I keep having this ridiculous reoccurring conversation with my liberal/progressive friends about how the media is "right-wing biased" in their views and that it is these right wing news groups (Fox, of course, is always at the top of their list) are always spouting vile hate speech and inciting violence towards the left.
Never mind the fact that most right-wing OPINION shows that I have heard almost unanimously and specifically say that they do not advocate violence nor want people to use intimidation tactics when engaging the militant left since that will only hurt our credibility and give them ammunition to use against the right.
All of this being said, I find it interesting that from Mike Malloy to Bill Press to Chris Matthews etc. that the left is once again coming unhinged in their hate speech. Of course their whipping boy is President George W. Bush on the occasion of the release of his new book, Decision Points.
Now I have a lot of grievances with Bush regarding his handling of our domestic and economic policies. There is indeed room for reasonable people to offer criticisms here. I can even see reasonable people disagreeing on the necessity of the Iraq war, but the hate and vitriol spewing from many on the left regarding Bush on this is execrable.
Funny how the progressive left gets all up in arms when someone calls Obama a socialist, or God forbid, a Marxist. They erupt and call this nonsensical hate speech. Then some of these very same defenders of Obama turn around and compare a President that did what he thought best to keep America and its allies safe with the Iraq war and compare him to Hitler, other mass murderers, and sociopaths such as Ted Bundy. Amazing.
See the attached video below for a sampling of this even-handedness in political discourse:
1 comment:
"Funny how the progressive left gets all up in arms when someone calls Obama a socialist, or God forbid, a Marxist."
What gets off with us about that is it's so absurd on its face, not that it's hate speech. I recall, all the way back to the '50s, people calling others they didn't like or understand, or were suspicious of, communists or commies for short. Or calling them socialists or leftists. They were avid supporters of Sen. Joe McCarthy. They called Dr. Martin Luther King a communist. They called a Catholic priest serving in Congress, Father Drinan if I remember correctly, a communist. Some of them even called President Eisenhower a communust and called Israel's leaders socialists and communists.
"They" were social, religious and political conservatives, mostly Republican, some libertarian or even Democratic. Many were prejudiced against people of different races, religions and nationalities. They were wrong, of course, and they were a disgrace.
Many of the people applying the socialist label, then and now, couldn't define socialism, explain the difference between socialism and communism, and wouldn't have known a real example of either if one came up and kicked them in the butt.
So, it's a sore point but not hate speech.
That said, plenty of hate speech has been uttered toward and about Obama, much of it racist and all of it ugly and untrue.
FWIW, I think Mike Malloy lapses into hatefulness, if not outright hate speech. That gives him something bad in common with Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. I don't waste my time listening to any of them for that reason.
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