What are the consequences of the anti-immigrant rhetoric and race baiting that O'Reilly and other right-wing pundits? View the YouTube video in the previous post for an example.
It creates a climate of hatred against immigrants of Mexican and other Latin American nationalities. This climate of hatred can then result in the murder of someone like Luis Ramirez, a twenty-fiver year old Mexican immigrant. It does not matter what their immigration status was, with green card or not, because the murderous thugs are worried about "the changing complexion of America" (O'Reilly), and probably didn't ask.
Update, July 29th 2008.
Jeffrey Feldman has an excellent analysis of what kind of political and social environment O'Reilly's violent rhetoric creates.
"First, O'Reilly blurs the line separating verbal and physical confrontation during his interviews. Anyone who has seen The Factor has witnessed O'Reilly using this technique, and the video linked above is a perfect example. When we watch O'Reilly, his physical persona creates a particular kind of violent tension. As his voice rises and his body leans into his guests personal space, the threat of an actual physical outburst seems imminent. It is a calculated tension."
And I should give a hat tip to my good cyberspace friend Hume's Ghost at the Daily Doubter, who also connects the the right-wing jabber mouths with the recent shooting at a Unitarian Universalist Church.
"You think O'Reilly might have the decency to address this since he's been writing books about and saying that godless communist homo/immigrant loving Nazi "S-P"s have been trying to destroy "traditional" white America and that people should become "T-Warriors" to fight them and what not."
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