Shut-up Stupid Sunday: The both sides accusation

In the call for more civil discussions, the people who have been filling the media with hate have been saying that “both sides do it.” First off that doesn't make it right and second it's hardly true.

It is true that you can point to individual cases of Democrats and Progressives saying things that an unstable mind could use as a cry for violence, but the Conservatives and Republicans have made it their platform. Whenever people get worked up over something they are going to say things they are going to regret, but when that happens they need to learn from it and not do it again. For examples of how this happens I looked at my own blog, with nearly 500 posts I knew I could find something.

Last Week:
In my last Shut-up Stupid Sunday, I put up a borderline illegal picture of Sarah Palin in the cross hairs of a gun sight with the saying, “Sarah says this doesn't promote violence.” While irresponsible I did have a reason. I know she reads a lot of blogs and I'm sure that image has made its way to her computer screen.

I had figured she would see that and what people are saying about her and use that to show a simple human emotion. She wouldn't need to admit any guilt or take any blame just state how she must have felt that someone might have used images she made, and it might have played in some small part of their decision to take a human life. It is something she must have felt and for at least a second any thoughts of monetary gain or meanness must have left her mind and she must have felt sorry if there was even a possibility that she contributed to the shooter selecting his target.

I was planning to point to that post and offer her some sympathy as I would genuinely feel horrible if someone used any of my posts to justify taking a humans life. Instead she doubled down on her crazy and said that she was the real victim of this tragedy and compared the media looking at her “Don't Retreat, Instead Reload” poster to the thousands of years of persecution of Eastern European Jews.

It's unbelievable I had such low expectations of Sarah Palin, and she let me down. Don't worry Sarah I think you've gone so far down the crazy road that even the 24 hour news channels will stop covering your facebook page and you won't have to worry about critics.

I also looked at other things I might have said. In December I had an article I wrote about how families on food stamps could use Cannibalism to help lower food costs, gained a lot of popularity. The article itself was so over the top in satire it can't be taken as a call for anything. However I was slightly irresponsible when I posted how that article came back to life and said, “If you are planning on using this method to feed your family I would suggest going to the high schools in the financial district to employ this method.”

Now I was joking when I wrote that, but if a serial killer were to eat a child of a banker or hedge fund manager I would feel sick about it. So I am stating here that I do not approve of eating the children of anyone, even if they have done you wrong.

The worst thing I have said on this blog was in a post dealing with the fact that 30 Republican Senators voted against allowing victims of rape who work for US Military Contractors overseas to sue in US courts, I wrote in the comments:

Both my senators are on that list. When I first read this story I was thinking of sending them a picture of their daughters (they both have daughters about that age) and asking if they were in favor of having them gang-raped, but that could be taken as a threat.

I truly regret having written that. As despicable as I find the Senators that voted against that bill I would not wish that on anyone in the world. So that is a case where I absolutely wish I could go back in time and advise myself against writing that.

In the political debate, people will say inappropriate things and I am not an exception. The big difference is when Progressives cross the line they can accept the fact that they did it and apologize. Olbermann, Maher, Cenk and just about ever other Progressive commentator has apologized for taking things too far on occasion. Very few conservatives have done the same, most have doubled down on their defense of saying hateful things that cross the line.

So to all those saying both sides are doing it, I say, “Shut-up Stupid. Not only is hateful speech almost the standard for those on the right where as it is the exception for those on the left. The voices on the left have expressed their remorse at slipping into the language of violence while the voices on the right are proud of it.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of Alien Thoughts