Sarah Palin Is A Terrorist
Written by Professor Honeydew // January 8, 2011 // Politics // 19 Comments
Ever wondered what a real terrorist looks like?
Not what you were expecting? Well, you don’t have to take my word for it.
“The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.”
You know, that does ring a bell.
No, that’s not it…
Yeah, that’s the one.
I was on the streets of Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001, and trust me–I know a terrorist when I see one.
Sarah Palin: you are a terrorist.
You may not have held the gun to Gabrielle Giffords’ head today in Tucson. You may not have literally been the one to pull the trigger. But there is no doubt whatsoever that your ignorant vitriol, your incendiary hate speech, and your obstinate idiocy were all the ammunition required to kill innocent civilians and committed elected officials this afternoon.
You can delete as many Tweets as you would like or scrub your website of offensive images now that you are the one under metaphorical fire, but you do so out of cowardice, not out of respect for others or even yourself. Dignity is beneath you, it is clear, and the inflammatory pablum you have fed to the most deranged of your lunatic fringe has now taken on a life of its own.
Sarah Palin: you are a terrorist.
You know all too well how words have a power beyond their fleeting existence, how they can reverberate and injure and incite. That’s why no one can talk about your retarded son (your literally fucking retarded son) or why David Letterman can’t make an innocuous joke about your adult, single parent daughter… even if it is okay for you to take potshots at Michelle Obama and her children.
You know full well when you address a crowd of right-wing radicals and stir the fire in their bellies with lies and gross mischaracterizations–you know precisely what you’re doing. You understand that your obligations to the public in terms of moderating the things you say, write, or imply (or that your staff does on your behalf) are different than those who are out of the spotlight, who have not held elected office, and certainly who are not purported Presidential candidates.
Your malicious utterances, for worse or for worst, carry with them a unique set of consequences.
Perhaps you honestly didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to take your inane bait. Now that they have, now that you have led the charge with such gusto and a complete, disturbing lack of compunction, this is crystal clear to those Americans with proud blood in their hearts and a conscience in their minds:
Sarah Palin is a terrorist.
For more insight into the Gabrielle Giffords assassination attempt and Sarah Palin’s culpability in the matter, please explore these posts by Forbes’ Caroline Howard, Ryan Grim, Director of the Norman Lear Center Marty Kaplan, and University of Colorado Scholar in Residence Gary Hart.
19 Comments on "Sarah Palin Is A Terrorist"
Just when this couldn’t get any more diabolical, the Westboro Baptist Church has announced they’ll be picketing the funerals, adding “God sent the shooter!”
See their message in the link below and take a guess who these people will be voting for in the next election:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/09/westboro-baptist-church-arizona_n_806319.html
Truth.
Leave it to a church to take the evil up a notch.
Yes. Free speech has consequences. Sarah Palin is a self-centered fuck who cares more about her own popularity than the good of our nation.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Sarah Palin.
What I also find troubling in the dialogue going on in the media right now about whether or not political rhetoric like Palin’s contributed to this shooting s the dichotomy being drawn between events like Columbine and overtly political acts like the OKC bombing. The dichotomy being that at Columbine the shooters were mentally ill and Timothy McVeigh was making a political statement.
Have we already forgotten that the Columbine shootings were WAY MORE FUCKING COMPLICATED than just a couple unstable kids who got their hands on guns and built some pipe bombs? It’s like when people simplify explanations of terrorism by spouting bullshit like “they hate us for our freedom” without considering that maybe—just maybe–there’s more going on than that.
Which is not to say that mental illness didn’t play a role in this shooting or in the Columbine shooting or in most of the cases where someone picks up a gun and takes the life of another human being. But if we refuse to acknowledge that we have created a culture of violence and if we refuse to self-reflect when these atrocities occur and if we continue to whitewash history by pathologizing every action we find reprehensible, THIS SHIT WILL KEEP HAPPENING.
And if mental illness were more than just a convenient excuse to alleviate our collective guilty conscience, then maybe someone in Congress would actually do something to improve mental health care in this country. But that won’t happen. It never happens. We, as a nation, refuse to look closer to find the real reasons for violence and we also refuse to do anything to fix the fake reasons.
What I meant to say when I started commenting was:
Great post, Professor Honeydew. Great fucking post.
Professor Honeydew is a Coward
You hide behind a pen name making these false accusations . . . which makes you a coward.
Trust me, I know a coward when I see one.
Luckily most people are not stupid enough to believe your line of BS here.
Wait a minute. Professor Honeydew ISN’T YOUR REAL NAME?!?! YOU’VE BEEN LYING TO US, YOU BASTARD!!!!!
I rest my case. Only a Palin supporter wouldn’t be intelligent enough to notice that everyone on this website has used a pen name since its inception.
But Michelle, dear, if you’re looking for a bonafide coward, how about the person who tried to remove her offensive crosshairs imagery and “reload!” Tweets in the wake of the shooting.
That move doesn’t make her “sensitive”–that would have been removing them once she realized how idiotic those things were–it makes her a coward.
