Radical right-wing rhetoric.

Editor,

Radical right-wing rhetoric is ubiquitous in the United States, from FOX News to hate radio to Christian nationalist churches to state houses across the nation to the Pentagon and the U.S. Congress.

So yes, news about militant right-wing politics in Europe is illuminating, but more to the point in terms of the stability of our own society right here in the United States is reporting on just how mainstream the most outrageous lies, fantasies, and distortions by radical fringe racist and reactionary Christian groups become daily here at home.

Also, right-wing apologists like Bill O'Reilly say the Norway shooter shouldn't be characterized as a Christian because Jesus Christ taught peace and love not murder to his disciples. But this is disingenuous in the extreme, because Christendom can be and is taken as a set of racial, cultural, and social constructs by the radical right and others, not the set of Jesus Christ's teachings as recorded in the New Testament.

In fact, this is precisely the problem with New Dominion-style Christian nationalism -- this and the fact that it is in actuality promulgated in coded form (rants against "cultural Marxism," for example) by Glenn Beck, Pat Buchanan, and a plethora of mainstream figures on FOX TV and a wide variety of radical right-wing media.

Re: "Norway Killings Shift Debate on Islam in Europe" (7/28/2011)