This is going to be an interesting panel...
Opening
Jeffrey Feldman;
This discussion is going to be about getting things done.
Problems in our discourse.
1. Right wing theory.
"Liberals have caused the terrorist attacks on this country"
2. Violent Performance -- like Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, and many other aspiring performers.
3. Violent Policy Makers
Pat Buchnan, and others. Like immigration reform.
"there is Violence in the world and we will all become victims because of liberal gun violence."
Second point; Not a matter of taste but matter of function.
What does this rhetoric do to our government so that it can function.
Deliberative Democracy.
Need to gather and deliberate.
We are fighting a War on everything.
War on drugs, war on terrorism, culture war. Even the war on the war.
Third point
Our goal is to restore NOT to censor.
media that provides information
restoring the discourse.
Anecdotes and proposed solutions.
First Up David:
Jeffrey and I came up with similar conclusions from different directions.
I spent time writing about the violent radical right.
Interviewed many followers of these movements.
There are many misconceptions, they are not all skin heads with tattoos etc. reality is that they often look like regular people. Hard right rhetoric and violent rhetoric is becoming more the same, harder to tell apart. What makes them distinct is eliminationism. Get RID of your opponent. Rhetoric that dehumanizes.
Comparing your opponent to insects, pests, diseases, make them out to be pure enemies of the state. We can only cure society by getting rid of them.
They say horrible things and there is mostly no ripple in the media.
example;
radio talk-show host Michael Reagan --
There is a group that's sending letters to our troops in Iraq ... claiming 9/11 was an inside job -- oh, yeah, yeah -- and that they should rethink why they're fighting. Who -- we ought to -- excuse me, folks, I'm going to say this: We ought to find the people who are doing this, take them out and shoot them.
Really. Just find the people who are sending those letters to our troops to demoralize our troops and do what they are doing, you take them out, they are traitors to our country, and shoot them. You have a problem with that, deal with it. But anyone who would do that doesn't deserve to live. You shoot them. You call them traitors -- that's what they are -- and you shoot them dead. I'll pay for the bullet.
Also really intensifying in the area of immigration. This kind of rhetoric is designed to derail discourse. I don't recommend censorship. We need to stand up for it. I think we give them enough rope to hang themselves with. We do need to stand up and say this is NOT acceptable.
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