There are no left wing bad guys as far as the media is concerned *UPDATED*
As you might have guessed, despite his self-identification as a Democrat, his Bush-loathing and his Truther beliefs, the MSM is characterizing the Pentagon shooter as a “right-wing extremist.” Allahpundit asks almost the right question:
Is it possible to be a “left-wing extremist” anymore or do nuts who embrace some lefty ideas before launching an attack automatically fall under the broader heading of “anti-government,” a term that’s conveniently also used to describe conservatives’ opposition to statism? That’s why CSM ended up labeling him a right-winger, I suspect. Righties want a smaller federal government and Bedell hated the military and the military’s part of the federal government. Voila!
I think he’s giving the media too much credit for analyzing someone’s beliefs as anti-statist and then analogizing that belief with a conservative’s intuitive sense that, the more power individuals cede to the government, the more dangerous the government becomes.
The real question is, “When will the media stop using ‘right-wing extremist’ as a euphemism for ‘evil'”?
Go up to any liberal you know, especially a media type, and ask “Was Hitler right wing or left wing?” I guarantee you that, nine times out of ten, your intrepid liberal will answer “right wing.” Same for Mussolini. And because Mussolini had the Fascist Party, “fascist” = “right wing.” Did you get that? The fact that it’s historically completely wrong, the fact that both Hitler and Mussolini were hard core Socialists who threw nationalism into the mix (and, with Hitler, a solid helping of antisemitism) is completely irrelevant to these liberals. Here’s the syllogism:
Hitler and Mussolini were right wing fanatics (screw the historic record)
Hitler and Mussolini were evil
All evil people are right wing fanatics.
So, now a new syllogism:
John Patrick Bedell used a gun
Guns are evil
John Patrick Bedell is a right wing fanatic.
Or perhaps this one:
John Patrick Bedell shot at people (even though they were part of the war machine and probably deserved it)
It was evil to use a gun to try to kill people (even though the victims were in the war machine and probably deserved it
John Patrick Bedell is a right wing fanatic
It’s all so easy once you get the hang of it. And please remember not to confuse your liberals by asking them about such “evil” people as Mao, Stalin and Kim Jong Il. You’re likely to get long, confused answers about how they weren’t/aren’t really that evil, how they’re trying to cope with the problem of modernizing backwards cultures, how their real problems arose because of the way in which the arrogant right wing fanatics tried to isolate them, etc. And mostly, you’ll once again get a wall of evil and, most likely, be told that they’re not really Leftist systems, they’re military dictatorships. (And yes, I’ve gotten that response.)
UPDATE: As for Bedell, I’ll give Zombie the last word about loony-toonz and their murderous schemes:
Now, just for a moment, let’s set aside the false guilt-by-association game everyone’s always playing. We all know that John Patrick Bedell and Joseph Stack are basically insane, plain and simple — as are any number of similar whackjobs who periodically go loco and erupt into violence. Violent psychopaths often incorporate some seemingly random overarching theme into their mindset, and on occasion that theme involves politics. Whenever someone like Bedell or Stack goes ballistic, every pundit jumps into the fray and tries to spin the outburst as “exemplifying” the political viewpoint of those with whom the pundit disagrees.
But that only rises to the level of a valid argument when a distinct pattern emerges. If, say, 5,000 suicide bombers in a row are invariably Islamic fundamentalists — well, OK, we’ve got a problem with the belief system, not just with the individuals. Yet I don’t see a pattern in these “going postal” violent outbursts which seem to happen perhaps three or four times per year, every year, no matter who’s in power or who’s president: it seems that the “philosophy” (if you can even call it that) of each of the attackers is unique, idiosyncratic and just plain illogical. Even so, if he starts shooting or killing when a Republican is president, he is deemed a left-wing psycho (see: Charles Manson); if he starts shooting or killing when a Democrat is president, he is deemed a right-wing psycho (see: Joseph Stack). But the truth is, paranoid people simply feel threatened by the external power structure in general, so they lash out at any symbol of authority, regardless of its political affiliation.
So, instead of playing the blame game so unapologetically employed by the Left when they feel they can spin things to their political advantage, I’m not going to say that Bedell’s actions at the Pentagon epitomize the leftist worldview. Rather, he was just crazy, as clearly indicated by his belief in the craziest of modern crazy conspiracy theories, 9/11 Truthism.
Don’t stop, though, with the material I’ve quoted above. Please read Zombie’s whole post — especially the updates which have a slew of information about Bedell’s political ideology. I’ll agree with Zombie that Bedell was crazy, but the facts indicate that the reporters who try to tie his particular pathology to the right are roaming very far afield indeed.
