Several Bushist blogger types have written to assert that there are as many violent and threatening remarks and insults coming from liberals online as there are from conservatives against liberals. I've spent many sadly-lost hours online, and I say: no way.
So here's my challenge: Please email your worst, most vicious examples of liberal/leftie blogger vitriol (with links, natch), and I'll post 'em right here. If they exist, obviously.
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Come on, righties: my server is standing by at: rightwingchallenge@rall.com. Challenge ends Monday.
Well, he asked for it. And he later indicated that "comments posted to those blogs" are allowed....which is fortunate, inasmuch as only 1 out of his 3 examples was from an actual blog post. (1 wasn't even from a blog at all) Polipundit and RightWingNews, I think, sort of miss the point by posting "mean criticisms". Rall asked for "your worst, most vicious examples of liberal/leftie blogger vitriol". I'm assuming he means death threats/death wishes.
So, let's check in with some Charles Bronson's of the Left below the fold. (warning: they're fairly vile. The f*word is used. If that sort of thing bothers you, then this will, er...bother you.)
COMMENT: "We need to execute people like Ann Coulter in order to physically intimidate conservatives, by making them realize that they can be killed too. Otherwise they will turn out to be outright traitors."
COMMENT: "bush Is a mouth faced little cheat. and you are all Imbeciles for supporting him. I hope you all die, die painfully." [this, by the way, was addressed to us]
COMMENT: "I hate that filthy cunt, Maglaganglyskank more than I can say. Goddamned racist bitch - I want her fucking head on a pike. I've had it with that sorry excuse for a human being. Fucking skanky ass Nazi whore - I'm coming for you." [written by Tena, a blogger)
COMMENT: "Fuck off and die in horrible pain you fascist prick."
COMMENT: "I'd take one for the team and volunteer to anally violate [Michelle Malkin]."
COMMENT: "I may watch the festivities, if only not to miss the chance to applaud the appearance of the long-awaited, desperately needed dime-sized hole..."
COMMENT: "will somebody PLEASE start killing these people? it's really all they understand."
COMMENT: "I want to beat Scarbrough's fucking face in! I want to smash him, beat him into the cement. Be covered in his blood. Leave him suffering on the ground. [...] Fuck you Scarbrough! Your Damn right! I'll show you a fucking Radical! Think I'm a bomb-thrower? I'll show you a fucking bomb! Seriously, he makes me contemplete murder!"
COMMENT: "We have to learn to enjoy hurting people, hurting them a lot, hurting them any way we can and every chance we get. Anybody who's not with us, we fuck him and fuck him hard."
COMMENT: "Does Karl Rove get Secret Service protection? If so, on what basis? If not, dime-sized hole?"
It didn't take long to find these, and my search was limited to a couple prominent blogs. Now, I don't wish to make the argument that the Left contains more of this behaviour than the Right. I really don't see a significant difference.
And, really, I can understand why Ted Rall might believe there's more rhetorical hate/violence coming from the right. Who else is going to attack him? The Left? Right. Media bombthrowers don't tend to catch a lot of friendly fire.
A couple notes: 1) If you find more examples of invective, similiar to that which I've noted above, please drop it--and a link--in the comments. If appropriate, I'll add it to the list. 2) Rall is kind enough to provide an email address for the purposes of this challenge. Please don't abuse it. That's not cool.
UPDATE: More here from Decision '08, who also indicates that Rall has narrowed the rules to "specific political or media personalities". That leaves most of the quotes compiled above still in play.
Also: Read this takedown of the Rall column that started this issue.
UPDATE II (Dale): I have stricken the first example above. This is, as reader Auguste from the MalkinWatch Blog pointed out to us, an intentional reversion by Eric Alterman, writing in The Nation of a statement actually made by Ann Coulter:
When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors.
We would have known that, I suppose, if we had enough respect for Coulter to follow her and take note of what she says.
UPDATE III: Additional reader-submitted examples have been added to the list. And Patterico has a few doozies you really should read. However, he notes, Rall's email account "is bouncing the e-mails sent to him". I think there's an innocent explanation for that, as his site has been down quite a lot in the last few days, and he is no doubt being deluged with emails. Still, I suspect he's smart enough to follow the links and read these quotes for himself.
I recognize one of those comments as a attack on Michelle Malkin. I brought it up when MK was harping about how nasty all those right wing bloggers were.
The comment trail on Michelle went on fro fifty entries at leat on Atrios blog trail. Some of the nastiest vile stuff ever. A complete rape snuff fantasy.
What killed me is that Duncan oh so cultured Black never once said, "Hey, too far guys"? That says a lot about where his head is. You guys don’t put up with this and would never allow it.
So today, I am at the Hilton in San Fran at a conference and I noticed all these young people walking around in suits, ties, the whole nine yards. I noticed they were from UC Berkeley and attending a model UN at the hilton this week. So I went up to one of the guys while he was talking to some of the others and asked if he was here for the young republicans conference. The look on his face was priceless.
Er... I have a strong urge to commit murder... (none / 0)
Is this normal? Er... Every single time I flip to Scarbrough Country for EVEN ONE SECOND I go insane. It’s always on accident, but shit, I think I can tolerate Hannity more if I had the muscle memory to flip to Fox news. But my fingers always flip to MSNBC everytime I flip through the remote. I want to beat Scarbrough’s fucking face in! I want to smash him, beat him into the cement. Be covered in his blood. Leave him suffering on the ground. He is one of the most disgusting human beings on Television.
