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Gun Wearing Protestor Aug 11 in NH - AP
1) Scary Tone. Speakers at “Town Hall” meetings are verbally abused to the point where little can be said. Posters include both veiled and direct threats (”Death To Obama, Death To Michelle And Her Two Stupid Kids.”) Individuals holding or wearing guns to political rallies related to health care. This degree of intimidation stifles free discussion.
Where does political extremism come from? It’s not enough to shrug it off as some sort of legitimate frustration and anger. Or to say that it is nothing new in our history. Obviously it’s not new – Lincoln was assassinated; the Black Panthers and Weathermen gave up on discourse; people were killed in Oklahoma City. And so on. That doesn’t make the present situation less perilous. Because history demonstrates that to ignore extremism is a bad thing… violence begets violence… whether it’s the “brown shirts” vs the Marxists in 1920s in Germany… or Protestant vs Catholic extremists throughout so much history… or the north and the south of the USA in the 1850s… extremism is dangerous. I have no desire to fight a civil war.
However, those who feel severely threatened may feel that it is time to “water the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” as Jefferson once said in an extremist moment of his own. The source of extremism is not easily reduced to one thing; like our current health care mess, it is not the result of any one thing, but multiple things.
However, there is a human tendancy, true in most of us, that contributes to both the growth of fear and the growth of extremism – the tendency to stay within one’s one self-reinforcing reference zone. To avoid the discomfort of ideas and people that differ from ourselves. Way back in my Social Psych course in college (1966), I remember learning how people tend to read newspapers with which they most agree. But several things have happened to intensify this phenomenon in recent years:
a) Talk Radio. Yes it has been around for a long time. I remember listening to Jerry Williams (Boston area) in the early 1970s in conjunction with the Watergate hearings – Wikipedia identifies Williams as one of the forerunners of Political Talk Radio. Boy could he rile up an audience, typically telling callers that he disagreed with – “You Jerk!” while hanging up. Williams was one of a small handful in those days. Wikipedia indicates that the number of such shows and their outreach grew exponentially during the 1990s. In 2006, 17% of people polled said they listened to talk radio. There is no doubt that the tone of Limbaugh, Beck, and others riles up listeners. Since the summer of 2007, conservative talk show hosts have frequently coordinated their “call to action” message. One effort pushed by Limbaugh was Operation Chaos- an effort to get conservatives to vote in Democratic primaries for the trailing candidate in order to prolong the Democratic primary process. Now mix the growth of political talk radio with “hate speech.” A well-balanced article says it better than I could here – Free Speech vs. Hate Speech.
b) Internet. With the proliferation of blogs, never has it been so easy to find those with whom you agree and more importantly, to avoid those with a different opinion. At the same time, anonymous sniping in the comments sections of online news “papers” has never been more virulent, aggressive, and mean-spirited. What is posted in these comments would never be included in the print versions of newspapers which will likely disappear altogether in the future. Largely gone are the “op-ed” pages of the old time newspapers. Another way to put it is – the extremist has a ready platform and and easy way to find –and stay with– reinforcing comments and views. As well, people seek out their own kind whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or any other social forum on the net. The result is homophily. Again, not new, but magnified by easy access and easy ignorance.
2) As for less heat and more light? I have found a few sources of information helpful, especially the “napkin presentation” which I put onto another web page.
