# You say you want a Revolution! The growing right wing anger and threats **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 24, 2017, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003 "2017-07-24T03:38:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/21 "2017-07-24T16:11:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Say what you will about Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich but at least they had an agenda they wanted to accomplish. Even George W. Bush had his neocon foreign policy. > > But the current crop of Republicans have nothing. They became completely defined by their opposition to the Democrats. They even opposed things they wanted if the Democrats agreed with them. They stood for nothing except disagreeing with everything the Democrats said and using that to win power. > > Well, it worked. They caught the car. And now they have no idea what to do with it. The Coen Brothers clearly saw this coming way back in 1998: “Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.” ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/22 "2017-07-24T16:18:29Z")
I’m honestly surprised only that things haven’t gotten uglier than they are. I have a grad school acquaintance who I keep on my FB friends feed mostly because her posts give me a window into what the right-wing fever swamps are saying that I wouldn’t otherwise have, and one of the things that struck me was that there seemed to be almost no celebration of anything positive after the election – just a desire to crush protestors and bathe in liberal tears. These people are addicted to anger, and the problem with unified Republican control of the federal government is that there’s now nowhere to direct that anger except at private citizens who disagree with them. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/23 "2017-07-24T16:32:22Z")
Add to this the fact that trump has told the anti-terrorism office to concentrate only on “radical Islamic terrorism” ™, and ignore all the rightie domestic stuff. As one of my professors once said: “Situations that are perceived as real can have real consequences.” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/24 "2017-07-24T16:55:54Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Confirmation bias, coupled with the unshakeable belief that the plural of anecdote _is_ data. Given that the FBI has for years considered right-wing extremism an equal or greater threat than Islamic extremism, perhaps you should tell them that they don’t have any actual data. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/25 "2017-07-24T17:34:38Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > [underwater feminist weaving Hey I got 97% in that course. It was good for my GPA! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/26 "2017-07-24T17:51:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Say what you will about Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich but at least they had an agenda they wanted to accomplish. Even George W. Bush had his neocon foreign policy. Towering statesmen by comparison. George W. Bush expended a lot of his political capital trying to fight AIDS in Africa. There is no particular domestic political advantage to doing this; he just felt it was a good thing to do. I’m not saying it makes up for his failures, but he has objectively tried to do something good, and has had quite a lot of success at it, solely for the purpose of helping people who need it. He has been praised by people from across the political spectrum for his work on the matter. He wrote an open letter in April calling on the government for more funding. He had to do this because - of course - Trump’s budget called for huge cuts to the program (which the Obama administration kept running.) It is _absolutely inconceivable_ to me that Donald Trump would ever care to do something like what Bush did. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/27 "2017-07-24T17:52:06Z")
Y’see, now that the government is no longer coming after their guns, you have to switch to how it’s the “thugs” and the leftists who will engage in terrorism so they STILL need to be ready for battle. We see these folk seeming to \*look forward \*to “the shit hitting the fan”, but it is that they have been sold a myth about living in the End Times and that it would be unthinkable for it to just not happen. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/28 "2017-07-24T17:58:29Z")
What do you mean, “_You People_”? ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/29 "2017-07-24T19:27:22Z")
**Chimera** , whatever you do, don’t look for the latest NRA videos. They are flat our calling for a revolution. I guess since they don’t have a Democrat to demonize, they are searching for another boogie man. that happens to have dark skin. I’m not linking to them on purpose. they have no redeeming qualities. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/30 "2017-07-24T19:29:20Z")
I think these people are pieces of shit but I don’t take them all that seriously as a threat to the average liberal. It’s not like people are going to rise up \*en masse \*and slay their brothers. To be that desperate I think you have to have a certain amount of discomfort that the average American has not yet reached. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/31 "2017-07-24T19:53:30Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Say what you will about Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich but at least they had an agenda they wanted to accomplish. Even George W. Bush had his neocon foreign policy. > > But the current crop of Republicans have nothing. They became completely defined by their opposition to the Democrats. They even opposed things they wanted if the Democrats agreed with them. They stood for nothing except disagreeing with everything the Democrats said and using that to win power. > > Well, it worked. They caught the car. And now they have no idea what to do with it. I wouldn’t be too sure things have changed that much from the “glory days” of Reagan et al. Republicans are still heavily about Empowering Americans through deregulation and riding that big economic engine to glory, which means weakening federal oversight of most things and returning power to state and local government (unless it is behaving immorally, in which case it’s OK for the federal government to dictate policy). You can see it in all its glory [-ben\_1468872234.pdf"]here]([https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/media/documents/DRAFT\_12\_FINAL](https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL)[1) (my personal favorite is assuring Abundant Harvests). It’s hard for me to get upset about their current level of disorganization in getting big things done. