Originally Posted by roachboy

o and in case you imagined that conservatives claiming to be the victims here isn't happening:

We're Arizona shooting victims too, says Tea Party co-founder | World news | The Guardian


and of course there's this:

Sarah Palin blamed by the US Secret Service for death threats against Barack Obama - Telegraph


but hey, no connection. no need to take any responsibility. nothing to see here because people cannot prove that conservative rhetoric did in fact act like a parasite in the brain of jared laughner. therefore nothing could possibly be wrong with that rhetoric. neo-fascism is ok. and so are the people who tell us what it is that we are afraid of.

Originally Posted by filtherton

To me, the issue here isn't whether the shooter was inspired by conservative rhetoric. The issue is the fact that his decision to open fire on a politician so closely resembles certain hallmarks of conservative rhetoric. If I had been using language like Sarah Palin or Sharon Angle, something like this happening would cause me to seriously consider using different language because I'd be hard pressed to not see my words in the shooter's actions, regardless of whether he was driven by my words or not.

The shooting just sheds new light on the tastelessness of overly militant language with regards to political rhetoric.