“Toning Down The Rhetoric” Means Obeying Big Government

Establishment exploits actions of deranged lunatic to stifle freedom of speech

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars
Sunday, January 9, 2011

Despite the fact that Jared Lee Loughner was a psychotic loner with “left-wing” beliefs according to those who knew him, the establishment has hastily exploited yesterday’s tragic shooting in Tucson to demonize conservatives, libertarians and gun owners while ordering Americans to “tone down the rhetoric,” which is nothing more than a euphemism for stifling dissent and coercing people to roll over on Obamacare, bailouts and whatever big government is preparing to unleash next.

“The nation’s caustic political climate has become a suspect of sorts in the rampage that left six dead and a lawmaker critically injured in Arizona. Already, appeals are being heard to tone down the rhetoric,” reports the Associated Press, in doing so framing the debate and profiting from the actions of a deranged lunatic to launch a fresh assault on freedom of speech.

Make no bones about it – “tone down the rhetoric” means stifling dissent, it can have no other possible meaning. Because a lunatic decided to kill others in a bid to give his worthless life some meaning, Americans are being ordered to shut their mouths about Obamacare, endless bailouts, and the fact that their political representatives in Washington (with some notable exceptions) have ceased to represent their interests.

Arizona Sheriff Dupnik wasted no time in blaming the deaths on conservative talk radio and television presenters, despite the fact that Loughner was a “left-winger” who listed amongst his favorite books The Communist Manifesto.

“The vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business … This has not become the nice United States that most of us grew up in, he said.”

Dupnik then took a swipe at people opposing the growth of big government, wasting no time in blaming them for the tragedy.

“When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government,” he said. “The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on this country is getting to be outrageous and unfortunately Arizona has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”

Even before the identity of the gunman was known, the Associated Press was busy tying the massacre to Sarah Palin and second amendment organizations. We’re no fans of Palin, but the fact that the AP cited one of her campaign images that centered around targeting certain states as political battlegrounds to imply that Palin was partly responsible for the carnage, while ignoring almost identical “crosshair” images against Giffords put out by liberal groups, underscores how eager the establishment was to seize upon the tragedy for crass political points scoring.

While blaming tea partiers and conservatives without a shred of connecting evidence, the likes of Associated Press, the Washington Post, and a slew of statist Obama worshipping liberal websites, conveniently failed to mention a savage hit piece against Giffords that had appeared just days before on the Daily Kos website (since pulled) which bizarrely invoked the word “dead” several times.

Indeed, as statists rushed to finger tea partiers as being responsible, they conveniently ignored the fact that Giffords was a pro-border control, pro-second amendment blue dog Democrat. In addition, the federal judge that was killed, John Roll, was a strong opponent of the Brady gun control bill. Giffords and Roll would make strange targets for anti-government extremists, since both of them have voting records that put them in alliance with most conservatives.

Despite this, the AP tried to use the shooting to attack second amendment rights by alluding to Giffords’ Republican challenger Jesse Kelly last year inviting supporters to join him at a pro-gun event.

“I don’t see the connection,” between the fundraisers featuring weapons and Saturday’s shooting, said John Ellinwood, Kelly’s spokesman. “I don’t know this person, we cannot find any records that he was associated with the campaign in any way. I just don’t see the connection.

“Arizona is a state where people are firearms owners — this was just a deranged individual.”

In addition, there was little mention of the fact that it was a responsible firearm owner who used his second amendment rights to help stop the carnage. It was reported that one member of the crowd interrupted Loughner’s rampage by shooting at him with his own concealed carry gun.

While the establishment continues to characterize the gunman as an anti-government extremist in a transparent ploy to chill dissent against big government, Loughner’s favorite You Tube video was a clip of someone burning an American flag. Forgive me if I’m mistaken, but I don’t recall seeing too many tea partiers burning American flags at political rallies.

When it turned out that Discovery Channel building gunman James Jay Lee was a statist zealot and a global warming alarmist, there was little call for anyone to “tone down rhetoric” about doomsday climate change scenarios. Isn’t it interesting that the establishment only demands we “tone down the rhetoric” when that rhetoric manifests itself as criticism of the state?

“Toning down the rhetoric,” or becoming afraid to speak out against the government, will do nothing whatsoever to stop mentally ill people with no political affiliations committing crimes.

By exploiting tragedies to coerce Americans into “toning down the rhetoric,” the establishment hopes to suffocate criticism of the state, opposition to Obamacare (next week’s hearings on a repeal have already been cancelled), and allow the march of big government to continue unimpeded.