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Right-wing sedition and acts of violence
Pundits and politicians on the far right have routinely and repeatedly claimed that Barack Obama is a Nazi, a Marxist, a Socialist, that the President of the United States wants to establish death panels, that Democrats are planning to declare martial law, that a program of gun confiscation is imminent, et cetera, et cetera,
ad nauseam.
No reasonable person believes such tall tales, but ask yourself this — how will unreasonable people respond when they're told over and over again that the President wants to take their freedoms, seize their guns, and kill their grandmothers?
Can there be some connection between the routinely irresponsible and incendiary statements
made by right-wing pundits and politicians in mass-media, and some acts of violence committed by the people who follow such leaders, read their books, watch their shows, and believe what they're being told?
Most of the wildly over-the-top rhetoric listed on this page (and of course, much more that we've missed) can't be cloaked as anything but hate speech and calls to violence — calls which have occasionally and tragically been answered.
When these irresponsible and incendiary lies are spoken into microphones that reach millions of people, no-one can seriously claim to be surprised when it leads to catastrophic effects.
Yeah, but
what about the
left-wing's loons?
We sometimes hear from people who chastise us for ignoring hyperbolic hate speech and lies from left-wing sources — which misses the point entirely.
Certainly, you won't have to look long to find numerous examples of lunacy from the left, but you'll need to look. That's the difference.
The left-wing's biggest loons publish weblogs and zines and call talk shows, while the right-wing's biggest loons host those shows, write nationally-syndicated newspaper columns, or sit in Congress.
The left-wing's nuts are marginalized, as nuts should be, and thus present little to worry about. The right-wing's nuts are superstars and millionaires whose lies and incitement are piped it into virtually every American's television and radio, interrupted only for commercials from major American corporations.
There is no equivalence.
--Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News
Of course, we don't claim that the lists on this page are comprehensive. We have no paid staff, and we can only note of the outrageous statements and acts of violence that we're aware of. We've undoubtedly missed more than a few.
We welcome any clippings or comments you'd like to send. Our email address is unknownnews at inbox.com, and we'll say thanks on our main page if we use your link.
Like the URL says, this website is about unknown news.
Our news comes only from mainstream, professional journalists or (rarely) other sources we trust entirely, with no nuttiness and no interest in the same news you see everywhere else.
What we believe
We believe in liberty and justice for all, so of course, we oppose many US government policies. This doesn't mean we're anti-American, redneck scum, pinko commies, militia members, or terrorist-sympathizers. It means we believe in freedom, as more than merely a cliché.
We believe you have the right to live your own life as you choose, and others have the equal right to live their lives as they choose. It's not complicated.
We believe freedom leads to peace, progress, and prosperity, while its opposite -- oppression -- leads to war, terrorism, poverty, and misery.
We believe it's preposterously stupid to hate people because of their appearance, their race or nationality, their religion or lack of religion, how they have sex with other consenting adults, etc. There are far more apropos reasons to hate most people.
We believe in questioning ourselves, our assumptions, each other -- and we especially believe in questioning authority (the more authority, the more questions). We believe obedience is a fine quality in dogs and young children, but not in adults.
Like America's right-wingers, we believe in
individual responsibility,
hard work to get ahead,
and stern punishment for serious crimes.
We believe big government should not be blindly trusted.
But unlike most right-wing leaders, we mean it.
Like America's left-wingers, we believe in
equal treatment under law,
war as a last (not first) resort,
and sensible stewardship of natural resources.
We believe big business should not be blindly trusted.
But unlike most left-wing leaders, we mean it.
Like libertarians, we believe it's wrong and reprehensible to arrest people for what they think, believe, look like, wear, eat, smoke, drink, inhale, inject, or otherwise do to themselves.
But unlike many libertarians, we're not obsessed with the gold standard, we don't believe incorporation is humanity's highest achievement, and we don't believe everything in life comes down to dollars and cents. We've read and enjoyed Ayn Rand's novels, but we understand that they're works of fiction.
We're skeptical, and we're sick of so-called 'journalists' who aren't skeptical at all.
A reader asks, what are our solutions?
We propose no solutions except common sense, which is never common. We like the principles of democracy, and the ideals broadly described as 'American'. The US Constitution is a fine and workable framework for solutions, when it's actually read and thoughtfully understood by intelligent statesmen and women. So, no manifestos from us. We don't dream that big, and if there's one thing the world doesn't need it's yet another manifesto.
Our suggestion is: think.
A fact-based instead of faith-based approach leads to solutions for most of the recurring issues of our time, from abortion to global climate change, pollution to universal health care, careful but real regulation of industry and economy, hunger, war, terror, human rights for humans not for corporations, science not religious doctrine in public schools, equal protection and prosecution under law, etc. Approach problems without glorifying stupidity, without demonizing intelligence, and answers usually come into focus.
These pages are published by Harry and Helen Highwater, happily married low-income nom de plumes and rabble-rousers from Madison, Wisconsin (with a few friends scattered around the world helping out).
We try to spotlight news that hasn't gotten enough (or appropriate) attention in American media, along with our opinions and yours.
We bang our keyboards against the wall, because it doesn't hurt as much as banging our heads.
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