Thread: Are you proud of this level of discourse??

I can see your point Tess. Personally I didn't see Palin's cross-hair map as violent or trying to inspire violence. I think the attacks on it were just some in the media wanting to throw a hissy fit and paint their opposition in a violent or barbaric light.

As far as the tweets go, I doubt that they will be highlighted by the same people who attacked Republicans or pretended to decry "violent rhetoric." Their goal was just to smear the other side in a self righteous manner by their failure to perceive intentions and desire to throw in violence wherever they could. The hypocrisy though in my opinion would be the individuals posting death threats that also think that Republican rhetoric is violent or see violence in other things that they disagree with.

Originally Posted by digsbe

I can see your point Tess. Personally I didn't see Palin's cross-hair map as violent or trying to inspire violence. I think the attacks on it were just some in the media wanting to throw a hissy fit and paint their opposition in a violent or barbaric light.

As far as the tweets go, I doubt that they will be highlighted by the same people who attacked Republicans or pretended to decry "violent rhetoric." Their goal was just to smear the other side in a self righteous manner by their failure to perceive intentions and desire to throw in violence wherever they could. The hypocrisy though in my opinion would be the individuals posting death threats that also think that Republican rhetoric is violent or see violence in other things that they disagree with.

That I agree with. I feel like we need to address the cavalier manner in which people are discussing public figures. Palin never said, "We should kill (insert democrat governor here)". She used crosshairs on a map, which wasn't the best choice but certainly wasn't a direct threat. However impotent the twitter posters are, we can't ignore that the dialogue isn't "okay". You shouldn't talk about killing people, or your desire to see people dead. It's reckless.

My entire point with the OP is that we see faux outrage from the media over fairly innocuous dialogue, but when somebody (or several people) actually uses terroristic language the only "media" that reports it happens to be a site akin to a blog. We were told by the media during the Palin controversy that we had to change the level of discourse. We were admonished by the media for supporting such discourse...and then when we take part in such discourse the media largely ignored it.

So when I said, "are you proud", I mean "you" as in "us"..as in everybody. We're told it ain't okay for politicians, that it leads to hatred and threats and real risks 'cause we're influenced by them...but when we actually do it ourselves....crickets? Really?

Whomever is drawing some comparison between what a woman who was running for Vice President of the United States did and some unknown, anonymous pinheads on twitter said really needs to get some perspective. I wish we'd had nearly this much outrage on the Right for all of the death threats made against the President. Or did I miss those threads ?

Barack Obama faces 30 death threats a day, stretching US Secret Service - Telegraph

Originally Posted by tessaesque

"....So when I said, "are you proud", I mean "you" as in "us"..as in everybody. We're told it ain't okay for politicians, that it leads to hatred and threats and real risks 'cause we're influenced by them...but when we actually do it ourselves....crickets? Really?

It's difficult to believe that you meant "us" when the first thing you did was accuse the "left leaners in the media who went around screaming for a change in dialogue" of having something to do with those anonymous tweets. Well now you're getting the level of dialogue you wanted, so whats your problem?

Originally Posted by Moot

It's difficult to believe that you meant "us" when the first thing you did was accuse the "left leaners in the media who went around screaming for a change in dialogue" of having something to do with those anonymous tweets. Well now you're getting the level of dialogue you wanted, so whats your problem?

Why do you continue to focus on me personally? Honestly, it's a little disturbing.

Originally Posted by Wiggen

Whomever is drawing some comparison between what a woman who was running for Vice President of the United States did and some unknown, anonymous pinheads on twitter said really needs to get some perspective. I wish we'd had nearly this much outrage on the Right for all of the death threats made against the President. Or did I miss those threads ?

Barack Obama faces 30 death threats a day, stretching US Secret Service - Telegraph

There was and should be concern over threats made against the president.

As far as perspective. Palin never encouraged physical violence or supported the physical death of any U.S. political figure that I'm aware of. "Pinheads on twitter" certainly did.

And if you want to down play it, that's fine. But people start revolutions, not politicians. Are politicos influential? Certainly. But that doesn't mean we should just dismiss people who make threats. And further, how can you imply that these pinheads on twitter aren't worthy of focus and then turn around and lament a supposed lack of concern over pinheads who threaten the president. If I remember correctly, the SS thought a facebook threat against Obama was serious enough to travel across country for questioning. Is a facebook threat somehow more worthy of focus than twitter threats?

Originally Posted by tessaesque

Why do you continue to focus on me personally? Honestly, it's a little disturbing.

You said you were "expecting a backlash."

Originally Posted by nota bene

Most of the tweets I read were just stupidly vulgar--variations of "I'm gonna **** Walker up." The one that got me, the one that I'd want investigated, was the one that said, "I know where your son goes to school."

Absolutely. That one actually made my skin crawl.