Gabrielle Gifford and free speech: An open letter to America

Posted: January 10th, 2011 | By Bruce Gorton | Posted in Comedy | Tagged as , , , ,
  • 14 Comments
  

I think the assassination attempt on Gabrielle Gifford was to some extent caused by America’s major political pundits.

And it isn’t hard to see how – they make a habit of doing things like making abortion out to be exactly the same thing as killing babies, immigrants are sold as raping your daughter and stealing your job, and the Democrats as being in support of taxing you in order to do both while killing Grandma.

About 14% of Americans think the current US president may be the anti-Christ. Yeah, I think the guys they rely on for their information may well be a wee bit questionable, and driving the continent towards civil war and anarchy.

Unlike Dungeon’s and Dragons or computer games political and news speech isn’t intended to entertain you – its intended to get you to do stuff.

But I still don’t think these people should be censored. I think giving up free speech for their sake would be stupid – and giving up a little liberty in the name of security, to paraphrase someone whose name escapes me – doesn’t really work.

Instead I think what ordinary Americans need to do is quite simply this: Stop listening to their shows, or voting for their candidates. Don’t boycott products or anything like that – if you like The Simpsons carry on liking them – even though they haven’t really been good for how many seasons now?

Just stop watching shows that tell you someone is a “Baby killer.” Change the channel, pushing a button on your TV remote can’t be that much effort. You are smarter than that.

Someone goes on about how Democracy is bad, yet somehow wants you to think they value your opinion? Yeah, people who value your opinion generally don’t go on about how flawed the idea of you getting the right to vote is.

You see a candidate with rifle sights set on various others, saying “Don’t retreat, reload”? Nod, smile, back away slowly and vote for the sane one. You don’t have to silence or oppress the crazy – heck you don’t even have to oppose the crazy, just think about maybe not supporting it.

It isn’t being anti-freedom of speech to simply not feed the troll.

*Last post on the Gifford saga barring something interesting happening, I promise.

 

Comments

 

Connie

January 10, 2011 at 8:47 pm

Sarah Palin’s political career is now over.

 

Ivor Fairney

January 10, 2011 at 10:29 pm

My son was a very civilised boy when he left for the US some years ago. He is now well off thinks that a universal health service is a thing of the devil and has a gun collection. Whats the matter over there?

 

auto mechanic

January 11, 2011 at 5:05 am

nice..

 

Siyabonga Zulu

January 11, 2011 at 12:17 pm

American hypocrites….You can’t have your bread buttered on both sides…

 

Scrumunkel

January 11, 2011 at 12:56 pm

How do you link a murderer to Sarah Palin? Man, you’re grasping straws here. While America has its share of Loonies, so does South Africa

 

Bruce Gorton

January 11, 2011 at 1:44 pm

Scrumunkel

I put it quite clearly how I link the violence to America’s major political pundits – I didn’t particularly name names in this post though in an earlier one I make an example of Glenn Beck.

That said:

The problem as I see it is symbolised in Palin tweeting “don’t retreat reload” and published a map with rifle sights on Gifford’s state.

I don’t blame her directly for the shooting, but rather the sort of armosphere where that is acceptable in a potential presidential candidate.

Palin on her own would be harmless, Palin and a whole heapload of crazy being pumped into the airwaves and granted legitimacy on a daily basis? Not so much.

 

anon

January 12, 2011 at 12:23 am

Ben Franklin said it. The quote was, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

 

Iscariot

January 12, 2011 at 11:10 am

The initial hype has been “Oh it’s Palin’s fault” but then when we look at the shooter it seems he’s far more left/liberal than right/conservative. Somehow it’s still Palin’s fault. Even if he was hard right, show me where Palin put the gun in his hand, loaded it, and pulled the trigger. even IF she had said “this individual needs to be shot in the head” still would not make her the shooter. What ever happened to individual responsibility?

 

Bruce Gorton

January 12, 2011 at 12:11 pm

Iscariot

The Republican party refused to take it.

His politics so far as have been revealed have actually been shown to be Libertarian if anything, which is part of the American right.

He was strictly anti-government, believed in gold backed currency and has been linked to a group called the “American Renaisance” – which is to say anti-immigration.

Even so, the issue isn’t direct instructions or Sarah Palin – but rather the atmosphere of crazy being generated by rightwing pundits.

For example Glenn Beck’s constant ahistorical comparisons between liberals and Nazis, or Bill O’Reilly saying things like the following, “I want to kill Michael Moore, is that alright?” Rush Limbaugh has also been criticised for the potential his words have in inflaming random nutters.

And it is not the first time this has happened. George Tiller was murdered after O’Reilly spent four years referring to him as “Baby killer.”

Jim David Adkisson, the Knoxville Church shooter had this to say “This was a symbolic killing. Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg’s book. I’d like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I know those people were inaccessible to me. I couldn’t get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same. It’s the only way we can rid America of this cancerous pestilence.”

The issue is not direct instructions being given – the issue is an atmosphere being generated that results in people who are insane whackjobs thinking they need to kill people for their political allignment.

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  • About

    Bruce Gorton helps put together the TimesLIVE, mostly specialising in science and business. He is liberal, atheist and fairly interested in nonsense and the way it is reaching critical mass. Hence the blog.

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