Debate tone can spark violence

Words matter.
Rhetoric matters.
Vitriol matters.
Details of what drove a deranged individual to go on a shooting rampage at a congressional constituent event in Tucson, killing six and wounding twice that many, will be sorted out in the weeks and months ahead.
But from what has surfaced so far, it’s clear that the poisonous tone of political “debate” in this country feeds a sickness within those on the fringes of our society.
When political figures talk in terms of “taking someone out” or “Second Amendment solutions,” when images of officeholders are portrayed on the Internet in the form of the crosshairs of a gun sight, something is seriously out of kilter.
When usually reasonable people in this community say they would welcome the assassination of the president of the United States, we’re off the rails.
The events in Tucson were horrific.
They should also be sobering.
They should be sobering to the shock jocks of AM radio, the cable news purveyors of conspiracy theories and claptrap, and the audiences who swallow that bilious brew.
In Tsarist Russia, it was common practice to use the press to whip up anti-Semitic fervor to foment pogroms.
In Rwanda and Burundi, radio was used to drive tribal hatred that led to countless killings.
In Tajikistan, publishers will tell you they have blood on their hands for the role they played in promoting political violence during that country’s ruinous civil war.
In America, we’d like to think things are different.
But words matter, and it appears we’re not as different as we’d like to imagine. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]