Posted on 06/11/2003 2:08:37 PM PDT by ummark
Hate Speech Now is not the time for quiet, well-thought rhetoric
by Alan Bisbort - June 5, 2003
PETER MORLOCK ILLUSTRATION
Problem! The problem is you, Peggy Noonan.
"Let them hate me, if they only fear me."-- Caligula
"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you." -- Matthew, Chap. 5, Verses 44
In the best of times, I would agree with John Goggin, who wrote a letter to my editor last week about my habit of "labeling" a select cadre of right-wingers "hatemongers." I had in mind, when I chose that unfortunate epithet, people like Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Matt Drudge and Peggy Noonan. Mr. Goggin's well-meaning appeal to civility caused me to rethink my words. I was forced to ask myself if I had, indeed, overstated my case.
Then I did a little poking around. It's not hard. All you have to do is switch on any talk radio show and eventually one of these self-righteous "conservatives" will be found holding court, or simply flick through the hundreds of channels on cable TV where the more telegenic are regularly featured. Or those with a stronger cast of mind can check out the bestseller list where you'll find their words immortalized between covers, or comb the editorial pages of even "moderate" newspapers and you'll find them. Of course, the quickest way is via the Internet where, like insects and centipedes under an overturned rock, their rawest opinions are on display.
Here, for example, are some random thoughts I found on the popular Free Republic, "an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web." Free Republic posted an article about legislation proposed for a Slave Memorial in Washington, D.C. Among the barrage of nasty comments were: "Paradoxically, it's why slavery was RIGHT, in some weird sense. It's a condition of our existence, and in particular, a condition of black Americans' existence." Another: "Hell, what would it look like, a body swinging from a rope!" This is just the tip of their daily iceberg.
Michael Savage is a clear-cut "hater," and his book Savage Nation has floated through the bestseller list for months, held aloft by his lighter-than-air nativism, ignorance and intolerance. Like Rush Limbaugh, Savage hides behind his pseudonymous persona (his real last name is Wiener), and his radio show is one of the most popular in the country right now. His shtick is to regularly refer to the world's poor nations as the "Turd World," and a typical retort to those who complain about his rhetoric is: "I'm more powerful than you are you little hateful nothings ... you represent nobody but the perverts that you hang around with and I'm warning you if you try to damage me any further with lies, be aware of something: that which you stoke shall come to burn you, the ashes of the fireplace will come and burn your own house down." He believes the U.S. is "being taken over by the freaks, the cripples, the perverts and the mental defectives."
Ann Coulter, Fairfield County's Own Femme Fatale, is a best-selling author and regular talking head on TV. She says:
"We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too." And: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."
Rush Limbaugh is always reliable for one hate-bomb an hour. How about these recent tidbits? "There's only one way to get rid of nuclear weapons. Use them." Or "Why should blacks be heard? They're 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?" And so on, day in and day out, three hours a day.
Finally, I agree that including Peggy Noonan on the list was wrong. She's not a hatemonger. She's merely insane. But her loopy pronouncements are given a veneer of respectability by originating at the Wall Street Journal. And, her nonsense -- she regularly "channels" Ronald Reagan in her columns -- is used to prop up hateful policies (e.g., slashing social programs for poor kids in order to reward fat cat CEOs). If the measure of a civilized society is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens, Noonan's priorities (among which is pulling the plug on public education) are the sort that inspired Charles Dickens to write novels.
See how hard it is to keep from falling into their traps and habits of mind? The sad truth is that NOBODY LISTENS TO PEOPLE WHO SPEAK QUIETLY AND RATIONALLY. The dominant discourse in this nation right now is hateful, loud and relentless. You can not, and will not, be heard if you whisper into the teeth of this idiot wind.
I dearly wish it were possible to speak quietly and carry a big rhetorical stick, Mr. Goggin. I hope we can return to such a time in our nation's life. Now is not that time.
Now how do we know he didn't post those comments himself? That hardly represents opinion on FR. How dare he imply that it does.
Dear sirs:
In Alan Bisbort's 6/5 column ("Hate Speech; Now is not the time for quiet, well-thought rhetoric"), he refers to a quote I made on FreeRepublic.com, ("Hell, what would it look like, a body swinging from a rope!") within an ongoing conversation about the proposed "slavery memorial" in Washington.
Mr. Bisbort cites my quote, along with another from that conversation, as an example of "hate speech." First off, I am a black man, and secondly, I stand by that remark. Honestly, it was my first reaction to the notion of a "memorial" to slavery. If Mr. Bisbort had taken the time to review the remainder of the conversation, as opposed to taking comments out of context, he would have found that many of us who are opposed to such an endeavor expressed our disdain in more or less colorful language. However, the "hatred" that Mr. Bisbort implies was not present.
In one post in that same conversation, I posted a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist from myself, within the bounds of my position a member of the National Advisory Board of the Washington-based black conservative group Project 21. My letter is also posted on my website at http://mhking.blogspot.com/. In that letter, I point out the reason for my disdain of the proposal, and I dare say Mr. Bisbort - or anyone else for that matter - would only find "hate speech" in my letter if were attempting to paint any dissent as "hate speech."
Hateful? Not at all. Challenging what I see as folly? Absolutely.
Sincerely,
Michael H. King
National Advisory Board Member, Project 21
Mableton, GAOf course not - that would have shot holes in his entire argument. Leave it to the Libs to omit the facts...
You know, for those of us who have engaged in debate on liberal discussion boards, his implication that hate only exists on the Right is monstrously muddle-headed. Take a gander on discussion groups on salon.com or motherjones.com or any number of 'activist' or 'social justice' sites and you'll find nearly continuous misanthropic statements from legions of malcontents and misfits. Sometimes it takes a little while for the politically correct facade to fall away, but make no mistake, hard-core liberals like this guy are saturated in resentment, a resentment that invevitably is nudged into hate when their dreams of utopia are frustrated by those who do no agree with them -- it's an inevitable psychological path for the likes such as he. No hate on the Left? This guy lives in a fantasy land.
Normally I'd say, "Who cares? It's just one guy." Except that he does represent the mentality of a certain brand of intellectually light-weight Leftist which believes that all conservative thought and philosophy is the equivalent of the Republican Party, and that all Republicans are racist hate-mongering bigots.
Maybe the guy should look up the meaning of the word 'bigot'.
MHKing, keeper of the black conservative ping list, wrote it.
Never underestimate the collective intelligence of FR!
IOW, don't be a self-righteous liberal jerk like your intrepid author . . .
I think the correct term, after the NY Times columnist who clipped the inconvenient truth from a GW Bush quote, is "Doudy."
But what the little liberal wants is the ability to use them against us whilst we remain silent.
We know their game.
Bill
Oh, don't forget, I will suddenly become an "evil uncle tom" once he links me and FR together...[g]
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