Culture that devalues life
Mac at pesky’apostrophe points to Newt Gingrich — the commencement speaker for the University of Mary Washington, a Virginia State University — joining forces with James Lewis to lay blame for the Virginia Tech shootings on either liberal policies or liberal culture. It’s a little unclear which.
But a lot of the asshole wingnuts on the right are eager to make the case that the liberal left’s “disrespect” for life (meaning support for abortion rights and death with dignity) and secular belief in evolution has made people see human life as disposable.
If we have to lay blame on a political position, though, I’d suggest Cho’s murder of innocents more closely resembles the Bush administration’s foreign policy.
Choose violence as a first option. Bad situations can always be improved by more firepower. Do not distinguish between those who’ve harmed you and the people who resemble them. And above all, remember talking rather than fighting is a sign of weakness.
Myself, I lay most of the blame on untreated psychosis and gun control laws that allowed Cho to buy firearms with not so much as raised eyebrow.
But hypermasculine displays of strength and destructive power have been the centerpieces of right-wing rhetoric from Bush, Cheney, Neo-Conservatives, and Christianists for at least the last six years. When BattleCry is still recruiting for the War God’s army, don’t you think the Right has more to answer for in this act of self-righteous, wanton violence?
Update: No one died, but perhaps this is the kind of respect Gingrich & Co. think would make the world a better place?
