tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9073298.post4307472956183343019..comments2023-10-16T08:20:47.101-05:00Comments on The Iconic Midwest: The Intellectual Level Of The Leftist Blogosphere (An Example)Rich Hortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15561931187909269006noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9073298.post-71532870612021112372011-01-17T22:11:50.116-06:002011-01-17T22:11:50.116-06:00Well, there are reasons why those types of crimes ...Well, there are reasons why those types of crimes are considered in the statistics as "hate crimes" as opposed to domestic terrorism. In the one case you had a man with a history of domestic violence who thought gays were keeping him down, and who also planned on being killed by the police. Still I'd like to see the piece of right wing literature that argues gay rights will keep anyone from getting a job fixing motorcycles. Yes, he obviously was a consumer of right wing books, but the triggering mechanism doesnt seem to be ideological.<br /><br />As for the twice convicted bank robber, notice the original story didn't say what tv news programs the man watched. The assumption is made by Slate that it was Fox, but they dont know that. Neither do you or I. Besides, the SF Gate story actually TELLS us where this guy got the idea a "revolution" was coming: From his mother:<br /><br /><i>Janice Williams said she kept the guns because "eventually, I think we're going to be caught up in a revolution." But she said she had told her son many times that "he didn't have to be on the front lines."</i><br /><br />The real common demoninator in these stories (with the lone exception of the abortion killing) is long term unemplyment for undereducated people. People like that often seek someone else to blame. Yes, someone could then come across right wing work that would give them an "answer", but they could have just as easily gone the other way, like the loon who tried to run Republican Katherine Harris down a few years back. So, on balance, I'd think these types of events would over the long term average out to roughly equal amounts of left wing tinged and right wing tinged events.<br /><br />But if we are talking about violence done with a political purpose in mind (the definition of domestic terrorism) there is no doubt the left leads, and by a large margin. The popularity of the violent ideological strain of environmentalism embodied by ELF and Earth First! has a lot to do with it. <br /><br />It isn't that there wasn't ever right wing ideological terror - there was in the past and unfortunately will be in the future. The difference is you will not find a neo-Nazi advocate fishing for converts on college campuses. You will for ELF (and for garden variety revolutionary Marxists for that matter.) That type of ideological extremism has been "mainstreamed" in a very real way. For example, no one at the University of Colorado had a problem with "indigenous advocate" Ward Churchill taking students out and teaching them how to use firearms for the day of "revolution." (Maybe the university thought when the revolution came Ward's students would shoot trap.)<br /><br />Look, I want the right wing loons locked up every bit as much as the left wing loons. I just see no indication that the left knows there ARE left wing loons. In fact, given their wishy washy response to the MArxists, radical environmentalists and Ward Churchills of the world, I believe there is reason to question their goodwill or common sense.Rich Hortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15561931187909269006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9073298.post-43559149663067259902011-01-17T17:51:00.384-06:002011-01-17T17:51:00.384-06:00I will also point to this report from the FBI look...I will also point to <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005/terror02_05.pdf" rel="nofollow">this report</a> from the FBI looking at the years 2002-2005 where they say the following:<br /><br /><i>"In keeping with a longstanding trend, domestic extremists carried out the majority of terrorist incidents during this period. Twenty three of the 24 recorded terrorist incidents were perpetrated by domestic terrorists. With the exception of a white supremacist’s firebombing of a synagogue in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, all of the domes-<br />tic terrorist incidents were committed by special interest extremists active in the animal rights and environmental movements."</i><br /><br />This seems to back up my feeling that there simply is more left wing terror incidents than right wing.Rich Hortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15561931187909269006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9073298.post-77578213107166130432011-01-17T17:20:56.575-06:002011-01-17T17:20:56.575-06:00I don't quite see how it supports FBI your say...<i>I don't quite see how it supports FBI your saying "wouldn't it make more sense to say the opposite" - i.e. left wing terrorists get a pass. 77% of the list is on the left. You're saying they get a pass?</i><br /><br />No. Mahablog was saying the reason there were only left winger on the FBI list is because the Feds didn't prosecute right wing terrorism. An alternative explanation as valid as that conspiracy theory Mahablog put forward would be to say the Feds devote more energy to catching right wingers which is why there are none on the Most Wanted list. I don't really believe that is the case either, I'm simply saying it fits the facts as well as anything Mahablog put forward.<br /><br />It seems more likely that there simply isn't as much right wing terrorism as left wing.<br /><br />Oh, and I did look at the background of the other cases and found they were indeed leftist in origin as well.<br /><br /> http://iconicmidwest.blogspot.com/2011/01/stupid-leftist-profs-unite-redux.html<br /><br />And, when I talked about adding factual information, I meant in my personal exchanges with Mahablog. I'm taking her original post as the jumping off point. AFTER that Mahablog offered nothing but bile.Rich Hortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15561931187909269006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9073298.post-13433596153184230242011-01-17T16:48:23.577-06:002011-01-17T16:48:23.577-06:00Umm, your FBI domestic terrorism page doesn't ...Umm, your FBI domestic terrorism page doesn't have any right wing terrorists on it. Seems to be primarily Earth Liberation Front. There are 9 pictures of people wanted for DT, 7 of them would be thought of as on the left, with 2 of uncertain ideology (Norberto Gonzalez-Claudio and Leo Frederick Burt). None are unequivocally on the right.<br /><br />I don't quite see how it supports FBI your saying "wouldn't it make more sense to say the opposite" - i.e. left wing terrorists get a pass. 77% of the list is on the left. You're saying they get a pass?<br /><br />Huttaree militia was rolled up before any violent acts. Right wing groups don't necessarily get a pass either.<br /><br />You're being a bit misleading when you say "Only I have pointed to anything like factual information", as the original post did have links to Slate's reporting on right wing violence (Tennessee mass killer that said he'd prefer to be killing all the liberals in Congress), etc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com