| MISSION STATEMENT |
| "The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens." ADL Charter October 1913 |
((( ZIONEOCON ALERT )))
CALL THE ADL IMMEDIATELY!
You can find the office nearest you by using this map.
"If you encounter bigotry, hate or discrimination, there is a place to contact no matter where you live, work or study. At 30 regional ADL offices in the United States, and three overseas offices there are trained professionals ready to help."
Sorry, I got a bit ahead of myself. I am just boiling over. You will not believe what they've done; the Anti-Defamation League has just issued an extensive "special report" defaming half the country for our thoughts and beliefs.
Talk about fear-mongering! They are themselves selling bigotry, hate and discrimination -- only it's okay because it's Leftist bigotry, hate and discrimination.
Here's the main page, which functions as the index:
Rage Grows in America: Anti‑Government Conspiracies http://www.adl.org/special_reports/rage-grows-in-America/default.asp
Each section is linked to a greater elaboration, so you have to click on each sub-heading to read the document in full.
Don't forget to breathe.
The ADL appears to be absolutely blind to everything but the anger they see among conservatives and obviously this anger frightens them -- although they never denounced the angry anti-war leftists of the Bush era. I guess that was justifiable "free speech," "speaking truth to power," back in the days when a Republican was president and therefore protest was (fleetingly) the "highest form of patriotism."
The extreme political bias of the ADL is so palpable, I simply can't believe it. This "report" is utterly dismissive of the entire process by which conservatives (1) became fearful about the national situation, then (2) spoke out about those fears right away (the early tea parties were in February, just after the 'stimulus' passed) and THEN - and only THEN, when faced with either or both of two unsatisfactory responses, being unfairly demonized or just ignored - (3) got frustrated to the point of (4) real anger.
Nowhere do the authors deign to address the unprecedented level of spending by the government or the unprecedented power wielded by the government or the unprecedented level of intrusion by the government into the personal lives of citizens. How can a situation so unprecedented be cast as irrelevant? It boggles the mind. I don't know that they even mention government spending once. Instead of explaining anything, they just pound the drum of ANGER, GUNS, ANGER, MILITIA, ANGER, DISTRUST, ANGER, PARANOIA, ANGER, CONSPIRACY, ANGER, GUNS, ANGER, ARMED RESISTANCE...
What they have done, what they have done, what they have done is validate and further legitimize the very propaganda that has already so deeply and dangerously polarized the country.
This is a terrible turning point. The ADL, the friggin' ADL - which claims its "ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike" -is demonizing ME! a Jew! and lots of other Jews besides, and millions and millions of caring, informed, outstanding citizens, with beliefs and values of the highest integrity and absolute historical validity, who were only driven to the streets by the full-on thrust of disregard and disrespect with which their concerns have been met.
I find it impossible not to take this personally. As a Jewish conservative, tea party organizer and someone who believes that citizens are entitled to official verification that our president was constitutionally eligible to run for the office he now holds, I absolutely dread what my fellow patriots might think of the Jews now!
It was bad enough that nearly 80% of Jews voted for Obama in the first place, like the little liberal lemmings that they are, but now... for such a supposedly mainstream, supposedly tolerant, supposedly dignified institution to be propagating bigotry against conservatives (including Jewish conservatives) and to needlessly stir up political hyperbole and unwarranted fears to this extent ... oy gevalt... This is horrendous. As if things weren't bad enough already, the implications of this are gut-wrenching. It really puts me between a rock and hard place, hated and villified by the establishment, the media and the government on the Left, and now likely distrusted on the Right!
And who do I have to thank for this? The Anti-Defamation League! the very organization that was founded to "stop defamation" of Jews like me, and to "secure" "justice and fair treatment" for all citizens. Citizens. You know, like me for instance. HULLO?
I urge everyone to immediately call the ADL and demand to speak with whomever is responsible for this abusive diatribe. They must be held accountable for how they see this as in any way in keeping with their Mission Statement:
"... to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens."
ARRRGGGHHHHHHH!
Breathe.
Here's the full introduction, followed by the links to rest. I would put it "under the fold," but I don't know how anymore... not since TypePad screwed me up with all these new & improved functions that I don't want and took away what I could and did use.
Sorry, sorry. I didn't sound ANGRY, did I ? I hope not, since ANGER IS NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT. It scares the good people of the Anti-Defamation League who choose to lick the boot that kicks them... and insists that we all do the same.
Okay. Now. Here's the full introduction.
Oh, look ~ They just added a graphic!
Since the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, an undercurrent of anger and hostility has swept across the country, creating a climate of anti-government fervor and activism that manifests itself in ways ranging from incivility in public forums to acts of intimidation and violence. Though precursors to the wave of anger can be found in the 2008 election campaign itself (as some partisan Republicans attempted to prevent Obama’s election by demonizing him as a socialist or even as a “closet” Muslim), many Americans have been taken aback by the sudden rise and strength of the anti-government animosity that has swelled in the first year after the election.
What characterizes this anti-government hostility is a shared belief that Obama and his administration actually pose a threat to the future of the United States. Some accuse Obama of plotting to bring socialism to the United States, while others claim he will bring about Nazism or fascism. All believe that Obama and his administration will trample on individual freedoms and civil liberties, due to some sinister agenda, and they see his economic and social policies as manifestations of this agenda.
In particular anti-government activists used the issue of health-care reform as a rallying point, accusing Obama and his administration of dark designs ranging from “socialized medicine” to “death panels,” even when the Obama administration had not come out with a specific health care reform plan. Some even compared the Obama administration’s intentions to Nazi eugenics programs.
