Kentucky Census Worker Hanged: "Fed" Written on Body
I can understand the merits of free speech and political opposition. But free speech does not allow one to exclaim "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. So, contemporary conservative pundits who essentially exclaim "Fire!" within a crowded political sphere seem to be going beyond "free speech" and rather are "encouraging homicide". We can have teabaggers and birthers. Maybe we can even allow people to legally carry guns at political rallys, maybe. But when census workers are hanged and 'Fed' is scrawled on their corpse? It’s time to tell Glenn Beck to shut the god damned hell up.
Source:
The FBI is investigating the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery, and a law enforcement official told The Associated Press the word ‘fed” was scrawled on the dead man’s chest.
The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation.
I’ve no idea what The Right will do in reaction to this. Perhaps they will ignore it. Perhaps they will try to spin it as an isolated act. Perhaps they will take credit for it and celebrate. I’ve no idea. But what I do know is that shitheads like Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachman are anything but innocent with regard to the death of Bill Sparkman:
I get it. Feeding false information to conspiracy theorists and conservative survivalists grows ratings. FOX News exists to grow ratings and so profit off of advertising. I understand how the business model works. But FOX viewers obviously do not take the false information to be entertainment; FOX viewers obviously are not rationally minded political participants simply attempting to gain a greater understanding of the world. FOX viewers are shitheads. FOX viewers are dangerous. And FOX viewers killed a U.S. Census worker.
These are people who think “How many toilets do you have” is a threatening question.
These are people who think it rational to kill a census worker.
These are not people to humor and incite.
So Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachman need to shut the god damned fuck up.
*Update: Apparently it was a very poorly executed hanging*
4 comments:
They WILL spin it as an isolated act.
That is what they did when that religious nutjob killed the abortion doctor in Kansas.
That is that they did when when a white nationalist killed a guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
That is what they did when one of their pressure Minute Men Killed a Latia women who was believed crossing the borer illegally.
This killing in Kentucky was clearly to work of a Lone Wolf. That is how right wing terrorism in this country works now. But this was clearly a lynching spurred on by anti-government racist/sexist/homophobic rhretoric.
Glenn Beck does not tell people to go do shit like this. Frankly, I don't think the real crazies listen to Beck et al. They distrust The News Media as much as they distrust The Government. What Beck does is mainstream the ideology diving these sorts of terrorist attacks. He obscures their historical context and provides an alibi for others.
That is Beck and Fox News's real danger. Is is not that they are screaming Fire in the movie theater. They are making excuses for the people who do.
While I am at it: here are some links.
Does hateful rhetoric really lead to violence? History gives us the clear answer: yes
Von Brunn as a 'Lone Wolf': Killers act alone, but these are not 'isolated incidents'
So, like lynchings of the last the "getting strung up part" was symbolic?
that does not really change anything.
Well, it does indicate that conservative survivalists understand symbolism.
Their high school english teachers can be proud.
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