The Pentagon shooting last week is just the latest in a series of strange attacks by individuals with mental problems - plane crash against an IRS building in Texas or the shooting last June of a museum guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in the District. They all have something in common though :
All three also appear to have drawn ideological nourishment from the same well: online communities of like-minded people who validate and amplify extreme views. Today, more than in recent years, such communities are tapping into a broad undercurrent of anti-government discontent fueled by economic recession, joblessness and concern over the growing federal deficit, according to experts who have studied the phenomenon. (Wash. Post)
Given the current political climate and the violent hatred expressed by some - see here or here , it's a wonder there hasn't been another Oklahoma bombing yet. Of course, right wing extremists will wash their hands off their responsibility for their inflammatory rhetoric anyway. In fact, they already have - accusing the "liberal" media of jumping to conclusions and the Pentagon shooter of being a left-wing extremists. Seriously!Who cares if those nut-cases vote Democrat or Republican, what matters is that their actions have been triggered by violent hateful anti-government rhetoric used by right-wing extremists (including Glenn Beck and his coterie on FoxNews!) who no matter how much they deny it, will bear responsibility for the actions of the next Timothy McVeigh! Isn't anti-government hate speech unAmerican anyway?
What is clear is that the way those people lash out against their government, while claiming to be patriotic is uniquely American!
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