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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 6/18/16

The Weaponization of Hate

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But we all should have known, If not specifically, in general.

If history teaches us no other lesson, it's that hate directed by elites, and the fear which that hate incites in the followers of those elites, always ends badly.

Over the short-term, the elites may think they've won.

Republicans who use hate of LGBT people as a political tool will see a bump in the polls.

Companies that make and aggressively sell weapons of war to civilians have already seen huge increases in the value of their stock and, thus, their fortunes.

And Christian and Muslim demagogues basking in the revenge fantasies of their acolytes are already promoting another round of hate and fear from the pulpit to the mosque to YouTube.

These people and their strategy is not new. And neither is the silence of those cowed or who simply think, "This is not my fight."

Pastor Niemoller told us of his tragic realization that he, himself, had become one of the silent ones -- and eventually paid the ultimate price for his and his colleagues' silence. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King told us, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

It is all of one cloth.

And there are some brave voices, from groups like Muslims for Progressive Values calling for full rights for women and gays, to politicians like Bernie Sanders saying that, "My religion is that when you or your child hurts, I hurt," regardless of who "you" are.

Silence and passivity are no longer options. History is filled with their consequences.

When the billionaire funders/owners of the Republican Party (and a few Democrats, tragically) smile while hate-promoting websites and radio/TV programs funnel ever-more-frightened people into their ranks; when hate-promoting pastors, priests and imams jump forward to use hate and intolerance to increase their followings; when politicians use these most primal and easily-manipulated emotions to maintain and even build their own power; it's time for all of us to say: No.

Enough.

Too much, in fact.

We either stand together as a human family, or we die together in misery.

To paraphrase Woody Guthrie, it's time for Republicans to take account. Which side are you on? And how much longer will you stay silent?

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Thom Hartmann is a Project Censored Award-winning New York Times best-selling author, and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk program on the Air America Radio Network, live noon-3 PM ET. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights," "We The People," "What Would Jefferson Do?," "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle (more...)
 

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