We've always had kooks among us. I remember as a kid finding them in the park. Some guy yelling about Jesus, another guy yelling about communists, gathering a small audience of curiosity seekers. You never read about these nuts in the paper. They were pretty much ignored.
Today a whacko gathers a crowd saying Obama wants to eliminate elders with forced euthanasia and video of it gets played over and over and over again on the news. Sure, the footage is labeled shocking, ignorant, racist, but it still gets shown over and over and over again. Susan Jacoby has written eloquently in her book about American unreason about how this coverage provides a kind of legitimacy, Millions see this, not a handful in a park as in prior times. The more who see it, the greater the chance that it will be seen by the special whacko with a gun who decides to save the world from Obama.
Glenn Beck jokes about poisoning the Speaker of the House. Hitler moustaches are painted on posters of our President. American unreason isn't going over the edge. And the trouble is, a lot of kooks have guns.
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