I asked myself that many times after the OkCity bombing. I had spent the prior year in deep-under research for a book that dealt with a fringe group of far-right extremists. At the time, all the mainstream info I could find on them was a quarter-page piece in Time and a half-page piece in Newsweek, both buried in the backs of the magazines.
As the only unaccompanied female at the Soldier of Fortune convention that year, I listened as sanctioned speakers--supposed "experts"--perpetrated myths about the Branch Davidian tragedy. One speaker claimed to have autopsy results on his desk that proved that the ATF agents had been killed by their own people because they had "automatic weapons wounds stitched up the backs of their legs."
This was a patent lie. I knew this because I had the autopsy results on my own desk--they'd been handed to me by a Texas Ranger who had guarded the site after the fire.
That year, I listened to their hate radio, read their underground hate literature, attended their gun shows, talked to them, absorbed their hatred and rage and paranoia about how they were at war with the United States government. At the SOF convention, we studied how to wage war against government agents.
That year, I tried to get my right-wing friends to understand that all this hatred polluting the airwaves would only encourage the more unhinged of their listeners, feed the flames, so to speak. They laughed at me, called me a liberal, like it was a bad thing.
I warned them anyway. I told them that this level of hatred and paranoia was getting worse and that something terrible was going to happen. Nobody believed me.
I was 400 pages into ORDEAL when the bombing occurred, and even as the media was discussing Middle Eastern terrorists, I was glancing at the calendar. April 19. It was home-grown terrorism.
My friends stopped laughing.
But I was haunted by that convention I'd attended, with all its lies and hatred and rage and paranoia--I remember, when I got home, I was completely emotionally drained. I couldn't help but wonder if McVeigh had been there too.
The hate speech that is polluting our airwaves only gives credence to the more extremist views out there, VALIDATES their rage, encourages them to act on it.
But it cannot exist without the same kind of compliance that occured back in pre-war Germany, when hate speech, combined with government restrictions, of Jews grew worse and worse while the acquiescent population said nothing, did nothing. Jewish neighbors disappeared in the night; still, most did nothing. Concentration camps appeared, and by then, everyone was afraid.
As the saying goes, as long as good people do nothing, evil is allowed to exist.
There is one color I have not seen mentioned here yet: GREEN.
It is (mostly white) corporate "ho's" who are profiting from the likes of Imus, and (mostly white) corporate ho's who are profiting from urban black rap music. And (mostly white) folks who are buying into this crap.
And as long as (mostly white) corporate America makes money off of (mostly white) consumers off of hate speech, it will still be out there, and it will have consequences.
