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The Demented - and Selective - Game of Instantly Blaming Political Opponents For Mass Shootings
greenwald.substack.com ^ | 15 May, 2022 | Glenn Greenwald

Posted on 05/17/2022 5:30:44 AM PDT by MtnClimber

All ideologies spawn psychopaths who kill innocents in its name. Yet only some are blamed for their violent adherents: by opportunists cravenly exploiting corpses while they still lie on the ground.

At a softball field in a Washington, DC suburb on June 14, 2017, a lone gunman used a rifle to indiscriminately spray bullets at members of the House GOP who had gathered for their usual Saturday morning practice for an upcoming charity game. The then-House Majority Whip, Rep. Steven Scalise (R-LA), was shot in the hip while standing on second base and almost died, spending six weeks in the hospital and undergoing multiple surgeries. Four other people were shot, including two members of the Capitol Police who were part of Scalise's security detail, a GOP staffer, and a Tyson Foods lobbyist. “He was hunting us at that point,” Rep. Mike Bishop (R-MI) said of the shooter, who attempted to murder as many people as he could while standing with his rifle behind the dugout.

The shooter died after engaging the police in a shootout. He was James T. Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old hard-core Democrat who — less than six months into the Trump presidency — had sought to kill GOP lawmakers based on his belief that Republicans were corrupt traitors, fascists, and Kremlin agents. The writings he left behind permitted little doubt that he was driven to kill by the relentless messaging he heard from his favorite cable host, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, and other virulently anti-Trump pundits, about the evils of the GOP. Indeed, immediately after arriving at the softball field, he asked several witnesses whether the people gathered "were Republicans or Democrats.”

A CNN examination of his life revealed that “Hodgkinson's online presence was largely defined by his politics.” In particular, “his public Facebook posts date back to 2012 and are nearly all about his support for liberal politics.” He was particularly "passionate about tax hikes on the rich and universal health care.” NBC News explained that “when he got angry about politics, it was often directed against Republicans,” and acknowledged that “Hodgkinson said his favorite TV program was 'The Rachel Maddow Show' on MSNBC.”

Indeed, his media diet was a non-stop barrage of vehement animosity toward Republicans: "His favorite television shows were listed as 'Real Time with Bill Maher;' 'The Rachel Maddow Show;' 'Democracy Now!’ and other left-leaning programs.” On the Senate floor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) divulged that Hodgkinson was an ardent supporter of his and had even “apparently volunteered” for his campaign. A Sanders supporter told The Washington Post that “he campaigned for Bernie Sanders with Hodgkinson in Iowa.”

The mass-shooter had a particular fondness for Maddow's nightly MSNBC show. In his many Letters to the Editor sent to the Belleville News-Democrat, reported New York Magazine, he “expressed support for President Obama, and declared his love for The Rachel Maddow Show". In one letter he heralded Maddow's nightly program as "one of my favorite TV shows.”

While consuming this strident and increasingly rage-driven Trump-era, anti-GOP media diet, Hodgkinson “joined several anti-GOP Facebook groups, including ‘Terminate The Republican Party’; 'The Road to Hell Is Paved With Republicans’;, and 'Join The Resistance Worldwide!!'" Two of his consuming beliefs were that Trump-era Republicans were traitors to the United States and fascist white nationalists. In 2015, he had posted a cartoon depicting Scalise — the man he came very close to murdering — as speaking at a gathering of the KKK.



TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: banglist; leftmedia; propaganda

1 posted on 05/17/2022 5:30:44 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

My observation is that these mass shooters are primarily disturbed leftists.


2 posted on 05/17/2022 5:30:53 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Excerpt from an article I read this morning...Do your own research.
The alleged supermarket killer is self-described as authoritarian left — so why isn’t this being reported?

If the alleged Buffalo killer’s “manifesto” is authentic, he was deep into communist ideology and now is an authoritarian leftist. Why is this being kept under wraps?


3 posted on 05/17/2022 5:40:17 AM PDT by usual suspect
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To: MtnClimber

Yes, we need to stop blaming this on racism, politics or whatever.

Most are mentally ill and known to authorities, especially the FBI.

We need to hold gov’t accountable for its failures. We spend more and more yet have poor results.

When Biden took office, the focus became on domestic terrorism. OK. The FBI knew of this kid over a year ago.

Why did they fail?


4 posted on 05/17/2022 5:40:40 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (We are being played by forces most do not understand)
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To: Erik Latranyi
Why did they fail?

The kid was a leftist so no big news story.

5 posted on 05/17/2022 5:42:57 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

You’re right. None of them (whatever their politics) are of sound mind.

It doesn’t help matters that Liberal leadership has long ago abandoned any pretense of civility. Time and again, they publicly engage in the most unsubstantiated and inflammatory rants.

Viewers get the idea it’s OK to act crazy and if they are also unbalanced, then that’s all it takes!


6 posted on 05/17/2022 5:47:09 AM PDT by SMARTY (“Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.” Thomas Sowell)
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To: MtnClimber

They are self absorbed narcissists, typically down on their luck, or at least not thriving.

Did you notice that they all have extensive social media histories ranting about politics or social issues, or write long mental-masturbation ‘manifestos’, or both?

Supposedly this ‘kid’ in the Buffalo shooting had been in for evaluation from previous incidents. I feel like it should be easier to profile them. There seems to be a common theme


7 posted on 05/17/2022 6:03:44 AM PDT by z3n (Kakistocracy)
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To: MtnClimber

Agreed. Believe that the Aurora movie theatre shooter was very definitely of the leftist persuasion. I also recall reading about how Dylan Klebold grew up in a upper middle class home where both parents were staunchly in favour of gun control. Klebold apparently had conversations with his father about how he himself strictly opposed laws that allowed law abiding citizens to obtain permits to carry concealed handguns and that he was reconsidering going to college in Arizona because of such laws existing in that state.


8 posted on 05/17/2022 6:06:29 AM PDT by OttawaFreeper ("The Gardens was founded by men-sportsmen-who fought for their country" Conn Smythe, 1966 )
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To: MtnClimber

With this kid in NY, the instant reporting was white supremacist and to blame it on Tucker Carlson.

With the guy in Waukesha, it was ‘a car drove through a crowd’. Not a person, a car.


9 posted on 05/17/2022 6:06:34 AM PDT by Pollard (Don't ask if there's a conspiracy. If you're not in one, you need to start one. CA Fitts)
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To: MtnClimber

The preferred outcome of the Left is that a mentally ill person actually follows through and commits mass murder . . . the more victims the better.

The better outcome preferred by rational, moral people is to identify a potential murderer, give him counseling, medicine or what treatment he needs BEFORE anyone dies.

The Left is sick, demented and evil!!!!!!!!!!!


10 posted on 05/17/2022 6:09:26 AM PDT by RatRipper (The Biden Adm is leading an attack against US citizens . . . pure evil.)
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To: MtnClimber

Definitely disturbed.

It appears people knew the Buffalo shooter was nuts for years. Just like Nikolas Cruz was a known nut.

It goes way back. Pat Purdy was a known nut but released from a California mental institution and allowed to buy guns to shoot up the Stockton School yard, killing several kids and himself.

We can go back farther to 1984 when James Huberty, also a known nut killed so many people at The San Ysidro McDonald’s, and caused the first demands for rifle control.

And even earlier Charles Whitman, began to show aberrations which should have caused him to be noticed but did not. He then killed his mother and wife, then shot lots of people from the Texas Tower. He killed 17, wounded 31, using mostly a bolt action hunting rifle.


11 posted on 05/17/2022 9:41:27 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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