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FOX NEWS FANS FLAMES OF HAT R ED / NATIONAL BACKLASH DEVELOPING
In Psychology, Sigmund Freud defined hate as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness ~ which is precisely what the Republican far right fringe subculture is doing . While Fox News fans these flames a national backlash is rapidly developing : Allen L Roland
Quite simply, darkness is the absence of light and hate is the absence of love and compassion. Nothing can grow in total darkness and nothing can grow in total hatred. Hatred eventually destroys all who are consumed by it in their own eventual dark lonely prison of self hatred or denial .
As such, the fires of hatred are often used by those in power to demonize their enemies in order to control the masses and justify war. A perfect example is Hitler's hatred of Jews and his attempt to exterminate them during World War Two but the Cheney/Bush war against Islam ( 'Islamic evil-doers' ) is also an excellent example and thinly coded political use of hatred and its dreaded eventual consequences.
Fox News ( Dick Cheney's favorite news source ) was enlisted by the Cheney/Bush administration to justify this mindset and Fox is still fanning those same flames of hate ~ except now it has a disturbing racist tone and its target is Obama as both Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale have recently expressed with concern. Alex Koppelman comments on this today in Salon ~ " Carter and Mondale are saying what's on the mind of more than a few Democrats right now. That doesn't mean, though, that the White House will be happy about it. The Obama team has always been reticent about engaging in discussions of how race affects opinions of the president, and especially about accusations of racism against him."
The Reverend Gordon Gibson, Pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, which was subjected to a hate-motivated shooting rampage last month ~ correctly sees HATE as a national problem.
Heather Tirado Gilligan writes of this in the Bay Area Reporter ~ " The Reverend Gordon Gibson, doesn't blame the conservative cultural mores of the South for the hate-motivated rampage at his church last month...Instead, citing reports that the alleged gunman had annotated copies of books by conservative pundits Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, he blames Fox News, where both have television shows... Gibson, a longtime Unitarian church member and pastor, understands the tragedy as one of national, not local, significance. The alleged shooter, he said, tapped into a national intolerance broadcast on the popular news programs as an outlet for his personal frustrations."
Perhaps we now need to directly confront the Republican Evangelical subculture in America that has consistently rejected facts as a matter of faith ~ and is still waiting for the end days to deliver them into the rapture.
Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist, offers perhaps the best solution of dealing with this subculture ~ " Complete refusal to take the fringe nutballs even the slightest bit seriously is the only way to make true progress. This also happens to be the invaluable advice of one Frank Schaeffer, noted author and a former fundamentalist nutball himself, who made a simply superb appearance on Rachel Maddow's show recently, wherein he offered up one of the most articulate, fantastic takedowns of the fundamentalist idiot's mindset in recent history. It's a must-watch. Do it. Do it now." 6 minute video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPwGV1h4lW8
More evidence of the growing HATE backlash comes from the American Progress Report ~ Earlier this month, Bud Norris, the mayor of Mt. Vernon, WA, announced that he would be giving the key to his city to Fox News host Glenn Beck, who is originally from there, and declare September 26 "Glenn Beck Day." The announcement immediately stirred up controversy, given that many residents felt that a talk show host whose show promotes hate and fear is undeserving of such an honor; some protesters responded to the decision to give Beck the key by marching with signs that read, "Change the Locks!" There are even fears that honoring Beck could result in a widespread boycott of the city's businesses. Now, the Mt. Vernon city council has voted unanimously to distance itself from honoring Beck. The resolution that passed the council states: "Mount Vernon City Council is in no way sponsoring the Mayor's event on September 26, 2009 and is not connected to the Glenn Beck event in any manner." A nearby city, Bellingham, is responding to Norris's decision to honor Beck by choosing to honor a different talk show host: Comedy Central's Jon Stewart. Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike has cited Stewart's "cogent yet comedic analysis of news events" and the fact that the two went to the same high school in New Jersey. "For me the bottom-line issue is, is somebody adding to the national conversation in a good way, are they adding to civic culture and civic discourse or not? I don't think Glenn Beck does. I think Jon Stewart does," Pike told the Associated Press. Stewart has yet to decide whether to accept the honor. http://pr.thinkprogress.org/2009/09/pr20090925
Unfortunately, the Republican party, starting with John McCain's sell out to the far right fringe with his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, is beholden to this subculture and is already suffering the consequences of this unholy alliance ~ as a growing national backlash accelerates.
Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/09/25.html
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