STOP IT! Stop Saying "We" or "Americans" or "Congress"... Start F*cking Saying "REPUBLICANS"!

[Lonestarblue]

30. I share your anger at the media--all media, though some are worse than others.

I posted the comment below this morning on a WaPo article. We never look at the cultivation of hate and anger in this country solely so Republicans can keep people stirred up and voting for them. Until we do something about the sources of Republican lies and hate, we cannot stop gun violence.

The media is part of the cause for gun carnage in the US. Some media does its utmost to spread hatred and anger among its viewers (Fox) and listeners (hate radio), preaching about nonexistent issues to rile up people in favor of Republicans—fake issues like loss of religious freedom, schools grooming kids to be LGBTQ, women having abortions upon birth, minorities taking jobs from white people, immigrants illegally in the US living off welfare, and on and on. Anything to stir up the anger.

Other media like WaPo fail to call out the contributing factors that lead people to commit mass murders, most of whom are not mentally ill before they commit murder, but that has become a handy excuse for Republicans to do nothing. The media does not call out Republicans and name then for spreading lies that create anger and hatred. Republican Party leaders also spread lies and do nothing to stop the conspiracies. A good example is Alex Jones, who spread the lie that Hillary Clinton was operating a sex trafficking ring from a pizza restaurant in DC. One of his listeners traveled to the restaurant with his assault rifle to rescue the children. Of course there were no children because it was a big lie. Such lies are spread daily on hate radio, a big source of fake news but many colleges support hate radio by paying them to broadcast sports events.

Robert Bowers murdered 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue because he believed lies about Jews. White supremacists marched in Charlottesville chanting, “Jews will not replace us” and murdered an innocent woman there. These actions result from anger and hatred deliberately created through lies by media personalities, social media, internet conspiracy sites, hate radio hosts and a slew of others because we have no meaningful regulation of such sources and because business leaders continue supporting them with advertising dollars. We need to restore and revise the Fairness Doctrine that Reagan killed and that started the rise of extremist right-wing media.

It will be only a matter of days before the next mass shooting because we as a country are awash in guns, hatred, and anger. What we do not have are people willing to look at those causes and do something about them.