Posted by
Paul Wamack on Saturday, February 23, 2008 7:27:31 PM
I just read Bill O'Reilly's post on the hate speech on Arianna Huffington's corner of the web, and I couldn't agree with the man more. If you haven't seen it, you really should: http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/BillOReilly/2008/02/23/hate_speech_and_the_net
One of the things I appreciate about Bill O'Reilly is that he doesn't approach the public discourse as a Republican or a Democrat, a liberal or a conservative, but calls out anyone on either side of the aisle that wants to speak or behave shabbily. His defense is of our society, our culture. It is interesting to note that it is usually the Left that trips his switch, but not always. In these examples that he gave from the postings he claims to have found on the Huffington Post, who can read these comments and not see the face of the twenty-first century Stalinists? Here are the people who would sign up to run the re-education camps, to order the merciless deaths of millions of people based on their race, religion or any set of beliefs that differs from their own. There is no shortage of them, as Ms. Huffington is showing us.
Worse, tho, in my mind, is that they are beyond bold -- and they are infectious. They are systematically protected and defended by many of the institutions in our country. Their anger is repeated from one leftist mouth to the next, like a mantra. When I have confronted this sort of hate-speech as Mr. O'Reilly has cited and asked these Stalinists to give me one example of a person that they know of, from their own experience, who ever ate from a dumpster, I am chastized for phlaming. This isn't the experience of just one class or one professor, and not just my college classes but in the workplace as well. Question their mindless chants, and prepare to be punished. If I ask for supporting information for their positions, I am the one who gets reprimanded for intimidating and scaring my peers.
In other words, it's OK to say vile things about an old woman. But it is not OK to ask why these people are saying these things. I don't even have to move to defend the targets of their attacks, in this case Nancy Reagan, I just need to question the attack, and I get muzzled while the Stalinists continue repeating their chants. They chant their bumper-sticker philosophies over and over, from some brainless anti-war nonsense to some senseless global warming fluff, adding "As everyone knows ..." after every thousandth repetition. Recent exit polling showed that most Obama supporters could not name one "CHANGE" that he was proposing, but they voted for him because he said he wanted to vote for change. Since they already don't understand what is going on, how would they know if there were to be a change? And wouldn't you want to know what the change was going to be BEFORE you signed on? Don't you want to know where the bus is going BEFORE you climb aboard?