FRUITS OF HATE – RADIO TALKING HEADS

How Much responsibility do they bear when their talk leads to Mayhem?

Let’s be honest now. Let’s examine all the facts in the latest case of utter mayhem, in which two apparently superb human beings had to perish, and seven others were grievously hurt, on the altar of hate spewed by those who manage to have both brain anomalies and a National Forum. Think about that convergence for a moment – it’s becoming more and more national in scope. A hate meister with a national audience? Does that sound like America? Or what it used to be? I’m probably old enough to remember when such a thing wasn’t possible. And what does that say about the audience?

If an individual with a curious combination of seriously sick thoughts and a national forum, who is dangerously opinionated without having had the benefit of higher education coupled with research to justify his slanted opinions, is allowed to continue to spout an ongoing hatred of some amorphous group which doesn’t exist, and he continutes to refer to them with the worst condemnation imaginable, isn’t it reasonable to predict that sooner or later, some unstable listener might believe this hate program and take instant action to correct it? And when such an unstable one blames the amorphous group for his problems, and sets out to exact revenge from the closest persons he thinks are members of the group – what then?

Jim Adkisson did just that. Jim is 58 and lives in Powell, Tennessee. Jim calmly walked into the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church in Knoxville on Sunday last. He removed a .12 gauge shotgun from a Guitar case and tried to shoot everyone, failed, but succeeded in killing two and wounding seven others. What? He killed two people and wounded seven - all strangers - while they were in a church? Can anyone just accept that and continue on to the next sentence without a heightened sense of outrage, and disbelief?

* Here’s how dangerous Jim was in his community. *

Neighbors said Adkisson was quiet and kept to himself. "He never went anywhere,” said Melissa Coker, a neighbor. “He never had anybody over. Just, it was really quiet. He rode a motorcycle and you know he would go out on the weekends on his motorcycle, but other than that, you never heard from him," Coker told WVLT-TV. Adkisson's landlord said she did not know him well enough to make any comments on his character but said he was a good tenant who paid his bills, according to CNN affiliate WBIR-TV.

Coker told The Associated Press that Adkisson had been a truck driver, but she didn't think he'd been working steadily in the past six months.

“Jim was quiet and kept to himself.” According to neighbors.

"He's just a really, really nice guy," Coker told the AP.

”You never heard anything from him.” Coker again

A really, really nice guy? He was really quiet. You never heard from him. A good tenant who always paid his bills?

So – what do we have here? Here’s what the reigning police officer in the county reported right after the killings:

"It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement," Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV told reporters on Monday. It’s entirely safe to conjecture that Jim Adkisson didn’t hear the term liberal movement from his truck driving friends, or motorcycle riders. No sir. He heard that term from the radio, just like I did.

The liberal movement. What is that? It sounds as if Mr. Adkisson, in his anguish, truly believed there is a ‘movement,’ which is such a generalized term that it could mean anything from formal meetings to discuss philosophy, or action taken by an organized group, to paramilitary activity, to criminal activity, to political activity, to action taken by groups deliberately aimed at hurting him, personally, and/or people like him. There is, in actuality, no such thing in America as the liberal movement. If you want some education, ask ten people to define liberal for you. DO NOT accept a sound-byte, three word definition, insist on a full definition. Do not answer any questions. Just listen, do not comment on anything. I can guarantee you will get ten widely different definitions from the ten you ask.

I have, however, personally heard that term Liberal Movement uttered by one Rush Limbaugh on the radio. I was told by friends at dinner that this chap is a raving lunatic, who masquerades as a comedian, but who spouts hatred on the radio toward any and all, but whose main reason for being appears to be a hatred of liberals, whatever they are, liberalism, whatever that is, and the liberal movement, whatever that is. I can’t vouch for all of Limbaugh’s broadcast statements, other than the ones I heard him make, and the time I saw a video of him doing his radio thing, when he shook his entire upper body while stating “…Liberals are the cause of all our problems …” I suppose he shook while saying this because he wanted to register his utmost hatred of these creatures, these hated liberals.

Just before the multiple murders, Jim Adkisson had received a letter from the state government telling him his food stamps were being reduced or eliminated, police said. Police Chief Owen offered this:

"He did express the frustration that the liberal movement was getting more jobs.” There’s that term again, liberal movement.

Adkisson's resume indicates he had worked in mechanical engineering, police said.
It’s now known that Adkisson chose the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church to wreak his “revenge on liberals” because of recent publicity about activities there that he considered liberal. It’s not known how he made that evaluation.

An indicator of how strong his hatred was for liberals was when he stated he expected to continue shooting people until the police arrived, and he fully expected to be killed by the responding police," Owen said.

OK – here’s the really interesting part. Jim Adkisson is losing his food stamps, and cannot get a job right now, so the food stamp loss is really serious. That's understandable. Upon losing his food stamps, in a rage he decides to retaliate against the ‘enemy’ who he has been led to believe took the food stamps, the liberals. Who told him the liberals were responsible for taking his food stamps? And what about the term liberal movement? Adkisson didn’t hear that phrase from his truck driver friends, or motorcycle enthusiasts. He heard it from Rush Limbaugh, just like I did.

