Why would anyone expressing a rightwing opinion in public get a death threat from

[Skidmore]

the left? There was a discussion by the women on The View of Brad Pitt's mother receiving death threats after her article this past week supporting the R position on women's issues. Now, I don't agree with her but the last thing I would do beyond expressing my strong disagreement would be to threaten someone else with physical violence.

My inclination is that many of these threats (and we have seen more than one instance of claims of people on the right getting death threats) is that they are staged somehow by some of these nutcase Rovian dirty tricks groups. If that is the case, there must be a way to prove it. I just don't think it hold together that there are scads of people on the left just running around ready to kill others for their point of view. We didn't show up at campaign events or protests with guns and threatening signs.

[RKP5637]

1. Fake IMO to make the left look/sound evil. n/t

[kestrel91316]

2. Either delusional projection (since death threats are a hallmark of RWers),

or blatant lying/fabrication.

[sharp_stick]

3. The term "death threat"

has become completely meaningless. I'll bet anyone that no real threat has been made in this or damned near all the other "Death Threat news right or left.

The media and "victims" toss it around anytime someone gets an email like "I really hope you die you ignorant POS".

Not only is that not a death threat under any circumstances as there is no threat it's likely collected from an anonymous messaging system at the bottom of a news or opinion piece somewhere.

[coalition_unwilling]

9. During Operation Shocking and Awful, I used to vigil against the war by myself

on Venice Blvd. There was guy who would come by daily on one of those adult-sized tricycles. He had long grey hair tied in a pony-tail and, at first sight, you might dismiss him as a washed-up old 60s hippy. I was disposed to do so until one morning as I wielded my "I Blame Bush" banner, he stopped in front of me and said, "If I see you here again, I will shoot you."

I said, "If I were not willing to die for my beliefs, I would not be standing here." And as he pedaled off, I yelled at him, "I'll call the police on you, you jack-ass."

But when I returned to our apartment and told my wife what had transpired, she refused to let me vigil at that location by myself any longer. I had to re-locate and start vigilling with at least one other person from that point onward.

My wife certainly thought the threat was real. I'm still not sure and never got a chance to find out.

[BlueCaliDem]

4. The Left don't do "death threats". We're too intelligent for that.

This sounds more like a set-up by the AlwaysWrongRight and the propaganda arm of their side.

Remember all those losers at the OWS protests bashing in windows and stuff? Pretty much sure those were Righties. TeaBaggers funded by Corporations? O'Keefe's "stings". The threats directed at Mrs. Pitt sounds completely in line with how Republicans try to demonize their enemies and create bad propaganda to keep their gullible sheep in line and distracted while they work toward robbing them and our country blind.

[hughee99]

14. Exactly, there are no crazy people on the left!

Just ask Ted Kaczynski. He'll tell you. He has degrees from Harvard and Michigan and was an associate professor at Berkeley, so you know he's smart enough you can trust him.

[BlueCaliDem]

19. No one's denying that there are really nutty people in this world,

but they're the exception, not the rule on the Left. Even you have to admit that.

It serves no purpose to attack Mrs. Pitt and anger her son who is a strong advocate for LGBT rights and has proven to be colorblind when it comes to skin tints. It's self-defeating and it only benefits those who are opposed to LGBT rights and racial equality.

[hughee99]

20. It doesn't make sense to threaten someone over their beliefs at all,

Especially some actor's mother. That's why the people who make these threats are considered "crazy". Crazy knows no political boundaries. It could be a RW put up, but I couldn't say that with ANY certainty. I wouldn't even say "crazy" is the rule on the right. They just happen to be the most visible people because they now have "crazy" driving their agenda. "Crazy" makes good TV.

[Posteritatis]

18. This may sound strange, but "we" aren't a monolith. (nt)

[Puzzledtraveller]

5. Lunatics exist on the left as well as the right

It would be unwise to dismiss the possibility.

[uncle ray]

6. how about some examples.

[Puzzledtraveller]

10. Do you believe their are no lunatics and psychos who identify as liberal or democrat?

One should ask for proof that their isn't.

[hughee99]

15. How about this guy.

[Douglas Carpenter]

7. craziness is not limited to any one ideology or belief system. Unfortunately, there are people who

advocate left-wing positions who are not otherwise stable or sensible people. I'm pretty sure there are a lot more on the right - but the left is not immune from this either.

[Spirochete]

8. To some of these people

"Hey, lady - you suck!" = Death threat.

But Palin's gun sights and Nugent's stupid rants are just harmless fun...

[Gman]

11. Possibly. But I wouldn't be surprised

If threats were made from the left. They are just as wrong.

[progressivebydesign]

12. That shit is usually faked...

... they LOVE to ramp up the victim drama like that. Someone on a comment board on Yahoo probably made a comment. But really.. with the technology now, there is no one who is going to be calling someone's house or cell phone, or sending an email like, that, unless they're deranged and don't understand how utterly unprivate things are. So how did they get her contact info?

I call bullshit. I really doubt that there are hoards of women and gays making death threats against an ignorant elderly woman.

But there are idiots everywhere... so it's possible. But it does NOT reflect the 99.9% of people who suport women and gay rights.

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. The conservative nutjobs have it dialed up to 11

Even the most vitriolic of us on the left only can seem to muster 3 or so before our sensibilities kick in.

... and society drifts farther right, year by year.

The truth of the matter is the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and modern progressivism is only willing to be just *this* squeaky and no more. Elections are stolen, citizens can be assassinated, wars are started and corporations rule. "What more can we do? I participated in street theater!"

My great-grandfather was a molly maguire who had a special hatred for "the pinkerton cops". The labor movement of the turn of the century was definitely not pacifist and they brought rapid change to society.

I just don't think it hold together that there are scads of people on the left just running around ready to kill others for their point of view.

There aren't, and conservatives know it. It's projection and rationalization.

[Doctor_J]

16. even if it isn't a false flag,

they still outnumber us in death threats by 1000:1 or so. Also right wing death threats tend to go unpunished, while those made AGAINST right wingers tend to be investigated and prosecuted vigorously.

[Enrique]

17. because conservatives are helpless victims in our society