Advertising Violence

(Billboard in Tucson, Arizona. Image found on Deus Ex Malcontent.)

"...when you saturate the air with hate you cannot control who breathes it in," Dan from Pruning Shears explains in his post about the Arizona massacre. Take a few minutes to read his post, but I'll summarize his insightful points about advertising as best I can.

Advertising works. That's why Coke, Pepsi, Ford, Apple and everybody else advertises when they have a product to sell. In fact, they spend billions of dollars on advertising, often not even knowing which ad "sticks" and which is wasted. But it is a fact that increased spending on advertising will lead to increased sales of the product advertised.

And so when you look at the political climate in Arizona, the violent imagery used by Sarah Palin, the "Second Amendment remedies" suggested by Sharron Angle, the violent fantasies presented by Glenn Beck, and the Arizona Tea Party favorite who urged followers "Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly"... it becomes bloody obvious these people are advertising violence.

And it works -- even if you can't draw a straight line from any one advertisement to the reprehensible act -- it works.

So the "alleged" shooter, Jared Loughner is mentally ill? I have no doubt that he is. But that doesn't make the crime an "isolated incident." David Neweirt proposed there is a level of moral and ethical culpability when violent speech has the following features:

• It is factually false, or so grossly distorted and misleading as to constitute functional falsity.

• It holds certain targeted individuals or groups of people up for vilification and demonization.

• It smears them with false or misleading information that depicts them in a degraded light.

• It depicts them as either emblematic, or the actual source, of a significant problem or a major threat.

• It leads its audience to conclude that the solution to the problem manifested by these people is their elimination.

Crazy talk incites crazy people.

I get the feeling that some people honestly believe that if we never find a direct connection between Loughner and any pundit's violent rhetoric, then somehow violent speech is vindicated, acceptable and righteous. It is not.

Environmental Studies 101

I took one environmental studies class in college. It was to fulfill a general education requirement, and the year was... somewhere post Exxon Valdez oil spill and pre Gulf War I.

They say education is what remains after you've forgotten what you've learned. Well, these are the major lessons, predictions, and dire warnings my professor left me with:

• We would enter a major war in the Middle East over oil.
• Our future energy needs would have to be met with a diversity of renewable sources -- nuclear power not being one of them because it's dangerous and not renewable.
  
• And because we need energy to get energy, we need to develop these diverse technologies and infrastructure before we run out of oil, coal, and natural gas.
• Earth day is about more than cleaning junk off of beaches.
• Accidents always happen. If a group of scientists say that drilling for oil here or there will cause an ecological disaster, they're probably right.
• Global warming will result in increased droughts, flooding, soil erosion, and landslides.
• Something about the unsustainability of exponential growth.
  

At times the lessons seemed apocalyptic, but the apocalypse, at least, seemed far off.

But here we are in 2010. Endless war in the Middle East? We've got it. Twenty straight days of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico? Yep, and they don't know how to stop it. Devastating floods in a major U.S. city? It hardly even makes the news.

Okay, I honestly don't want to compare these events to signs of the apocalypse, but they are signs of something.

They are signs that as a nation we are confused and we don't know who to listen to. Hyperventilating know-nothings like Rush Limbaugh get way too much press. (Hey Rush, environmentalists did not blow up that oil rig, because that would be bad for the environment!) And actual climate scientists get way too little press, and when they do, it's because some oily politician is making a McCarthy-like political assault on their research.

These politicians think that if they create distractions, they won't have to actually do anything. But those who think we should wait until all scientists are in absolute agreement over global warming are willing to risk the entire planet.

I'm reminded of the French water lily story: "French children are told a story in which they imagine having a pond with water lily leaves floating on the surface. The lily population doubles in size every day and if left unchecked will smother the pond in 30 days, killing all the other living things in the water. Day after day the plant seems small and so it is decided to leave it to grow until it half-covers the pond, before cutting it back. They are then asked, on what day that will occur. This is revealed to be the 29th day, and then there will be just one day to save the pond."

Are we going to wait until that one last day?

