October 5, 2009

Are you paying attention?

According to MediaMatters, "Military coup fantasy is latest in trend of extremist right-wing rhetoric."

Yes, MediaMatters has a liberal-lean. (Although I prefer to see it as reality-based.) Yes, they point out that all these references are from what most (rightwing or left) see as waaaaaay on the fringe. But I think the important difference here is that no matter how "on the fringe" these people and websites are, they are much more vocal and noticeable than any wacko group has been in the past. We may be talking about only a couple thousand of the hundreds of millions of citizens in the country, but look at their platform.
Even 10 years ago, this insane rhetoric wasn't disseminated in such an efficient and far-reaching manner. The fringe was, quite literally, on the fringe. And no matter how vehemently they railed against the perceived injustice of the day, it was easily dismissed. That is no longer the case.
The fact that these extremists are, even obliquely, calling for an overthrow of a democratically-elected government is frightening. The fact that the rest of us aren't raising our (sane, rational) voices to denounce them is even more frightening.

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