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Roots of Arizona's Violence - by Stephen Lendman
As expected, America's major media won't explain it. Nation magazine editor Katrina vanden Heuvel ducked the issue, saying it's "a time for grief, not grievance." Blaming a "crazed act of a clearly unstable man," she called it "an assassination of democracy....shut(ting) down speech to slay those seeking its exercise," then added "we still don't know whether (violent rhetoric) was responsible for last weekend's horror."
A Wall Street Journal "Murder in Tucson" editorial deflected blame from hard right extremists, and rejected political reasons for the attack, saying:
"....Loughner is a mentally disturbed man who targeted Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and anyone near here....because she was prominent and they were tragically accessible....Whatever confused political motives he expressed seem merely to be part of the maelstrom of his mental sickness."
In other words, blame a "deranged" gunman, not society, its extremist politicians, demagogic media hosts and pundits, and America's longstanding culture of violence. More on it below.
New York Times writers Marc Lacey and David Herszenhorn noted "political repercussions," concern for personal security, denunciation of threats and acts of violence against public officials, and overall outrage. Ignored was growing anger from festering economic conditions and the proliferation of violence across America, never reported when ordinary people are affected.
A Times "Blood and Invective in Arizona" editorial noted accused gunman Jared Loughner's mental illness and "Internet ravings about government mind control," saying also that "scores of politicians" receive violent threats without explaining reasons for public anger or that society top down is responsible.
Unexplained as well is how radically, in recent decades, America shifted right, accentuated by extremist talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Back, Sean Hannity, and many lesser known ones except to their faithful. Also politicians, including conservative Democrats, Republicans, and Tea Party favorites like defeated Senate candidate Sharron Angle, referring to congressional "domestic enemies and homegrown enemies," needing "Second Amendment remedies" as a "cure" for "The Harry Reid Problems."
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