On targeting as a mood this electoral season, 1
[ by Charles Cameron — the only virtue I can see in this darkness is that the light contrasts with it ]
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I find this frankly horrifying:
Sold at Trump rally at Regent U pic.twitter.com/NB57JJlQHV
— Peter Montgomery (@petemont) October 22, 2016
This, at a supposedly Christian university?
Feh.
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Mark you, I think targeting an individual — any individual –in this way is very different from targeting contested seats in an election. I can understand both Democrats and Republicans using the imagery of targets or cross-hairs to suggest where they’d like their supporters to get active, get out the vote and win seats..
I said as much in On sneers, smears, and mutual sniping:
Neither “targetting” political adversaries nor “having them in your crosshairs” equates to killing or there would have been a whole lot more attempted assassinations — just the one was bad enough.
Have some proportion, people.
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However, as an inveterate DoubleTweeter I have to say that pinning targets or cross-hairs on individual leaders in highly charged political disputes speaks a wholly different language, and presents a far higher threat level, than targeting districts on an electoral map:
Similar images from Israel before Rabin's assassination in 1995: Netanyahu also fostered environment of hatred @cjwerleman @petemont pic.twitter.com/yZN85dT3If
— The Post Doc wanter (@derridalicious) October 22, 2016
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For the record, I find this no less offensive:
