tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22657443.post4735753325337829815..comments2023-12-31T03:18:37.403-06:00Comments on "E pur si muove!": Should You Tone Down Your Rhetoric?Lester Hunthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14746157071827337723noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22657443.post-60606127446359533102010-04-21T20:44:58.164-05:002010-04-21T20:44:58.164-05:00To the person who just submitted a comment to this...To the person who just submitted a comment to this blog: I don't publish comments that advocate violence on this blog. Sorry.Lester Hunthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14746157071827337723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22657443.post-57998392028763591422010-04-21T14:58:17.837-05:002010-04-21T14:58:17.837-05:00Note that your comments apparently commit you to s...Note that your comments apparently commit you to saying that the Vietnam demonstrators and Bush critics should have toned down their rhetoric, which I don't think is true.<br /><br />You also seem to be committed to saying that the cause of the arson and bombings during the Vietnam period was angry speech, which no one said at the time and I think no one would say, unless driven to do so by a theory such as yours.<br /><br />I don't know who these criminologists are you are referring to, but it is easy to think of people who committed acts of political violence who were almost certainly not moved by the hot rhetoric of others. Lee Oswald and Ted Kaczynski, for instance, were both loners who were little influenced by others in any respect.<br /><br />Finally, the fact that Clinton thinks people should go ahead and criticize BHO's policies doesn't show that he understands that they provoke serious anger in and of themselves. I don't think he does.Lester Hunthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14746157071827337723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22657443.post-83592364606575033352010-04-21T12:19:38.732-05:002010-04-21T12:19:38.732-05:00After that wack-job assassinated the abortion Dr. ...After that wack-job assassinated the abortion Dr. George Tiller, there was an FBI criminologist on TV talking about how these extremists almost never become violent unless people around them provide moral support to commit the violence. The perceived injustice alone isn't considered sufficient by the experts.<br /><br />So Clinton might just be saying 'hey, i understand you've got a gripe, but don't add that second ingredient, lets keep this political instead of making it physical.' You're assuming he thinks Waco and the Tea Parties are not legitimate gripes, but he does tell the tea partiers "By all means, keep fighting. By all means, keep arguing." He might think the Waco gripe was perfectly legitimate, but (consistent with the findings of these criminologists) insufficient in and of itself to create violence, and that's why he doesn't want people being encouraged to throw bricks and cut people's brakes.<br /><br />During those Vietnam protests, a lot of the violence was arising out of mobs, where people would give each other moral support to act outrageously, and as is common among mobs, people end up doing violent things that they'd never think of doing on their own. I wasn't alive then, but plenty of people probably did think the rhetoric was an incitement to violence and that's why the cops would try to disperse a non-violent protest. Maybe that's been forgotten because of all the benign marijuana that was going around back then.Nethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16204927740294369853noreply@blogger.com