Apr 4, 2010
Brownshirts, Greenshirts and Rotten Granny Smith Apples
I don't need to say a lot about how our friends on the left are in a tizzy about what they see as the use of violent rhetoric by Tea Partiers and other conservatives. What does bear repeating, though, is the degree to which they are in utter denial about their own use of similar rhetoric, especially during the Bush presidency.
But just to make the point clear, compare the following two statements:
"You’re dead; we know where you live; we’ll get you."
and
"We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work. And we be many, but you be few."
Both crazy right-wingers maybe? No, actually. The first was left on Bart Stupak's voicemail, according to reports. The second, however, is from a Greenpeace activist tired of the failure of democracy to pass climate change legislation and the"you" referred to includes anyone"who [has] spent their lives undermining progressive climate legislation, bankrolling junk science, fueling spurious debates around false solutions."
Yes, the first one has a more explicit threat of violence, but the similarity of the rhetoric and the implied threat of"we know where you live and work" cannot be overlooked.
It doesn't matter whether the shirts are perceived to be brown or green, the rhetoric of threats and violence should always be called out by people on both sides, but I'm not holding my breath for much from the media or the moderate left on this one.
(UPDATE: After looking through the comments section over there more thoroughly, I'm encouraged by the way in which folks have rejected that rhetoric (although often with nasty rhetoric of their own), so I withdraw my skepticism of the moderate left at least as far as the rank and file goes. The politicians and celebrities, however, remain to be seen.)
Like a rotting Granny Smith apple, this element of the environmental movement is green on the outside but looking kind of brown on the inside.
But just to make the point clear, compare the following two statements:
"You’re dead; we know where you live; we’ll get you."
and
"We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work. And we be many, but you be few."
Both crazy right-wingers maybe? No, actually. The first was left on Bart Stupak's voicemail, according to reports. The second, however, is from a Greenpeace activist tired of the failure of democracy to pass climate change legislation and the"you" referred to includes anyone"who [has] spent their lives undermining progressive climate legislation, bankrolling junk science, fueling spurious debates around false solutions."
Yes, the first one has a more explicit threat of violence, but the similarity of the rhetoric and the implied threat of"we know where you live and work" cannot be overlooked.
It doesn't matter whether the shirts are perceived to be brown or green, the rhetoric of threats and violence should always be called out by people on both sides, but I'm not holding my breath for much from the media or the moderate left on this one.
(UPDATE: After looking through the comments section over there more thoroughly, I'm encouraged by the way in which folks have rejected that rhetoric (although often with nasty rhetoric of their own), so I withdraw my skepticism of the moderate left at least as far as the rank and file goes. The politicians and celebrities, however, remain to be seen.)
Like a rotting Granny Smith apple, this element of the environmental movement is green on the outside but looking kind of brown on the inside.