The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #14007   Message #118640
Posted By: Peter T.
28-Sep-99 - 06:21 PM
Thread Name: PC is NOT a dirty word!Proud to be PC!
Subject: RE: PC is NOT a dirty word!Proud to be PC!
Apart from the Roy quote, which is worth pondering, I would argue that hatred is about as accessible as it ever was, certainly in my lifetime. Kids got all kinds of pornographic and vicious hate literature all the time in my happy American high school. They especially liked it because it was banned and dangerous.


While these quotations should be read with care, this sort of argument is often used with panicking people in mind, so they will do something drastic. Hitler was quite adept at using the threat of Jewish terrorism to suppress Jews. Some of these statements are not arguments: they are just opinions. For example, with great respect, Rabbi Abraham Cooper is completely wrong historically. The history of democracy in the West is one in which hate, racial violence, and terrorism have flourished quite happily in the mainstream. You only have to read Southern (and Northern) newspapers before the American Civil War to read exhortations to all kinds of racial hatred. After the war, newspapers were quite happy to keep at it, and add the Irish and Chinese to the mix. Henry Ford was a good example: he was not exactly out of the mainstream! In Quebec 55 years ago, flagrant anti-semitism was widespread in the media. Widespread racial jokes and stereotypes flourished. In many cities public figures, streetside speakers, and organizations promulgated hatred. The mainstream was saturated in hatred.

I am not unconcerned, but I think we can relax a little: the Internet is not going to drag us down to perdition. We are already there.
yours, Peter T.