Yo, I guess most of you read about this: Yesterday night, the FBI raided headquarters of a christian militia called "Hutaree" in Michigan who planned on killing a policeman and several civilians, using military weapons and home-made bombs. They claim to be at war with the government and believe it's the will of Jesus for them to defend themselves against the tyranny of the Antichrist Obama or whatever.

In my eyes, this group is to be considered a terrorist group (a particularly insane one, even), and I'm glad the feds took them out before they could act out any of their bizarre plans.
But while searching for more info on this on youtube, I came across a great deal of comments that were actually supportive of these nutjobs! Also, I do know about FoxNews, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and the other hatemongers who openly enourage behaviour like this in the media (while also trying to delude the public a regular basis, and luring people towards an undemocratic, revisionist standpoint), and I'm seriously baffled how a democratic country lets demagogues like those folks run free. In most modern democracies, corrosive elements of that magnitude would be locked away for hate crimes and sedition.

So, dear U.S. citizens, would you care to enlighten us foreigners about this whole topic? I think the rest of the world would sure be happy about some insight into the twisted parallel-reality that has been growing in parts of your country!
Also, please demonstrate that this insanity is not the standard U.S. worldview yet, please. Thanks!

Exactly how does one "demonstrate that this insanity is not the standard U.S. worldview yet"? I'm perplexed.

Ike, there are nuts everywhere, all over the world, religious and non-religious. They aren't confined to the United States. I'm not a republican and I don't support Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin, but as far as I know, they don't encourage the killing of policemen. Neither does FoxNews.

[Octillus]

Honestly I can't explain it.

But I'm pretty much ready to bail on this country, the closer to the lowest common denominator it shifts.

[Keeker]

BlueRaja's right, it isn't a US-only phenomenon. Loons abound in the world. There's freedom of speech to take into account as well remember. (Yes, yes, you could go into interminable arguments about where you draw the line for free speech but we all draw our lines an inch or two either side of somebody else's. So long as we're all in the same park it's probably fine.)

I'm certain the majority of people here all agree these people are a 'sandwich short of a picnic' no matter what country you live in but their numbers are small. It's just the publicity that makes them seem bigger.

To counter the statement about them being Christian extremists, I do believe the middle east has a problem with Islamic extremists who do similar things for similar reasons.

[EphelDuath666]

you as a German should know that type of extremism. The RAF may not have been about Christianity but they were an extremist/terrorist group that killed a lot of people back in the 60's/70's, including politicians and just because that has been a few decades ago, doesn't mean that there's no lunatics in Germany that could freak out again like that. So let's not generalize things. There's insane people all over the world.

Thanks for all the replies so far! Of course, every country has it's share of lunatics, and the popular right wing spokespeople mentioned do not encourage murder (or at least not directly), but I do feel a significant difference to the situation in other western, democratic countries. For example, polls showed that 52% of American TV audiences favor FoxNews over the other available news networks. That a station this far away from neutrality, while still claiming to be "fair and balanced", repeatedly twisting the truth and accusing all the rest of the media world to be biased, can be so popular and not be met with serious legal action is beyond me. If you take "free speech" and turn it into "right to lie and incite people on the basis of false information and prejudice", it seems a bit beside the point for me.

It's not that some loonies have stupid ideas, it's that large scale media enterprises deliberately pick up their nationalist, racist, anti-state, anti-reform, even anti-intellictual mindframe, and try to push it onto the masses by means of false accusations, defamation, and blatant lies. Those militia idiots certainly went beyond even strong right wing ideology, but I fear that the support they get is at least partly due to uninterrupted, blatent, extreme right propaganda.

Did that make anything more clear?

Sorry, don't wanna come off as the America-hating Eurofag here, I'm just really worried about what I hear and read all the time.

[EphelDuath666]

well, I am unable to watch Fox News so I can't comment on that part. But that militia group basically consists of racists who probably don't really like that the US president ain't as white as a pair of white undies. Well....imagine a turkish or gay person would become German chancellor. Some far right extremist douchebags would freak out too here too. And I can see how some of our politicians would bot be pleased either. It would be the same story here. And hey, the Hutaree guys were arrested so it's not like no one did anything about them. I agree though that such douchebags and their behaviour should be condemned in any possible way from anyone and that includes any media organisation and politician. But I can't really imagine any news media oganisation in the US condoning these lunatics.

Hmm. I'm glad ya'll answered that...I haven't a clue.

I concur about the Fox news thing though. I can't stomach it. Matter of fact, I try not to watch any news, because it seriously keeps me in the negative. I feel grateful that you guys do it so I don't have to.

The arrested suspects. Why do these people always look like they share far too small a gene pool?

There's only one woman

There's only one woman

Not once they get to prison.

There's only one woman

Not once they get to prison.

Then they each become "the woman."

There's only one woman

Not once they get to prison.

Then they each become "the woman."

yep, for their 400lb cellmate Bubba.

Except the guy in the centre, middle row, who is going to eat his own liver in protest at the Zionist occupation lizard men yadda yadda before he even makes trial.

I think this particular type of insanity is probably a very American thing, related to the fact that fundamentalist Christianity and extreme paranoia of the government is far more prevalent in the US than elsewhere.

There's nutjobs of different types all over the world though. Different countries, different nutjobs.

As for free speech, I think the US has the right idea in that respect. You can express pretty much any opinion you want, no matter how unpopular, but if you cross the line into inciting people to commit acts of violence or other crimes, then that's not OK.