Why don’t you link out to your Facebook page in your next comment so I can buy you a cup of coffee sometime to explain the difference. (You know how us libs love our lattes.)
And as far as “false accusations” go, there are no such things in this piece. Sarah Palin uses threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes. That’s the dictionary definition of terrorism. Ergo, she is a terrorist.
awww poor Professor Honeydew got his cross dressing panties in a wad because I hit a nerve ; ) It will be okay liberal, I promise you. As long as you hide your identity on this site you will be protected from the scary terrorist Sarah Palin and her wicked followers. To be perfectly honest, I feel sorry for you for buying into your own line of BS lol!
Precisely what is to be expected: a response with no facts, no argument, just the sort of petty namecalling that got Palin in this mess to begin with. Way to prove my point about the mindlessness of her supporters, Michelle!
Anyhow, I’m sure you would say the same thing to the face of the parents whose child was killed, or the family of the judge who was murdered, or Giffords’ family who are huddled around her in the ICU.
Stay classy!
Cross dressing? Where the eff did that come from? Palin supporters are SO STUPID! I am so thrilled to finally come into this close contact with one of them.
Can’t both sides be more agreeableness and state that the person responsible for the shooting is the nutjob who pulled the trigger??
This is not to absolve Palin (and her ilk) of irresponsible behavior, since I do believe people with power should know better and should temper their rhetoric appropriately. Words do have power. But to make a direct connection that her words led a person who is clearly disturbed is rampant speculation at best. At worst – the attempt at correlating is as dangerous as the accusation itself.
To be clear:
Shooting people = bad.
Barely veiled threats of violence for political gain = bad.
(generally speaking) Sarah Palin = bad (or, the worst).
Speculation = bad
Otherwise intelligent partisans who feel the need to cherry pick fact(oid)(s) from news reports to justify their cause (he’s a liberal pothead! he’s a nazi! Limbaugh made him do it! Palin put targets on Gifford’s district!) = BAD.
The Right acting as if their violent vitriolic rhetoric against all things Obama in light of this tragedy is still ok = Fucking shameful.
Doing silly attention-grabbing things like calling Palin a Terrorist* – Bad.
Taking a step back and realizing you can’t catch all the crazy in the world = Truth
Everyone chilling the fuck out = Good.
*There’s so much to work with on Palin that resorting to calling her a Terrorist is beyond the pale. Why not just focus on dumb?
I don’t know if I can chill the fuck out when there are kids running around shooting at House Dems that just happened to be on Palin’s map, marked with a freakin’ gun sight!
But thanks for the vote of confidence, Sebastian.
Let’s agree to freak the fuck out when it happens a second time? Hopefully that never happens.
I can rest easy with my opinion that this is an isolated incident by a crazed person. Speaking of crazy persons doing stupid shit – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/11/rush-limbaugh-jared-loughner-full-support-democrat_n_807543.html
The whole “the guy was crazy” shit is SERIOUSLY starting to piss me the fuck off. For starters, the mentally ill are more likely to be victims of crime than to commit crime. And mentally ill people don’t commit violent crimes at a higher rate than those without mental illness. Furthermore, to say that because someone has a mental illness there aren’t any other contributing factors when that person commits an act of violence is irresponsible and intellectually dishonest.
We’re all influenced by the culture in which we live, including those of us with mental illnesses. Our culture is a violent one. We produce more serial killers than any other country. We have more school shootings than any other country. It’s absurd to say this is an isolated incident when these types of incidents have happened before and most certainly will happen again. To dismiss this act (or any other act of violence) as an anomaly is both naive and dangerous. If we don’t evaluate the broader cultural narratives at play here, then there’s no reason why we, as a nation, should be confident that this shit won’t keep happening.
Well said, Colleen!
There is no evidence that supports the myth that mental illness leads to violence.
Think about all the violent people with no mental illness and all the mentally ill that are mostly catatonic.
FUUUUUUUCK! I just listened to the statement Palin made today.
When I first read the esteemed professor’s piece this weekend, I actually thought “terrorist” might be too strong a word.
But now I don’t think it’s strong enough.
Blood libel. She fucking said “blood libel.”
Barry said it best y’all. Sums up my feelings perfectly. A little “kumbayya” to be sure, and I’ll be the first person to knock Obama’s occasionally passive nature when it comes to politics, but some passages from his speech today brought tears to these eyes.:
“You see, when a tragedy like this strikes, it is part of our nature to demand explanations – to try to impose some order on the chaos, and make sense out of that which seems senseless. Already we’ve seen a national conversation commence, not only about the motivations behind these killings, but about everything from the merits of gun safety laws to the adequacy of our mental health systems. Much of this process, of debating what might be done to prevent such tragedies in the future, is an essential ingredient in our exercise of self-government.
But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized – at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do – it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds…
…But what we can’t do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another. As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together.”
“It’s just my interpretation of the situation.” – Big Boi
SHE IS A TERROIST WHO ADVOCATED ATTACKS ON UNITED STATES SENATORS!!!! WE AS AMERICANS SHOULD SHUN HER.
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