Fearmongering & The Spreading of Hate
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
Seems like fearmongering and spreading hate are on the rise in the U.S. When will these lunatics be properly dealt with?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ja ... glenn-beck
Frances Fox Piven defies death threats after taunts by anchorman Glenn Beck
Leftwing academic speaks out amid hate campaign led by Fox News host Glenn Beck
Paul Harris in New York
The Observer, Sunday 30 January 2011
Frances Fox Piven is not going into hiding. Not yet.
The 78-year-old leftwing academic is the latest hate figure for Fox News host Glenn Beck and his legion of fans. While she has decided to shrug off the inevitable death threats that have followed, she is well aware of the problem. "I don't know if I am scared, but I am worried," she told the Observer as she sat in a bar on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
"At the start I thought it was funny, but now I know that is dangerous... their paranoia works better when they can imagine a devil. Now that devil is me."
For the past three weeks Beck has relentlessly targeted Piven via his television and radio shows as a threat to the American way of life, seizing on an essay that she and her late husband wrote in 1966 as a sort of blueprint for bringing down the American economy.
Called The Weight of the Poor, it advocated signing up so many poor people for welfare payments that the cost would force the government to bring in a policy of a guaranteed income. For Piven, a committed voice of the left, known in academic circles but little recognised outside them, it was just one publication in a lifetime dedicated to political activism and theorising.
For Beck, however, Piven is a direct threat to the US. In show after show, the rightwing commentator has demonised Piven and framed her as part of a decades-old conspiracy to take over the country that culminated in the election of President Barack Obama. Beck's heated language has provoked a tidal wave of death threats against both Piven and her academic colleagues at the City University of New York.
The threats are blunt and – in light of the recent shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords – truly frightening. Many appear on Beck's news website, The Blaze. "One shot... one kill," wrote one. Others are sent directly to her email address or those of her colleagues. There are so many that she has contacted the police and this week will ask her college to make a formal complaint to the FBI.
Despite that real security fear, she refuses to back down. Indeed, for someone portrayed as a revolutionary communist, Piven's choice of a meeting place with the Observer was a sly poke back at her critics: a Cuban hangout called Havana Central.
It is typical of Piven. The spry, twinkle-eyed academic pulls no punches when talking of Beck. "He is a very neurotic and peculiar type of person. I don't think he is capable of sane discussion," she said. And his supporters? "They creep me out."
Piven joins a select group on the list of Beck's enemies that includes billionaire financier George Soros, green activist Van Jones and long-dead President Woodrow Wilson. Piven likens Beck to a 21st-century version of Father Charles Coughlin, the 1930s rightwing priest and radio broadcaster who many saw as advocating a US version of fascism. "It is very dangerous. Father Coughlin founded a third political party. Glenn Beck has the Tea Party. We should be worried," she said.
Beck's conspiratorial rhetoric on Fox, which he now often backs with presentations on chalkboards and – in the case of Soros – a puppet show, might seem a bizarre stunt. But it has real-life repercussions. Last year Byron Williams stocked a truck full of guns and bullets with the stated intention of attacking liberal groups in San Francisco that Beck had mentioned. He was stopped by police before he arrived, but in a jailhouse interview Williams hailed the Fox frontman as an inspiration.
"Beck would never say anything about a conspiracy, would never advocate violence. He'll never do anything... of this nature. But he'll give you every ounce of evidence that you could possibly need," Williams said.
That sort of statement is enough to give Piven great concern. "I am teaching a new class soon and I don't know who is going to be in there," she said.
However, at the same time she is excited. Beck's attention has given her a sudden opportunity to air her political views. She has been interviewed by the New York Times, among other major news outlets, and last week she appeared on several television talk shows, including one aired on Fox's rival, cable news channel MSNBC.
Beck has, in a way, achieved what a lifetime of radical activism struggled to do: create a national platform for Piven, who is honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. She wants to put forward leftwing ideas at a time of economic and social crisis in a media landscape that usually ignores them and sees "socialism" as a dirty word.
