Response to My Word

Larry’s latest attack on liberals using nothing more than projection has me questioning what his goal is. What does he seek to accomplish? I know that he wishes to stoke fear and motivate that Republican base. Is there a stopping point? What is the distance between, “those crazy liberals are trying to control you,” and, “the only good liberal is a dead liberal?”

Earlier this year we saw how questioning the results of an election led to chants of, “Hang Mike Pence.” Since then, I have spent some time reading about online radicalization and acceleration-ism. Some of that reading was about radical groups located in places like 4chan, 8chan and reddit. Some liberal individuals would visit the groups casually to get an idea of what extremist conservative groups were saying. As they engaged with others, they would start refuting the propaganda. Over time, they would see a few statements with which they would agree. After repeatedly seeing the messages of hatred and blaming minorities through memes, they would start to enjoy exchanging the dehumanizing messages with their new conservative friends. Later, these individuals realized they were promoting the white supremacist ideals they once despised.

Thanks to some intervention by friends, these people were pulled out of that toxic environment and brought back sanity. Reading about that experience though has me questioning how we can strip away humanity with such ease. With each editorial you write dehumanizing liberals; I find myself asking, what is your goal, Mr. Anderson?

— Michael Baumli

Maryville