In the wake of this weekend’s shootings, members of Congress are now proposing a bill that will outlaw “threatening” a politician or the ‘use language or symbols that could be perceived as inciting violence.’

If that happens, how long before saying something like “kick the clowns out of office!” might be perceived as a violent threat? Heck, you could say “remove them from office” with a wink and a nod and some people will think you’re hinting at some violent threat.

And, why? Because, according to some of these politicians (who, as we all know, are not always the sharpest crayons in the box), such words may push mentally unbalanced people toward violence.

So, when Sarah Palin says “Don’t retreat, reload!” or when Barack Obama says “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”, then normal people may understand the metaphor and not see it as a call to violence, but someone off their rocker might.

But…

You know what propels some crazy people to violence? The fact that they’re crazy!

Anyone remember The Catcher in the Rye? Not exactly a book that incites violence, yet it apparently led Mark David Chapman to kill John Lennon.

John Hinckley, Jr. shot Ronald Reagan in an attempt to impress Jodie Foster.

Crazy people are, well, crazy. There’s no telling what’s going to set them off.

Restricting speech won’t accomplish anything outside of restricting speech. Crazy people can still read between the lines, even if what’s between the lines is blank space.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 10th, 2011 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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