"This is really an opportunity to rein in Fox News and Glenn Beck. I don't know if it's possible, but I am going to try. It also allows us to assert the value of the politics that we stand for," she said.
It will not be an easy task. Beck has an entire TV network and a global media giant behind him; Piven is an elderly professor. But, for the first time in a long while, she is in demand. "At last now we have a megaphone," she said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ja ... glenn-beck
Frances Fox Piven defies death threats after taunts by anchorman Glenn Beck
Leftwing academic speaks out amid hate campaign led by Fox News host Glenn Beck
Paul Harris in New York
The Observer, Sunday 30 January 2011
Frances Fox Piven is not going into hiding. Not yet.
The 78-year-old leftwing academic is the latest hate figure for Fox News host Glenn Beck and his legion of fans. While she has decided to shrug off the inevitable death threats that have followed, she is well aware of the problem. "I don't know if I am scared, but I am worried," she told the Observer as she sat in a bar on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
"At the start I thought it was funny, but now I know that is dangerous... their paranoia works better when they can imagine a devil. Now that devil is me."
For the past three weeks Beck has relentlessly targeted Piven via his television and radio shows as a threat to the American way of life, seizing on an essay that she and her late husband wrote in 1966 as a sort of blueprint for bringing down the American economy.
Called The Weight of the Poor, it advocated signing up so many poor people for welfare payments that the cost would force the government to bring in a policy of a guaranteed income. For Piven, a committed voice of the left, known in academic circles but little recognised outside them, it was just one publication in a lifetime dedicated to political activism and theorising.
For Beck, however, Piven is a direct threat to the US. In show after show, the rightwing commentator has demonised Piven and framed her as part of a decades-old conspiracy to take over the country that culminated in the election of President Barack Obama. Beck's heated language has provoked a tidal wave of death threats against both Piven and her academic colleagues at the City University of New York.
The threats are blunt and – in light of the recent shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords – truly frightening. Many appear on Beck's news website, The Blaze. "One shot... one kill," wrote one. Others are sent directly to her email address or those of her colleagues. There are so many that she has contacted the police and this week will ask her college to make a formal complaint to the FBI.
Despite that real security fear, she refuses to back down. Indeed, for someone portrayed as a revolutionary communist, Piven's choice of a meeting place with the Observer was a sly poke back at her critics: a Cuban hangout called Havana Central.
It is typical of Piven. The spry, twinkle-eyed academic pulls no punches when talking of Beck. "He is a very neurotic and peculiar type of person. I don't think he is capable of sane discussion," she said. And his supporters? "They creep me out."
Piven joins a select group on the list of Beck's enemies that includes billionaire financier George Soros, green activist Van Jones and long-dead President Woodrow Wilson. Piven likens Beck to a 21st-century version of Father Charles Coughlin, the 1930s rightwing priest and radio broadcaster who many saw as advocating a US version of fascism. "It is very dangerous. Father Coughlin founded a third political party. Glenn Beck has the Tea Party. We should be worried," she said.
Beck's conspiratorial rhetoric on Fox, which he now often backs with presentations on chalkboards and – in the case of Soros – a puppet show, might seem a bizarre stunt. But it has real-life repercussions. Last year Byron Williams stocked a truck full of guns and bullets with the stated intention of attacking liberal groups in San Francisco that Beck had mentioned. He was stopped by police before he arrived, but in a jailhouse interview Williams hailed the Fox frontman as an inspiration.
"Beck would never say anything about a conspiracy, would never advocate violence. He'll never do anything... of this nature. But he'll give you every ounce of evidence that you could possibly need," Williams said.
That sort of statement is enough to give Piven great concern. "I am teaching a new class soon and I don't know who is going to be in there," she said.
However, at the same time she is excited. Beck's attention has given her a sudden opportunity to air her political views. She has been interviewed by the New York Times, among other major news outlets, and last week she appeared on several television talk shows, including one aired on Fox's rival, cable news channel MSNBC.
