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The Tea Party Murders
Politico ^ | January 9, 2011 | George Lakoff

Posted on 01/09/2011 11:42:35 AM PST by Second Amendment First

Language has an effect. Violent political encounters have an effect. The link of the use of guns with patriotism and morality has an effect. Expressions like "targeting" and "in the crosshairs" evokes images of shooting to kill. The murder of a liberal leader in Pakistan seemed far away. Now it's here days later. Given all the death threats, it was almost inevitable. Gabby Giffords was in the crosshairs.

Republicans will say it was just the work of some crazy. Hardly. Even crazies get their ideas from somewhere. Violent political encounters and the language of violence activate the idea of violence. Ideas are physically there in the brain. People act on what is in their brains.

Keith Olbermann is right. And it's not just Palin and Beck. The Republicans who benefited from violent political confrontations and cross-hair language, who did not speak out and use their influence forcefully against it, bear full responsibility. Whatever John Boehner now says, he bears responsibility.

The tea party leaders gave explicit instructions on how to angrily disrupt public political meetings. Tea party rallies not only displayed violent signs, but rally leaders did not discourage them, and hence tacitly approved them.

As conservatives like to say, you bear the responsibility for the consequences of your actions.

This was tea party murder.

We should not shrink from calling it that.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: berkeley; completebs; giffords; lakoff; linguistics; rhodagoldman; rockridgeinstitute; teaparty; ucalifornia; wackos4obama
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To: Second Amendment First

The loons didn’t take long to start pointing fingers...just at the wrong entities! The guy was a LEFT-wing
nut, but I guess they think if they say this stuff enough.......Bad part is that it often works for them.

God rest the souls of the fallen. They will have been forgotten
in the fallout and the rhetoric that will be spun like a whirlwind.


101 posted on 01/09/2011 1:33:21 PM PST by luvie (Thank God)
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To: WVNan

The sad observable truth is that most of the “young,” whom you advocate to carry on the fight, are a disappointing collective of illiterate, undisciplined, unprincipled, slothful, feminized and hyper-sexed walking dead, whose only pastime is entertainment, drug use, premarital sex and the breeding of new bastards to continue their collective.

They deny moral absolutes, but claim absolute rights to do as they please.

They possess little or no work ethic; but decry the material success of others.

They practice few social manners or habits of etiquette; but they expect to be treated as royalty.

They are illiterate dolts, incapable of forming coherent speech without profanity, or demonstrating a lucid thought process... yet they claim a wisdom more profound than that of their elders.

They lack even a modicum of compassion for the living; but demand compensation for the slightest injury they receive.

They bear little or no respect for the dead.

They live without honor, but they claim false self-esteem.

They possess no love of country, nor community spirit, nor understanding of sacrifice; yet they demand the benefits of freedom.

They are wild animals driven by instinct and lust.

I place little hope in America’s future if any aspect of her salvation and success depends on this present generation of wasted sperm that calls itself youth.


102 posted on 01/09/2011 1:41:05 PM PST by TCH (DON'T BE AN "O-HOLE"! ... DEMAND YOUR STATE ENACT ITS SOVEREIGNTY !When a majority of the American)
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To: TCH

Damn...I’ve been around here 12 years, and that is one of the best posts I have ever read.


103 posted on 01/09/2011 1:44:19 PM PST by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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Comment #104 Removed by Moderator

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Yes, liberal parents raised him with their ‘anything goes’, Tolerance means accepting devianty behavior as “normal” eventually led him into his chronic drug abuse, and the LibPerv degeneracy choo choo went down that Casey Jones rail toad reack into his train wreck hell of a life..


105 posted on 01/09/2011 1:50:25 PM PST by DGHoodini (Iran Azadi)
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To: TCH

That’s a mighty broad brush you’re painting with. Have you already moved overseas or are you still packing?


106 posted on 01/09/2011 1:51:44 PM PST by Pan_Yan
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To: Steely Tom

Thanks for your response.


107 posted on 01/09/2011 1:53:13 PM PST by pallis
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To: wolf24

Those I write of would not have the courage to enlist for military service.

Would you like to make a statistical analysis of the numbers of that generation serving versus those who do not?

What shall we guess... 1000:1?

There are presently 308 million individuals living in this nation. Do you believe the great majority of them that compose the present “young” generation (adolescent) are all serving in Iraq and Afghanistan? Hardly.