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/32 "2017-07-24T20:15:11Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > **Chimera** , whatever you do, don’t look for the latest NRA videos. They are flat our calling for a revolution. I guess since they don’t have a Democrat to demonize, they are searching for another boogie man. that happens to have dark skin. > > I’m not linking to them on purpose. they have no redeeming qualities. Oh, I’ve read about those too and I’m including those people in this. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/33 "2017-07-24T20:29:06Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Serious question. Is this kind of rhetoric really new, or is it just more accessible now due to the internet? Well you did have conservative talk radio (the Rush Limbaugh type) before the internet became pervasive: > **[Conservative talk radio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_talk_radio)** > > Defunct > Economics > Gun rights That really started growing in 1987 when the FCC stopped enforcing the fairness doctrine. But before that radio and TV were subject to the fairness doctrine and the print media had small circulations. For example something like Human Events would have had less than 100,000 circulation: > **[Human Events](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Events)** > > Human Events is an American conservative political news and analysis website. Founded in 1944 as a print newspaper, Human Events became a digital-only publication in 2013. > Human Events takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence: "When in the course of human events...". The magazine was published in Washington, D.C., most recently by Eagle Publishing, the owner of Regnery Publishing, a subsidiary of Phillips Publishing. Thomas S. Winter was editor-in... ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/34 "2017-07-24T20:44:38Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I hope Alex Jones goes to prison for inciting violence and threatening a federal official. Does the same sentiment apply to Kathy Griffin? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/35 "2017-07-24T20:52:28Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Does the same sentiment apply to Kathy Griffin? I’m disgusted by her behavior, but I’m not familiar enough with the law to determine whether she broke it. If she broke the law, then yes, she should pay the consequences. I don’t think Alex Jones is a comedian or a performance artist, as evidenced by his own statements [here.](http://www.salon.com/2017/04/19/alex-jones-denies-lawyers-claims-hes-doing-performance-art-were-the-most-bonafide-hardcore-real-mccoy-thing-there-is/) By his own insistence we should take seriously everything he has to say (unless he’s imitating a Goldman Sachs banker. I guess.) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/36 "2017-07-24T20:58:55Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I’m disgusted by her behavior, but I’m not familiar enough with the law to determine whether she broke it. If she broke the law, then yes, she should pay the consequences. I don’t think Alex Jones is a comedian or a performance artist, as evidenced by his own statements [here.](http://www.salon.com/2017/04/19/alex-jones-denies-lawyers-claims-hes-doing-performance-art-were-the-most-bonafide-hardcore-real-mccoy-thing-there-is/) By his own insistence we should take seriously everything he has to say (unless he’s imitating a Goldman Sachs banker. I guess.) Not to mention that someone posing for a photo session is quite different from a conspiracy theorist with a radio program and a large number of like-minded followers. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/37 "2017-07-24T21:28:08Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I think these people are pieces of shit but I don’t take them all that seriously as a threat to the average liberal. It’s not like people are going to rise up \*en masse \*and slay their brothers. To be that desperate I think you have to have a certain amount of discomfort that the average American has not yet reached. Agreed. As with terrorism in general, I see no reason to think that the odds of it affecting you aren’t really low. Similarly, I have no reason to think that 99.9% of these people will do anything but talk on the Internet. Who they end up electing is of far more concern. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/38 "2017-07-24T21:57:03Z")
Until some psycho gets it into his head that he’ll be hailed as a hero for walking into a Democrat gathering with a ton of guns and shooting up the place. We’ve already had them in abortion clinics and pizza parlors. Alex Jones has an audience between 2 and 3 million people. Even if 0.01% of them did something, that’s still a couple of hundred dangerous loons. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/39 "2017-07-24T22:00:07Z")
Again, I don’t see much of a difference between that and terrorism committed by anyone else. We liberals tell people all the time that the odds of being impacted by terrorism in general are low, so that’s one reason why we don’t pass laws against Islam or what have you. I apply the same thinking here. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003/40 "2017-07-24T22:35:12Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Serious question. Is this kind of rhetoric really new, or is it just more accessible now due to the internet? > [@PastTense](#): > > Well you did have conservative talk radio (the Rush Limbaugh type) before the internet became pervasive: > [Conservative talk radio - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_talk_radio) > > That really started growing in 1987 when the FCC stopped enforcing the fairness doctrine. > > But before that radio and TV were subject to the fairness doctrine and the print media had small circulations. For example something like Human Events would have had less than 100,000 circulation: > [Human Events - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Events) Charles Coughlin is worth citing. His radio audience in the 1930s dwarfed that of Jones and even Limbaugh, and Coughlin didn’t have yer fancy-schmancy modern conspiracies to work with - he relied on good ol’ anti-Semitism. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-the-growing-right-wing-anger-and-threats/792003.md?page=3)