# Will the right stop trying to stop trying to compare their crazies to the left's mild overreactions? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 26, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842 "2009-08-26T23:49:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![scarbrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@scarbrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scarbrow)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/1 "2009-08-26T23:49:37Z")
I don’t know why this post is the one that threw me over the edge: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11481419&postcount=35](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11481419&postcount=35) If you don’t want to read it, DrDeth complains about a liberal who claims a TSA recommendation to use duct tape was based on campaign contributions from a duct tape manufacturer. DrDeth then says this shows that the “left can come up with as crazy stuff as the Birthers on the Right”. How many lawsuits have the left filed about duct tape? How many forged documents have they created? There’s just no comparison here. The crazies on the right are far crazier. And far more dangerous, as we’ve seen lately by right wing politically motivated shootings. I do feel for any reasonable person on the right, because you are being more and more identified with these crazy people. But trying to say that the left is just as crazy just makes you look stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/2 "2009-08-27T00:01:29Z")
I do agree that right wing crazies are more dangerous, since we like guns more than most on the left. However, there is certainly plenty of craziness to go around. I don’t know how you would quantify the, uh, quantity of craziness. Do we count Freeper posts vs. posts at Daily Kos? Is it letters to the editor that matter? Which newspapers do we use? How far back in history can we go? Can I bring up the idiots in college from my undergrad days in the 80s? Who gets to discount membership? Can we include ALF nuts burning down labs, cars, and vandalizing houses in the Left Wing list? I have had these conversations where some claim, “They aren’t real Leftists.” ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/3 "2009-08-27T00:06:27Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > I do agree that right wing crazies are more dangerous, since we like guns more than most on the left. Yeah, like the guy who killed John F. Kennedy. He was a real right-winger. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/4 "2009-08-27T00:10:46Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Yeah, like the guy who killed John F. Kennedy. He was a real right-winger. More importantly, how about Malcolm X and the armed black activists? Do they qualify as Left Wing, or would they be excluded from our counting of scary dangerous crazies with guns? Its not the Right Wing’s Fault that crazy lefties NORMALLY don’t pack heat. If you choose not to exercise your 2nd Amendment rights, don’t blame us! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/5 "2009-08-27T00:11:04Z")
Yeah, theres a general trend to disregard the nutcases on your own side as just that while looking at the nutcases on the other side as typical of that philosophy. As the years wear on for my parents they’re becoming more and more liberal and more often they begin conversations with “Did you hear what those crazy conservatives are doing now!?!” I consider myself a moderate, but I’ve pretty much taken up the mantle of full blown conservative when it comes to debates with my parents now just to temper their outright certainty. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/6 "2009-08-27T00:29:50Z")
Why would they? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/7 "2009-08-27T00:44:59Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Yeah, like the guy who killed John F. Kennedy. He was a real right-winger. You’ve successfully disproven the claim that every single crazy person with a gun is right-wing. Good job. Now where will you put all that straw? ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/8 "2009-08-27T00:45:42Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > More importantly, how about Malcolm X and the armed black activists? Do they qualify as Left Wing, or would they be excluded from our counting of scary dangerous crazies with guns? > > Its not the Right Wing’s Fault that crazy lefties NORMALLY don’t pack heat. If you choose not to exercise your 2nd Amendment rights, don’t blame us! > > 😃 I’m pretty sure the OP is talking about the current environment. Oswald and Malcolm X were nearly 50 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/9 "2009-08-27T00:53:38Z")
> [@scarbrow](#): > > If you don’t want to read it, DrDeth complains about a liberal who claims a TSA recommendation to use duct tape was based on campaign contributions from a duct tape manufacturer. DrDeth then says this shows that the “left can come up with as crazy stuff as the Birthers on the Right”. > > How many lawsuits have the left filed about duct tape? How many forged documents have they created? There’s just no comparison here. The crazies on the right are far crazier. And far more dangerous, as we’ve seen lately by right wing politically motivated shootings. > > I do feel for any reasonable person on the right, because you are being more and more identified with these crazy people. But trying to say that the left is just as crazy just makes you look stupid. Forged documents? Ever hear of Marla Mapes? Anti-free-trade riots ring a bell? Feature length movies depicting the assasination of GWB? “BusHitler?” Republican campaign offices attacked and workers assaulted? Crosses burned on lawns with Bush-Cheney signs? Mock Palin lynchings? There are plenty of assholes to go around. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/10 "2009-08-27T01:03:19Z")
