Pottery Barn Terrorists
by Primo Encarnación
SO, here’s what we know about Robert L. Dear, the Planned Parenthood terrorist, so far: old, white, southern, male, Christian (read his bible “cover-to-cover-to-cover” per his ex), conservative, gun owner, conspiracy theorist (cover your roof in metal to save you from government?) who handed out anti-Obama leaflets to strangers and claimed “no more body parts” during his arrest. And he was also cruel to animals, shot a dog, lived in a shack in the woods without electricity or water, hid food prepper-style, defenestrated his wife and peeped in on his neighbor lady, then headed to a trailer in MiddleOfNowhere, Colorado, with a woman he met online. And he thinks a shootin’ war against his enemies is the answer.
All clear prima facie evidence of mental incapacitation, except for the “old, white, southern, male” part, that’s just gravy.
Throughout the Right Wing Nutjob-o-sphere, they are seizing on any odd detail or rumor to make this man liberal, a drug addict (because he likes pot), or transgender (because he checked off the wrong sex on his voter registration) or just a vanilla maniac who descended from the woods and started shooting. This after they tried to claim he was a bank-robber who fled to PP afterwards, all while claiming that the “body parts” hoax is actually true, but had nothing to do with the crime. These are Olympic-caliber mental gymnastics in the service of confirmation bias.
Ain’t cognitive dissonance a bitch?
The vehemence bordering hysteria with which they thrust this man away from themselves belies the horrible verdict that fair-minded people will reach: the Right Wing created Rob Dear, put the gun in his hand and shoved him toward Planned Parenthood.
Stochastic terrorism is the mechanism by which so-called lone wolves like Dear became, in fact, the product of relentless programming specifically designed to radicalize malcontents to action. I recommend you all follow the link, and this one, as together they are a damning indictment not just of the Right, but of the weakly compliant and meekly complicit media who succumb to both-siderism out of fear and/or laziness.
The media must be made to acknowledge that, in fact, the radical Christo-fascists are creating a bunker-mentality army of “lone wolves” and anyone who stands idly by, or worse yet, actively encourages the hate-propaganda is complicit in these murders. The minute the Republican leadership started fawning over Rush Limbaugh in the 90s, rather than ostracizing him and his ilk, is the minute America started down this slippery slope of legitimizing hate and fomenting terror. Lately, their false victimhood has extended to claims that there’s a war on christians. If that’s true, how come they’re the only ones doing the shooting?
The Right broke Robert Dear; the Right bought him.
Amen, just amen.
1Primo Excellence!
“The Right broke Robert Dear. The Right bought him.”
And, now by some scrambled eggs of logic, the wingnuts will spin that into some convoluted chicken/egg word salad proclaiming their innocence.
The propane tank of rhetoric Bill O’Reilly killed Dr. Tiller, while Snarly Failurina and her current ilk are responsible for the current violence aimed at Planned Parenthood clinics. CNN anchors deserve meretricious awards for persisting in referring to the Colorado clinic as an ‘abortion clinic’ despite the fact that location did not offer termination procedures.
Hate wing rhetoric gaslights the Robert Dear rubes into action. However, it wouldn’t be wise to hold one’s breath waiting for the snacilbupeR to accept a scintilla of responsibility.
2Yeah,butt-freedumb! 1st amendment-hate speech. 2nd amendment- right to murder.
3This is so right on that it makes me weep for the soul of our country………..
4This cartoon:
http://claytoonz.com/2015/11/28/shooting-colorado/
And remember that deadbeat rancher who got a small army of supporters when the feds asked him to pay for the grazing his animals had been doing on taxpayers’ land? Did he and the goons who pointed loaded guns at federal agents get arrested? Nope. Guess what that encourages.
But film revolting and illegal abuse of animals at a factory farm and you’ll get thrown in jail.
IOKIYAR.
5The people who made that film clearly have blood on their hands. I just wonder if the pit bull personal injury lawyers are on that yet? Sic ’em!