Beck has, in a way, achieved what a lifetime of radical activism struggled to do: create a national platform for Piven, who is honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. She wants to put forward leftwing ideas at a time of economic and social crisis in a media landscape that usually ignores them and sees "socialism" as a dirty word.
"This is really an opportunity to rein in Fox News and Glenn Beck. I don't know if it's possible, but I am going to try. It also allows us to assert the value of the politics that we stand for," she said.
It will not be an easy task. Beck has an entire TV network and a global media giant behind him; Piven is an elderly professor. But, for the first time in a long while, she is in demand. "At last now we have a megaphone," she said.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
I'd like to add the internet has offically become our God.
Another piece of leftist, sensationalist reporting by the Guardian. If they actually focused on real journalism instead of this garbage, they might be taken seriously.
By the way, this article is fear-mongering and hate-spreading. Another piece trying to push a radical leftist agenda.
And what agenda would that be?
The article is about Beck pushing his agenda, and gives an example...
So what you two are saying is "I'm rubber and you're glue...."....right?
A radical leftist is a danger only to your bottom line, and even that is debatable.
Aside from higher taxation, what is so scary about a leftist agenda?
Exactly...nothing.
So why do we keep being labeled with adjectives and adverbs normally reserved for militants and terrorists?
The hysteria is laughable.
That said, good for Piven for not backing down; fuck lunatics like the Gifford shooter and anyone threatening Piven's life; and Polaris made a good point there re: information.
heck i know ... these guys just regurgitate what is fed to them ... i mean, they've managed to make socialist into a cuss word ... which is equal parts briliant PR and easy audience ...
Pivens has had an agenda since the 60's and still has a violent ideology. She is not scared she loves this!
What the left will not comprehend is people are responsible for there own actions. She wrote the paper with an agenda to bring America down. Now let her answer to it. If she prefers a socialist country, why is she even in the USA?
I hate to see anyone get death threats, but let's be honest here, the "left" is not violent. Maybe a few extremists, but the right has the rights to the crazy gun wielding wacko extremists. That's smoke being blown up our asses by people like Beck. And when you spew as much slanderous hate filled rhetoric as Beck you will make enemies.
:think:
Can you please explain to us just what this violent, radical, anti-American's violent ideology consists of?
Thanks.
Stop it! You're making me nervous! The thought of a 78 year old female professor seeking to bring the world to it's knees and consign everyone to Stalinist gulags terrifies me.
Looks like the bankers didn't get your message.
Or her agenda was to raise America up, depending on your point of view.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011 ... -extremism
David Cameron tells Muslim Britain: stop tolerating extremists
PM says those who don't hold 'British' values will be shunned by government
Patrick Wintour
The Guardian, Saturday 5 February 2011
David Cameron will today signal a sea-change in the government fight against home-grown terrorism, saying the state must confront, and not consort with, the non-violent Muslim groups that are ambiguous about British values such as equality between sexes, democracy and integration.
To belong in Britain is to believe in these values, he will say. Claiming the previous government had been the victim of fear and muddled thinking by backing a state-sponsored form of multiculturalism, the prime minister will state that his government "will no longer fund or share platforms with organisations that, while non-violent, are certainly in some cases part of the problem".
In a major speech to a security conference in Munich, he will demand: "We need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism."
He will say that "some organisations that seek to present themselves as a gateway to the Muslim community are showered with public money while doing little to combat extremism. This is like turning to a rightwing fascist party to fight a violent white supremacist movement."
Cameron's aides, aware the speech may prove highly controversial, refused to identify the organisations in his sights, but it is clear one target is the Muslim Council of Britain.
Last night some Muslim groups criticised the prime minister for making the speech on the same day that the English Defence League is holding its biggest ever demonstration, in Luton.
Cameron will also make clear that his tougher stance extends to unambiguous support for the democracy movement in Egypt: "I simply don't accept that there's a dead-end choice between a security state and Islamist resistance."
His remarks suggest that a Home Office-led review into the government Prevent programme, being overseen by Lord Carlile, is going to lead to major changes.
