-By Richard J. Little
While we have been inflicted with the vile spectacle of indecent Leftist politicians and their willing accomplishes in the media incessantly propagating their chosen fictional narrative (i.e. that the violence was the fault of the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, or at the very least “heated” political rhetoric by anyone who dared oppose them) of the tragic killings of six innocent victims in Arizona, a much more likely “influence” then politics or political ideology is being willfully ignored by the left and hastily overlooked by most on the right.
Now I am not one to buy for a second that people commit crimes due to “collective” influence from “society”, the media, or politicians. Every rational being who is sane has control of his own actions and has a choice in a free society whether or not he will act in manner that violates the rights of others (after all, that’s what crime is – a violation of your rights. Crime is using force, fraud, or theft to violate another inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness i.e. property. All just and fair laws in a free society are simply codification of the protection of these rights in specific circumstances). What matters, at the end of the day is that the individual chooses to behave in manner that violates the rights of others. Their thoughts, motivations, or influences – whatever they may be – can illuminate their state of mind but they can never serve as justification for or proof of guilt for a crime. Only cold, hard, factual evidence of an individual’s behavior matters in a legal and moral sense when convicting a person of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
Having established that a specific person bears responsibility for his actions, if you are still one of the individuals who feel that they must need to know the Tucson shooter’s motivation for his crime or are compelled to speculate on what external factor may have “influenced” him, there is simply not that compelling of a factual basis for starting with politics or political ideology.
The victim was a political figure, but the evidence presented to date shows little to point to the suspect having any type of focused or coherent interest in politics (he was a registered independent, didn’t participate or belong to any political organization, didn’t vote in the last election, listed numerous books only some of which were political – and those were from both the left and right, and his video babblings were utterly incoherent unless you consider “grammar” a political topic). However, there was plenty of evidence to point to that this young person as being heavily influenced by violent and destructive music (his flag burning music video) and images (his satanic looking shrine in the backyard). And his previous actions that showed violent tendencies (confirmed death threats and “baby” bombs) leading up to the crime were not evidently not directed at political figures victimized (most specifically, he did not threaten Giffords or Roll) but other private citizens.
So my question to all the self-righteous media pundits and politicians on the Left is a rather simple one: Is it not much more likely and much more logical that the real “influence” that “had an effect” on the shooter was the constant and steady diet of violence and graphic entertainment media he was without a doubt exposed to on a daily and routine basis?
As all of you know, we live in a culture that is awash with violent and graphic images in all forms and matters of media, thanks in a large part to decades of efforts by the Left to remove any type of governmental and cultural restraint on its production and distribution. It is so pervasive in fact, that we accept the portrayal of violence in our entertainment media and as a fact of American life and society.
Now of days it’s taken as an afterthought, just like the air we breathe, that violence will be shown on our TV sets, sung to us, and spewed on the internet to Americans of all ages – including our young and impressionable children plus individuals who could be considered “deranged” and unstable.
In fact, especially in light of the regulation of CO2 now by the EPA, one could easily argue that such violent entertainment products are much less controlled by the government then the air!
So if you are one of those who feel compelled to look for collective blame in this case, it’s much more logical and likely that 22 years of daily violent images, music, and literature coming from our “entertainment” industries is what did the bulk of the derangement of this young adult’s pyche. Far more likely than any political “personality” or “rehotric” that to date does not seem to indicate he followed in any meaningful, consistent, or coherent way.
Why then are we not having a “dialogue” about the culture of violence and “hate” that is churned out as entertainment by the Hollywood left?
And furthermore, other than to exploit this violent crime for political gain, why are the media and those in the political Left continuing to smear, lie, and misrepresent tens of millions of honest and peaceful Americans?
Why are there both direct (in Congressional legislation) and indirect (through intimidation by labeling and smear) attempts now being pushed incessantly by the political left to curtail the First Amendment Liberties for political speech in almost every conceivable format – on the radio, TV, internet, press, and assembly?
Why has there not been even one call from these Leftist self-proclaimed advocates of “civility” to even look into the “influence” of violence rhetoric and images in entertainment media much lest suggest even most mild form of self-restraint (much less government regulation which the Left claims is the cure for all else in society) for an industry that put out much more direct and disturbing violent speech daily?
The answer is also rather simple if you understand the Left’s desire for power and control over our lives.
One form speech suits their political needs because it is destructive to our Civil Society. Violent and coarse entertainment has greatly served to breakdown traditional morality and societal norms thus creating many of the economic and behavioral (even violent) dysfunctions that supposedly can only be “addressed” thru Big Government intervention in our lives. So “anything goes” violent and graphic entertainment is fought for by the Left in the courts as an absolute, sacrosanct, and unregulatable right.
Plainly put, this is the purposeful destruction of our culture and society by the Left so that the resulting chaos can be used as a justification of their various government interventions which suppress individual Liberties and as has served as a pretext for their imposition of collectivist ideological schemes on all of us.
Conversely, free political speech, especially speech in support of Individual Rights, Personal Freedoms, Federalism, Free Markets, Traditional Values, and Limited/Constitutional government is seen as a danger (indeed a roadblock) to their Statist ideal of Utopia through use of government intervention, force, and coercion.
Therefore, in the eyes of the Leftist, your right to free and unregulated political speech must be attacked at every available opportunity.
So this tragic shooting is simply another “Crisis that shouldn’t go to waste” opportunity to them as the only value they hold dear is power itself.
Those political opponents who speak out most effectively against their collectivist agenda must be attacked both in general (Talk Radio and the Tea Party) and specific (Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin) terms.
Not only are the Left and its media allies in this country deliberately misstating the specific facts in this case for their political gain, they are framing the debate about in terms of an influence (politics) that is most likely totally inconsequential as any kind of a real motivation for this young man’s violent behavior.
All while they go on totally ignoring the real “hateful and violent” speech that pervades our entertainment culture which they have shamelessly promoted and defended for decades.
For the record, I am not for limiting anyone’s Individual Right to Free Speech in any form it takes – political, entertainment, or otherwise. However, if one properly understands the First Amendment, it was put in place specifically to protect political speech as the Founders felt that was the greatest protection of the People’s Liberty and greatest check on Government’s potential for Tyranny.
But to accept that we must discuss and focus solely on allegedly “violent and hateful” political speech to the exclusion of all other logical influences is a canard of the Left’s creation. This canard must be exposed and deconstructed for the utter falsehood it is.
We cannot afford to allow the Left to frame and control the terms of debate on this issue. What is at stake is no less than our personal Liberty in a Free and Open Society!
We The People need to have a “Senator Joe McCarthy” moment with these Leftist politicians and their media sycophants immediately.
We must tell them loudly and unambiguously that we have had enough of their divisive lies and smears.
We must tell them: At long last, have you no sense of decency left?
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Richard J. Little is a resident of Lawton, Oklahoma. He is aspiring amatuer polical writer/commentator and active Tea Party member. He can be reached at rich-little@excite.com.
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