response to my asshole brother on myspace

[Cain]

We all know this, but I just want to say, for the record, that the left does this too.

Maybe, but not to the same degree.  Take for example the antiwar protests in 2003.  I can't recall hearing at a single time about an antiwar protest turning violent or attacking pro-war protestors.  I'm sure there were, especially later on, but in 2003 there were very few of the total number.  Yet at the same time I can recall many pro-war protests breaking up, intimidating, phoning in bomb threats and physically assaulting anti-war protestors.  These weren't just isolated incidents either, they took place in almost every state.

Also, I would say traitor is about the strongest description used by the left, whereas certain well known and listened to elements of the right goes well beyond that, often using rhetoric that suggests the elimination and violent death of those that disagree with them.  And its not just restricted to the leaders either (I for one would like to see members of the Bush administration tried for war crimes, and if some got hung I would be annoyed only to the extent that I disagree with the death penalty), often this rhetoric is extended to nearly everyone with left-wing views.

So I think there is an important difference there.  I haven't heard anyone who wasn't a certified whacko with next to no audience calling for the death of all right-wingers.  But I've heard it from the right as pertaining to the left fairly often.  Much of these campaigns take place on the internet and radio, so they often slip under the mainstream media radar.  But they most certainly exist.

[Adios]

Patriot/traitor.

All depends on which side of the coin lands up doesn't it?

[Cain]

Legally no.  You have to knowingly give material aid and comfort to the enemy, as far as I am aware.

Rhetorically speaking, of course.  But rhetorically speaking, being a vegetarian makes you a Nazi, and wanting universal healthcare the heir to Stalin.

[Adios]

Using those examples you are correct. Using the American revolution I am correct. 

Hell, so many spies who were traitors cited patriotism as the motivation. To the country the betrayed. The mind of the human is indeed a wonderfully fucked up thing.