It also suggests that he has sided unambiguously with figures such as Michael Gove inside his cabinet rather than his party chairman, Lady Warsi, who has complained of fashionable Islamophobia.
Cameron will argue many young men have been drawn to extremism due to a rootlessness created by the weakening of a clear collective British cultural identity.
He will say: "Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream. We have failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong.
"We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values. So when a white person holds objectionable views – racism, for example – we rightly condemn them. But when equally unacceptable views or practices have come from someone who isn't white, we've been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them."
He will warn his audience: "Europe needs to wake up to what is happening in our own countries. We need to be absolutely clear on where the origins of these terrorist attacks lie – and that is the existence of an ideology, Islamist extremism."
This ideology he says, is entirely separate from Islam, and "at the furthest end includes those who back terrorism to promote their ultimate goal: an entire Islamist realm, governed by an interpretation of sharia".
But he adds: "Move along the spectrum, and you find people who may reject violence, but who accept various parts of the extremist world-view including real hostility towards western democracy and liberal values.
"If we are to defeat this threat, he says, its time to turn the page on on the failed policies of the past. So first, instead of ignoring this extremist ideology, we as governments and societies have got to confront it in all its forms."
Echoing Tony Blair after 9/11, he rounds on the soft left that "lump all Muslims together, compiling a list of grievances and arguing if only governments addressed them, this terrorism would stop".
Inayat Bunglawala, chair of an anti-extremist group called Muslims4Uk, said: "Mr Cameron's remarks are ill-judged and deeply patronising. The overwhelming majority of UK Muslims are proud to be British and are appalled by the antics of a tiny group of extremists and so will hardly be pleased with his lecture on integration.
"Ironically, the PM's comments come on a day when the viciously Islamophobic English Defence League are to stage their biggest demonstration yet on our streets. Integration works both ways and we would expect Mr Cameron and his government to be openly challenging these EDL extremists. Instead, he and his senior ministers have to date remained totally mute. It is disgraceful."
In opposition the Tories began considering the policy on Muslims, which critics say risks branding many as extremists even though they do not espouse violence.
Critics say it is based on flawed neo-Conservative thinking and risks backfiring, while supporters say it is necessary to tackle those who are fellow travellers with violent extremists.
Cameron should be looking at the government's foreign policies instead of talking such rubbish. What is the 'collective British cultural identity'? Bet he wouldn't be able to define that. But maybe he would like to align himself with the BNP? Seems he thinks along the same lines. His comments were similar to those of that fascist at the head of the EDL, except Cameron expressed them in a more 'educated' manner, using more sophisticated words.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011 ... icised-edl
David Cameron sparks fury from critics who say attack on multiculturalism has boosted English Defence League
• Prime minister is accused of handing PR coup to the far right
• Jack Straw calls David Cameron's comments 'ill-judged'
Toby Helm, Matthew Taylor and Rowenna Davis
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 5 February 2011
David Cameron was accused of playing into the hands of rightwing extremists today as he delivered a controversial speech on the failings of multiculturalism within hours of one of the biggest anti-Islam rallies ever staged in Britain.
Muslim and anti-fascist groups questioned the prime minister's judgment and sensitivity to the issues, saying he had handed a propaganda coup to the hard-right English Defence League as 3,000 of its supporters marched through Luton chanting anti-Islamic slogans.
Some of crowd were jubilant, saying that Cameron "had come round to our way of thinking". Paul Bradburn, 35, from Stockport, said Cameron was "coming out against extremism".
He added: "The timing of his speech is quite weird as it comes on the day of one of the biggest EDL demos we've ever seen. If he wants to start sticking up for us, that's great."
Matt, 16, a school pupil in Birmingham who was at the march said: "He believes what we believe to some extent."
Downing Street issued a robust defence saying the prime minister was "absolutely unapologetic".
A spokeswoman said the speech had been "in the diary for months". She added: "The idea that he would be blown off course on an issue as fundamental as this by the English Defence League is ridiculous and extraordinary."
