This Moment in Fearmonger History
- Author: Sharda Sekaran
- Filed under: Politics, Race and Ethnicity, Uncategorized, human rights
Aug 16,2009
I’m all for free speech. I like to exercise it regularly. The thing is that all this “death panel,” “communist,” and “birther” conspiracy stuff is reminiscent of other progress-fearing protests in U.S. history. We’re a young country with a diverse population but have long had a significant faction that doggedly resists change (particular as relates to equity and human rights), even when the time has clearly come and it makes logical sense.
If we could put the birthers and Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and the random screaming people at the town halls in a time machine and plop them out in the sixties, it’s not hard to imagine them holding one of the these placards. I’m just saying that he/she who screams the loudest and the angriest is not always on the side that is most just. While these voices deserve to be heard, their volume should not be mistaken as a representation of the greater public.
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2 Responses for "This Moment in Fearmonger History"
I’ve had similar things on my mind a lot lately and I think the lies that are inciting these people need to be stopped at the sources: Betsy McCaughey, Tim Phillips, Donald Palmisano, Dick Armey and Rick Scott. I’m sure there are dozens of others but I doubt it’s much more than that. I’m not convinced the people who didn’t even know what fools “teabagging” made them are any more informed about the fallacy of the “death panel” stories they’re parroting now.
The people being paid the most for their roles in this epidemic of hate speech are most likely paid so much for their planning skills because they’re the ones within it — the only ones — who know that they’re lying, or why — 31% profiteering margins (http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single_payer_resources.php). Inciting violence for any reason is illegal. Doing so to prevent the exercise of free speech, peaceable assembly or any right is by law a Conspiracy when two or more persons organize it, and specifically it’s a Title 18 felony. Civil Rights laws were written for *exactly* the kind of anti-human organizing that is now working against health care. I think if we don’t enforce those laws now, on this issue, we will soon lose everything that Civil Rights Laws were passed to protect. The link above leads to a petition.
I’ve been unplugged for a little while, sorry for the delayed response. I’ve been a bit frustrated with the amount of airtime being given to rabid and unsubstantiated fear. While it’s good to see people using their rights to voice dissent, I wish that the media coverage were more evenhanded when applied across the political spectrum of protesters — and that dissenters of all stripes were given fair play to be heard. Balance and reason are our friends.
Health care in this country is broken. Fear, hate and red-baiting have not helped induce rational policy debates in the past and they certainly aren’t providing any progress in this important area that impacts all of our lives. Being a young country can be an asset but on this issue, frankly we look juvenile. Reforming our health care policy is part of “growing up,” just like, in my opinion, instituting civil and human rights.
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