Words Have Consequences

SusanUnPC’s Note: We discussed this in “Olbermann Wants Hillary Taken Down NOW, and Forcibly,” however it should be brought up again since Olbermann’s faint apology was ONLY to Rachel Sklar, the author of the Huffington Post article, and NOT to Hillary Clinton. That does not take care of the matter. And Karen’s words are important because she has some expertise in the area of violence against women.
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Like a lot of you, I read Keith Olbermann’s call for violence against Hillary with disgust and anger.  My first thought was that this a-hole’s gone too far with this one – he needs firing and he needs it now.

Here it is again in case you missed it…

“Yeah, somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out.”

Thankfully, a couple fellow Hillary-supporters have expressed similar disgust and anger over those comments.  Calling out KO has pretty much been covered, though I may veer off in that direction a bit tonight.  But what’s still got me pissed off are some of the comments by other supposed Democrats in response to those diaries.  Some of them were just as vile if not more so than Olbermann’s slime-fest last night.

SO this goes out to all who’ve pointed fingers at us with accusations of “faux outrage” in response to our very real fury over this shit…

Ya know I thought I was pissed over KO’s venomous attack on Hillary but that was NOTHING compared to the fury I feel now after reading some of your comments.

“Faux outrage”????  Seriously – this garbage should sicken and infuriate anyone who gives a shit about women – ANY woman.  Women are attacked every minute of every day in our society, and here we see a prominent journalist (and I use the term “journalist” loosely here) advocating violence against a former First Lady – a sitting United States SENATOR – a candidate for the presidency for feck sake and you have the gall to accuse us of faux outrage????

Look around you boys – this place is filled with feminists (both men and women).  You may not give a shit about the violence inflicted upon women in our society but we do and to accuse us of faking disgust and outrage is adding insult to injury.

This isn’t faux outrage – I – AM – SHAKING – WITH – RAGE!  Not only over Olbermann’s misogynistic attacks on Hillary, but for the excuses you’re making for what he said.   Making light of this by saying the post should have been tagged as “snark”, or bitching because 3 other folks have posted diaries on this – claiming we’re not as pissed as we claim goes way beyond the pale.

We’re pissed so don’t you DARE accuse us of faking it.  This isn’t just about Olbermann. This isn’t just about Hillary.  And this certainly isn’t about Obama although he’s fed us (and the media) a steady diet of this sexist shit to suit his own purposes.

This is about disrespecting women.  This is about feeding the idea that we’re not worthy of respect.  This is about not tolerating violent actions or speech that advocates violence against women in our society.

And if you don’t fucking GET that then you’re even more out of touch than I ever imagined.

The hypocrisy – the blatant disregard for the fact that this feeds into a very real and serious problem in our society – violence against women – is just mind-blowing.

You guys would be shitting yourselves over this if the comments had been directed at his holiness. You’d be up in arms if this had been about BO – you’d be accusing Olobermann of leading a lynching party for feck sake and yet here we see you make one excuse after another – level multiple accusations of ‘faux outrage” over how Olbermann’s remark has left the women of MyDD’s online community feeling.

Your response to a very real issue here just solidifies my belief that sexism is not only tolerated by other Democrats in this race, but that it’s promoted by people who used to point accusatory fingers at the Republicans when they pull this shit.  

HAVE YOU NO SHAME?

I wrote the above bit during a break at work this afternoon.  Since then I got an update to all this.  Apparently Olbermann “clarified” what he said in some lame-ass attempt to smooth things over – the guy wants to keep his job.  If he really regretted what he’d said he would have apologized to Hillary and every other woman – out over the airwaves – rather than have the PR department at MSNBC send over some statement to a writer over at Salon.  Take a look…

Today, Olbermann apologized. “It is a metaphor. I apologize: the generic ‘he’ gender could imply something untoward,” Olbermann said, in a statement MSNBC spokesperson Alana Russo forwarded me a few minutes ago. “It should’ve been ‘only the other comes out — from a political point of view.’”

This so-called apology is worthless.  He meant what he said and we still need to call him on this shit.  So he gets it out there and is in the clear with an apology.  Am I the only one who thinks this is getting to be really old?  The way that general attacked Hillary over the whole tomb of the unknown’s / bosnia and then BO came out and distanced himself from it?  They attack, step back a tiny bit with some statement saying they reject what was said, and everyone goes on their merry way – claiming that Hillary is the one who’s gone all negative in this campaign.

