Tracking violence

Benedict Spinoza has an outstanding post examining the rising threat of violence inherent in both the rhetoric and the behavior of conservatives and Bush defenders generally. He cites an especially chilling example in which the object of the implied threat was a Catholic priest, and then zeroes in on what the real problem is, namely:

[T]he idea that violence is becoming an acceptable element of civil discourse. Of course, detractors will be quick to suggest that I am some sort of conspiracy nut; that it is silly to think that these commentators actually want such violence to occur (they claimed the same during Vietnam), and sillier still to think that they are in alliance with any that might eventually perpetrate such violence. There is of course no such conspiracy, but that is not the point. The point is that by constantly using violent imagery, these commentators seek to desensitize others to the idea of violence against US (and other) civilians. This desensitization takes many forms, and I would suggest that both this incident with Father Dear and the Miami incidents are warning signs that this violence meme is taking hold.

[Be sure to read not just this, but also his previous post, "An invitation to violence," which addresses the same problem from the angle of the police response to the FTAA protesters in Miami, which, as Avedon Carol points out, was helpfully financed with a large chunk of change from the $87 billion approved to fight the "war on terror."]