Comments on Obsolete: Action and reaction.

Well, that's the thing: we're all looking ...

2011-01-11T22:47:21.971+00:00

Well, that's the thing: we're all looking at this from the happy position of not having to deal with such hyperbolic, under the belt or even on occasion scary rhetoric, as we saw when the Sun got tore into for complaining about Gordon Brown's handwriting in the condolence letter he wrote. The closest we come is probably the more wild imaginings of our own libertarian bloggers, and that for most part is laughable or even genuinely amusing rather than worrying. As a result we probably think replying in kind is wrong and only perpetuates the problem.

That's exactly why even though I think we shouldn't sink to that level, I can't condemn those who have pointed the finger or want to pin it on Becks and Palins: they're the ones who quite literally may find themselves in the firing line, and if they want to make political capital out of this, if it has some sort of effect, even if it's only short-term, some good will come out of it.

I have this thought, though: that the left *should...

2011-01-11T22:25:56.535+00:00

I have this thought, though: that the left *should* hammer Palin and Beck for this, and *should* ascribe causal responsibility to them (even if it's not, at root, likely to be maintainable in intellectual sincerity) because THEY SURE AS HELL WOULD DO IT TO THE LEFT, if things were the other way around.

Perhaps strategy and political war should trump honesty and accurate causal analysis?

You make reference to the violence that "bare...

2011-01-11T13:34:08.387+00:00

You make reference to the violence that "barely simmers below the surface". I disagree -- the violence now simmers just ABOVE the surface. You cannot surf the political web-sites without being aware of the vast quantities of hatred, both in the comments and articles themselves.

From a distance, the whole of (political) America seems to be boiling without cease. Calls for secession, calls for oponents (such as Assange) to be "hunted down" or even assassinated.

I believe you are probably right that Loughner is merely disturbed, rather than acting from political ideology. Nevertheless he is a symptom of the processes going on in the States.

Great, thoughtful and accurate piece.

2011-01-11T12:45:03.020+00:00

Great, thoughtful and accurate piece.