Northern Overexposure

How's that fair and balancey thing workin' out for you, Sarah?

Not too well apparently. Sarah Palin's Fox News show, with the gag-inducing title "Real American Stories," debuted on April Fool's day appropriately enough. The ratings though were the real punchline:

Sarah Palin’s much-hyped LL Cool J-less Fox News special last night didn’t bring in the huge ratings some (ok, we) predicted. Greta Van Susteren’s On The Record which normally airs at 10pmET beat the program the previous three nights in the A25-54 demographic and two out of three nights in total viewers. The show also lost viewers from the first quarter hour to the final quarter hour by double digits.

"Real American Stories" delivered a little over 2 million total viewers. Maybe America isn't that into her any more? Recently David Frum put audience numbers in perspective. Though he was referring to Rush Limbaugh, I think this applies to Sarah Palin too:



(YouTube video)

A daily audience of 3, 4, maybe 5 million people maybe qualifies you to be the Green Party candidate for President. Ha!

Which brings me to the topic of Palin's other show -- the one on TLC. The people at Defenders of Wildlife think giving Palin a nature show is thoroughly insulting. They are urging Discovery Communications to drop "Sarah Palin's Alaska." I'm hoping that when those ratings come in, they won't need much more urging.

Imprecatory Prayers

I'm not a big fan of religion, and the concept of an imprecatory prayer -- an invocation of evil -- is the exact type of poisonous bullshit that has driven me away. It doesn't fit with my idea of spirituality and enlightenment. Pray, if you're going to pray, for all people, even your enemies, to be well, happy, and peaceful. If they are well, happy, and peaceful, then, you know, they won't be your enemies any more.

When Rush Limbaugh was hospitalized last week, many blogs quickly responded with hate-filled comments. During his radio career, Limbaugh has sowed many seeds of hate. Crooks and Liars notes some of Limbaugh's most vile diatribes towards sick and dying individuals, and also reminds us about the wingnuts who had their own imprecatory prayers for President Obama.

So it doesn't surprise me from a quick glance at Twitter that many people wanted Limbaugh to die. A few would have preferred that he recovered, walked out of the hospital, and then got run over by a bus. Of course, there is always a place for dark humor, but I think the ideal happy ending would have had Limbaugh transformed by his near-death experience, realize his errors, repent for his sins, and devote his life towards helping the downtrodden.

Obnoxious-jerk-becomes-a-better-person is a way better storyline than obnoxious-jerk-drops-dead. I've always been a sucker for stories like A Christmas Carol and Groundhog's Day.

But that's not the way it's going to be for Limbaugh. He is using his experience to conclude that America doesn't need health-care reform. Of course, he fails to mention that Hawaii, where he was hospitalized, has already instituted many of the reforms that are needed for the rest of the country. Also, nobody has ever claimed that multi-millionaires like Limbaugh have any trouble getting health-care.

But the biggest lie that Limbaugh is promoting is that this entire fight over health-care reform is because there is something wrong with our medical professionals, our technology, our facilities, or our ability to treat the ill. That is not the reason for the battle. The reality is that the uninsured do not have the same access to quality health-care. They might get the same emergency room care as Limbaugh, but the long-term care isn't going to be there or it will bankrupt them.

But Limbaugh will remain callous towards the plight of others. So I wish that he be well, happy, and peaceful, but should he suddenly take a turn for the worse, then Thursday's precondolences still stand: oh well.

Change in a Teabag

I cringe every time I hear the word "teabag" now. I thought that, in time, I would recover, but apparently the Republicans want to tea party like it's 1999 or something. Even Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, one of the few Republicans not invited to any tea parties at all, says a Republican renaissance is "being delivered in a tea bag, and that's a wonderful thing." It is? The imagery doesn't really work for me. I'm picturing the soggy teabags my parents leave laying all over the house. Not a wonderful thing. Stephen Colbert mocks, and the word tonight is "I Know You Are But What Am I?":

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - I Know You Are But What Am I?
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Also, I'm trying to figure out the part of Steele's speech where he declares an end to the "era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past." Did I miss that era? Or was Steele talking about all his groveling to Rush Limbaugh?

