These are some of the campaign materials that Republican figures, such as Sarah Palin, and Tea Party members, such as Jesse Kelly (running opponent to Gabrielle Giffords) have posted on their sites. Calls for shooting, targeting and eliminating their adversaries (even if it is only a metaphor) have turned politics into real wars, with casualties and body counts. The United States is the country in the world with more weapons per person --90 guns per 100 people, followed by Yemen, with 60 guns per 100 people. Obviously the rhetorical environment of hatred, fear and bigotry and the availability of means to follow threats and paranoias have caused this climate to prevail. The question is not how we should process this tragedy, but how can we avoid future ones to happen. This is not the first shooting due to a disturbed mind stimulated by the vitriolic rhetoric prevailing in our public sphere, and if we do not do something to stop this, it will not be the last one unfortunately.
Sarah Palin crosshairs targeting Democrat districts (Gabrielle Giffords among them)
Jesse Kelly call to "shoot a fully automatic M16" (opponent to Gabrielle Giffords this past election in Arizona)
Jesse Kelly electoral propaganda
No comments:
Post a Comment