On the wall behind the register, behind the pepper spray and bumper stickers there was a t-shirt pinned up with thumb tacks. The shirt had a picture of a skull half-buried in the sand wearing a pair of RayBan aviators and a burnoose. The caption underneath said, "NUKE THEIR ASS AND TAKE THE GAS!"
Even as a third-grade boy who was into squashing bugs and GI JOE, I looked at that shirt with a measure of fear and disgust. It was deeply unsettling to think of people who believed the shirt's message enough to buy it and wear it around town. Sure, I liked dummy grenades and camouflage, but nuclear holocaust for oil just seemed a step too far.That image came back to me today as I trawled the internet looking at borderline acts of sedition, vague threats of assassination, and slogans on signboards that say things like, "we came unarmed, this time." I read a blog entry of someone who worked at a call center and spoke to someone who said they "hang liberals," and went on to conduct the call's business as if it were lighthearted conversation. Most of the responses were incredulous gasps of horror and disbelief-- things like, "I assume he means 'hanging in effigy'..." or "I voted 'report him' on the off chance he wasn't kidding..." But will that guy do anything? Can that guy really do anything? No. And treating it as if he could only gives him (and others) ideas.
Humor often takes the form of something you wish was true, or know not to be true, that is said anyway. This kind of stuff passes for humor among belligerent paranoids.
Most liberals don't find threats on theirs' or their leaders' lives to be very funny. They don't even find threats on their enemies to be funny. I share that aesthetic, but I question the reaction. Too often the reaction of liberals to a politically incorrect statement that, say, denigrates women, is something like, "I'm very offended by that..." or something sober but vaguely witty like, "What he said is an offense to 51% of the world."
Of course there's the issue of proportionality. Were the vision to become true-- as humor suggests it might or should-- 'middle eastern nuclear warfare' is several orders of magnitude more dire than 'barefoot and pregnant.' But do either idea, when touted by idiots, deserve to be taken seriously?
When people take brain-dead ideas, demagoguery, or jokes that are in bad taste seriously, the only thing that happens is that a legitimate position in an argument is created. You're setting up the argument that reads something like:
While on one hand, nuclear anihilation would solve our dire energy problems, on the other it's morally abhorrent and dangerous.
But this is not the LSATs, people.
The real choice isn't whether or not to be offended by tasteless humor. It's whether you're laughing with the offending person or at them. Statements like 'I hang liberals,' or 'NUKE THEIR ASS AND TAKE THE GAS!" should not be given the solemn respect of true offense, nor should they even be allowed near the scales of merit.
I say laugh them out of the room. Call them a bunch of retarded neanderthals. And then (if you still need to) say why, but not before they are thoroughly ridiculed. Not only will you come off as a confident authority on whatever subject is in question, you'll also begin to shape reality according to your beliefs.
Mortal threats on people are not funny, but when the average guy takes them seriously, it makes them a serious viewpoint. Shame and embarassment work. Laugh them off in public and create a more just reality.
And don't worry. The FBI is trawling the internet too, and they take it seriously enough for all of us. I hope.
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