Cameron told the Munich Security Conference, attended by world leaders, that state multiculturalism had failed in this country and pledged to cut funding for Muslim groups that failed to respect basic British values.
He blamed the radicalisation of Muslim youths and the phenomenon of home-grown terrorism on the sense of alienation that builds among young people living in separate communities and the "hands-off tolerance" of groups that peddle separatist ideology.
Just a few hours later, EDL leader Stephen Lennon told the crowd they were part of a "tidal wave of patriotism" that was sweeping the UK.
Activists, some wearing balaclavas and others waving English flags, chanted "Muslim bombers off our streets" and "Allah, Allah, who the fuck is Allah". EDL supporters from Newcastle, Scotland, London, West Yorkshire and Sheffield joined Luton-based supporters. There were also flags representing German, Dutch and Swedish Defence Leagues.
Nick Lowles, director of anti-extremist group Hope Not Hate, said the timing of Cameron's remarks had allowed EDL members to claim the government was on its side.
"The prime minister's comments were unhelpful. On a day when extremist groups of varying persuasions were descending on Luton, his words were open to misinterpretation at best, and at worst were potentially inflammatory.
"Whatever the intention, the timing of this speech has played into the hands of those who wish to sow seeds of division and hatred."
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said Cameron had handed a "propaganda coup to the EDL and their extremists".
Labour also weighed in, attacking the timing of the speech and rejecting implications from Cameron that it had failed to address issues of Islamic extremism and the complex issues of multiculturalism during 13 years in office.
Former home secretary Jack Straw said it was "ill-timed" and "ill-judged". Former Labour minister Margaret Hodge said: "This is a hugely difficult area. I agree that there are some areas where we need strong assimilation – speaking English and abiding by British law.
"But Cameron appears to suggest we can impose a much wider assimilation with British values and the danger is that this approach will perversely entrench those separate identities that he wants to meld.
"The state has to be very cautious in using its power to mould cultural values. Comparisons with far-right groups on the day the EDL is mounting a demonstration is needlessly provocative.
"It is not merely the Muslim community's responsibility to combat extremism; we all have responsibilities, particularly to ensure that minority communities do not feel excluded."
As the row over the prime minister's remarks intensified, Tory co-chairman Baroness Warsi called for an apology from shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan after he accused Cameron of "writing propaganda for the EDL".
"For Sadiq Khan to smear the prime minister as a rightwing extremist is outrageous and irresponsible. David Cameron has made it clear that he wants to unite Britain around our common values and he has done so in measured language," she said. "It is right that we make it clear: extremism and Islam are not the same thing.
"And, as David said, it's important to stress that terrorism is not linked exclusively to any one religion or ethnic group."
:roll:
:evil: :twisted: :evil: :twisted: :evil: :twisted:
The Left
:shock:
RUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we are all in this together
why don't people act like it and find the middle of the road and walk together
the finger pointing is getting so old now
Very old.
blargh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3ctO7fd ... r_embedded
This is grotesque and in no way represent ALL on the left. Do Palin, Beck, and Limbaugh represent all on the Right? No.
Once again the extremes are getting all the sensationalist attention while those in the middle are left out in the cold.
So one old man in the crowd voices his opinion (albeit in a tongue-in-cheek, facetious manner) and you post it here as evidence of hatred from the left?
Pathetic.
Ya you're right...the old man just wanted to send Thomas "back to the fields", most of the others just wanted to torture or string him up. :roll: Either way, if that had been a Tea Party gathering, the bashing would have been relentless. I'm going to go try and find similar vids with the same kind of rhetoric from those gatherings. We all know that it's only a matter of time before this out of control hate-filled rhetoric causes some nut job to lose it and go on a killing spree.
The interviewer knew what he was doing asking those leading questions: "So what do you think should be done with so-and-so?" "And what do you think should be done with so-and-so?" Clearly he was fishing. And the people he interviewed weren't being serious, as any honest person who watches the clip can see.
So obviously you would be opposed to the same tactics being used by a "news crew" interviewing people at a Tea Party rally. That's good to know.