Chemistry

From the sheriff of the town the AZ Shootings occurred:

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

I think his line about unbalanced people/vitriol is probably true.  The two are like chemicals in a lab - when they're separate from each other, nothing happens. But once mixed, there's an explosion.

No, hate rhetoric isn't going to make someone like you or me grab a gun and start shooting people. But if it hits the right lunatic at the right time, like chemistry, that's when the shit hits the fan. And the people spouting out the hate know this - they know that they can use violent, hateful language to whip people into a frenzy of fear and anger, and 99.9% of them WON'T go shooting people, no matter what.  No, Sarah Palin isn't responsible for what happened today.  But if you think for one second that she doesn't think that the 0.01% who do actually act out is worth the 99.9% who send in floods of cash and deify her as The Chosen One without any shoot-em-ups, then you're out of your goddam mind.


If I'm one of Palin's advisers, I'd tell her to come out and, while rightfully denying any direct responsibility, use this as an opportunity to take the lead in saying "hey, maybe we're using the wrong kind of language here, and we need to change it." People would feel for her, they'd be impressed with her being an adult, and it would put her at the head of the Beck/Limbaugh/whothefuckever pack.


But I'm not her adviser, so I'm guessing she'll express outrage over being accused of spreading hate, turn herself into the victim, triple down on using that kind of violent language just to show us fags that's how they do it up in Alaska, and make up some story about meeting Giffords family and Jesus and blah blah blah blah.

But hey, what do I know about chemistry? All I did was blow people's mind with my science project in chemistry class.