You must not get out much; or else, you are one of the “walking dead” of whom I write.


108 posted on 01/09/2011 1:56:39 PM PST by TCH (DON'T BE AN "O-HOLE"! ... DEMAND YOUR STATE ENACT ITS SOVEREIGNTY !When a majority of the American)
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To: Pan_Yan

You must live a sheltered life.


109 posted on 01/09/2011 1:58:00 PM PST by TCH (DON'T BE AN "O-HOLE"! ... DEMAND YOUR STATE ENACT ITS SOVEREIGNTY !When a majority of the American)
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To: TCH
You must live a sheltered life.

I hesitate to ask what corner of hell you apparently reside in.

110 posted on 01/09/2011 2:04:07 PM PST by Pan_Yan
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Comment #111 Removed by Moderator

To: Second Amendment First

The future PR war is going to be mined with a multitude of booby traps and the whole situation is explosive.

Those in the crosshairs can expect to be ruthlessly targeted and will have many opportunistic opponents gunning for them.

It matters not what Palin, Beck, Rush, etc say; it will all be ammunition for the Left who use anything regardless of the quality of truth to it as bullets in their political assassinations.

This will probably blow up in their faces. But the ensuing fire fights will be intense.


112 posted on 01/09/2011 2:17:28 PM PST by Eagle Eye (A blind clock finds a nut at least twice a day.)
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To: Second Amendment First

He’s a sputtering gerbil. He’d run screaming from a cub scout.


113 posted on 01/09/2011 2:30:14 PM PST by sergeantdave
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To: Hillarys Gate Cult
IMHO all of this rhetoric is also trying to set up a legal defense for the shooter monster...

Thanks for the ping/post (not having read beyond your comment). If he is convicted and sentenced to death, there won't be any of us holding a candlelight vigil for him on his day of execution.

Just sayin'...

114 posted on 01/09/2011 2:35:29 PM PST by PGalt
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To: Pan_Yan

Southwest Nebraska now... but originally Central Massachusetts, then Central Connecticut, then South Florida, then Western Massachusetts.

You would think the “conservative Midwest” should prove itself different, but then you witness the same patterns of destructive behavior even here. It is disheartening.

I have witnessed enough of this behavior in various parts of the country to support my general conclusion that most of those in our younger generation are lost causes, particularly those of the “college” class... They simply lack whatever “quality” it is that we supposed the American ideal. It is as if they are from an alien culture.

Most are products of the government school system and liberal parenting—or no parenting.

Many belong to the liberal counterculture. They are not the exception... and in fact, I would place their ratio at 2:1.

My wife is a high school teacher, and you would not believe the garbage she has to deal with daily. The behavior is not restricted to the students... their parents are worse.

This is the culture you get after 60 years of sustained Marxist indoctrination at all levels and throughout all institution—even within the Churches. To deny its presence is to deny reality.

I would much rather state otherwise, but then that would be pretending against the facts.


115 posted on 01/09/2011 2:36:47 PM PST by TCH (DON'T BE AN "O-HOLE"! ... DEMAND YOUR STATE ENACT ITS SOVEREIGNTY !When a majority of the American)
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To: TCH

“My wife is a high school teacher, and you would not believe the garbage she has to deal with daily. The behavior is not restricted to the students... their parents are worse.”

ain’t that the truth.

It’s a real freaking mess and I don’t really see how how it’s going to get better any time soon.


116 posted on 01/09/2011 2:39:23 PM PST by Scotswife
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To: wolf24

I must be right on target to get you so riled up.


117 posted on 01/09/2011 2:40:11 PM PST by TCH (DON'T BE AN "O-HOLE"! ... DEMAND YOUR STATE ENACT ITS SOVEREIGNTY !When a majority of the American)
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To: Second Amendment First

And how many times have leftist politicans of a certain demographic threatened “a long, hot summer” if their redistributionist demands were not met ?

The left enables these slacker dopeheads until they snap. They only get upset when they snap in the wrong direction.


118 posted on 01/09/2011 2:42:58 PM PST by PLMerite (Thanks for fixing the clock.)
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To: kcvl

linguistics — turning language on its head.


119 posted on 01/09/2011 3:12:49 PM PST by Beckwith (A "natural born citizen" -- two American citizen parents and born in the USA.)
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To: TCH

I know. The brain washing has been a success. I guess that is why I am despondent.


120 posted on 01/09/2011 3:17:48 PM PST by WVNan
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