When Unstable People Have Guns

"America ... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable." - Hunter S. Thompson

I didn't want to blog about senseless gun violence again. Last month I said my words about Dannie Roy Baker, Rush Limbaugh and angry white males. I said that the vitriol needed to stop (as if somebody would listen to me, take note, and change course). But then there was another mass shooting, and another, and another:

February 26, Miramar Beach, FL: Dannie Roy Baker shot and killed 2 foreign nationals and injured 3 others. He has been indicted on murder charges.

March 10, Samson, AL: Michael McLendon killed 10 people, including 5 relatives, across two rural Alabama counties. He then killed himself.

March 21, Oakland, CA: Lovelle Mixon shot and killed 4 Oakland police officers after a traffic stop. Mixon was killed in a shootout with SWAT officers.

March 29, Santa Clara, CA: Devan Kalathat shot and killed 5 relatives and critically injured his wife before committing suicide.

March 29, Carthage, NC: Robert Stewart shot and killed 8 people at his estranged wife's place of business, Pinelake Health and Rehab, before being shot by a police officer. Stewart is being held in Central Prison in Raleigh on eight counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony assault on a law enforcement officer. He says he does not remember anything.

April 3, 2009, Binghamton, NY: Jiverly Voong (aka Linh Phat Voong) wore body armor when he launched his attack at the American Civic Association. He killed 13 people before killing himself.

April 4, Pittsburgh, PA: Richard Poplawski opened fire on Pittsburg police officers killing 3 of them. Poplawski is in custody in connection with the shootings.

April 4, Graham, WA: James Harrison fatally shot his 5 children in their mobile home and then took his own life in his car miles away.

That's 50 victims in less than two months. So why is this happening? These massacres were mostly well-planned murder-suicides, and there is evidence that suicides start to go up this time of year...

But I think it's more than a seasonal trend. The pressure of the troubled economy, the intense desire for revenge following rejection and failure, and the escalating rhetoric of right-wingers like Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck plays a large part. Some of these pundits should make it a point to always clarify exactly what kind of revolution they mean -- the type where citizens vote or the type where citizens are armed and dangerous...

Clearly not all of these killers were influenced by the wingnut propaganda claiming that the Obama administration wants to take people's guns away, but it seems Poplawski was driven by that exact fear.

Surprisingly, I don't have a firm position on gun laws. I guess I'm allowed to be undecided because I'm not a politician. However, I'll never understand why people want an arsenal of weapons in their own home. Some people are simply gun enthusiasts, and others seem to take part in a crazy gun cult. But keep these stats in mind: according to the Bureau of Justice, most homicides with known victim/offender relationships involved people who knew each other.

So if you know somebody who's a little unstable and has some guns, you better get them some help.

Leave Limbaugh Alone

This video is so immature, doesn't promote constructive dialog or expose government lies and corruption. But it's as funny as hell (if video doesn't show, click here):



The only thing missing is black eyeliner.

Head Rush

I really thought the attention being given to Rush Limbaugh lately was ridiculous. I wanted him and Palin and Joe the Plumber to slip into oblivion. They're irrelevant... to me at least. But to some segments of the population, they still rule.

Hearing Republican congressman Phil Gingrey beg Limbaugh for forgiveness after offending the beast was the most pathetic thing I've heard in years. But it was also an eye-opener. A right-wing talk radio host has filled the vacuum of leadership in the Republican Party.

As usual, it takes a comedian like Stephen Colbert to rip Limbaugh and all the meek Republicans who grovel at his feet (if video doesn't show, click here):

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - Army of One

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I love the way Colbert can get away with calling Limbaugh a pig. And let's not forget this bullet point: "And whatever Glenn Beck is." What is that guy? His television performances are completely maudlin. I think even Tammy Faye Bakker would feel embarrassed for him.

The GOP is becoming a sitcom of loony characters. But it's a tired and worn out show with a hypnotized audience willing to obstruct any governing that might actually help them and their families.