It’s clear that some here just don’t get why we’re so pissed off over all this.  In case you missed it, this isn’t the first time someone’s launched this sort of vile and misogynistic attack on Hillary.  We’ve been pointing out this sexism and hate for years now and every time we do people dismiss us as concern trolls, or say it’s “silly season”.

Well ya know what guys?  Words have consequences!  You want to know why I’m so outraged by KOs verbal assault on Hillary? Not to mention tweetys etc? Check this out…

Evansville police are investigating a possible threat against Hillary Clinton posted on the Facebook website.    

The person who wrote the comment allegedly has ties to the local Barack Obama office.

[Snip]

According to the incident report filed with the Evansville Police Department, the comment in question reads, “Make sure Hillary avoids the sniper fire next time she comes to Evansville.”

This asshole might have been “joking” when he spoke of snipers in IN but ya know what? All it takes is one unhinged loser and these words lead to a woman’s death.

That happens every – single – day to the less famous among us.

Words have consequences and if you’re sitting behind one of the biggest mics in the world and say shit like KO said today – you need to pay the price with your job.

Words have consequences.  

I posted my first pro-Hillary diary back in June of last year, in which I answered someone’s question as to why she should support my chosen candidate.  In it, I talked about how things might change for women around the world if we put a woman in the Oval Office.  I’ve written a lot since then but I think that first post is one I’m most proud of.  It was true then and after the sexism and misogyny that’s come out during this campaign, I’m even more convinced of it…

we’ve been led for well over 200 years by men and look where it’s gotten us.  Over 30 years have passed since Roe and we’re STILL fighting for our right to choose – hell to even have access to birth control!  Children make up a massive percentage of those living in poverty.  Our schools are a mess in urban areas.  Court rulings regarding child support and protection orders are virtually ignored, girls are literally starving themselves to death to achieve some ideal image as portrayed in our MSM, domestic violence isn’t taken seriously by our courts or even the cops… the list goes on and on and ON when it comes to the lack of respect for the rights of women & our children in this society.

The more I look at her record and her position on the issues, the more convinced I am that it’s time we elected this woman as president.  Maybe then people will take us seriously – as workers, as providers for our families, and as human beings who deserve the same respect given to the men in our land.

She’s smart.  She’s got a proven track record when it comes to working for the rights of women & children, and she’s got a head-start on a lot of the other candidates when it comes to rebuilding our f#cked-up reputation with other world leaders.

Put a woman with her brains and background in the White House – let her show the rest of the world what a WOMAN can do if she gets the chance – and maybe things will (finally!) start to change for us here at home.

Put this woman in the White House and maybe we won’t see as much hate – and tolerance for that hate – in our public discourse when it comes to the women in our lives.  

I’m not so worried about Hillary – she’s tough and can more than hold her own against losers like Olbermann.  I’m more worried about the women who’ll be hurt by that one unhinged loser who’ll take things like Olbermann’s attack to heart – think women are less than deserving of respect – and hurt or kill someone as a result.

Guys I’m aiming to change the world a little at a time before my little girl is grown.  Maybe she can go out into a world where women aren’t treated like this any more.  Maybe she can even run for President some day without having to put up with the vile garbage Olbermann’s shoveling out over our airwaves.

In the meantime…

To those who’re as pissed off as I am over this garbage…  This is an action diary gang.  I want you to do two things and I want you to do it right now…

Call, email or send smoke signals out to MSNBC demanding that they fire Olbermann’s ass over this comment.  Note that his call for physical attacks on a sitting US senator and former First Lady constitute a crime in our society and if they don’t fire him we’ll start demanding legal action against him.

After you’ve done that I want you to express your outrage in a very real and positive way as far as this campaign goes -and don’t you boys dare attack me for this because it’s a very real response to what’s been going on in this campaign…

I want you to send Hillary whatever the hell you can to help her fight back against this kind of hateful garbage.  If I’ve ever seen an example of why we need her in the Oval Office, Olbmerann’s attacks and the response he elicits from Obama’s followers is it.  

Screw the faux outrage – I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it any more!