re: #128 zombie
Hey zombie - I agree with you. Regrettably when the people assemble freely, you are inevitably gonna get some real whackos in the crowd. And THAT is what the MSM will cover and make a big deal out of - not what the majority of folks come to say and hear.
Unless, of course, it’s a LEFTIST assembly of people (which, for anarchists is obviously necessary; they aren’t going to organize anything!) where you will hear at least 10 times as many horrible things. But the MSM will not cover it or will only cover it to show the “police brutality” that was used to control them or a confrontation between whatever Leftist groups are protesting and counter-protesters.
Hearing this “burn the books” crap makes me nauseous and brings my admittedly always on a low boil anger level to a high boil.
But then what do the “right” people do zom? Do we give up our rights to peacefully assemble and have a public discourse (and yes, sometimes a public discourse is shouting back and forth)? How do we keep the weirdos (our version, if you will, of the anarchists) out of the demonstration?
And frankly I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that some folks have been planted in attendance to yell things like burn the books or worse.
I DO hate the fact that people yell things like “burn the books” or even worse, but I just don’t know how to avail ourselves of our constitutionally granted freedom of assembly. Shout them down - absolutely, but I suspect many clear thinking individuals are or have been so shocked that someone would say such a thing that they don’t have the reflexes to respond before some other nutter joins the fray followed by his or her fellow nutters.
I wish I had an answer to this because the Vietnam War showed that LARGE demonstrations - when covered by the MSM in a fair manner - CAN have an impact on governmental policy.
Shit.