: Black holes are not fed by colliding galaxies after all
David Nichols for nature news: Legal highs: the dark side of medicinal chemistry. And David Kroll: David Nichols, legal highs, and the social responsibilities of the scientist (H/T for both posts to Ed Yong)
PalMD: Cold day reflections on medicine
Maud Newton: Giving grief its own corner
American Dialect Society: “App” voted 2010 word of the year by the American Dialect Society (UPDATED). (Here is a PDF press release of all nominees and winners. Warnings apply for sexual assault, disablism, and fat-hatred. On the bright side, the ADS concluded that "Man Up" is a failure.)
Michael Ruhlman: Don’t Fear the Microbes: Yeast Basics and Classic Rye Bread with Caraway Seeds
Share your links in comments.
US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama observe a 'moment of silence' on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 10, 2011 to honor the victims of a shooting at an Arizona political event that left people six dead. [Getty Images]
Arizona Daily Star: Giffords' husband releases first statement since shooting.
New York Times: Born on Sept. 11, Claimed by a New Horror.
Mother Jones: Loughner Friend Explains Alleged Gunman's Grudge Against Giffords.
Wall Street Journal: Suspect Fixated on Giffords.
Washington Post: Jared Loughner's behavior recorded by college classmate in e-mails.
Paul Krugman: Climate of Hate.
Washington Post: Gun used in Tucson was purchased legally; Arizona laws among most lax in nation.
Salon: Weapon in rampage was banned under Clinton-era law.
David Dayen: Rep. Carolyn McCarthy to Introduce Gun Control Legislation in Response to Giffords Shooting.
Please feel welcome and encouraged to leave additional links in comments. Note that speculation about Loughner's mental state and general commentary about mental illness are OFF-TOPIC for this thread, as any other.
[Trigger warning for violent rhetoric of many different stripes.]
Both sides are, in fact, not "just as bad," when it comes to institutionally sanctioned violent and eliminationist rhetoric.
An anonymous commenter at Daily Kos and the last Republican vice presidential nominee are not equivalent, no matter how many ridiculously irresponsible members of the media would have us believe otherwise.
There is, demonstrably, no leftist equivalent to Sarah Palin, former veep candidate and presumed future presidential candidate, who uses gun imagery (rifle sights) and language ("Don't Retreat, RELOAD") to exhort her followers to action.
There is no leftist equivalent to the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a group which was created from the mailing list of the old white supremacist White Citizens Councils and has been noted as becoming increasingly "radical and racist" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which classifies the CCC as a hate group—and is nonetheless considered an acceptable association by prominent members of the Republican Party, including a a former senator and the last Republican presidential nominee.
There is no leftist equivalent to Glenn Beck, host of a long-running nationally syndicated radio show, former host of a show on CNN and current host of a show on Fox, best-selling author, DC rally organizer, and longtime user of eliminationist rhetoric, including equating universal healthcare to rape, joking about victims of forest fires being America-hating liberals, comparing Al Gore to Hitler, condoning the murder of Michael Moore, accusing Holocaust survivor George Soros of being a Nazi collaborator, joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi, equating immigration reform with burning US citizens alive, publicly endorsing violent revolution, and winkingly telling his viewers not to get violent, all of which amounts to a speck on the tip of a very big iceberg.
There is no leftist equivalent to Ann Coulter, best-selling author and syndicated columnist, who has been a panelist on Fox's Hannity 28 times and was on Hannity & Colmes an additional 18 times, who has been a guest multiple times on The O'Reilly Factor, Geraldo at Large, Larry King Live, Huckabee, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Hardball, and other cable news shows, has made appearances on The Tonight Show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Daily Show, and Real Time with Bill Maher, and has co-hosted The View, and has also said that a baseball bat is "the most effective way" to talk to liberals, as well as: "We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too." And: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building." And: "In [Clinton's] recurring nightmare of a presidency, we have a national debate about whether he 'did it,' even though all sentient people know he did. Otherwise there would be debates only about whether to impeach or assassinate."
There is no leftist equivalent to Bill O'Reilly, Fox News television show host, nationally syndicated radio show host, and best-selling author, who has appeared on The Tonight Show eleven times, The Late Show with David Letterman six times, The Daily Show six times, Live with Regis and Kelly five times, The View four times, Good Morning America three times, and Real Time with Bill Maher twice, among other national shows, and has lied about and stalked his critics, said that progressive bloggers should be dealt with "with a hand grenade," said Air America hosts were traitors and should be "put in chains," as well as: "And if Al Qaeda comes [to San Francisco] and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."
There is no leftist equivalent to Rush "I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus—living fossils—so we will never forget what these people stood for" Limbaugh, nationally syndicated radio show host and invitee to the Bush White House.
There is no leftist equivalent to Pat "Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path" Buchanan, a regular MSNBC contributor and syndicated columnist.
