Imagine you were surfing the internet and happened upon a website that promised to tell you where in your state there were schools promoting the “grooming” of children and teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) to students.
A closer look at the website would reveal statements such as this one:
“The first step in fighting back is uncovering their crazy ideas — from Critical Race Theory to grooming toddlers with sexually explicit books. That is why we have officially launched the Woke Heat Map — an interactive tool designed to expose the insane actions of the radical Left. This map will alert Missourians of craziness happening in their own communities.”
What exactly is Liberty Alliance? As David Neiwert notes in an article posted at Daily Kos, it’s hard to tell exactly who and what is behind the group that posted the “woke heat map.”
Little is known about the Liberty Alliance’s funding. It’s registered as a social welfare organization rather than a political action committee under 501(c)(4) of the IRS code, which enables it to evade campaign-finance filing requirements.
Could such a website provide the impetus for someone looking for a reason to take up a semiautomatic weapon and let the world know they’re not going to take it anymore? That’s unclear, but it’s certainly a valid fear considering what we’ve seen fueling attacks such the ones in Buffalo and Uvalde: Internet postings that lit the fuse of hatred which eventually erupted into mass carnage and took dozens of innocent lives.
This is also part of what Chip Berlet addressed in an article he penned regarding scripted violence:
The potential for violence in a society increases when the mass media carries rhetorical vilification by high profile and respected figures who scapegoat a named ‘Other’. This dangerous ‘constitutive rhetoric’ can build an actual constituency of persons feeling threatened or displaced. Or to put it another way, when rhetorical fecal matter hits the spinning verbal blades of a bigoted demagogue’s exhortations, bad stuff happens.
Should the Woke Heat Map from Liberty Alliance be taken off the internet? Considering the open nature of the world wide web, that would be virtually impossible. And in light of the First Amendment, would such a move even pass muster with a court?
Words have power, as does propaganda. If you doubt that, consider what was done by a clubfooted loser who was a top adviser to one of the most evil men ever born. His name was Joseph Goebbels, and the words he gave Adolf Hitler to speak led to the mass murder of 11 million people.