Good commentary on Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...hate-talk-era-commentary-by-amity-shlaes.html "...if the evil moment is going to be exploited, let it be exploited in a useful way, as an impetus to change the tone of discourse in the U.S., to self-censor our own modern habit of violent talk. Olbermann, around the same time he was creepily assigning blame, also offered up something good. It was that: âViolence, or the threat of violence, has no place in our democracy, and I apologize for and repudiate any act or anything in my past that may have even inadvertently encouraged violence.â Everybody else (right, center, and left) should be saying the same thing. At the same time, we can drop the character assassination thatâs become modern entertainment. Thatâs true for Rachel Maddow, CBS, Fox, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, CNN, Jon Stewart, and the birthers. Itâs true for all the snarky blog posters and tweeters who gleefully suspended their inhibitions and keyed in material about crushing wingnuts, impaling feminazis, and so on. Itâs also true for all the violent talkers in Arizona, whose own sheriff commented that the state was out of control...." Just because someone does not share your views does not mean they are your enemy.
Politics has been a dirty, nasty, hateful business long before you or I were around and it will be a dirty, nasty, hateful business long after we are gone. Nothing is going to change. We will go on as before. Crazies come out of the woodwork and kill people on occassion. it happens. Because this time one of the victims is a Congresswoman instead of service personel at a domestic military base should make little difference. That the last name of the shooter is not Manson or McVey or Dillinger makes no matter. We will go on as before.
+1 Its simultaneously funny and scary that the libtards think they can roll back free speech because a schizoid freak shot up a crowd. Its just not going to happen.
It's a nice sentiment, but it's just political posturing. We all know what will happen. Every time somebody says something that somebody else doesn't like it will be labeled as "provoking violence." It will become a political weapon to silence the opposition. It's an extension of a problem we already have, which is labeling everything that people disagree with as "hate speech." Here's a simple example. I live in an area full of limousine liberals. Half of them had "Dissent is Patriotic" bumper stickers on their cars during the Bush years. As soon Obama was elected, the bumper stickers disappeared and anyone who criticized Obama was immediatley attacked as "racist." It's all politics.