Recently editorial comic artist and left-wing firebrand Ted Rall challenged right-leaning bloggers to prove that the left does indeed hurl a significant amount of hate at the right. Several bloggers responded prompting this statement from Rall:

I am surprised at the amount of vicious, specific threats of violence directed toward conservative personalities by supposed progressives. That kind of schoolyard bullying makes us no better than the Republicans we claim to despise for their "bomb first, ask questions later" approach to diplomacy. As everybody knows, I don't shy away from harsh language; I rather specialize in it. But I draw the line at threats, real or implied, against people with whom I disagree. Once you start to do that, after all, you've admitted defeat because you couldn't argue against your foe based on the merits of your point of view. And it's a gutter tactic running against the very essence of the First Amendment.

So. Does the left give back as much as the right? In my heart of hearts, I'd say the right-wing challenge didn't change my mind entirely. I think the right does it more. But, as a conservative blogger wrote elsewhere, it's much easier to notice when it's your side being attacked. I notice the attacks against progressives more, so they hurt more. Bottom line: it's impossible to quantify the hatred on both sides and determine who does it more.

I certainly could have sent some examples from my own comment section but I never expected him to take this challenge seriously.

Its nice, however, that he actually acknowledge that this stuff exists, though I wonder how he could be "surprised" at it when a casual stroll through just about any leftist forum (like the Democratic Underground, for example) would have provided him with literally thousands of examples. Anyway, he should get credit for this.

Now if we could just convince Mr. Rall that his own hateful rhetoric is also part of the problem.