The German publication, Die Welt, writing about the Giffords shooting, blames the Tucson massacre on America’s insecurity. “This murderous attack came from an atmosphere of discord and self-doubt, because America is experiencing the limits of its power on a daily basis, whether it be on distant fronts or with dissatisfaction at home. It has never been like this”.
America’s economic crisis combined with military losses in both blood and global stature as well as rising poverty levels have contributed to a growing sense of domestic fear and insecurity. Once confident and respected, Americans are filled with self-doubt and perceived as posturing, arrogant bullies. American bullies, by way of compensating for their perceived inadequacies, have turned to bombastic bluster, gas sucking SUVs and guns to mask their fear and to feign dominance.
The anti-government bluster, the big engines and the big guns are nothing more than symbolic pecker-extenders to compensate for the damaged egos of a nation rendered terrified and flaccid by the military industrial complex and Wall Street greed . In Arizona, where national and local right wing talk radio hosts have painted boogie men on every corner, you can even buy a pecker-extender “extender” at any Walmart ammunition counter.
Jared Lee Loughner, the 22 year-old alleged shooter in the Tucson massacre that killed six and left fourteen wounded including US Representative Gabrielle Giffords, is very likely mentally ill. There is no indication he ever saw Sarah Palin’s campaign graphic placing Giffords in the cross hairs of a gun sight or listened to any of the violent rhetoric to ‘remove Giffords from office’ by her opponent, Jesse Kelly. Nevertheless, if Loughner were open to societal signals there was little public condemnation of those metaphors available to have influenced him against the shooting.
Calls to tone down the rhetoric have fallen on deaf ears and been met with ridicule. Steve Almond suggests that what is wanting in political discourse today is more imagination.
Kurt Vonnegut believed the human race was doomed if we failed to engage with acts of imagination, because we would then become incapable of imagining the suffering of others.
As if to prove Almond’s point Patrick Beck, head of the Mohave County Tea Party, unable to imagine any other way to excite his party to work on their issues, was quoted saying, “…but it makes it real difficult to speak when every few minutes you’re giving a disclaimer. ‘We have to fight back — but, wait, I don’t mean literally fight.’ Those words such as fight, and take back, and restore… we know what we mean but we have to be clear what we mean, and in next few weeks, as this all plays out, people will be more understanding of that.” How about, “let’s work together” rather than “fight”.
An inability to articulate an argument in less inflammatory language, however, can’t be the only reason for pushing back against more civil discourse. Doing away with violent metaphor and rhetoric would at least have the benefit of not invoking the same in any future events. Bill O’Reilly was called out for constantly referring to Dr George Tiller as ‘Tiller, the baby killer”. Had he not repeated that language, at the very least, his name might not have been brought up in Tiller’s murder.
Certainly, in the spirit of taking every opportunity to provide for the safety of American citizens, shunning vitriol of the type so common in today’s politics, is well worth considering. Department of Homeland Security made a 2011 budget request in the amount of $8.2B for the TSA with $734 million to increase security at domestic airports against shoe bombers and underwear bombers.
Multi-million dollar contracts have been awarded to provide full body scanners and high tech sniffers. By comparison, becoming more civil costs nothing and maybe, because there is no profit in civility, this explains the real lack of motivation to just be nice.
Today, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, specifically called out talk radio host, Rush Limbaugh, (known for using chemical pecker-extenders), for contributing to the degradation of public discourse in today’s society. Truthfully, I try very hard not to mention Limbaugh because I think he sucks up enough oxygen already, but he does earn a living off of stirring up fear and insecurity and spreading misinformation and there is something worth pointing out.
One of the tools taught to my Marine combat veteran son to cope with his PTSD is to learn to ‘respond rather than react’. It seems to me that much of the vitriol in today’s language could benefit from using the same techniques. For example, Limbaugh, today, criticized those responding to Saturday’s events by trying to understand more about the shooter’s mental health; whether he received treatment; if not, why not? Limbaugh said, “Loughner knows is that he has the full support of a major political party in this country. He’s sitting there in jail. He knows what’s going on, he knows that…the Democrat party is attempting to find anybody but him to blame”.
To believe Limbaugh is to believe that Jared Lee Loughner is a sane and rational young man, and more than that, to believe that his was a political act despite protestations from the right wing establishment. Even David Brooks has called Limbaugh’s rhetoric “insane”. For Limbaugh, conflicting arguments and any subsequent consequences are of no importance because he apparently lacks the imagination to earn the millions he has become accustomed to in any other way.
Liberals in power are a threat to Western civilization. While they are ruthless in their pursuit of power, they are weak in the face of evil, and their compassion for evildoers defies sanity. That applies to liberals here, liberals across the pond, and liberals in every corner of the world. Learn it.
So how does a society learn to be more civil when influential megaphones like Limbaugh and Beck and Palin are only motivated by money, not truth? Maybe, civil suits brought about as a result of this tragedy charging people like Palin, Beck and Limbaugh might have the effect of putting the chill on hot rhetoric.
The Cognitive Policy Works warns us to watch for these propaganda memes as the weeks and months go on.
The “Lone Shooter” Frame
Emphasis will be on individual actions, ignoring cultural patterns that influenced the event like the militant imagery of Tea Party leaders and Fox News personalities.The “Crazy Gunman” Frame
Effort will be made to reduce this complex event to the explanation that the shooter was insane, disregarding the anti-government sentiments that fueled him to action.The “Both Sides Equal” Frame
Media coverage will presume violent rhetoric is equal on the left and right, ignoring how leftist individuals target single people (e.g. Bush hater) while right-wing individuals target groups (e.g. liberals, Jews). Also the scale of violent imagery is disproportionately on the right side.The “We’re All Sorry” Frame
Spokespeople on the right who have fueled violent rhetoric (e.g Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh) will publicly condemn violent actions while continuing to promote negative views of entire classes of people. This behavior will not be present among liberals.
UPDATE: Sarah Palin released a video today employing all four of the above memes. Apparently, falsely accusing a US president of wanting to kill old and disabled people is not incitement, that is ‘spirited debate’. Violent rhetoric is not incitement but criticizing violent rhetoric is ‘blood libel’ and accuses critics of embracing evil. Sarah Palin, or her writers do have an imagination after all.
Sarah Palin: “America’s Enduring Strength” from Sarah Palin on Vimeo.
Limbaugh took quite a beating on social media –
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