Church shooter collected conservative books; Freepers blame victims

After having to explain itself in the '70s, the American conservative movement has become increasingly radicalized. American conservatism now has few voices of reason remaining and relies primarily on sound bite demagoguery.

I wish it wasn't the case, but it is. I know modern conservatism's track record all too well. Their ideology has become dominated by bullies who never grew up and decided to coast on the failures of their own policies - which they blamed on everyone else.

One aspect of the Knoxville church massacre was left out of the earlier story about it. It turns out that accused shooter Jim Adkisson was also a collector of conservative books from the likes of Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and Bill O'Reilly.

A police officer who interviewed Adkisson said that - in addition to targeting that church because of its progressive teachings - Adkisson also had a belief "that all liberals should be killed" and that he planned to "target those that had voted them into office."

Not a comforting thought to end your day with, is it? But this is another indicator of how much right-wing commentators have ratcheted up the rhetoric.

Hannity, Savage, and O'Reilly can publish all the right-wing venom they see fit. But when their invective leads to tragedies like this, by golly, we should call them on it.

Meanwhile, the increasingly predictable clods at Free Republic blamed the shootings on the victims. One of them said that "the libs are ruining the country afterall [sic]" and that if they'd just go away, folks like Jim Adkisson "would also not use them for target practice."

The media outside Knoxville has generally ignored the fact that Adkisson is a fan of right-wing talk radio and stockpiles conservative books. But if the public had the information to connect the dots - namely, that right-wing invective feeds the fire that lurks in the heart of its followers - folks would become much warier of talk-shit radio and wingnut websites.

(Source: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jul/28/church-shooting-police-find-manifesto-suspects-car)