Inflammatory rhetoric reduces violence?

[kiryan]

I thought this article was really interesting.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49249.html

A study of news stories immediately after the shooting that linked it to “harsh rhetoric” found that 82 percent focused on the alleged role of conservatives, according to the Media Research Center. Just 11 percent discussed liberals.

-- damn liberal media.

This theory became so entrenched that it later apparently prompted one victim of the shootings to threaten the life of a tea party organizer.

-- but was barely reported.

But consider: What if, by giving disgruntled Americans healthy and democratic outlets to express their opinions and frustrations, the tea party movement and talk radio make political violence not more likely but less likely?

-- The real point of his article. I think its a valid point

Talk radio and the tea party don’t manufacture anger and frustration, as some critics claim. Anger and frustration exist because millions of Americans encounter a government they view as increasingly unresponsive to their interests and values. Meanwhile, they see that more and more issues have been taken out of the hands of the people and their elected representatives and put into the hands of unelected judges.

-- More or less true. I'm sure it manufactures SOME anger and SOME violence, but I strongly agree that the anger and frustration already existed.

What we’re seeing in Egypt is what often happens when government stifles free speech and refuses to allow its people to express their opinions or influence political life.

-- I'm reminded of I, Robot. The end result of the robot's programming not to harm humans and to obey humans is necessarily revolution.

Those who blame Tucson on talk radio and the tea party are trying to exploit the tragedy for political gain by advancing a common logical fallacy. They are failing to distinguish between correlation (Tucson happened at a time of strong political rhetoric) and causation (Tucson happened because of the strong political rhetoric).

-- good suggestion

It is no coincidence that most of those railing against the tea party and talk radio also disagree with what they stand for. Many presumably saw no problem with the “climate of hate” displayed on the left during George W. Bush’s presidency, with acts of violence by gay-rights activists against churches and other supporters of traditional marriage, or with the vitriol commonly found on left-wing websites and in other media outlets.

-- and the left's hipocrisy on this point just further justifies reciprocal hipocrisy. I hope republcians defund governemnt until healthcare is unequivocally repealed. I don't care if we default on our debt. Democrats started it and pulled out all the stops to pass it. Our turn.... and I will blame liberals for the results even though the Republicans actually did it.