Adkissson and Internet Responses

I am angry that some of these right wing commentators aren't being forced to answer for the Adkisson situation. But the Blog-O-Sphere has been talking about it somewhat, so that's good. Here's a great and very accurate post from the Opinion Mill.

When Susan Smith drowned her little boys in South Carolina, when the halls of Columbine High School ran red with blood and when a vicious freak shot down students on the Virginia Tech campus, the smoke barely had time to clear before Newt Gingrich waddled in front of the nearest television camera to announce that liberalism was the root cause of each horror.

And, of course, when Al Qaeda fanatics murdered thousands on 9/11, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell wasted no time in blaming the mass murder on feminists and secularists. Last year, career winger Dinesh D’Souza excreted a whole book devoted to the proposition that the mere presence of Michael Moore and Hillary Clinton so inflamed Muslim sensibilities that ”the cultural left” had to accept responsibility for the destruction of the World Trade Center. In each case, a widely known spokesman for the conservative movement let it be known that mere words spoken by liberals had the magic power to create horror and catastrophe.

So to Newt, Dinesh, Pat, Jerry (wherever he may be roasting right now), Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and every other cynical crap-spewing wingnut out there, I say: let me introduce you all to Jim D. Adkisson, your new BFF. He’s the out-of-work Tennessee truck driver who walked into a Unitarian Universalist church where parents were watching their children perform the musical Annie and started blasting away with a shotgun.

This is exactly what has me so worked up. Conservatives have been happily blaming liberals for everything under the sun for years. But when this sort of things happens, where a guy specifically credits conservative commentators for inspiring his madness, and everybody looks the other way.

For the record, Adkisson was clearly mentally unhinged, and had his madness not been inspired by Rush and Hannity, it would have been inspired by something. But Conservatism should still have to answer for their rhetoric of hate.

Of course I want to present both sides of this issue - and in the interest of that, here's sections from a post at Freedom Eden.

The Left is loving this.

Nutjob Jim Adkisson goes into a church and opens fire, killing two people and injuring seven others.

The nutjob is anti-liberal and anti-gay -- the perfect storm for those on the Left wishing to bash conservatives.

Yep - we Liberals are so hateful we applaud the killing of fellow liberals because it allows us to further our political ends. For the record, the conservative who wrote this later clarified that he doesn't think we are happy about the shooting.

Furthermore, I am NOT suggesting that Leftists take joy in the deaths and injuries of these innocents. Understand? I am NOT saying that Leftists love that Adkisson went on a shooting spree.

You are the one projecting that spin on my statement. It comes from you.

When I write "The Left is loving this," I am referring to the way Leftists, like you, are exploiting this horrific incident in Knoxville to further their anti-conservative agenda.

The Left is "loving" the fact that murderer Adkisson had books written by the "squawkers." You can't deny that.

I can deny it. I'm not happy about this development. I doubt many liberals are. Rather, after years of conservatives sowing hatred and anger, America is now going to reap the results of that. Adkisson may end up being an aberration (and that is my hope) or he may end up being a harbinger. We'll have to see.