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RSSIn the aftermath of Arizona, change the paradigm
Jan 15
commentary, politics, social action No Comments
By Jeanette Friedman
Even after the moving memorial service and perfect presidential moment for those murdered in Tucson, when Barack Obama acted as President of the United States and not the head of the Democratic Party, the most extreme Internet commentators continue to hide behind their screen names and post vituperative comments designed to agitate their followers.
Their actions make it easy to believe that if President Obama sacrificed himself so that another person might live, or saved the life of a poster’s family member or even the life of the poster him or herself, they would still tear him apart. After the killings in Tucson, a reasonable person would have expected pause, perhaps a moment of introspection, a slowing down of the endless stream of antipathy that fills our ears and eyes. Few of these posters and well-known pundits seem to have enough human decency to stifle the poison coming from their keyboards. It matters not to them if their overheated rhetoric might convince lunatics to pick up guns and blow people away. History is filled with examples of political rhetoric leading to violence—including Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, blood libels, the Holocaust, contemporary genocides, and even the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin.
Since these unnamed villifiers don’t seem to be able to stop their addiction to their rage and hatred, what would they do if their favorite targets—the President and his supporters—disappeared? They would have to find something else to denigrate and despise, because such an addiction is tough to break. Will the usual victims of blood libels become their next targets? Sarah Palin, for one, throws words like blood libel around and is clueless about their meaning. These cowardly posters think they are brilliant American historians (not) and insightful students of politics (also not) and you can bet they do not know that an innocent New York Jew, Leo Frank, was lynched by the prominent citizens of Marietta, Georgia in 1915 for the murder of a little girl. They probably also don’t know there was a blood libel against Jews in Massena, New York in 1928.
So what will these enraged posters and pundits do when the silent majority decides to stop being quiet and demands that the rivers of digital hatred in our political discourse be dammed? Will they change their focus and target those who are tired of politics as blood sport and want reasonable discussion on the issues?
In America, freedom is a privilege, earned via good citizenship. Civics, decent behavior, respect for each other matter. Enlightened, informational discussions of the issues matter. Pulling a lever or pushing a button in a voting booth matters—and if you don’t exercise that right, then just shut up and get out of the way. If you believe what these posters put out there, and you don’t want to pay taxes, don’t expect the fire department to put out the fire when your house is burning. Don’t expect folks to pick up the garbage you generate, and don’t expect your children or descendants to get a decent public education. Expect senior citizens to be homeless. Do not expect to see the best of America, expect the worst.
Pundits spit lies and fire like hydra-headed dragons. For them and the anonymous, ubiquitous Internet commentators, it’s all about despising those who disagree with them. Their tone and attitude diminish our American values. No matter how many columns such people write and how many comments they post, they are like electronic hooligans who live to generate page views and damn the consequences. Clearly they have forgotten that words can kill. We don’t know who dismisses them, or who is nurtured by their loathing. When they upload their venom-loaded verbiage with such glee, it makes you wonder how they can sleep at night or stand to look at themselves in the mirror. It almost makes you ashamed to be an American.
Perhaps it’s time for the silent majority to say, “Enough!” and demand that politicians and strategists change the existing paradigm, and let reasonable, common decency trickle down to the rest of us.