6Masterful essay: I wish it would magically appear on every single email of every single person in America. Of course some of them fawncy words made up by the a-leet, would fly right over the heads of the very audience they address.
7On checking off the wrong gender on his voter registration: I bet you anything he was still allowed to vote, because, you know, a flaming Red vote is always welcome.
8No, sorry, Primo. The right did not “break” him. Be careful who you paint as victim. This man CHOSE his path as clearly as you choose yours. All the right did was give his dislikes a place to roost and feel welcome. Everything else was his choice. I’m not excusing the right by any means, but unless you can show me the right kicking in his front door, restraining and brainwashing him, we should not go there. Now if you want to talk about how the right validates prejudice and is permissive with anti-whomever behavior then I’ll join you. JMHO
9Primo, I do believe you are 100%, completely and entirely correct-o!
10We could parse nature vs nurture, or simply accept that snacilbupeR are either little chickens or cracked eggs. But quoting Robert Dear quoting candidate Carly Fiorina, “baby parts,” it’s clear who Dear took as his catalyst/muse. Motive ‘unclear? …… puh-leeze.
11’tis the season to share reality: An anti-abortion uber-Christian organization did a survey of over 1000 women who got abortions…they published results in the Christian Post news provider….they’ll still find a way to blame ‘leftists’ …the comment section if rife with “the church is failing women”
Their survey results: 70% are church going Christians, 4% Atheists. http://www.christianpost.com/news/70-of-women-who-get-abortions-identify-as-christians-survey-finds-150937/
12JAK, for all I know we are even neighbors, but I won’t give Dear the benefit of free will here. Yes he chose to lead the life he did, and yes, he chose to arm himself and kill people, but I prefer (free will?) to believe that he was a blank slate, an empty vessel, whatever you call it, and ready for the hate-front influence.
13Not kicking in his door, JAK, nor physically restraining him. But brainwashing? Betcherass!
And was it everyone on the right? No, of course not. But those who do it know what they are doing. It’s the same mechanism by which they get people to send them money and put their hands on the TeeVee to get healed. It’s the same mechanism by which Donald Trump and Ben Carson and Ted Cruz total 60% in the polls. It’s the same mechanism by which Bill O’Reilly killed Dr. Till, even if he didn’t pull the trigger.
Then they throw their hands back and say “who…me?!?”
The murders and the arsons and the bombings… these are all collateral damage to these jerks. And it is absolutely, positively the way by which totalitarian regimes come to power.
Did the anti-abortion lobby call, cull and cultivate Robert Dear specifically and personally? No. They let the law of large numbers do that for them.
14Exactly.
15A piece that can be enlightening on the blame game
16http://www.stonekettle.com/2015/11/unknown-unknowns.html
I realize that there is a tendency to find blame, I think JAK is pretty much saying the same thing here. I agree with this line of thinking. You can always find a platform to blame for this kind of tragedy if you look hard enough.
It is such a sad thing to see all the people being damaged by the machinations of “being right”, no matter what the facts.
Hope
17JaneE
I look at him not as Rob Dear qua Rob Dear, but as an avatar for an entire class of people who are one misguided justification from Dog Day Afternoon. How else could I have so accurately predicted the attributes of the shooter while the incident was still in progress last Friday? At the time I posted that thread here, nothing about him had been discerned. Am I psychic? All due respect to Jim Wright at Stonekettle Station – love his stuff! – but, the personal and political profile of the shooter was inevitable from the moment they said “Planned Parenthood.”
“I will bet you this, though: white, male, 30 to 60, possibly ex-military, Christian, right wing, xenophobic, racist, FOX-watching, good ol’ American homeland-grown terrorist!”
Not ex-military, so far as we know yet, but a military brat, it turns out. Nothing yet on xenophobe or racist, but are either of those a stretch?
What does this tell us about culpability? Well, answer me this: how much culpability does global warming have for Hurricane Patricia, the most intense on record, and the concurrent, later concomitant, unprecedented flooding in Texas?