Hang on, let me do some research to find some more people who committed major acts of violence who weren’t right wingers. That’ll show all of you! ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/11 "2009-08-27T01:05:34Z")
Look, I wasn’t trying to make a strawman argument, I just want people to realize that despite all of the stereotypes about right-wingers and their krazy guns, militias, etc, that one of the greatest presidents in our country’s history was shot to death by a left-wing radical. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/12 "2009-08-27T02:17:38Z")
> [@scarbrow](#): > > There’s just no comparison here. The crazies on the right are far crazier. And far more dangerous, as we’ve seen lately by right wing politically motivated shootings. What’s more, it’s always been so in America. Throughout the labor struggles of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries . . . Even in the 1960s and '70s there was (even) more crazy RW than LW violence; for some reason, nobody remembers that much. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/13 "2009-08-27T02:19:30Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Look, I wasn’t trying to make a strawman argument, I just want people to realize that despite all of the stereotypes about right-wingers and their krazy guns, militias, etc, that one of the greatest presidents in our country’s history was shot to death by a left-wing radical. :dubious: JFK was “one of the greatest presidents in our country’s history”? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/14 "2009-08-27T02:22:20Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > for some reason, nobody remembers that much. Those on the right have a memory deficit. Those on the left have a deathwish for ‘bipartisanship’. The combination makes unpleasant facts go away. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/15 "2009-08-27T02:23:26Z")
I think the left has plenty P-L-E-N-T-Y of whackos. My god, those PUMA troglodytes are still out there, claiming that Obama stole the election from Clinton (one nickname I saw on a PUMA site was “Homofauxbama.” Weird) and freaky Clinton-haters are still out there claiming that she’s trying to sabotage Obama so she can run in 2012. Spectacularly stupid truthers are out there who identify with the left. ELF and PETA. I wouldn’t be surprised if the anti-vaccers were mostly left, though that’s just a guess. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/16 "2009-08-27T02:25:57Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > :dubious: JFK was “one of the greatest presidents in our country’s history”? Yeah, I will never understand the deification of Kennedy. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/17 "2009-08-27T02:26:25Z")
Or the ones who claim that Bush was behind 9-11? They’re pretty wacked out. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/18 "2009-08-27T02:30:11Z")
An important distinction to make is how much air time the wackjobs get. When was the last 911 truther given the thumbs up by a sitting senator? How about a dozen sitting senators and house members? When was the last time the wacko left was given tons of air time and supportive comments on a major news network? Recently at least the left has tried to marginalize their crazies. The right has held them up as exemplars. Birthers, Deathers and Disrupters are positively promoted by the right. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/19 "2009-08-27T02:37:33Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I think the left has plenty P-L-E-N-T-Y of whackos. My god, those PUMA troglodytes are still out there, claiming that Obama stole the election from Clinton (one nickname I saw on a PUMA site was “Homofauxbama.” Weird) and freaky Clinton-haters are still out there claiming that she’s trying to sabotage Obama so she can run in 2012. Spectacularly stupid truthers are out there who identify with the left. ELF and PETA. I wouldn’t be surprised if the anti-vaccers were mostly left, though that’s just a guess. I have a hard time considering PETA members as anything but liberal. And they are definitely crazy, if they think their antics are actually helping their cause. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842/20 "2009-08-27T02:42:37Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Anti-free-trade riots ring a bell? Feature length movies depicting the assasination of GWB? “BusHitler?” Republican campaign offices attacked and workers assaulted? Crosses burned on lawns with Bush-Cheney signs? Mock Palin lynchings? I have never heard of any of these things. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-right-stop-trying-to-stop-trying-to-compare-their-crazies-to-the-lefts-mild-overreactions/507842.md?page=2)