Topic: Hate

“Letter from 2012″ scrapes the bottom of the hate barrel

By David W. Shelton | October 28, 2008 |

Focus on the Family Action sends out a letter from the viewpoint of 2012 — is it future history — or just more hateful rhetoric meant to strike fear in the conservative base?

With the new “Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America” that has been released by Focus on the Family Action, an activist wing of Dr. James Dobson’s rightwing organization, we’re reminded of just how hateful such groups are when faced with the prospect of losing an election. I’ve often said that this election is literally between hope and fear, and I’ve never been more convinced of that than I am right now. With just over a week to go, the “fear” camp is pulling out all the stops.

Since it was released to the public last Wednesday, the now-infamous letter has stroked the breast of fear like no other document in recent months. The letter’s writer is unidentified (after all, who’d want to actually put their name to such garbage?). It is nothing more than one “horrible” example of “liberal policies gone wrong” after another.

It shouldn’t be any surprise to anyone that the first three paragraphs of the actual “results” of an Obama presidency point to the very core of Reich-wing fear: national gay marriage and gay men serving as scoutmasters. The very possibility of these two things is so frightening that they must be the first to rattle the cage. First on the list of possible liberal-stacked supreme court rulings would be the legalization of gay marriage: «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion, Politics, Spirituality | 5 Comments

We need to look beyond Don Imus

By Terry McMoore | April 15, 2007 |

Bigotry and hate speech targeting race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity continues to permeate the airwaves

On April 11, NBC News announced that it was dropping MSNBC’s simulcast of Imus in the Morning in the wake of the controversy that erupted over host Don Imus’ reference to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” The following day, CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves announced that CBS has fired Imus and would cease broadcasting his radio show.

But as Media Matters for America has extensively documented, bigotry and hate speech targeting, among other characteristics, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity continue to permeate the airwaves through personalities such as Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, Michael Smerconish, and John Gibson.

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion | 1 Comment »

The Subtlety of Prejudice

By David W. Shelton | July 24, 2006 |

I was reading the local newspaper’s blog today and came across a comment that was particularly thoughtful. The writer said that he did not hate anyone for their skin color or sexual orientation. And around here, that’s saying something. He later said that he did have a certain kind of hatred; a hatred for bigotry.

He spent a couple of paragraphs slamming bigots in various cultures and got a lot of positive responses, including from me. But the more I think about it, I wonder if I should be so encouraging to that kind of mindset. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion, Politics, Spirituality | No Comments