At rallies and public events around the country, as well as across the Internet, President Obama is being painted as someone intent on destroying American culture and values. He is portrayed as “the other,” a dangerous foreign element in the United States. Some of these assertions about Obama, or the sentiments behind them, are motivated in whole or in part by racism. But more common is an intense strain of distrust and anger towards the government, an ultra-libertarianism combined with a streak of paranoia and belief in conspiracies.
This wave of anti-government rage is something that has surprised and dismayed even a number of conservative writers and politicians, some of whom have found themselves victims of the anger. In October 2009, to give just one example, Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, was accosted at a town hall meeting in October 2009 by an angry man in a “Don’t Tread on Me” T-shirt who accused him of being a “traitor” and of betraying the nation.
The anti-government anger encompasses a large portion of the right side of the political spectrum. It emanates from mainstream groups and politicians, but also from undeniably extreme groups and individuals, such as the suddenly resurgent militia movement.
Together these individuals and groups form a continuum of anti-government fervor, with few sharp divisions or distinctions. Nevertheless, the animosity can be generally characterized into three loose categories:
- Mainstream Political Attacks. In its most “mainstream” version, the animosity consists largely of partisan attacks against the Obama administration by some conservative politicians and media figures. Upset and anxious about their loss of power following the 2008 elections, they seek primarily to energize their political base and to delegitimize the Obama administration at the same time. For the most part, these individuals eschew the conspiracy theories and more outlandish notions and tactics propagated by others. Some of their activities parallel Democratic tactics during the Bush administration. These mainstream political attacks fall outside the bounds of this report. One of the most important effects of these activists, however, is to help create a body of people who may be predisposed to believe the assertions and claims of more extreme individuals and groups.
- “Grass-roots” Hostility and Conspiracy Theories. Still mostly in the mainstream, the next phase of anti-government sentiment is represented by a variety of grass-roots and quasi-grass-roots movements and events, such as the various “Tea Party” protests held around the country, as well as other, similar events, and the disruptions that occurred at town hall meetings during the summer of 2009. This middle category is also characterized by a fairly widespread acceptance of conspiratorial notions about Obama and his administration, of which the most popular is the so-called “birther” movement, which contends Obama is not a legal citizen of the United States.
- Anti-Government Extremists. On the extreme end of the continuum are a wide array of anti-government extremist movements and groups. The anti-government extremists believe that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other government agencies are preparing concentration camps and mass graves for American citizens, that the U.S. government will engage in “door to door” gun confiscation, and that it is plotting to establish martial law in the United States. Many such groups and individuals implicitly or explicitly promote resistance, even armed resistance, to the government. The growth of these sentiments has been paralleled by a resurgence in the anti-government militia movement, which has considerably increased in size over the past year.
This wave of anti-government anger is in many ways reminiscent of a similar surge of such hostility in the early to mid-1990s, in the years before the Oklahoma City bombing. In fact, many of the more extreme conspiracy theories common today actually had their origins back in 1994; that was also the last period of growth in the militia movement.
This hostile wave of anti-Obama anger and paranoid anti-government conspiracy theories goes well beyond mere transgressions of civil political discourse. Anti-government agitators launch many attacks that do not merely disagree with government policies or positions, but rather attempt to delegitimize the government itself. Indeed, an increasing number of anti-government activists are convincing themselves, or have already done so, that the government is illegitimate.
These growing beliefs threaten to create a large pool of people more susceptible to extreme anti-government conspiracy theories and even calls to resistance on the part of extremist groups and movements, such as the militia movement, which may grow as a result.
Significantly, many of these activists have appropriated an idealized version of Revolutionary War history for their own purposes, stressing the armed resistance of the American colonists to British “tyranny” and suggesting, in varying degrees of openness, that Americans today should act as their revolutionary forebears did and throw off the perceived shackles of the allegedly tyrannical government. Some of these notions have even percolated beyond extremist groups and movements into the mainstream.
One example is the Appleseed Project (also known as the Revolutionary War Veterans Association), a marksmanship program that combines firearms training with historical/political lectures on the battles of Lexington and Concord in the Revolutionary War. Trainees are taught not only marksmanship but the idea that they are equivalent to the Revolutionary War patriots and might have to fight for their liberty in the near future. “We believe that if we teach it,” the Appleseed organizers state, “it’ll wake our fellow Americans…We want Lady Liberty to be safe.” Not surprisingly, more radical anti-government groups such as militia groups tend to support the Appleseed Project, because they have more extreme forms of many of the same beliefs.
And then there's the rest of it. Part One is called "Anger in the Mainstream" (The Tea Parties; The Town Hall Meeting Disruptions; A Building Anger; The 'Birther' Movement and The Influence of the Mainstream Media).
Part Two is "Anger on the Fringe" (Alex Jones, the Conspiracy King; Conspiracy Theories Imagine Government Plots; Conspiracy Theories Prompting Action: Reaction to the Iowa National Guard Training & Richard Poplawski; Resisting the Government: The Oath Keepers, The Three Percenters, The Resurgence of the Militia Movement).
Posted by: JCF | Wednesday, 18 November 2009 at 03:11 PM
Posted by: Yael | Thursday, 19 November 2009 at 07:04 AM
Posted by: JCF | Thursday, 19 November 2009 at 01:47 PM
Posted by: RR | Thursday, 19 November 2009 at 07:56 PM