A climate of heated hateful rhetoric didn’t cause the storm in this guy’s head. But it sure made it a Cat 5.
18DaChupster: I hear you and can honestly say those were ny thoughts some years ago. But consider this, what you have written above indicates a knowledge of the right and their tactics. You suggest (and I agree) those tactics are powerful.So how come you and I aren’t hunkered down somewhere polishing our weapons and making our plans for the final solution? Hmm?
Maybe because we CHOSE not to. We chose to see things differently. We chose to think. He, too, was free to do as we did. He chose something else. And his choices have led to the murder of a law officer leaving a widow and 2 kids without a dad; the murder of an Iraq War vet; the murder of a mother.
I refuse to elevate him to the level of some hapless fool caught up in the whirtwind of abortion politics. He made choices that he and alot of others will have to live with for a long time. There were other choices.
19I’m not saying that he bears no accountability for these actions. I’m saying he’s not the only one.
Call them unindicted co-conspirators.
20The good news is that in a court of law, Robert Dear will be hard pressed, albeit with the best money in legal defense, to meet the standard of the McNaughton Rule (insanity defense). And, yes, he will have money; rest assured the Taliban Kristians will steal from their grandmothers to raise a defense fund for their terrorist.
The bad news is that in all likelihood there will not be co-conspirator indictments for Snarly Failurina, the hate group leaders, and snacilbupeR politicians encouraging their base.
Just once, I wish someone with the balls and talent of Vince Bugliosi would step up from DOJ or a state AG office to prosecute one of these homegrown terrorist cases.
21daChipster, unfortunately, unindicted co-conspirators is most likely what they will remain. I honestly do not see a prosecutor with the talent of a Bugliosi sticking indictments to any of the crowd of lying “baby parts” instigators.
22SusanotLC –
I didn’t get too far into the comments, but to me it seemed more “women are failing the church”. Riiiight. Because the needs of the institution should take precedence over the needs of human beings.
23When you have presidential candidates like Cruz not only legitimizing Newman, Operation Rescue, who advocates killing planned parenthood employees, but endorsing what he spews then the “low information”(moron republicans) citizens swallow it whole and rise to the bait. This is what those sanctimonious sycophants either don’t get or don’t care about, that incendiary speech has deadly consequences. And that makes them responsible for those consequences, every bit as guilty as Mr. Dear.
24I know it’s easy to believe the worst about this guy, but he was found not guilty of shooting the dog after a trial. The only things he was convicted of were traffic related charges. I personally find the wife’s charges compelling, but it would be incorrect to say that we “know” he did things he wasn’t convicted of. Sometimes people do have conflicts and file false charges. I’m also not totally convinced that he is a Christian. He certainly was raised as one, but his ex-wife said he didn’t attend church and didn’t talk about it much. I know Atheists that tell me they’ve read the bible “cover to cover”. In fact that’s usually the phrase they use. Not that I’m saying he’s an Atheist. I’m just saying we don’t know some of the things that are being taken for granted in the lefty blogosphere.
25Stochastic terrorism. Third time in as many days that I have heard this term. It certainly fits.
26JAK, I do not plan to elevate Dear to some automaton programmed to kill, but actually that is exactly what he was. I doubt he had the intellect to parse out the choices offered to him, it was soak up the influence of what the preachers of hatred online and radio and people like Fiorinna who drowned out all ability to think things through, such as check other sources. Ugliness and hatred are appealing to people who are struggling and need to find someone with answers and someone to hate. (like the Germans in the 30s) Yes, he “chose” to become the monster he became, but his decision was powerfully influenced by the sources he used.
27Right there with you Primo. It did all start back when Rusty Limpbaugh announced he would speak daily again the Clinton presidency and “bring it down”. His insistence that an opposition should not be loyal to the office was the gateway that brought these degenerates out of hiding and in some cases made them mainstream. The bell cannot be un-rung and it will take years to drive these people back under the moist rocks from whence they came.
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