Liberal Activist Attacked by Zealous Conservative

[Aramike]

This has absolutely no place in political discourse:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...and-paul-rally

Okay, look, that woman in my opinion is probably a wackjob. But I swear if I ever saw a man stomping on a woman's head I would beat the daylights out of him. I can hardly describe how revolted I am when watching that video, and I suspect most of my fellow subsimmers will see it the same way.

As such, it put things in perspective, doesn't it? At the end of the day, there are jerks who stomp on a helpless woman's head, then there are the rest of us who comprise the vast majority, who will vehemently disagree on some things but at least can agree to not go THERE...

[Schroeder]

In a different country in a different time they would probably have been proud members of the SA.....

[Skybird]

Verbal violence and every type of verbal foul-playing seems to be acceptable - so that it turns into physical violence next to me is just a logical consequence. If the atmosphere is allowed to get heated up more and more, sooner or later valves are breaking. The current midterm election campaigns are said to be the dirtiest and most aggressive campaigns ever in the history of the US, just two days ago I saw a whole collection of campaign spots whose dirtiness and bad taste and offence and lying and mud-throwing left me speechless.

If such verbal stuff is seen as acceptable and is said to be total freedom of speech, the pace is set and the standards are changed so that physical violence takes place sooner or later, too. Verbal violence first, physical violence second.

The difference, the balance between censorship of opinion's content/argument, and banning offensive speech by style, is a sensibel one, and it is often difficult to find it and to keep it. It seems that the US and the EU each represent one of these extremes, presently. Still, both these possible extremes do more bad than good. Political correctness fans wanting to ban all opinion that is different from what they think should be allowed to be said and thought in content (EU), are the one extreme. The claim of total freedom of speech that often is expressed and acted by in America, is just the extreme at the other end of the spectrum, not less extreme than the first. And both lead to intolerance, digging trenches, and violence.

Walking somewhere in the middle, keeping polite and honest while sticking to clear aergument, is the trick that solves it. But many people think that yelling loud or using plenty of rethorics or raising cultural or relgious demands, is as good as argument. That's when things start to become messed up.

All I can say is: Wehret den Anfängen. The wise man solves rising problems while they are still small - so that he must not try to solve big problems later, says Lao Tse.

[the_tyrant]

Marx was right
He once claimed as both parties in an evil capitalist country become increasingly similar(after all, he thinks that both party works for the capitalists). Less and less people will vote after they know the truth about both parties.

Well he was half right, now i wouldn't go participate in political activities if I was fearing for my life

[tater]

Originally Posted by the_tyrant

Marx was right
He once claimed as both parties in an evil capitalist country become increasingly similar(after all, he thinks that both party works for the capitalists). Less and less people will vote after they know the truth about both parties.

Well he was half right, now i wouldn't go participate in political activities if I was fearing for my life

LOL.

If you think political rallies are somehow more dangerous than the past you're pretty unschooled in history. 100 years ago someone sneaking into a rally to heckle would have been very harshly treated, I guarantee. Things are less violent than ever, without any question. In the "political machine" systems, people were roughed up all the time. heck, it's less now even within the incredibly corrupt bastions of machine politics (like Chicago).

[SteamWake]

"Get the police here, get the cops" sounds pretty reasonable to me.

The dork that stepped on her head was quickly waved off. There is no excuse for that and he did not help things. But it was 5 seconds of video that we see over and over and over. Its being portrayed as if the entire crowd went all postal and stomped the living crap out of this woman which is simply not true. But it paints a picture they wish to portray of 'tea party wackos'.

What we dont see nor is described is the following.

The woman was wearing a 'costume', she had identifying garb denoting her as a 'moveon.org' associate, she was forcing her way through the crowd with some sort of 'package' towards the candidate. Slightly suspicious to say the least.

The only thing put into perspective here is that 1.) Theres idiots in every crowd and 2.)The liberal progressives want very badly to portray the tea party as 'nut jobs'.

[Takeda Shingen]

I agree completely with Armike. The woman was no doubt a loon, but physical violence has no place in these proceedings. As to the media coverage, people shout at each other all the time. This would not have been news if not for the stomping of this woman. It is no different than people rubbernecking when driving by an accident; an unfortunate effect of our society of voyeurism.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

2.)The liberal progressives want very badly to portray the tea party as 'nut jobs'.

Not hard to do when Teabaggers tackle and stomp on the heads of those with different political opinions.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

" it paints a picture they wish to portray of 'tea party wackos'.

I got news for you. They don't have to try and portray anything. The Tea partiers are doing a good job of it all on their own between this and open carry demonstrations. I don't care who you are, you don't go carrying around weapons to make a point in politics. To this layman, gives the overall picture of a bunch of fringe whack jobs id rather not have anything to do with.