But wait. A sense of maturity should have demanded that he examine this reasoning. If we accept the term ‘liberal’ as being a genuine group – which we do NOT – but we just examine the workings of state and Federal welfare groups, then we see right away that it was the liberal ones in government who created food stamps as assistance in the first place. So did Jim set out to kill some people with the same mindset as those who created the laws for food stamp assistance to those in need – himself?

How could he make this mistake? He must have been encouraged in it.

Well – and I found this information a day after I started this posting – when the police searched Adkisson’s home they found a book titled: “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder” by Michael Savage, whose real name is Michael Weiner. (It’s not known why he hides his real name) Weiner is, like Limbaugh, a radio talker, and his most used word everyday, by far, is the word liberal. One can tell from the title of his book what the state of his mental competence is. His radio talk show has a national audience and ranks third in number of stations syndicated nationwide and third in nationwide audience behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Obviously Jim Adkisson must have been listening to Weiner on the radio in addition to buying his book.

Also found in the Adkisson apartment was a book by Sean Hannity, who is also a syndicated radio talker, and who also belongs to the group of liberal-haters. A book by Hannity – Deliver Us From Evil, Defeating Terrorism and Liberalism was also found in Adkisson’s home. Background on Sean Hannity shows he failed at construction work, flunked out of school, then failed as a bartender in California and gravitated to talk radio, and from there to hate radio, which apparently qualifies him to be an author, and to school others in behavior. He is apparently known among broadcasters as a “political polarizer.”

Thus we arrive at the Church on July 27 2008, with Jim Adkisson, who has been receiving food stamps from the liberal members of the legislature (Webster: liberal – fair, generous, giving) for assistance while out of work. That description is pure gold, because it is patently obvious that conservative groups don’t go around giving food stamps or raising minimum wage, or extending unemployment benefits, or any of those compassionate activities. Do they? Of course not. So unfortunately, Jim, who has been receiving food assistance by the thoughtful actions of liberal legislators, now finds his food stamps being cut off, so he loads a .12 gauge shotgun and goes out to kill those generous-minded liberals wherever he finds them.

There is a ton of evidence Adkisson has been listening to daytime radio, where the phrase liberal movement is used. You never hear the term liberal movement on network television, because it is such a transparent pejorative that they don’t use it. So this unfortunate person chose to strike out in a lethal rage against the group that had legislated his access to food stamps in the first place !!

Talk about confused. Or brain-washed. Or so distraught he couldn’t think straight.

He could have been exposed to Ann Coulter, as well, who is cut out of the same cloth
as Hannity, Weiner, Limbaugh et al, who says liberals should be beaten with baseball bats and tried for treason. Background on Limbaugh reveals that he had the same kind of failed early background as Hannity. According to his mother, he entered Southeast Missouri State College but dropped out after two semesters. His mother stated “he flunked everything,” even a ballroom dancing class. Thus the #1 Hate Talk meister in the world (Limbaugh) and the #2 Hate Talk meister in the word (Hannity) both flunked out of schooling, and were fired at jobs, which apparently qualified them to instruct radio listeners as to who they should hate or blame for their problems.

Then there’s Dick Morris who says liberals are "traitors" who should be decapitated.
Decapitated? A person who is a liberal – never, ever defined, just branded – should have his head cut off? Isn’t that over the line a great deal ???

Can anybody tell me the definition of a “liberal” that has gotten these cretins so worked up they want to kill them? I admit I don’t know what a liberal is. I know the Webster definition – and I wonder - really - if Hannity and Limbaugh and Weiner were caught up in a nationwide disaster such as a comet striking the country, and they had to stand in a food line in order to eat, if they would instruct the server “… be conservative with the amount of food you give me, don’t be liberal with it.” Does anyone think they would do that?

We all know Free Speech is not covered if you shout FIRE in a crowded, dark theater. Nor is it covered if you shout SHARK on a crowded beach. There have been one or two other additions to the prohibition of free speech lately, but to my knowledge, this particular kind of hate speech is still absolutely OK in America. It must be. There are several who practice it very (very) successfully, and apparently to large audiences.

Bottom line - a lot of us are forced to wonder how much responsibility the creators of the term liberal movement, followed by their fanciful, broadcasted definitions of why it is the foulest activity known to man, how much responsibility they should bear in the murders of these two lovely persons and the grievous injuries of the other seven. (One may actually still die.)

As for the rest of us, it's probably time we decided to follow a different path to stop the spread of this filthy hate talk, on talk radio. Expecting the media to rein it in, or the individuals themselves to give it a rest sure isn’t our best choice of action.

And – more painful – what about the next time this kind of thing surfaces?

Tip jar please. Thank you.

Faithfully, in the interest of the American people
See also swungnotes at dailykos