The frame - "Conservatives are good people who have been pushed to anger and violence"

[bigmonkey]

Seems to me this is the long-standing framing for all conservative rhetoric. Because they've been "pushed to the limit", they are to be excused for losing their cool, or talking over others in conversation, or becoming physically violent, and, especially, for never having to rein themselves in.

The liberals, on the other hand, are envisioned as oppressors, hence always secure in their safety, and so able and required to tone it down. Conservatives envision themselves as calm and rational people who are at the limits of their patience, and so not responsible for their own behavior.

The trouble is that the MSM enforce this framing, and never address its verity. In fact, by hyping the controversy, they provide a confirming context.

So, how to combat this? Get conservatives to admit that, historically speaking, they are actually very safe? How do we combat this framing?

[scarletwoman]

1. Typical abuser excuse: "You made me do it." (nt)

[Demoiselle]

2. Wow, you're right, Scarlet! Hadn't thought of it that way before.

[bigmonkey]

4. Not just an excuse, it's a frame.

The MSM reinforces it every time they let some RWinger shout over everybody else. As if they're shouting because they understandably can't control themselves.

[uppityperson]

5. +1000

[tavalon]

14. Absolutely!

I knew I recognized it! It was so familiar but I hadn't the words for it - that's it exactly.

[Blue-Jay]

15. We have a winnah!

[PDJane]

3. I honestly wish I knew.

Conservatives in your country are bullies who have managed to change the meaning and direction of the language to their own purposes.

I honestly believe that this was done quite well on purpose; in that, the right-wing conspiracy theorists have it right. Unfortunately, they've missed the point of the change, and so fight the nebulous 'liberals' with it. In truth, there hasn't been a real left in the US since the sixties, or earlier. It was systematically destroyed, and now the system is destroying itself, because the economics of it were never sustainable.

[upi402]

6. Restore the Fairness Doctrine, revoke Clinton's Telecommunications Act

and then - if the propaganda organ of corporatism is evened out a bit- there's a chance for campaign finance reform, etc...

[reformist2]

13. +1 We all could use a little more diversity in the points of view we hear.

It's no coincidence that public discourse began to go down the tubes in 1988 when the Fairness Doctrine was allowed to lapse, and Rush Limbaugh went on the air....

[upi402]

18. and the media went on bended knee before Reagan

Remember they were shown going to gala balls with the elites. No more ratting them out for the corrupt spoils they now were enjoying...

[demosincebirth]

7. How can good people be pushed to anger and violence??

[bigmonkey]

9. That's part of the frame.

The frame contextualizes it like this: The "fact" that they're good people means that their anger and violence is justified and out-of-character, as if in regular circumstances they would never behave like that.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. Pushed by whom?

a) hate radio

[bigmonkey]

11. But in the frame, you just need to ask them.

and it turns out, it's the liberals!

[tom_paine]

10. There is no way to combat it. The time when that was possible has passed.

The RW Lie Machine is now virtually indistiguishable from the Corporate Media. They enable each other and Fox pretty much frames the discussion parameters for everyone else (Far Right, Uber Right, and Jared Loughner, but that dog-whistling part will go quiet for a short time 'cause it's plausible deniability time for the RW)

It's Weimar 1930. Obama is our Hans Bruening. The best we can hope is that the American Corporatists, unlike the German Industrialists of the 1930s, won't let the crazies get the upper hand on them.

Then, instead of shocking, over-the-top brutal brbarity instead we'll get the more graden-variety feudal nobles and henchmen vs. peasants slightly-less brutal but more leaden barbarity.

What a choice.

[bigmonkey]

12. I think it's better to try to think outside the box.

Rather than proclaim how securely it's taped shut.

[tom_paine]

19. To each their own. Good luck with that and I mean it sincerely.

Kudos to all who continue the fight.

I do apologize for the negativity, even though I sadly stand behind my observations of trends.

We all deal with shock and grief differently.

[old mark]

16. Pushed by 8 years of W doing everything they ever dreamed of?

I guess it doesn't take much for them, does it?


mark

[Martin Eden]

17. "Conservatives are good people who have been pushed to anger and violence" ...

... by false propaganda with themes of violent "remedies" to political issues.