re: #237 Shiplord Kirel

Help we don’t need?

Bette Midler Warns Glenn Beck Could Set Off a Rwanda-Like Civil War in U.S.

This is hysteria and hyperbole, of the same kind that fuels the survivalist right and its current gun and ammo buying spree. The US is not Rwanda. What the crazies ARE likely to instigate is an accelerating outbreak of Tim McVeigh style terrorist violence; bombings, assassinations, etc.; by deranged but well-equipped individuals or very small groups.

You’re right, of course, but it’s true that Radio Rwanda and the RTLM played a significant role in the Rwandan genocide.

Due to high rates of illiteracy at the time of the genocide, radio was an important way for the government to deliver messages to the public. Two radio stations key to inciting violence before and during the genocide were Radio Rwanda and Radio Tlvision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). In March 1992, Radio Rwanda was first used in directly promoting the killing of Tutsi in Bugesera, south of the national capital Kigali. Radio Rwanda repeatedly broadcast a communiqu warning that Hutu in Bugesera would be attacked by Tutsi, a message used by local officials to convince Hutu that they needed to protect themselves by attacking first. Led by soldiers, Hutu civilians and members of the Interahamwe subsequently attacked and killed hundreds of Tutsi.[11] At the end of 1993, the RTLM’s highly sensationalized reporting on the assassination of the Burundi president, a Hutu, was used to underline supposed Tutsi brutality. The RTLM falsely reported that the president had been tortured, including castration of the victim (in pre-colonial times, some Tutsi kings castrated defeated enemy rulers). From late October 1993, the RTLM repeatedly broadcast themes developed by the extremist written press, underlining the inherent differences between Hutu and Tutsi, the foreign origin of Tutsi, the disproportionate share of Tutsi wealth and power, and the horrors of past Tutsi rule. RTLM also repeatedly stressed the need to be alert to Tutsi plots and possible attacks and called upon Hutu to prepare to ‘defend’ themselves against the Tutsi.[11] After April 6, 1994, authorities used RTLM and Radio Rwanda to spur and direct killings, specifically in areas where the killings initially were resisted. Both radio stations were used to incite and mobilize, then to give specific directions for carrying out the killings

I linked earlier in the thread a NewsMax guy calling for a military coup to ‘resolve the “Obama Problem”. ‘

I’m not defending Midler’s remarks, but there’s an awful lot of crazy being pumped out right now by various places. Fox isn’t Radio Rwanda and NewsMax isn’t Der Sturmer or the RTLM, but even so.