Politically Charged Violence - Who's Responsible?

[betenoire]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

She will continue to say "I never said go shoot someone" and she will continue to be right. She never said those words.

Yes, exactly. She is right in the same way that Christine O'Donnell was right when she said that "separation of church and state" isn't in the Constitution.

I mean SURE that exact phrase isn't in there, but, well.

It's all bullshit and semantics.

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by betenoire

Yes, exactly. She is right in the same way that Christine O'Donnell was right when she said that "separation of church and state" isn't in the Constitution.

I mean SURE that exact phrase isn't in there, but, well.

It's all bullshit and semantics.

Yes, precisely. Agree with the agenda or not (and it's no secret I disagree with it), one can only marvel at the slick propaganda machine that is the modern American conservative movement. It is a marvel to behold if one has any appreciation for the Machiavellian. That dark part of me has an appreciation for well-executed memetic manipulation. What is even more fantastic, and the part that I think both the American media and ordinary citizens should expect to be judged rather harshly on this score, is that they have gotten away with it. Christine O'Donnell is a perfect example.

As you point out, she's technically correct the words 'separation of Church and State' do not appear in the First Amendment. However, any ordinary understanding of the amendment--certainly in common parlance--understands that the language does, in fact, separate the authority of the State and the wishes of the Church and vice versa. If anyone harps on it, Ms O'Donnell can then go on FOX News and run the "liberal elites think they know better than the American people". If it's dropped, she looks like she won. Like I said above, masterful stuff. Now, did Ms O'Donnell come up with this strategy? Not hardly! This has an old provenance on both the Right and the Left because it works. At present it is the Right that has mastered the game.

Remember Ms O'Donnell is a product of the movement that gave us this:

"The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
(Anonymous aide to George W. Bush* as quoted by Ron Suskind in The New Yorker--2004)

Cheers
Aj

[JustJo]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

Remember Ms O'Donnell is a product of the movement that gave us this:

"The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
(Anonymous aide to George W. Bush* as quoted by Ron Suskind in The New Yorker--2004)

I'll bet the ancient Romans felt the exact same way...