Some time ago I got myself onto a mailing list for right-wing hate mongers. In that capacity I receive frequently e-mails from such luminaries as Ann Coulter and Newt Gingrich. One can learn a lot about the radical right-wing mind-set and strategies through such correspondence. It often makes me wonder how so many can be so gullible as to fall for their nonsense. Their lies are often so transparent as to require only the most minimal checking to reveal them as lies. Yet they maintain an audience.
Take for example the e-mail I received today asking me to “Start the Day the Way Top Conservatives Do” by signing up for a free copy of the RedState
Morning Briefing. Their message to me starts out:
Do you know where conservative talk-radio hosts get many of their daily talking points? Or where leading conservative politicians like Senator Marco Rubio get a head start on the issues of the day?
Answer: from a daily email known as RedState Morning Briefing.
And no wonder. Proudly conservative and oh-so-politically-incorrect {i.e. racist}, RedState Morning Briefing is a snapshot of the news and opinion that the mainstream liberal media ignores or distorts. That's why top talk-radio hosts and conservative leaders find it simply indispensable.
Yeah, no wonder they’re able to stay so much on point and all say the same thing. Like a herd of sheep, they have no need to conduct any research or investigation, and they never have anything original to say. They merely receive daily talking points and obediently parrot them back to their audiences.
Today’s advertisement contained the titles (but no links) to four articles, with the introduction “Here’s a sampling of what you can expect to find”. One of the four titles was “Paul Krugman Calls for Assassination of Paul Ryan”.
Oh my God! Normally I don’t waste my time checking out such claims, but this one seemed irresistible. I decided to give them a chance by trying to see what truth if any I could find in the assertion about Krugman calling for Ryan’s assassination. So I googled “Krugman Calls for Assassination”, and ten articles popped up on the page, all with the same title: “Paul Krugman Calls for Assassination of Paul Ryan”.
“Paul Krugman Calls for Assassination of Paul Ryan”I clicked on the
first article on the page. The article, apparently based on RedState co-founder Josh Trevino’s observations, was very brief, and except for the title, made no mention whatsoever of Krugman calling for an assassination of anyone, nor did it even mention Paul Ryan’s name, except in the last sentence of the article, which merely repeated the assertion in the title. It did reference and link to two articles written by Krugman, however. The first article, titled “Climate of Hate”, was one in which Krugman complained that right-wing eliminationist rhetoric contributed to the climate of hate in which Gabrielle Giffords was shot and almost killed. With the aim of ridiculing that article, the article quoted from Krugman’s “Climate of Hate”:
It’s true that the shooter in Arizona appears to have been mentally troubled. But that doesn’t mean that his act can or should be treated as an isolated event, having nothing to do with the national climate.
It then continues, “Yes, Krugman claimed, without any appreciable sense of shame, that a man who was seriously mentally ill was merely a symptom of – no kidding – ‘toxic rhetoric’”. I guess that the point was that if a person is mentally ill they can’t be incited by toxic rhetoric to commit violence. The fact is, however, that notwithstanding the cute use of biting sarcasm, mentally ill people are
especially vulnerable to being incited to violence by hate mongers.
The article’s final point is that Krugman had just come out with an article titled “Let’s Not Be Civil”. Get it? Krugman complains about right-wing hate mongering, and then just three months later he writes an article titled “Let’s Not Be Civil”. Therefore he’s a hypocrite, and worse yet, as Trevino concludes from the two Krugman articles: “According to Paul Krugman, Paul Krugman has just called for the assassination of Paul Ryan”.
So let’s look at the two Krugman articles that Trevino links to (which are actually both quite excellent) to see if we can discover how Krugman is calling for the assassination of Paul Ryan.
“Climate of Hate” – by Paul KrugmanIn “
Climate of Hate”, Krugman makes several specific points regarding right-wing hate rhetoric and its potential to incite violence. Speaking of hatred generated at McCain-Palin rallies, Krugman notes:
The Department of Homeland Security reached the same conclusion: in April 2009 an internal
report warned that right-wing extremism was on the rise, with a growing potential for violence.
Krugman then gives some examples to make his point. Noting that there is a big difference between mere insults and incitement to violence or eliminationist rhetoric, Krugman goes on to clarify that difference with regard to right-wing vs. Democratic rhetoric, with some specific examples:
It’s hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be “armed and dangerous” without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P.
And there’s a huge contrast in the media. Listen to Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, and you’ll hear a lot of caustic remarks and mockery aimed at Republicans. But you won’t hear jokes about shooting government officials or beheading a journalist at The Washington Post. Listen to Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, and you will….
Citizens of other democracies may marvel at the American psyche, at the way efforts by mildly liberal presidents to expand health coverage are met with cries of tyranny and talk of armed resistance. Still, that’s what happens whenever a Democrat occupies the White House… The purveyors of hate have been treated with respect, even deference, by the G.O.P. establishment.
I think that’s pretty clear. So how does Krugman’s “Let’s Not Be Civil” square with his criticism of right-wing hate and violence mongering?
“Let’s Not Be Civil” – by Paul KrugmanKrugman’s main theme in “
Let’s Not Be Civil” is a call to avoid the kind of hypocritical “bipartisanism” that in reality is an excuse for caving in to radical right-wing demands. Referring to recent radical right-wing budget proposals, Krugman says of “bipartisanism”:
Sorry to be cynical, but right now “bipartisan” is usually code for assembling some conservative Democrats and ultraconservative Republicans – all of them with close ties to the wealthy, and many who are wealthy themselves – and having them proclaim that low taxes on high incomes and drastic cuts in social insurance are the only possible solution.
He then explains why that kind of “bipartisanism” is a bad idea and concludes with:
So let’s not be civil. Instead, let’s have a frank discussion of our differences. In particular, if Democrats believe that Republicans are talking cruel nonsense, they should say so – and take their case to the voters.
How gullible do you have to be to fall for this kind of nonsense?So there you have it. Daily right-wing dissemination of articles for “top conservatives” –and their devout followers – with titles like “Paul Krugman Calls for Assassination of Paul Ryan”, founded upon virtually nothing at all. How many right-wing devotees of Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, or Glen Beck, mentally ill or not, read titles like that and believe them without a moment’s thought? How much work would it take to ascertain that such articles are nothing but worthless crap? Yet they keep on writing and disseminating this stuff, roiling up hatred, because there are so many millions that eat it up.
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