558 The Hate Industry

558 The Hate Industry

Quick, what's the difference between a right wing wacko who talks on the radio and your average right wing wacko in the street?

The answer -- a favorite topic here -- plausible deniability.

Quick, what's another difference between a right wing wacko who talks on the radio and your average right wing wacko in the street?

The answer: the former is the inspiration, the latter is the inspired.

In Wichita, a guy who hears voices commits a murder of an abortion provider doctor in a church where, presumably, they strongly advise against shooting people dead (see Wessay #554.) Soon thereafter, a similar guy with a long gun walks into the Holocaust museum in Washington and shoots a guard dead.

Are these events connected? Of course.

The abortion shooter guy was a well known lunatic and a murderer-in-waiting. A lot of folks knew that.

The museum shooter guy was a well known anti-Semite, a pathetic little creep who made his living by running pathetic little franchise for the hate industry.

You might argue that these nutballs might have made their bones in said industry without goading from the radio or TV or the Internet. But maybe not.

They're like the anti-American Middle East terrorists, operating in discrete cells, not talking to one another but burning the same fuel.

What's the difference between a Middle East suicide bomber on a bus in Tel Aviv and a doddering old hate monger who shoots in the Holocaust Museum? Only the number of victims in the particular incident.

Meantime, in broadcast/internet land, the owners of the hate industry sit in their underground bunkers and put on innocent faces and say "who me? I've never advocated violence." And in most cases they're right. They haven't. Not in so many words.

But the constant anti-American drumbeat they produce has its effects. Sometimes it's tough for the gunslingers to distinguish between the voices in their heads and the voices on the broadcast spectrum.

Unfortunately there's only one real practical solution, which is giving both these motivational speakers and their followers their own medicine. And that is something real Americans would never contemplate, let alone do.

Shrapnel:

--The first "Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" was a jolting movie when it first appeared. It's the kind of thing this space calls "good junk," meaning nothing much but fun to watch or read. Now we have the remake, which is kind of like revivals of Broadway plays, as in "why change a good script when you have one already?"

--Headline: "Banks Cheer Escape from TARP Money..." Escape, indeed. They walked into the cell when it opened, then complained they were locked in.

--Speaking of prisoners, voluntary and otherwise: Roxanna Saberi has fallen off the front page now that she's home from captivity in Iran. Was this only a one or two week story, or is there more we haven't yet heard? And if there is more, do we have to wait for the book?

I'm Wes Richards. My opinions are my own, but you're welcome to them.®

©WJR 2009