USA Goes Rwandan
Hyperbole? No, I don’t think so, not when you read constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald and Media Matters’ dissections of the increasingly hysterical and violent calls for the jailing (and worse) of dissenters against Bushco:
In addition to the Media Matters items, there are numerous unreported stories regarding the right-wing blogosphere that are of great significance. Let’s read about what goes on as part of the daily “discussions” at Little Green Footballs (whose daily readership numbers place it very near the top 100 daily newspapers in terms of circulation figures), and in similar venues of derangement such as Free Republic.
What type of rhetoric is one of the leaders of the pro-Bush blogosphere, Glenn Reynolds a/k/a Instapundit, a University of Tennessee law professor, promoting with his links, and himself disseminating on a regular basis? What sentiments motivate publication by Michelle Malkin of some of the most disturbing and hateful propaganda posters which can be imagined? And what causes three bland, corporate Minnesota lawyers at Powerline to routinely accuse political opponents and journalists of treason, urge their imprisonment, and engage in “rhetorical excesses too frequent to list”?
One of the pro-Bush blogs most heavily promoted by Instapundit currently displays satellite photographs of the home of the NYT Publisher, along with his home address — isn’t that thuggish tactic worth an article by itself? And virtually every mainstream Democrat, along with journalists who publish articles embarrassing to the Bush administration, are routinely accused in the pro-Bush blogosphere of being traitors and adjudged to be guilty of treason — not by obscure pro-Bush blogs but by the most significant and well-read ones. As a result, as the Media Matters post documents, many pro-Bush bloggers have a virtual obsession with vivid demands for hanging political opponents and journalists.
If you still think, after all that, that such eliminationist rhetoric is all just a joke to be taken lightly and as no real threat, just sound and fury signifying nothing – then let’s take a look at how the horror that was Rwanda came about:
In the beginning, the radio station’ Radio T?l?vision Libre des Mille Collines was a popular station that successfully preyed upon the deep animosities and prejudices between the Hutu and Tutsi populations. The sophisticated use of humor and professional delivery was interspersed with popular Zairean music. Contrasted with the musically staid Rwandan state radio, Radio T?l?vision Libre des Mille Collines quickly developed a faithful audience among the young, who eventually transformed themselves into the ruthless Interahamwe. It was only when the genocide actually erupted that openly racist comments such as “stamp out the cockroaches” were aired.
[…]
Not since the Nazi propaganda speeches of World War II has media been credited with having such a direct influence on inciting violence. The Hutu-led, anti-Tutsi, Radio T?l?vision Libre des Mille Collines has now become a genocidal icon. Synonymous with the term ‘hate-media’, it is a name that has come to evoke fear.
One can only hope that the majority of the regular listeners to talk radio and the readers of the Hate Blogs (note to Skippy, that one’s mine) are using their outrageous output purely as a form of escapist and outrageous entertainment and wouldn’t dream of acting on any of the vicious suggestions being made by the likes of Reynolds, Goldstein and Malkin.
But can we rely on the American people’s batter natures? Do they even have any better natures? Abu Ghraib and Haditha say otherwise. Americans who say that such an avowedly Christian country as theirs would not be hustled by such obvious demagogues as these down the slippery slope to the murder, lynching and imprisonment without trial of alleged ‘liberals’ should study recent history a little more. Not even the Church itself is immune.
On 7 May 1994 soldiers and militias arrived at Shyogwe Diocese aboard a red pick-up vehicle to transport civilian Tutsi refugees to the killing sites. “On that day Bishop Samuel Musabyimana was present and, addressing the soldiers and militias, publicly stated that he did not oppose the killing of Tutsis, but that he did not want killings at the Diocese and that the Tutsis should be taken to Kabgayi to be killed.” (Indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda against former Anglican Bishop Samuel Musabyimana).
[…]
On 22 April 1994, S?raphine Mukamana had hidden herself in a garage when militias attacked a convent in Sovu in southern Rwanda. “We sought refugee in the garage and closed and barricaded the doors. Outside a bloodbath is going on. Suddenly an orphan begins to weep as it gets to hot in the garage. At once, the killers approach the garage.” As the refugees refuse to come out, the militia leader Emmanuel Rekeraho decides to burn them alive in the garage. “‘The nuns are coming to help us. They are bringing gasoline,’ I heard [Rekeraho] say. Looking through a hole that the militiamen meanwhile had made in the wall, I indeed saw Sister Gertrude and Sister Kisito. The latter was carrying a petrol can. Shortly upon that, the garage is set on fire.” Testimony against two Catholic nuns, Sisters Gertrude and Maria Kisito in a Brussels court, May 2001.
Before anyone protests the unlikelihood of US Christians ever participating in anything so horrific I have just two names for you: Fred Phelps & Matthew Hale.
They at least are or were honest about their murderous hate. The heroes of the Right blogosphere like Malkin and Reynolds are channeling from behind their safe pc screens an acceptable mainstream version of Phelps and Hale’s evil rhetoric while denying vehemently that they do so. “Mass murder enabler? Me? Not me , I’m just a plain-speaking, down-home blogger.”
They also serve who only stand blog and wait.