Seriously, even one second, I don’t even have to hear him! The headline is always reactionary bullshit! Right now it was "Radicals on Campus?"
Fuck you Scarbrough! Your Damn right! I’ll show you a fucking Radical! Think I’m a bomb-thrower? I’ll show you a fucking bomb! Seriously, he makes me contemplete murder! I’m disgusted to be living on the same fucking planet has these wingnuts! Get at least half of them off TV for starters!
oh... and check out my latest...diary... heh... The Coming Second American Revolution
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." Bertrand Russell
We’re leveling the playing field already. This is just one more, and it’s not the last. I love the way we fucked that dirty little shithead Gannon. We’ll fuck more of them before this is over. God, I love the smell of ruined Republicans in the morning! We have to learn to enjoy hurting people, hurting them a lot, hurting them any way we can and every chance we get. Anybody who’s not with us, we fuck him and fuck him hard. Anything we can get, anything that’ll stick. Remember when LBJ floated a rumor that an opponent, a pig farmer, had sex with his own pigs? An aide told LBJ nobody’d believe it. LBJ said "I know, I just want to hear the sonofabitch denying it." That’s our model.
It doesn’t come naturally, it’s not easy for us, but we have to do it. You’re right: We can’t let good manners get in the way. We can’t afford to tie our own hands. The hardest thing in the world for people like us is to push stories that have ANY chance of being even the slightest bit inaccurate (we’re the FACT people, remember, we’re the enlightenment, the side of reason and science, it’s in our bloodstream), but we have to. We may even have to sacrifice a little bit of "truth" here and there along the way, because there’s only one Truth that really matters: It’s us or them. If we lose, it’s lights out for civilization. Probably for all time.
This is Thermopylae. We’re Horatius at the bridge. We’ll be forgiven for winning with an excess of zeal, but never for losing.
While I’m generally in agreement with you on the topic of evil- and violent-spirited comments, I’m surprised you don’t realize that this:
"We need to execute people like Ann Coulter in order to physically intimidate conservatives, by making them realize that they can be killed too. Otherwise they will turn out to be outright traitors."
...is a direct quote from Ann Coulter simply flipped to be talking about conservatives rather than liberals. It is clearly a parody of real hate speech as spewed by Ms. Coulter, and doesn’t deserve to be included among the others.
And if you did realize it and included it anyway, then you’re being disingenous.
Alterman’s "flip" of Coulter’s quote doesn’t work, though, sorry. Coulter was talking about John Walker - a literal traitor who engaged in combat with U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It really is fully within the laws of this country to execute the guy - people were shot for far less during World War II. To claim that saying that John Walker should be executed is the flip-side equivalent of saying a right-wing political pundit should be executed actually proves her point! Think about it. To Eric Alterman, "John Walker" = "Ann Coulter"... saying mean things about liberals is no worse than trying to shoot U.S. troops!
If Coulter had said that line about Maureen Dowd, then maybe his "flip" to Ann Coulter would be somewhat sanely analogous. But as it is, all he does is prove her point in spades - liberals always identify with, side with, and defend traitors.
Qwinn
DALE RESPONDS: Even if I were to grant, arguendo, that everything you say is true, it would still not be germane. Clearly, the quote is in appropriate for inclusion in a colection of intemperate comments from the Left.
On the other hand, just because this particular quote turns out to be an ironic inversion of something Coulter said is irrelevant to the fact that there are plenty examples of similar wackiness on the Left, as any cruise through, say, Democratic Underground, makes readily apparent.
Incidentally, for just another latter day example of liberals fully engaged in defending traitors (for which there is no analogous behavior on the Right), check out this insanely partisan "interview" at Democracy Now.
"Even if I were to grant, arguendo, that everything you say is true, it would still not be germane. Clearly, the quote is in appropriate for inclusion in a colection of intemperate comments from the Left."
Oh, no argument there. You’re absolutely right that it can’t be included as an incitement to violence against the Right, and it should be crossed out. It just seemed to me that by leaving it up and with the comment that followed, it was going to be applied as an opposing example, of the Right calling for violence against liberals. I’d say that’s off-bounds unless liberals really want to claim John Walker Lindh as one of their own (which wouldn’t surprise me, actually).
And yes, I’d say that your examples, and the others at the other various links) are more than enough to satisfy Rall’s challenge, and in fact blow away his own examples in both quantity and "quality" of threats and death-wishes. Not that he’ll ever acknowledge it.
Giving the benefit of doubt to Rall. On the other hand I think That he really did create a bogus email address so that he could say he never got any mail.
For the record, I wasn’t aware that the (now-stricken) quote was an inverse of an Ann Coulter quote. The only time I pay attention to her is when I condemn her. I’ve been unskimping in that regard. She--together with Michael Savage--represent the very worst in american political discourse.
However, I can’t really tell whether the quote I cited was intended as parody, or as a response.
Believe it or not, no, I did NOT know that any of this stuff was out there. I’d read references by Republican bloggers to such things, but no one ever provided a link and I could never find it. Suffice it to say, this stuff pisses me off and should not be tolerated by anyone who purports to be a law-abiding American. And again: mainstream blogs like Kos should delete this shit as soon as it appears–as should the nasty right-wing sites like Little Green Footballs.
Has the challenge been met? Yes. The scale may not not quite be the same, but there is clearly a significant amount of leftie hate speech out there to match the crap the righties put out. I can’t shame the righties into doing anything, but to readers who agree with me about anything, please consider what this does to us and how it invalidates our arguments.
Now will everyone please just start ignoring him? Maybe he’ll go away.
