What do you think?

[pinkyslayer]

I've been reading and listening, like most of you, to all of the 'news' about how McCain rallies are growing increasingly violent, and I started to wonder about whether it really was as big a deal as they were making it. So what do y'all think? Is it John McCain or Palin's responsibility to stop their speech and correct the audience members? or do you think it's just practicing free speech when the audience yells things like 'kill him', 'bomb obama', or 'off with his head?'

One thing I kept in my mind while thinking about this is that if I were to go to a corner and gather a group of people around me and start defaming another person, and that in turn led to them becoming restless and angry and (on a rhetorical level) violent, I would be charged with inciting a riot or disturbing the peace. You just can't stir up a crowd to threaten another person's life without some kind of penalty. Unless you're a politician of course. So what's y'all's opinion?

pinkyslayer Reviewed by pinkyslayer on 10-15-2008. What do you think? I've been reading and listening, like most of you, to all of the 'news' about how McCain rallies are growing increasingly violent, and I started to wonder about whether it really was as big a deal as they were making it. So what do y'all think? Is it John McCain or Palin's responsibility to stop their speech and correct the audience members? or do you think it's just practicing free speech when the audience yells things like 'kill him', 'bomb obama', or 'off with his head?' One thing I kept Rating: 5

[maladroit]

i think mccain and palin are inciting fear and anger but the violent slogans has a lot to do with the mentality of the people at those rallies...the people yelling out those things can't be too bright in the first place if they think obama is a treasonous muslim terrorist who needs to be taken out one way or another

the secret service are going to be busy protecting president obama from angry retards for the next 4 - 8 years

[happiestmferoutthere]

the secret service are going to be busy protecting president obama from angry retards for the next 4 - 8 years

Sad, but true I'm afraid. McCain's slogan of the week is "fight", and I don't doubt the ignorant redneck base will take it literally.

[daihashi]

Sad, but true I'm afraid. McCain's slogan of the week is "fight", and I don't doubt the ignorant redneck base will take it literally.

I'm just curious what peoples reaction to your post if you replaced 'redneck' with some other disparging term for another race.

Such as "Sp**" for mexicans, or the N word for black people, or "Ch***" for asians.

You may not realize it but using negative comments in combination with a term (redneck) that you obviously view as bad is not very becoming. It's actually distasteful.

FYI I am not a redneck; hell I'm not even white. :hippy:

[killerweed420]

I don't think the hate mongering has been that bad on the McCain team. I've seen a couple video's where McCain has put people down that are still trying to call Obama a terrorist. Its been the rightwing media that's been pushing most the hate. You're always going to have the mental midgets that are going to fall for these idiots.

[maladroit]

i don't know that redneck is a bad word anymore...it certainly doesn't belong in a class with dreadful words like ones you listed that some filter prevents me from typing in full (??)...calling someone a redneck is on the same level as calling someone an elitist

do you find is distasteful that jeff foxworthy made millions selling books and even games that glorify redneck culture?
http://www.jefffoxworthy.com/comedy/index.html


sarah palin's new son-in-law proudly describes himself as "fucking redneck" on his webpage:
VP candidate's future son-in-law proud to be a redneck | NEWS.com.au


redneck country music star pens redneck anthem:
Country singer Brandt proud to be a 'redneck'


redneck pride! YEE HAW!!
Proud to Be A Redneck- Inspirational stories and poems

[daihashi]

i don't know that redneck is a bad word anymore...it certainly doesn't belong in a class with dreadful words like spic, , and chink...calling someone a redneck is on the same level as calling someone an elitist

do you find is distasteful that jeff foxworthy made millions selling books and even games that glorify redneck culture?
http://www.jefffoxworthy.com/comedy/index.html


sarah palin's new son-in-law proudly describes himself as "fucking redneck" on his webpage:
VP candidate's future son-in-law proud to be a redneck | NEWS.com.au


redneck country music star pens redneck anthem:
Country singer Brandt proud to be a 'redneck'


redneck pride! YEE HAW!!
Proud to Be A Redneck- Inspirational stories and poems

Again, the context in which she used it is a negative term. Which I pointed that out; or I suppose you chose not to read that.

If I said "black people are ignorant".. it would really be the entire statement that would come across as distasteful and wrong. But calling a person black by itself is not wrong. By making a statement like above I am insinuating that only black people are ignorant; or that everyone in that group is ignorant. Which in turn seems racist or bigoted as I would be isolating an entire group of people.

But go ahead and try to spin what was said to what ever angle you see fit. You always do.

[psychocat]

You might be a redneck if your Christmas ornaments are made out of spent shot-gun shells.

[maladroit]

i understand the redneck term was used in a negative way, but that is how many proud rednecks see themselves too


they shout slogans boasting of their ignorance like: 'everything i need to know about islam, i learned on 911"

they sing songs about their lack of class:
Redneck Woman lyrics, Gretchen Wilson

they make jokes about their inbreeding, ignorance, and propensity for violence:
jeff foxworthy sez you might be a redneck if:
Your family tree does not fork.
You think a subdivision is part of a math problem.
Youâ??ve ever shot anyone for looking at you.


personally, i don't understand how anyone could be proud of all that but self esteem is a good thing...i grew up in a small fishing town on an island, and i had to endure years of good natured abuse from my new urbanite friends...perhaps the redneck pride movement is a counterbalancing force that blunts the prejudice of non-rednecks by co-opting the prejudice...i was pretty good at telling jokes about dumb fisherfolk gittin the best of them smart city slickers!

[dragonrider]

The McCain campaign is crossing the line from exciting their supporters to inciting them. They do not bear responsibility for everything the dumbasses at their rallies do, but they do bear responsibility for whipping them up and not reining them back in when they cross the line.

Some of the most incendiary rhetoric at the McCain/Palin rallies comes from the people who introduce the candidates. Those are the ones who call him Barack Hussein Obama and question whether he is really a Christian. That kind of crap is someting McCain can control --- he can either expalin the acceptable limits of behavior to these people before he puts them on the stage, or he can cut them off when they veer into the hate-speak. It is pure BS to say he can't control that.

A typical McCain/Palin rally these days seems to start with someone referring to Barack Hussein Obama and questioning whether he is really a Christian. Then Palin goes on stage and says Obama "pals around with terrorists." Then McCain goes on and says Obama is not being truthful, he has "secrets," and then he asks "who is the REAL Barack Obama?" Why are they surprised when the answer the crowd gives them is "terrorist", "Arab", and "traitor?" Why are they surprised people yell "kill him" and "off with his head?" If you tell an angry frustrated crowd that Obama has a muslim name, he's not really a Christian, he pals around with terrorists, and he has secrets, then you bear some responisibiltiy if they think he is an Arab terrorist traitor who should be killed.

After things started to get really ugly at the rallies last week, the McCain camapign started to back off on some of this hateful behavior. McCain corrected one woman last week when she said Obama was an Arab. The fact is that things were gettng so far out of hand that people were getting really turned off by the xenophopbia they were seeing at these rallies. It started hurting the campaign, so they backed it off a few notches.

The Obama campaign has been criticising McCain for the guilt-by-association tactics with Ayers, and now McCain has said he plans to bring up the Ayers link at the debate tonight. I think they are laying a trap for McCain, and it will be interesting to see if he takes the bait. If he does, there are a thousand ways Obama can use it against McCain, but if he doesn't bring it up, his base who is dying for him to do it will be totally pissed off. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, McCain!

McCain created this situation, so I think it is great that it is backfiring on him.