Placing a crosshairs target on one's enemy is, functionally speaking, the prelude to levying direct and violent action, with the firearm being the primary tool used to levy this violent action. Symbolically, the crosshairs target is also used to indicate that a person has been targeted for direct action as an enemy. This is not an ambiguous rhetorical device or a cutesy symbol included in Powerpoint, and it's a symbolic device familiar to anyone that's ever watched a film about a sniper, an assassin, the army, and so on. It has quite a clear and specific meaning. I find it quite difficult to consider that the crosshairs target has a symbolic place in civilized political discourse, or that it could be used incidentally by someone who claims to be an ardent hunter and second amendment supporter. If Palin did not, as you claim, know how that would be interpreted, she is dumber than a box of rocks and really needs to fire her PR manager.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-01-09 08:14 am (UTC)