The daylights.

Editor,

I worry about a mass movement being cultivated in the United States by right-wing politicians, FOX TV, and other elements -- including fundamentalist Christian organizations reported on by Chris Hedges in his book "American Fascists" -- that draws balloting strength from and otherwise legitimates an alarmingly large number of Americans who share this shooter's staunch espousal of cultural purity -- "real Americans" and all that.

Right-wing extremism in the U.S. combines gun love, corporate rule, xenophobia, sexual repression, and hatred for a laundry list of gays, Muslims, immigrants, socialists, and just the sort of people and ideas that drove this shooter to start killing people.

What worries me about the stage this business has reached in the U.S. is the political power the right has accumulated at every level of government here and the openness with which fascist rhetoric is dished out to eager listeners on TV and radio across the country, not to mention print and the Internet.

There is a tipping point. A lone gunman, or even a small militia group, can destroy the lives of a significant number of individuals, but a government that is finally dominated by a faction that represents one segment of society and feels threatened by all others can do enormous damage -- kill millions -- and destroy the nation. Just because the times this has happened are in the past and the places elsewhere does not mean it cannot happen again, here, and this scares the daylights out of me.

Re: "Police Say Oslo Suspect Admits ‘Facts’ in Massacre" (7/25/2011)