There is no leftist equivalent to Michelle "In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror" Malkin, a regular Fox panelist, best-selling author, and prominent conservative blogger.
There is no leftist equivalent to Pat "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians" Robertson, host of The 700 Club, who was a guest on Fox's Hannity & Colmes five times.
There is no leftist equivalent to Michael "Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war" Reagan, or Michael "Smallpox in a blanket, which the U.S. Army gave to the Cherokee Indians on their long march to the West, was nothing compared to what I'd like to see done to these people" Savage, both nationally syndicated radio show hosts.
There is no leftist equivalent to the Minutemen and other radical and eliminationist-spewing anti-immigration groups, some of whom have been subcontracted to work the border by the US government.
There is no leftist equivalent to radical and eliminationist-spewing anti-choice groups, who openly target doctors and call for their assassinations—and had a success just last year in the murder of Dr. George Tiller—and whose leaders get featured in whitewashing profiles in the Washington Post.
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
This is not an argument there is no hatred, no inappropriate and even violent rhetoric, among US leftists. There is.
This is evidence that, although violent rhetoric exists among US leftists, it is not remotely on the same scale, and, more importantly, not an institutionally endorsed tactic, as it is among US rightwingers.
This is a fact. It is not debatable.
And there is observably precious little integrity among conservatives in addressing this fact, in the wake of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Palin takes the absolute cake for audaciously asserting that her rifle sight imagery was really "a surveyor's symbol," and not even having the decency to sheepishly acquiesce that, even if that were true (and not evident bullshit), it's understandable how a reasonable person could look at her "surveyor's symbol" alongside the word "target" and get the wrong, ahem, idea. No, it's all just a wall of total denial in the Palin camp, when she's not whining about being a victim herself of people who have the temerity to actually hold her accountable for her carelessly casual violent rhetoric. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. And then it's deny and play the martyr.
But it's not like Palin's ideological allies are covering themselves in glory, either. There's no call for accountability, no call for reflection, not among conservatives. Just the usual game of deflection and projection, as they desperately try to find a way to make this liberals' fault.
Bill Kristol took to the airwaves this morning to call criticism of Palin "a disgrace" and accuse liberals of "McCarthyism." Commentators on Fox News, meanwhile, blame President Obama for not changing the tone in Washington, like he promised. Which would be hilarious, were that redirection of blame not a key part of conservatives' strategy to dodge responsibility for the eliminationist rhetoric that certainly contributed to the tragic events of this weekend.
When, a few months ago, there was a spate of widely-publicized suicides of bullied teens, we had, briefly, a national conversation about the dangers of bullying. But in the wake of an ideologically-motivated assassination attempt of a sitting member of Congress, we aren't having a national conversation about the dangers of violent rhetoric—because the conversation about bullying children was started by adults, and there are seemingly no responsible grown-ups to be found among conservatives anymore.
Faced with the overwhelming evidence of the violent rhetoric absolutely permeating the discourse emanating from their side of the aisle, conservatives adopt the approach of a petulant child—deny, obfuscate, and lash out defensively.
And engage in the most breathtaking disingenuous hypocrisy: Conservatives, who vociferously argue against the language and legislation of social justice, on the basis that it all "normalizes" marginalized people and their lives and cultures (it does!), are suddenly nothing but blinking, wide-eyed naïveté when it comes to their own violent rhetoric.
They have a great grasp of cultural anthropology when they want to complain about progressive ideas, inclusion, diversity, and equality. But when it comes to being accountable for their own ideas, their anthropological prowess magically disappears.
Only progressives "infect" the culture, but conservative hate speech exists in a void.
That's what we're meant to believe, anyway. But we know it is not true. This culture, this habit, of eliminationist rhetoric is not happening in a vacuum. It's happening in a culture of widely-available guns (thanks to conservative policies), of underfunded and unavailable medical care, especially mental health care (thanks to conservative policies), of a widespread belief that government is the enemy of the people (thanks to conservative rhetoric), and of millions of increasingly desperate people (thanks to an economy totally fucked by conservative governance).
The shooting in Tucson was not an anomaly. It was an inevitability.
And as long as we continue to play this foolish game of "both sides are just as bad," and rely on trusty old ablism to dismiss Jared Lee Loughner as a crackpot—dutifully ignoring that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators; carefully pretending that the existence of people with mental illness who are potentially dangerous somehow absolves us of responsibility for violent rhetoric, as opposed to serving to underline precisely why it's irresponsible—it will be inevitable again.
Let's get this straight: This shit doesn't happen in a void. It happens in a culture rife with violent political rhetoric, and it's time for conservatives to pull up their goddamn bootstraps and get to work doing the hard business of self-reflection.
This is one problem the invisible hand of the market can't fix for them—unless, perhaps, it's holding a mirror.
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