Dave Neiwert on Ted Nugent and Eliminationist Rhetoric
Published by BG on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 2:46 PM.Orcinus - Fomenting Civil War
Like nearly everyone, I was intrigued by Ted Nugent's open advocacy of killing Democrats -- which seemed pretty clearly the upshot of his rant wishing the violent deaths of nearly every one of the Democratic candidates during a recent concert. It was, after all, not just a startling example of the viciousness that right-wing rhetoric now revels in (it's classic hate speech, really), but also yet another notable example of the march of eliminationist rhetoric.
Nugent is such a parody of himself, a gibbering lunatic, that it's hard to take him seriously -- and thus, obviously, it would be easy for the mainstream right to distance itself from him. Just issue a few of the standard expressions of horror, assure the rest of us you recoil at the thought of even being associated with sentiments like Nugent's, and then we can all move on, right?
Well, no. Hasn't happened.
And that, frankly, is a problem. Perhaps the sign of an even bigger problem.
It's an interesting take and worth a read.
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